There is an interesting passage in Isaiah that might address this question. (Paul doesn't. "Who are you, oh man, to answer back to God?" (Rom 9:20).)
Woe to Assyria, the rod of My angerWhat's going on here? It is God speaking. He is pronouncing "woe", the ancient Hebrew curse. He is pronouncing this curse upon Assyria, an idolatrous nation. What else do we know about Assyria? They are "the staff in whose hands is My indignation." Okay, now, hold on. This is a curse on an idolatrous nation who God is using to punish Israel. Huh? God is sending them and commissioning them (Isa 10:6) and they are doing it and He is pronouncing a curse on them. How is that possible? They're going to do what God intends them to do and He is cursing them for it? Why?
And the staff in whose hands is My indignation. (Isa 10:5)
Yet it does not so intend,Oh, now that's interesting. So Assyria is assigned by God to punish Israel for her idolatry, but Assyria is not doing it because God has assigned them to do it. They are doing it for their own bad reasons. And that is why God is pronouncing this woe upon them.
Nor does it plan so in its heart,
But rather it is its purpose to destroy
And to cut off many nations. (Isa 10:7)
It's an interesting juxtaposition of Man's free will and God's Sovereignty. It is a clear case of God's overarching rule and Man's responsibility for his own actions. Like Judas Iscariot, predestined to betray Christ and with a woe pronounced against him for it (Luke 22:22), Assyria was God's chosen tool that opted for personal gain to attack God's people. God permitted, even ordained it because God's people needed correction, but Assyria isn't free of culpability for it because of their sinful motivation. Regardless of where you stand, the Bible is clear that God is regarded as absolutely Sovereign and Man is culpable for his sinful choices.
2 comments:
Often times when explaining the Sovereignty of God. people will declare " so if a man wants to be saved, he cannot be saved unless he is called." they couple two ideas together and produce a contradiction.
1. a man wants to be saved.
2. only the elect can be saved.
therefore if the man is not elect he cannot be saved no matter his desire.
This is a false premise; because the desire to be saved is part and parcel with the characteristics of the elect. All those that call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
They presuppose that Natural Man could have the self-promoted desire to be saved.
Post a Comment