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What is the significance of Deuteronomy 9:13–14, 18–20, 25?
The Lord tells Moses “Let me alone that I may destroy them [the Israelites] and blot out their name from under heaven…” (vs. 14). Moses later says to the Israelites, “the Lord intended to destroy you” (vs. 25). Moses interceded for forty days and then tells the Israelites, “the Lord listened to me…” (vs. 19). So too, “the Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him, but [Moses] interceded also on behalf of Aaron at the same time” (vs. 20) and Aaron was spared.
If the future is exhaustively settled and known by God as such, the integrity of Scripture’s account of God’s expressed intention to destroy Israel and Aaron would be compromised. God cannot genuinely plan to do something he foreknows he will not do. If neither God nor inspired Scripture can be disingenuous, it seems these verses contradict the classical view of an exhaustively settled future.
Category: Q&A
Tags: Open Theism, Q&A
Topics: Open Theism
Verse: Deuteronomy 9
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