Changed my Mind

February 1, 2009

Today's Reading Exodus 13-14 and Matthew 21

Two days ago, I tried but didn’t really do a good job of explaining how God can harden hearts, and how we harden our own hearts. I tried to explain that it is possible for both to be true, even though it seems both facts are mutually exclusive.

Such is case today. I read the story of the parting of the Red Sea, and I found something that I had a hard time imagining. In Chapter 13, it is established that a pillar of cloud led the Israelites by day, and a pillar of fire at night.

However, during the actual parting himself, it describes this pillar as something that was cloudy on one side to confuse the Egyptians, and fire on the other to shine a light for the Hebrews. The two Moses movies that I always mention (The Ten Commandments and The Prince of Egypt) only showed the pillar of fire, and the effects departments of both of these flicks didn’t even attempt what the Bible actually says.

So how do both of these concepts exist at the same time? Maybe God does creation as some sort of work in progress. In Chapter 13, God apparently doesn’t want the Israelites to go into the Philistine territory because He didn’t want the Israelites to fear war and turn around. And yet, look what happens, God leads the Israelites to a dead end by the Red Sea, surrounded by enemy troops. At least there is no chance of them turning back.

Is it possible that God can change his mind? That seems to be a running theme in the Scriptures for today, when Jesus talks about a father with two sons. The Dad tells the sons to do something, and one says “yeah”, but doesn’t do it. The other said “nah”, but did it anyway. Apparently, the kid that changed his mind actually turned out to be the better of the two.

So can God change his mind too? So it would appear. Of course, God is perfect, so I am assuming that whenever he does change His mind, it is for a better decision on our part.

The important thing to know is that God can be two things at once. After all, look at how he is a kind guy who plays with children on one thing, then he is mad guy with a whip whacking money changers out of the temple. In other words, God can be both, just like we are many things.