There is one serious problem with this, the bible encourages to learn from things past (Romans 15:4) to imitate God (Ephesians 5:1). …to do this, one must [evaluate] His actions and discern how to apply the idea and attitude behind them.
Well, I think you’re reading into the text something that isn’t there, for nowhere are we told to evaluate Him or His actions in the way He deals with others. The scripture you cite states: “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” The scriptures point to Christ and the Atonement, and Paul is telling the saints to learn this through the scriptures and become One, even as the Father and Jesus are one. He continues: “Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.”
From what is said, we see that Paul saw God as having the attributes of patience, consolation, unity and glory. What is glory? It is the brilliance in which God dwells, and which no man can approach and live without first being changed to endure it.
Even if we are not anymore encouraged to take up a weapon and kill, we should certainly hate what God hates. In this example, God must have hated the innocent children of the Egyptians, otherwise why would he have killed them? So we also must hate children of opposers?
That is a non-sequitur. Nowhere does it state that God “hated” the firstborn in Egypt. Also, it wasn’t just children who died. All the firstborn of Egypt died, both animals and humans, young and old. But they didn’t cease to exist; they lived on in the spirit whereas the previous day they had lived in the flesh. But in Egypt, parents of all ages mourned for their children, including the Pharaoh.
What is the moral lesson for us in this then?
The moral lesson is as stated in my previous post. The Pharaoh represented the people of Egypt. God warned him and forewarned him. When Joseph of old ruled Egypt, the Israelites came there for food. As they continued on in the land, their numbers grew, and like the Spartans and the Helots, they enslaved the Israelites — and this God allowed because they had become an idolatrous people. Still, there were prophecies that foretold of a deliverer. Another relevant question is, do you condone slavery? Do you believe that the Egyptians had the right to keep the Israelites in bondage? The Pharaoh could have prevented all the evils that befell Egypt, but he didn’t. It wasn’t God that hardened Pharaoh’s heart; it was Pharaoh, himself, and the Adversary. And most likely, the people of Egypt who profited from the slave labor. Even in a dictatorship, where the tyrant proclaims himself to be a god, he must ultimately seek to do that which is popular in the eyes of the people. When Moses and his people left Egypt, their god (Pharaoh) had just been bested by the Hebrew God. And in their absence, the people most likely began to rethink how they viewed Pharaoh. In fact, the mood might have been dangerous enough to compel him to recover the slaves they had lost. Perhaps their God, being successful in freeing the people, went off somewhere else and would not trouble them again. Trapped between his armies and the Red Sea, the Israelites would have no choice except to surrender. And even when the sea parted for Moses, perhaps he thought that his power as chief god of Egypt would be enough to keep the waters parted while his army pursued them. So again, whatever happened, it was upon Pharaoh’s head, not God’s. That’s the lesson.
And the argument, that God can fix everything, like their spirits are with him, or as JW would say, the resurrection, would mean, that he can act however he pleases, and again no moral lesson for us in there. Reminds me of the slogan of the crusaders: kill everyone, God will know his own anyway. Quite dangerous actually.
As you read the account, God’s actions were not arbitrary. At every step He warned the Egyptians of the consequences of their actions. You do this, and this will happen. You do that, and that will happen. The Crusaders, as you stated, killed everyone. And they weren’t authorized by God to do that. Had He wished to, He could have left Egypt a smoldering pile of rubble. But He didn’t. Think of it as an extraction, only God was much more fair with the Egyptians than He needed to be.
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