God's Predestination in OT?

[prism]

For those who have a good handle on Biblical Hebrew, is the concept of predestination found in the Old Testament, implied (or hinted at) or otherwise?

 

[Josheb]

It is certainly implied in the lives of Abraham, Abraham's seed (Jesus), Pharoah, and Moses. I'd also suggest the love/hate of Jacob and Esau.

 

[prism]

It is certainly implied in the lives of Abraham, Abraham's seed (Jesus), Pharoah, and Moses. I'd also suggest the love/hate of Jacob and Esau.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is; 'was it revealed (through the Hebrew) in the OT?'. It seems like your examples are ones that were revealed in the NT.

 

[Josheb]

I guess what I'm trying to get at is; 'was it revealed (through the Hebrew) in the OT?'. It seems like your examples are ones that were revealed in the NT.

God hating Esau and loving Jacob is OT. Paul's commentary is quoting from Hosea.

Malachi 1:1-4
The oracle of the word of the LORD to Israel through Malachi. "I have loved you," says the LORD. But you say, "How have You loved us?" "Was not Esau Jacob's brother?" declares the LORD. "Yet I have loved Jacob; but I have hated Esau, and I have made his mountains a desolation and appointed his inheritance for the jackals of the wilderness." Though Edom says, "We have been beaten down, but we will return and build up the ruins"; thus says the LORD of hosts, "They may build, but I will tear down; and men will call them the wicked territory, and the people toward whom the LORD is indignant forever."

And given the fact Malachi is referencing a history that begins with,

Genesis 25:21-26
Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren; and the LORD answered him and Rebekah his wife conceived. But the children struggled together within her; and she said, "If it is so, why then am I this way?" So she went to inquire of the LORD. The LORD said to her, "Two nations are in your womb; And two peoples will be separated from your body; And one people shall be stronger than the other; And the older shall serve the younger." When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb. Now the first came forth red, all over like a hairy garment; and they named him Esau. Afterward his brother came forth with his hand holding on to Esau's heel, so his name was called Jacob; and Isaac was sixty years old when she gave birth to them.

It had been decided before either boy was born that the older would serve the younger. No one needs Paul's Romans 9 narrative to understand God chose both men's lives (to one degree or another) before either child was born. No one needs Paul to understand that choice did not depend on the how either child/man thought, willed, or acted.

Personally, I think Pharoah and Moses are a better example since their roles were defined more than 400 years before either man was born! A monergistically decided predetermined destiny can be found throughout the OT in such verses like Dt. 7:7.

Deuteronomy 7:6-8
For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

I'd also suggest the statements in the Genesis 1 creation account whereby each plant and animal reproduces "according to its kind" is an indication of predestination. The fact that every single covenant is monergistically initiated is also OT evidence of predestination. Some thought might be put into the question itself because any notion predestination does not exist at all is going to mean God decided nothing in advance and that's going to have implications for a variety of core Christian doctrines (like God's omnipotence and sovereignty). Soteriologically speaking, the moment God said He'd save "some" that necessarily implies to things: someone had been decided upon and others were excluded.