Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool. -- Isaiah 1:18
We are not pawns in game of life, as Mongo would say. We should stop and think about the
significance of this statement by Jehovah.
He is willing to reason with us, to communicate with and try to
understand us. He calls upon us to tell
Him how our lives are advancing, where we are, what we need. He offers us an opportunity to have the past
redeemed -- not changed in the sense of undone, but changed in significance and made holy because of where it carries us.
Gagdad has been dealing with the idea of God operating in process as opposed to having everything
determined beforehand, that God perhaps restricts His omniscience to past and present. The future is determined not by God’s
foreknowledge but by His intention which is determined by His Nature. We know, to some extent, where we are headed
when we know God. The future is
Christ.
Let’s consider what Paul says: Now the
Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
(2 Corinthians 3:17) By this Paul means
freedom from the bondage of the old fallen Adamic nature, but what good is
liberty, what is liberty apart from the capacity to exercise and enjoy it?
To me, the centrality of prayer in Judeo-Christian practice
indicates that all is not determined.
Saying that God is in control is not the same as saying, “Que sera sera”. God is not the Man Who Knows Too Much, though
that is exactly how He is pictured by many.
What we mean is that God may do as He pleases consistent with His
character and the laws He has established in dealing with Creation. He will accomplish that which He
intends. Neither man nor any other being
or power is capable of thwarting the Divine purpose. God is in control.
He had to carry Jonah to the bottom of the sea in a whale’s gut,
but He got that hard-headed soul to Nineveh.
He sent Philip to an unscheduled meeting with an Ethiopian
eunuch. He arranged for combatively
kosher Cephas to have a BLT with a Gentile named Cornelius. He got Paul to Rome on the Emperor’s
denarius. Right now, this day, God, in
unknown ways, in the hearts of the most unlikely people, is working out and
reconciling what happened yesterday with His goal – to bring us all into that
one new race of men in the kingdom.
4 comments:
To me, the centrality of prayer in Judeo-Christian practice indicates that all is not determined. Saying that God is in control is not the same as saying, “Que sera sera”.
Good point. Excellent post.
I must periodically point out how grateful I am to be able to interact with You and Bob, and others in the Raccoon-o-sphere (and elsewhere).
Despite my near-constant gloomin' and doomin' there is much good in this world.
Gloomin' and doomin' is kind of fun. Some people watch The Walking Dead; we talk about the end of the world as we know it.
The interaction is what makes it all work. I don't know anything, but I learn a lot.
Right now, this day, God, in unknown ways, in the hearts of the most unlikely people, is working out and reconciling what happened yesterday with His goal – to bring us all into that one new race of men in the kingdom.
Or to paraphrase Genesis, even when we mean something for evil, God means it for good.
To some, this might indicate an omniscient God. To me, the fact that anyone may do anything with evil intent just goes to show that we are free to do as we will.
Yes, that's true.
In some ways, I prefer the Gandalf of The Hobbit to his more direct operations in LOTR, for example, how he deals with the trolls in that early scene. God seems to prefer subtlety Himself.
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