There is a debate as to why an omniscient allows things to happen. Such as why did He choose Saul to be the first king of Israel? Didn’t he know Saul would turn out the way he did if he became king? Or why does God allow horrible thing to happen to innocent people, such as children getting cancer? And why does God allow a Christian man to have a life crisis that causes him to lose his faith and ruin his family? Didn’t He know the man’s weaknesses?
Some have come to the conclusion that God didn’t know because of man’s free will. I don’t accept that. I think he did know. Which gives me a bit of a dilemma. If God did know, and I accept the proposition He is also a loving God who is concerned for His children, then why does he let such things happen? I think I can explain it, but you won’t like my answers.
There are three possible explanations. The first we get from the book of Job. A lot of people misunderstand the theme of Job. The think it’s a story of a wager and contest between God and Satan, but they completely misread it. No where does God say, “I bet you can’t turn Job against me.” All He does is ask “have you considered Job.” God knew what Satan’s response would be and let him go on to test Job. The main reason God allowed the testing of Job was in the end to make Job better. And you see that at the end of the book when Job has his audience with God. It was then that Job realized how pathetic he was compared to God and begs God to forgive him for his arrogance. Sometimes God allows us to have hardship to make us better, or to make someone in our lives better. I can give an example in my own life. My first child died shortly after born, and my second child was extremely premature. However, she did survive and has led a full life with a family of her own. Both my children were innocents who did not deserve what happened to them. But because of my suffering with them I can now comfort parents who are frightened because of their own premature children and who have suffered the loss of a child.
The second explanation is one we get from the prophet Balaam in Numbers, chapter twenty-two. Recall that King Balak tried to bribe Balaam to curse Israel and God told him not to go. But Balak sent envoys two more times and God finally allowed Balaam to go but only if he spoke what God told him to say. Balaam ended up blessing the nation of Israel, and then aided Balak in corrupting them. Things did not end well with Balaam because of his attempt to get around God’s command. How many times do we do the same thing. We pray and beg God for something He has already told us no, but we continue to beg him for it. And if He doesn’t relent, we look for a loophole to go ahead do what we will. Then we’re shocked when things go badly, and we have the temerity to ask, “Why did you let this happen to us?” Sometimes we need to trust God when he tells us “NO!”
The third explanation can be seen in the selection of Saul as the first king of Israel. Some people have wondered why did God choose Saul if he knew how Saul was going to turn out. The answer could be as simple as that it was the best of bad choices. God gave us all free will and He will not violate that. When the people cried out for a king, God had Samuel warn them what this meant, but the people ignored the warning. God went ahead and gave them a king. But why Saul? It could be that God saw that that as bad as Saul would turn out, he was the best choice at the time. This whole world is nothing but trade-offs, even for God. For Him to force a perfect ending for His people would mean for Him to do away with His entire plan for creation. To not have children who through their freewill choose to love God and not be forced to do so.
#Job, #Freewill, #KingSaul, #Balaam