CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST
April 11, 2010
25424 Aldine-Westfield, Spring, TX. 77373
www.blakehart.com/cypresswoodbulletin.htm
THANKSGIVINGS AND PRAYERS:
God’s will for our congregation Various relatives, friends and co-workers
Our nation, military and leaders The spread of the good news
GOD, FREE WILL AND CHOICE
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28).
We know that God knows the future. The question that we looked at last week was does He know everything about the future, and is everything determined in some way, or are there things about the future that God allows human free will to make choices in which God will work with the choice made? There are times in scripture that God announces the future, We call it prophecy. For instance, both the Persian Cyrus and the king Josiah were announced in advance. We know that God planned for a Savior even before the foundation of the world. That occurred because we believe that humans have free will to choose and chose to disobey God. We know that various events and people were prophesied about and fulfilled, especially in Christ.
Does this mean then that every aspect of human life is determined in some way by God? For instance, people often have a number of choices before them. It might be in jobs or where to live, even in dating. We often say that it is the Lord’s will when we make a choice. Have we made the best choice? Has God determined that this is the right choice? Or does God know that we have a number of choices and that we will pick one, one that He might not want us to pick. He gives us the opportunity to make the best choice but we do not always do that. He has determined that but works with the choices we make. What does the Bible have to say about how God sees choices. Let’s take a look (1).
Sometimes God regrets things. We read in Genesis 6 that God regretted making human beings because of the sins they were committing. It had become a violent age, so much so that God chose Noah and his family and destroyed all living creatures including humans by the Flood. God also regretted making Saul king of Israel when Saul chose to disobey God in not following His commands (1 Samuel 15). In that same text, Samuel states after telling Saul that the kingdom has been given to another that God does not lie nor change His mind. He regrets making Saul king and changes that yet doesn’t change His mind. Which is it? Both! It was Saul’s actions that led to change and God’s decision of change was final. Saul and his family could have been kings of Israel forever had he been obedient to God (2).
There are a series of questions asked by God to Moses in Numbers 14:11. “The Lord said to Moses, ‘How long will these people treat me with contempt? How long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs I have performed among them?’” God answers that in the next verse when He pronounces judgment on Israel and states that He would make Moses great. Moses however intercedes on behalf of the people and causes God to not destroy Israel. The people repent. Was God doing this just to cause repentance or was He going to destroy Israel until Moses interceded for them? Had Moses not interceded, would God have destroyed them?
Another example of this is Jonah. Jonah was told to warn Nineveh about its coming destruction from God. Jonah knew that God was a merciful and compassionate God, so rather than go to Nineveh, he fled to the west. Jonah chose not to go but God stops him and convinces him to go to Nineveh. One must wonder how Jonah presented his message. The message was simple: repent or die. Nineveh repents and Jonah sulks; he wanted to see Nineveh destroyed, they being an enemy of Israel. What if Nineveh had not repented? Did God know that they would repent or were there other reasons for sending Jonah there?
In the song of the vineyard in Isaiah 5, God describes His cultivating of Israel, tending them. But they only yielded bad fruit and wild grapes. Did God expect that or did He want and expect that they would see His provisions and remain loyal to Him? In Jeremiah 3:19-20, we find yet another example of what God thought would be yet wasn’t. “How gladly would I treat you like my children, and give you a pleasant land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.” Then God says, “I thought you would call me ‘Father’ and not turn away from following me.” How should we see this? God knew and was only expressing His frustration with the nation? Or did He expect that they would see His blessings and call Him “Father?”
Consider the following. The king of Aram (in older translations it is Syria) attacked Israel twice. Saying that the God of Israel was a god of the mountains, they return the following Spring to attack Israel on the plains. Ahab is told that he would be victorious and that God would hand Ben-Hadad into his hands. Ahab won, captured Ben-Hadad, then allowed him to go free. Now read what God said. “This is what the Lord says: ‘You have set free a man I had determined should die’” (1 Kings 20:42 and context). God was using Ahab to destroy Ben-Hadad but because Ahab chose not to kill him, he changed the will of God. Interesting isn’t it.
Ahab was a wicked king of the northern kingdom of Israel and was married to Jezebel. She stole Naboth’s vineyard for Ahab by having Naboth falsely accused and murdered. Ahab accepts his new gift but Elijah the prophet comes with a message from God. Ahab will be judged violently because of his sins (see 1 Kings 21:20-24 and then vs. 25-26). What does Ahab do? He humbles himself before God (vs. 27). Was this expected? “Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite: ‘Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son’” (vs. 28-29). God saw Ahab’s choice and responded to it. King Manasseh would be another example where he was wicked, judged and carried off to Babylon, repented and returned to the throne in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 33).
There are things that God has determined would happened. These are often a part of His plan of redemption. We see there fulfillment throughout scripture. But there are times that God responds to the choices of humankind. These have not been predetermined. Since we often have a multitude of choices before us, God works with the ones we make, even if they are poor choices, to accomplish His will. While there are several ways we can look at these, often based on our presuppositions in doctrine, maybe God works with our free will when we make choices. I think we can see that in the above texts (3).
Last week I stated that the more I learn about God the less I understand. That is where faith comes in. We trust that God will do what is right even when I make poor choices, but that He is also gracious and merciful to us when we do make poor choices. Think about this one aspect of God’s character.
George B. Mearns
(1) Thoughts for this comes from Gregory A Boyd, God of the Possible, Baker Books, 2000.
(2) There is more to this. The people had rejected God as their King earlier and so God gave them what they wanted. They made a choice, poor as it was, and God worked with it.
(3) Boyd lists at least nineteen other texts in the appendix of his book as well as the study of a number of texts that we have not looked at.