The Bible is an historical account of God's dealings with mankind.

The Bible contains the Word of God .

The Bible contains accounts where the Word of the Lord was given. The accounts are told by men from man's perspective.

It is important to differentiate between an account of an event and the Word of the Lord .

Since accounts contain the perspective of the Witness the account may not be entirely correct - particularly with Respect to motive and intent.

For Example , when a Parent Chastises a Child , are they doing it out of Anger or Love ? The Bible clearly Says that chastising a Child is necessary for the child's sake. So, if the Child is being chastised for their sake it is an act of Love . If the Child is being chastised for any other Reason it is not an act of Love .

Two people looking at the same act of chastisement may conclude different motives. Each would Give similar accounts of what happened but ascribe entirely different motives.

How does this pertain to the Bible ? We must differentiate between what the Bible Reports and the assumptions and conclusions of the Witness or reporter .

Now this may seem sacriligious to the fundamentalist. But we must look at the two Scriptures below ( which are Infallible ) and Reconcile them with some other verses .

So God is Love and He doesn't Change .

How then can we Reconcile these fundamental Truths about God with these statements from the Bible ?

And God hardened Pharoah's Heart ? Was that Fair ( and Loving ) of God to force Pharoah to resist His Will ?

Using these Scriptures that appear to be inconsistent with Respect to the Character of God , we can Understand what Jesus meant in this verse:

What we " Think " about something is different than what we " Know " about something. Knowing has to do with facts. Thinking has to do with perspective.

So, Jesus was telling us to search the Scriptures in order for our thinking to tend toward Eternal Life . You "search" for something that is not Right out in front of You , possibly obscured and may in Fact be hidden.

Here's how I Reconcile what "God hated Esau" means with Respect to "God Never Changes and He is Love":

It appeared that God hated Esau. Esau was carnally minded while Jacob was more Spiritually minded. The Carnal Mind being enmity with God resulted in Esau not Receiving the Benefits of God's Love . I maintain that God loved Esau but Esau chose Death rather than Life .

Here's how I Reconcile "God hardened Pharoah's Heart " with "it is not God's Will that any Perish ":

It appeared that God hardened Pharoah's Heart . Moses could not rationalize how the Mighty Miracles did not Convert Pharoah. He concluded that God hardened Pharaoah's heart.

Furthermore, it is possible that Moses did not understand that God could see into the future and report on what would happen. So, he inferred that God would force Pharoah's heart to be hardened. This is similar to the incorrect Theology about Predestination .

Other verses corroborate the Fact that Pharoah hardened his own Heart :

To Believe that God manipulates men against their Will impugns the True Character of God .

When the True Character of God is impugned in our thinking we cannot have Faith in His Personal Love for us and so unwittingly Divorce ourselves from the Benefits of Eternal Life .

So, search the Scriptures that testify to the Love , Compassion , Mercy and Grace of God . These are the ones that testify of Christ Jesus .

You also need to be filled with the HolySpirit to be able to find Christ in the Scriptures.

Remember also that Jesus is the Truth . This means that He is the final definition of who God is and what His Will is. His command at the beginning of His ministry was to Repent - change your Mind about God .