Good question, perhaps we don’t get all our answers on our time table, but rather on God’s.
I think you may even be capable of coming to an answer on this yourself, if you put your mind to it with the initial, underlying assumption that there is an answer that will satisfy, one that is consistant with all that we know of a Loving God, who gives us the free will to make choices in our lives while accepting that he is all powerful, and knows all that has been, is and will be.
With the Abraham question, it was things I’ve already pondered, but this one, is new for me, not something I’ve put as much time into. But, with the responses given thus far it makes me think of the analogy of God’s foreknowledge of that which will be and watching a movie for the second time.
We know what each character is going to do, we can even scream it out at the screen and yet we are not preventing them from playing their role with the same facial expressions, the same ticks they bring to it, of their own accord. We simply know, in advance, what we will be seeing in the next scene.
Ok, so this still doesn’t answer the second reference, “I will make him obstinate…”
Dunno, but I do know that God is all powerful and can do anything he wants, to anyone at any time. I used to have an incredibly difficult time understanding the concept of “Fear the Lord our God” for how was I supposed to be afraid of a God who is the perfect and complete definition of Love, as I understand God to be. But then I came to realize that true love is sometimes willing to cause us pain if that is what is necessary for us to grow, to face the truth about our own lives and to become a better person.
This is seen in the love of a parent. A truly good parent is willing to risk a childs wrath by scolding and correcting when necessary. A real parent sometimes even has to punish, occationally to the point that the child may even risk rebellion rather than accept the punishment. But in this case, a parent who truly loves their child will stick to his guns and not allow the opportunity to teach to be lost, for fear of truly losing the child to sin and error of his ways.
A spouse may at times need to correct, gently and always with Love at the forefront, their beloved, if they it becomes necessary. Our culture has placed such an emphasis on “happiness” that this more frequently than it should results in divorce rather than the receiving spouse accepting the need for change, but if presented with adequate humility, even in this case change can occur.
Friends also find themselves occationally needing to decide whether or not to say something difficult. A true friend is willing to risk the sacrifice and say something, when asked or when the opportunity is so ripe it feels as though to not say something is a lie. But again, any correction must be done in humility and with Love at the absolute forefront, for anything else is but the Gong making noise.
CARose
I think you’ll agree there is still some mystery unless indeed it is a manner of understanding Jewish thought at the time and the wording that was used.