Not What We Expected

In Isaiah, God calls the prophet to a mission. The mission was to tell them, "Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive" (Isa 6:9). Kind of a strange mission. John understood it a bit differently. He quotes it in John 12 as an intention. "Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, 'He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.'" (John 12:39-40) Notice the cause assigned in John 12 that wasn't listed in Isaiah's version. "He has blinded ..." The goal or expectation was that they would not see or hear. Not quite what we might have expected.

Of course, that's because we have this simplified view that "God wants everyone to be saved" with the sense of "And, by golly, He's desperately hoping it happens." But a plain reading of Scripture would require a different view. For instance, Paul writes that it's God's will to demonstrate His power and wrath on vessels of wrath prepared for destruction (Rom 9:22). Jesus told His disciples He taught in parables so that "seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand" (Matt 13:13). (He quotes Isaiah on that (Matt 13:14-17). So clearly John's interpretation in John 12 was simply what Jesus told them. It was not, from the very beginning, God's plan to save everyone. Indeed, God has insured that those whom He intended to save are saved and those He did not are not (Rom 9:14-18).

Letting Scripture speak for God, the conclusion is unavoidable. But is it bad? I don't think so. First, it's God, so whatever He does is good. But there is another consideration. Scripture refers to the Church as the Bride of Christ. Paul says marriage is God's symbolic representation of Christ's relationship to the Church (Eph 5:31-32). The reason, Scripture says, that "all things work together for good" is precisely that we are being conformed to the image of Christ to be His "many brothers" (Rom 8:28-29). That is, God is saving "few" (Matt 7:13-14) for the special purpose of being His own. If His purpose was to save everyone, that special nature of His choice would be diluted, and He would be a failure because not all are saved. So, while, from a human perspective, it might seem unfair that He doesn't save all, I would argue that we should let God be God and side with His choices instead of our own. Like Mary, we should say, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to Your word" (Luke 1:28).