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hadesknockedupintheunderworld · 4 months

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Sonine Prime ... Part 6

Hi, everyone and welcome back to Sonine Prime! The part of the show when I come out and talk about Sonine (and a bit of Sontails) in Sonic Prime!

Last time we started Episode 6 of Season 1 of Sonic Prime and went over a bit of the New Yolk portion at the beginning. This time we'll be tackling the rest of the New Yolk portion at the beginning and moving onto the Grim.

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<< Part 5 | Part 7 >>

(Essay/thoughts/analysis under the cut)

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Let us start out with some little things.

As we covered last part, Nine pretty much came to New Yolk to fetch Sonic, only fighting long enough to give Sonic an opening to escape. During this short fight sequence, Sonic starts spin dashing into eggforcers higher and higher until he eventually lands in the cockpit of Nine's ship.

When Nine notices Sonic climbing up to him, this is the face he makes:

Then, as Sonic arrives in the cockpit, he keeps the expression. In fact, even though he moves to close the cockpit cover (where his expression changes to a more focused one), he smiles again whenever he's not focused. And funnily enough, there's also the way Nine smiles when Sonic enters the cockpit and says his name.

"Nine! Ha ha holy man just in time!"

He leans back before Sonic shakes his seat like he's preening under the attention.

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As will become a pattern soon (not always Nine's conscious fault, but...), Sonic begins to tell Nine how they need backup in New Yolk and mentioning how bad the fight is (i.e talking about his current goal/concerns) before marveling at the place between the shatterspaces.

"We could really use some backup. Woah, woah, where we goin'!"

...

"We got a fight on our hands back there and– oh what did you just do?"

This of course switches the point of topic from the fight in New Yolk (Sonic's focus) to Nine’s ship, the portal/space in between, and where they're headed (Nine’s focus).

It's worth mentioning that while Sonic is talking about the fight (the bit I just quoted) through to Nine telling Sonic he opened a portal, Nine has this smug expression on his face (very proud of himself).

"I opened a portal."

(If any of you go back to watch this scene, it's worth mentioning he also smiles while he speaks his line here, and he ALSO smiles when he speaks his next line about how he calls the worlds "shatterspaces". Like I said, he's proud of himself here, and he likes the attention from Sonic.)

In any case, as Sonic changes the subject back to his point of focus, Nine's smile falls into a frown (I'd put the image here but I did say I'd try to be a good boy, which means trying to get fairly far into this part before hitting the tumblr image limit🥲)

"Really glad to see you, but we have to go back! The rebels need my help."

Nine, of course, quickly changes topic, thus changing Sonic's focus.

"Not until you tell me where you've been!"

It's a fair question to ask, especially after that ending of Episode 3. Sonic disappeared so suddenly, leaving Nine alone (man that ending man that ending), and Nine hasn't seen him until now. However, whether on purpose or not, this distraction from Sonic's goal (helping the rebels in New Yolk) allows Nine to segue back into his talk about his discoveries and the shatterverse (which falls in line with his current goal).

"Then you showed up in your spaceship and pulled me into this portal thingy!" *Deep breath in*

"That confirms what I've discovered."

Then, as Nine starts his next like ("From the moment you vanished") he begins to smile again.

"From the moment you vanished, I suspected there was more to the shard than I'd realized."

Nine presses a button on the console which reveals the red shard. Still smiling (proud of himself, but also showing off), he brushes off Sonic's comment about how he stole the shard by talking about how he hacked into the Chaos Council's power core schematics and created his shatterdrive, allowing the two of them to travel the shatterverse at their discretion.

However, as before, Sonic begins to change the subject back to the fight in New Yolk (props to him for trying to remember and come back to his topic even as Nine continues to distract him, honestly 😂). This, of course, causes Nine to frown once more.

"Shatter-what? Uh, this is cool and everything, but we really gotta get back to New Yolk!"

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Let's take a jump to Sonic's pov here.

I think there's no question that Sonic is excited to see Nine (what, with all the smiles, shaking his chair, him saying he's glad to see him), but he's focused on a goal at the moment. He'd just resolved to help the rebels and ensure that they have a future. He's fighting for their last bits of hope, and he's also fighting to clear both his and Nine's names as traitors. This fight is so important because to Sonic its akin to the rebels' last stand.

If they lose, the palm, the rebellion, all hope for bringing back what once was, is lost.

That's a lot of heavy weight to carry.

And not to mention, when Nine appeared in New Yolk to fight, from Sonic's pov this was proof Nine isn't a traitor. To Sonic, Nine wasn't coming for him, he was coming to make things right and to fight alongside them for a better tomorrow.

So Nine leaving New Yolk with him, that goes against the idea Sonic had in his head of this situation. Even though he and Nine haven't talked about it, Sonic has an idea of Nine's intentions and their shared goal in his head, and he doesn’t want to believe it's incorrect. So, rather than assume bad faith (which in this case would be taking Nine's talk and actions to mean that Nine doesn't care about New Yolk as much as his personal wants), Sonic is tackling this from the perspective that Nine is getting distracted from their goal.

Look at the language. It's not "I've got to get back".

It's we.

And you can see it in the sad half smiling expression Sonic has when he says that this is cool, but they need to get back to New Yolk (and you'll see it again later. Most notably, in the final episode of Season 2). It's like he's softly pleading, bidding Nine to remember what's at stake and what their goals are (even if it was Sonic who assumed they shared this goal).

Let's cut to Nine’s pov for a moment.

Nine is incredibly happy to see Sonic again (what with all the obvious and secret smiles abound), so much so that he doesn’t ask anything regarding Sonic's disappearance until Sonic mentions the rebels in New Yolk. Ever since Sonic's disappearance, Nine has been working on his pet project (creating the shatterdrive, finding a new place to call home, and experimenting with the power of the prism shards).

Nine wants to create a new world, believing that the one he came from is beyond saving. This is why The Grim being a blank slate is so important. The honor of him wanting to bring Sonic along (to create their new world, their new home together) is that he believes that Sonic is worth saving, someone who should exist in a "better" world. Sonic, the only being he currently believes to be kind and selfless, to have the capacity to care for others, and the being he's (Nine's) currently attached to, is someone he finds worthy to create a new world with him.

Like Sonic, Nine has this idea of him and his goals in his head that he doesn’t want to be challenged. He arrived in New Yolk only planning to fetch Sonic and to bring him to the Grim. Since he's planning this "new world" and has been focusing on bringing Sonic along, to him this goal takes precedence over everything else.

Because yeah, Sonic risked his life to save him, but the rest of New Yolk is beyond saving. Creating a good, better world, takes precedence over saving people in a worse world who don't deserve it. So surely Sonic will understand this, right? And Sonic also wants his home, so surely he'd fight just as desperately to create a home with Nine since his old one is gone, right?

To Nine, as a good person (and because he only really likes it when Sonic is kind and selfless to him specifically), this is just a matter of logic. Just like Sonic does with him, he assumes Sonic will go along with him and agree. So, when Sonic keeps mentioning New Yolk and the battle, it frustrates him. Not only is Sonic putting his attention on what Nine doesn't think matters (or deserves the attention), he's pushing against Nine's idea of him as a kind and selfless guy who ultimately is only this way to Nine and upholds his (Nine's) goals over others. So, he keeps dragging Sonic's attention back, forcing him to focus on him, explaining his goal.

Sonic is trying to make Nine come around, to get him to focus on the others fighting, to "remind" him of "their" goal of protecting the innocents in New Yolk and their future. Nine is trying to make Sonic come around, to get Sonic to focus on him, to convince Sonic that creating a better world, a new home, is a better goal. Neither of them think they should have to convince or remind, so it frustrates and confuses them each time they're forced to change topic.

We will come back to their povs later.

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So, after Sonic mentions how they really have to get back to New Yolk, Nine attempts to redirect Sonic's attention once more.

"I have to show you what I found..."

Nine is still smiling as they land in the Grim, doubly so as he explains their "bright new future" (as he puts it).

"Another world..."

"Welcome to our bright new future!"

Getting into Sonic's personal space before jumping out of his ship? Check.

Our, man🥲

Sonic's "we really gotta get back" versus Nine's "our bright new future" is gonna kill me

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As we're approaching the image limit, I shall be employing the usage of embedding a video (mostly because I really want to get to talk about this part in this post). I will be referencing both Sonic and Nine's body language as well as quoting it.

So, after Sonic arrives and the two marvel over shard energy, Nine talks about the Grim.

"Be on the look out for whacked out versions of you, me, or anyone else you might know."

"That's the best part of all. There's no one here! It's a clean slate... The perfect place to start over and get the world right."

There are so many smiles in this portion on Nine's part, from him just explaining the goal he seeks to share with Sonic alone, that I would probably hit the image limit a hundred times trying to point them all out.

Nine is just...so earnest here, and the smiles he keeps on sending Sonic alone are heart melting.

"With the proper fortifications, and enough shard energy, it could be home!"

And Sonic's little gasp here, the sad look, tells you so much about what he's thinking.

He has never seen Nine this happy or excited. He's never seen him smile so much.

But...

"The one you lost, the one I never had. I could make that hope a reality."

Man and the sealing the deal here with the shoulder touch??

"For both of us."

You can tell how much these words hit, how Sonic knows that this matters to Nine.

Because he looks so guilty by the time he speaks.

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Let's jump back to Sonic's point of view for a moment.

When Nine starts talking about home, I believe Sonic recognizes that this isn't just some fun side project of Nine's that's a distraction from the goal. This is because Nine gets personal with it.

"With the proper fortifications, and enough shard energy, it could be home!"

I think this is the line that first alerts Sonic to just how bleak things are for Nine. This is a line that tells Sonic that Nine doesn't have a home. So this project is important to Nine, because it's about home.

And Sonic understands the desperate want to be home right now, to get home. He's wanted to go back home since Episode 1.

"The one you lost"

His expression changes just slightly at this line.

He recognizes now that Nine's goal here is to create home, for himself and for Sonic. And while that's going to make Sonic feel a bit conflicted inside no matter what (because he doesn't believe his old home is fully lost and knows he wants that more than creating a new place with Nine), it's a sweet one. Nine is empathizing with him.

But, this is also Sonic M. Hedgehog. Despite all his efforts to get back/find "home" up to this point, he always puts it on the backburner if the lives of others are at stake. Maybe that's his big goal, and maybe during this story he pushes people to achieve this goal faster, but he cares about people (In fact, part of his arc is him coming to care about the residents of the shatterverse as their own people who deserve to live as much as he and his original friends do).

Sonic is holding onto the hope that gathering the Paradox Prism shards is the key to returning/finding his home. And those shards aren't going to somehow disappear (and Sonic is holding onto the hope that there will always be a way). So, even if he steps aside and helps overthrow the council, or fixes some friendships, or saves worlds from being attacked, his goal will always be waiting when he's done. Sonic has no intention to knowingly achieve his goal at the cost of others' lives.

So perhaps Sonic recognizes that finding "home" is also important to Nine, and maybe he does find everything Nine's working on cool and awesome, but there are people out there in danger.

"Now, look, Nine, it's incredible, but it’s... it's not going anywhere. And those rebels really need our help. Come with me. Help me finish the fight."

I believe that this is Sonic sympathizing with Nine. He does think that what Nine's doing is incredible, and he wants him to know that. In fact, I'm sure part of what makes his expression so sad is that he does want to enoy this moment for what it is with Nine, but the battle in New Yolk is urgent.

Sonic understands what Nine wants, and it's nice that Nine wants him (Sonic) to have a home again too, but it’s just as he says. The Grim isn't going anywhere. The mission to get Sonic's home back and Nine's mission to create a home, these will still be possible after people's lives are no longer at stake. To Sonic, they can have both. It's simple logic. They can save other people, they can fight for the bright future of all those poor people in New Yolk and then also fight for their own bright futures. And so, Sonic goes about explaining with that sad sort of smile again, like he's trying to "remind" Nine of the importance of the immediate goal Sonic thinks they both naturally share. He's, again, taking Nine's actions in good faith, taking it as if Nine needs a reminder that people's lives are important. And if he does that, surely Nine will come with him and fight alongside him for New Yolk's future, right?

Surely, a good and reasonable person would do that, right?

And it's not just that, that Sonic has this idea in his head of Nine having the same idea of the "right thing to do" as him and the same goals that he wants to keep seeing. The usage of "we", "our", "together" for Sonic.

*Sigh* "I hope I see you back in New Yolk."

No matter what, Sonic intends on going back to fight, but the emphasis is on the togetherness. Sonic wants to go back with him, he wants to fight with him, he does want to be with him.

He hopes Nine will do the "right thing". He also wants Nine to go with him, and I wager that extends beyond the battle for New Yolk.

Because if it was just about doing the right thing, then Sonic would have put more emphasis on how it’s something Nine should want. Instead, he approaches this like he's reminding Nine that this—doing the right thing—is important, while emphasizing that he wants to be with him.

Whether you believe he only wants Nine at his side because he's trying to fill the hole Tails' absense has left or not (although for the record, I think by this point Sonic recognizes that Nine is his own person and does want him by his side in the way Tails is, without realizing that he kinda is/intending to fill the hole by his side that Tails left), my point is that Sonic wants Nine by his side when he fights to protect, wants Nine by his side when he's traveling, and he wants Nine by his side when he's trying to achieve his own goal of bringing back his home. This point will come back in season 2 with more evidence behind it, but even this far back, before Sonic's considered Nine a "best friend", he wants Nine there by his side in the coming times.

So Sonic can't understand why Nine would place his goal over fighting in the battle (fighting for hope and for their own honor), but he also hopes that Nine reconsiders. He hopes that his convincing, his wish made clear to have Nine with him, is enough to make Nine choose him and his (Sonic's) immediate goal.

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Now let's jump to Nine's point of view again.

After Nine finishes his piece about creating a new home for him and Sonic, he gives Sonic a moment to speak, awaiting his answer. Partway through Sonic's explanation about how The Grim isn't going anywhere and the rebels need them, Nine withdraws his hand from Sonic's shoulder. He backs away, eyes wide, with his hand still out (this is before his expression changes in reaction to Sonic's words).

It's like he...can't believe what Sonic is saying. It's as if after all of that—the whole demonstration, the heart to heart—Sonic...doesn't want this. It's as if he'd expected Sonic to get over his confliction and choose him, choose to work towards this "bright new future". Even if Sonic hadn't meant it that way, it's...a rejection.

"That city never brought me anything but misery. I owe it nothing."

What Sonic couldn’t have known is that Nine had given him a choice, an unspoken ultimatum of sorts (at least, that's how I see it).

"Them? Worlds and people that are beyond saving? Or me? A bright future and a perfect world to call home?"

To Nine, Sonic had chosen others wants and needs over his own (the wants and needs of those Nine doesn't care about). This not only goes directly against the idea he had of Sonic in his head and those unspoken expectations (to care about Nine but ultimately focus on Nine's their goals over other people), but it surprises him, because he thought he and this demonstration would have been enough to show Sonic what's "really important".

Not to mention, it's possible he thought (or hoped) Sonic understood by now what New Yolk means to him. That was the city that hurt him, full of people who'd never go out of their way to help him or protect him. How could Sonic say that the city needs him (Nine) when the city has never done anything for him, when no one was there to help when he needed it?

"I'll help you get back."

But I also think Nine is...used to disappointment in his life, which is why he takes the percieved rejection surprisingly well. He'd held onto this goal in Sonic's absense so hard (for a hedgehog he barely knew), thinking constantly about how Sonic will love what he's doing.

But it's clear to him (in his pov) that Sonic doesn’t feel the same, doesn’t care about it as much. He swallows his disappointment, his frustration, and he gives Sonic another chance to choose him.

He opens the portal without looking at him, tells Sonic that he (Nine) "has work to do".

Sonic counters his "I hope you choose to stay with me" with his own "I hope you join me in New Yolk", and he leaves. And all we see of Nine before it cuts to Sonic hurtling through the space in between is his shift in facial expressions, his frustration and anger deepening visually.

I suppose what I'm saying is that Nine is trying to be good and reasonable here. He's trying to give Sonic a choice, because it's not going to be the same if Sonic doesn't want this too. He's not in the business of forcing Sonic to join him just because he wants him to. But at the same time, Nine's setting these choices up like ultimatums in his head. In fact, later when he shows up in New Yolk, he'll try to make it more clear to Sonic that he won't get another chance if he doesn't choose him (Nine). He almost expects Sonic to choose him. And when Sonic doesn’t choose him in his unspoken ultimatum, and when Nine ultimately gives him more and more chances to, it's hard not to see it as Nine seeking to get Sonic to prove that he cares about him.

Does this make sense?

In any case, if there's anything I want to get across as The Grim section of this episode comes to a close, it's this. This entire scene is one large miscommunication. Nine and Sonic both are wrapped up in their own goals, assume the other will just go along with what they want or are on the same page as them, and are both operating as if they are right and are giving the other the chance to make "good" choices. They're different people with different povs and context and goals. This scene hurts so much because ultimately they both want good things and they BOTH want to be together, but this never quite comes across, because neither takes the other's words as intended. And yet, that's what makes this scene feel...real to me, as a real conversation that could occur. A conversation like this, where both clearly care about each other, but it seems like each thing they say is wrong, like it doesn't come across right, is something that can happen irl.

And it sucks! It sucks because this scene ending the way it does is unavoidable, both because neither have yet progressed and learned lessons on assuming others agree with them, and because miscommunications like this just happen even when people try their hardest to be clear.

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Also, bit of a side note I wanted to mention but didn't have a moment to fit it in, I actually hadn't quite shipped Sonine after finishing this episode, much less season 1. At the time, I was still really new to Sonic fandom and hadn't consumed much of the media. I'm sure I've said this all in another post before, but this scene gave me second hand embarrassment when I first watched it. I didn’t know how I was meant to feel, nor how I was meant to interpret being beamed with the concept that Nine wanted to create a new world with Sonic and be at home with him, and only him. I didn't dare let myself think that it was intended to come off as romantic, but to myself it never felt very..."brotherly" of them (as was the idea I got from the bit of fandom I was aware of at the time). In the end, all I could think was: "I'm not sure if it was intended to be romantic. Probably not, but Nine definitely has strong feelings of some sort. Honestly, this is such a big scene I wouldn't be surprised if it sparked a bunch of fan content." In the end I got curious enough to find out that, no. Sonine does not have a lot of fancontent😂. But this scene was the first to alert me of the possibility, even if I wouldn't ship it until watching S2, and I think it says a lot that someone who had no Sonic ship bias at the time (except for a passing enjoyment of S0nadow) had a hard time figuring out how to feel about this scene.

Okay, okay. I'll be a bit more normal now. Let us move on and follow Sonic back to New Yolk.

As things are starting to look bad in the fight with the rebels (+ Sonic) versus the Chaos Council (Rebel has collapsed on the ground, Renegade is cornered at the mercy of Deep's sword, and Sonic is squeezed in the fist of Mr. Dr.'s mech, Nine arrives.

The fact that Nine chooses to come back here despite what happened earlier is something that will come back.

Nine intervenes and ends up freeing Renegade, Rebel, and Sonic. After this, Sonic finds himself running beside Nine's ship, smiling.

"Nine...you came!"

And yet...Nine isn’t as happy about this as Sonic is. While Sonic is overjoyed that Nine gave in and chose to join him in this fight, Nine is still frustrated, angry.

"When this is over, I'm going home and never looking back. Whether I go it alone is entirely up to you."

This is the line I referenced earlier during the scene in the Grim. Sure, Nine gave in to Sonic's wishes and ended up helping, but he's not here so he can claim his place by Sonic's side and be a obedient little fox who only wants what he (Sonic) wants.

This is Nine giving Sonic another chance, and with clearer wording regarding the consequences of not choosing him. What Nine is saying here is that he's planning on going back to The Grim after helping, and that after this battle Sonic will have his last chance to choose him. He's saying "I'm helping you, but after this I'm going home and I'm staying there. Are you going to go with me?"

Sonic, meanwhile, doesn't seem to take in exactly what Nine says. Whether it's because he doesn't take it seriously, isn't paying attention, doesn't have time to let the words sink in, or whatever, nothing about Nine's serious statement causes Sonic's smile to fall.

"I knew you'd come back, buddy!"

Although, despite the fact Sonic doesn’t seem to take in Nine's words, I would be remiss if I didn't emphasize how happy Sonic is that Nine came back🥺

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Anddddd with about seven minutes left in Episode 6, it's time to cut this part short. We've hit the tumblr media limit on images and videos, as usual😂.

Next time we'll be finishing up Epsiode 6 and, with any luck, we'll be on track to finishing Season 1 of Sonic Prime. Thanks for reading and I'll see you all in the next one!

#sonine #sonine prime #sonic the hegehog #sonic prime #nine sonic prime #nine the fox #miles nine prower #essay time #Kind of a side note but I didn't actually realize until I tackled this part and rewatched the episode that Nine and Sonic...also have #different ideas on what is a 'good' thing to do? Like obviously they have different morals‚ but like #It's just...the concept that Sonic believes a 'good' person (which he believes and hopes Nine is) is someone like him‚ who would logically #place the lives of the innocent and their future over other things #while Nine believes that creating a new *better #world is worth more than trying to help/fix a world of people he believes are beyond saving. And and...and I have to stop or I'm going to d #a character study over Nine and his morality‚ and his judgements for others vs himself #i just be ramblin #Thanks for reading!😊💖#(also if you saw me accidentally post this hours ago...no you didn't)

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queenlucythevaliant · 1 year

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Why did God harden the Pharaoh’s? I’m in a Bible as Lit class and someone brought up “wouldn’t that be against free will,” and why did God let the Israelites stay it in slavery for so long. Why is God different in the Old Testament to the New Testament? I hope this doesn’t bother you, with all these questions

Okay, so there are several different questions here and I'm going to try to address them all. I'm sure I'll miss something somewhere, so other more knowledgeable friends feel free to add on. Follow-ups are also very much welcome.

First off, Bible as literature class! Yikes. I took a Bible as lit class for my English minor years ago and my experience was pretty much wall-to-wall frustration. It was mostly an exercise in coming up with the most transgressive reads on Scripture possible and that really upset me.

I hope that your experience is better than mine. However, assuming that the class is at a secular university, I'd still encourage you to be intentional about talking the things you cover in class over with knowledgeable Christians in your life. I certainly benefitted a lot from doing so, both in the sense that I got to vent a whole bunch and in that I got help contextualizing the secular perspectives within Christian scholarship.

That out of the way: The God of the Bible is the same in both the Old and New Testaments.

I do understand where you’re coming from. It’s not uncommon for people to find God kind of inscrutable in the OT when they're more used to reading the NT. I actually think that's a failure on the part of the contemporary church in the West; large swaths of the OT tend to be understudied among lay-Christians.

Systematic theology can help a lot here. I'm just going to hit a few really broad highlights, but I really can't recommend Wayne Grudem highly enough if you're interested in more in-depth reading. Lots of people start with Bible Doctrine, but my family happened to have a copy of his enormous Systematic Theology tome in the basement when I was in high school and I got a lot out of just poking through that a little at a time too. A few quick bullets though:

Across all the Biblical texts, God is love. He glories in kindness to his people, whether it's in the covenant with Abraham, the Exodus, the faithful ministry of the prophets, Christ's ministry/death/resurrection, or the promised coming of his kingdom.

God is holy; he gives the Law to the Israelites so that they can approach his holiness without fearing for their lives and he sent Jesus so that we can do the same. Both Isaiah and Peter react with fear and awe in the face of God's holiness.

God is just. By virtue of his holiness, he cannot allow sin to go unpunished. As modern westerners, we often chafe against this but has any of us experienced justice that was actually pure? Justice is a form of faithfulness, and the same God who sent his people into exile poured out his wrath on his own son in our place. He has promised that one day, every evil will face his perfect justice.

God is faithful. He keeps his Covenant with Abraham even unto the cross. In the OT he is faithful husband to an adulterous people. In the NT he tells us that when we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.

Lots of other characteristics but this answer is going to be long enough as it is. The only way to get a real sense for the continuity within the Bible is to read the whole Bible with an eye towards the continuity.

The reason that God is more approachable in the NT than the Old is that he became human. In the Incarnation, all of that holiness and justice and faithfulness and love that was God came to earth in our perfect likeness so that he could live beside us and die for us. God is certainly easier to approach in light of Christ's work, but he is utterly the same as he ever was. Read the Transfiguration and tell me that isn’t the God of Mount Sinai. Read John 1 and tell me it doesn’t remind you of the end of Job. Read the Gospels, Hebrews, and Revelation and play spot-the-OT-parallel. It's beautiful.

Why did God leave his people in slavery for so long? You could ask the same question about the Babylonian captivity and even about why Jesus waits to return and finally defeat Death. Why does he wait? Why let his people suffer?

Well. God is sovereign and he only permits evil to the extent that it ultimately accomplishes the very opposite of what it intends. Because the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, the Exodus was able to occur. The Exodus glorified God in extraordinary fashion, both among his own people and to the peoples of the ancient world. It was also a necessary type and precursor to Jesus's work on the cross. I don't think it's an overstatement to say that redemptive history rests on God's work in the Exodus, which is itself contingent on a period of slavery in Egypt.

“How long, O Lord” and “Come Lord Jesus” are the same sentiment in different words. We are still in exile, even now. We are chronologically exiled from the place where we belong, the New Jerusalem, and we mourn because we live in a fallen world in which sin and death can still hurt us. We can ask, just as the Prophets once asked, why God waits to vanquish the Enemy, extract suffering from the world, and restore our years that the locusts have eaten. And in each case (the slaves in Egypt, the Babylonian captivity, and the period of waiting for Jesus to return), the answer is that God does not fix it yet because He is doing something bigger!

Regarding Pharaoh's heart: this is basically a question of human nature. The easiest way that I can articulate it off the top of my head is using Augustine's fourfold state of man:

Prior to the fall, man was able either to sin or not to sin (posse peccare, posse non peccare)

The natural state of man after the fall is one in which he is unable not to sin (non posse non peccare). This was Pharaoh's state.

Following the work of Christ, regenerate man is able not to sin (posse non peccare)

In eternity, glorified man will be unable to sin (non posse peccare)

When we talk about man's will, we must acknowledge that our wills are subject to our nature. In other words, Pharaoh was a natural, fallen man. His nature was inherently sinful and his heart inherently hard.

What we've got here is sort of a "Jacob I have loved but Esau I have hated" situation. Pharaoh, in his natural state, had a hard heart and a natural enmity with God. God did not intervene to give him a heart of flesh. My people I have loved, but Pharaoh I have hated.

Not a perfect parallel, but I think it serves its purpose. The point is that God's sovereignty isn't in conflict with man's will, since our wills are a function of our natures. Man behaves however his nature inclines him to behave at any given time. We call this free will; however, God is entirely sovereign over all of it.

This is definitely a long, messy answer, but like I said, feel free to continue the conversation. I've got some biochem to work on, but I'm always happy to talk theology :)

#Secular Bible as lit classes really are a quagmire #mine was basically where I decided that I straight up do not care what non-Christians have to say about the Bible #(in the scholarship sense I mean)#if you don't have skin in the game then i couldn't care less what you think on authorship/characterization in genesis/weird subversive take #on ruth/Job being internally inconsistent/God's gender/the purpose of the parables/whatever other nonsense #sigh #and like. i had a good theological grounding to be able to push back on the BS nine times out of ten #my prof actually called me the most engaged student she'd ever taught which was pretty hilarious #but i was FURIOUS on behalf of the other Christians in the class who by and large had relatively shallow foundations as far as i could tell #like one girl was seriously doubting whether God was good when we did the prophets because of the way it was presented #i went to the prof's office hours one time to pick a fight (long story) and she told me that she's had numerous students over the years #that renounced their faith after taking her class #i spent the whole semester praying for all the names on the class roster #ugh i could rant about that class forever #meanwhile! no discussion of the ACTUAL literary merits of the Bible which are awesome!#the poetry the reoccurring motifs the deft use of metaphor the beautiful elevation of theology to art #i wanted to talk about that!#and that wasn't what the class was about #this was years ago and i'm still mad. sorry #maybe that'll be a separate post one of these days #ask me hard questions #only thou art holy

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