Free will, see... or... not? Vaera (Exodus 6:2-9:35)

The Ten plagues of Egypt teach many lessons. One of them is less about free will than we usually assume... and more about vision - and the contrast between Moses and Pharaoh.

(Posted with a slight delay, because time is sometimes a fleeting resource, this is last week’s Torah reading. But hey, I am told the text is timeless, so…)

Moses returns, making demands: ‘Let my people go, that they may serve Me’. What can Pharaoh do, but tell him what to do with that nifty trick staff / snake… right? … wrong. How very wrong, is demonstrated by ten plagues.

But time and again, Pharaoh just won’t let go. His heart repeatedly hardens, and God has a hand in that, even announcing “I shall harden (aksheh) Pharaoh’s heart…” (7:3). When Moses demonstrates God’s signs, “Pharaoh’s heart was strengthened (vayehezak)” (7:13), a mysterious passive voice… and God tells Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is heavy (kaved)” (7:14). The passive, ‘was strengthened’ occurs again after plagues 1 (blood) and 3 (lice). After plagues 2 (frogs), 4 (beasts), and 7 (hail), it’s Pharaoh making his own heart ‘heavy’. Conversely, God strengthens Pharaoh’s heart after plagues 6 (boils), 8 (locusts), and 9 (darkness) – all in the second half. And after Israel’s departure, God strengthens Pharaoh’s heart (14:4,8,17) for the pursuit to the sea.

Generations of Bible critics have used this to say, “a-ha! See, there is no free will! Whenever he likes, we are puppets to this God!”.

Since our generation is full of New Behaviorists celebrating the death of the idea of free will, let’s address this latest incarnation of the reductionist-materialist man-as-machine concept – the same that gave us Marxism and its offspring theories (including new racism, aka ‘antiracism’), all predicated on man irreversibly and irredeemably being solely a product of genetics and environment. All conditioned matter, no free will… and no possible redemption. At best, we can destroy the whole thing in violent revolution. Awesome.

And who can deny the host of influences at play? That, far from theoretical isolated minds, we are indeed embodied and part of the world, shaped by it and those who share it? That controlling the information we take in can manipulate us, that a well-tailored commercial strategy can sway us? That we do have personalities, inclinations, mostly stable baselines it can take a lifetime to overcome?

But something’s off. None of those denying free will behave like they believe themselves – or live like it. They never treat themselves like automatons. Always, they are the one truly discerning person, have seen the truth, and will teach it to you. Here, buy my new book on how you have no free will.

Huh. Wait. That makes no sense, and deep down we all know it. We know we make choices – good and bad. And mistakes.

The Bible’s entire point is to teach us how to use free will: what choices we should make, and that there are good and bad choices to begin with. Choose life, that you may live. Without free will, there’d be no point to humanity. Angels would suffice. There’d be no sin… and no merit. (That, might be the New Materialists’ real aim). And, there’d be absolutely no point in Covenants, Laws, and Commandments.

So, even if perhaps when it really matters, God might indeed reach in and interfere (hey, it’s His creation, right?), we must assume Pharaoh has free will, at some essential level.

Let’s look again at that heart-hardening pattern. Seemingly towards the beginning, Pharaoh is doing most of the work – God steps in progressively towards later stages. Not so clear-cut as ‘Pharaoh started it’, but still. Also, Pharoh’s heart is becoming three different things: ‘hard’, ‘strong’, and ‘heavy’. Many treat these as equivalent, meaning Pharaoh is being stubborn. But ‘hard’ is different from ‘strong’, and ‘heavy’ is something else again. God strengthens Pharaoh’s heart – but Pharaoh makes it heavy. Remember Egypt believed that after death, judgement involved weighing the heart against a feather? Overly heavy hearts, weighed down with guilt, got devoured by a monster. The word ‘heavy’ may be warning Egypt: Pharaoh has been accumulating toxic levels of guilt.

It is said, heaven helps us move in whatever way we choose to go – good, or bad. We know that to be true of perception: we perceive the world in relation to what we aim at (see Jordan Peterson on the topic). Decide you want to go somewhere? The world resolves itself into paths and obstacles towards that goal. Searching for a hammer? You won’t even see that screwdriver. Thinking of buying a white car? Suddenly you’ll notice how many there are on the road. And on, down to keeping your eyes pointed in the right direction on a date.

All making it even more important that we choose our aims wisely. We’ll see some things, and miss others, in direct relation to our chosen goals.

Pharaoh may just be the genocidally resentful power addict he’s usually portrayed as. Or, he may just be trying to fill Pharaoh’s shoes as best he can. To maintain control – not necessarily a bad goal in itself, because chaos is suboptimal and a flourishing society does require order and stability. But Pharaoh forgets: that order must be benevolent, must be good, like God’s created order is good.

And so Egypt itself circles the drain, all over holding on to bunch of upstart foreign slaves. His own advisers tell him he’s in over his head – “it’s the finger of God” (8:15), and “let these people go… can’t you see Egypt is lost?” (10:6).

But no, see, Pharaoh cannot see. Pharaoh has chosen, and maybe God’s only strengthening his heart to give him the fortitude to carry his own choices through to their conclusion… and inevitable consequences.

Moses was special, inter alia, for his vision, and for placing the ultimate values in their proper place. From injustice and oppression to God beckoning from burning shrubbery, Moses saw. Pharaoh, in contrast, aimed at the wrong thing… and made himself willfully blind. Pharaoh’s is a failure of vision, that of a leader willfully aiming at the wrong target, and failing to see that the world has just changed, that all the rules have been shifted by God’s direct involvement.

Welcome to the world. Choose wisely. Heaven helps you along either way.

And God help us all.