Does God Do Harsh Chastening?

One of my favorite blogs is Ray Comfort’s blog, “Atheist Central”.  Today he answered a question that, sooner or later, any apologist gets. 

"Do you really believe the holocaust was God's punishment of the Jews?"

In answer to the question, Ray, I believe made one of the few mistakes he makes in that great blog.  In a very good desire, I think, to direct the attention of the questioner, to the Gospel, he actually denied the truth that God was using Germany in dealing with Israel.

I would never say that God used Hitler to punish the Jews. If God treated any of us justly and punished us according to our sins, we would all be in Hell in an instant. I’m Jewish and I am as guilty as any Gentile of violating His Law.

He then went on to talk about our sinfulness and our need for mercy as a people, all very commendable and very true.  The problem is, that it is not the truth. 

There are at least three  Biblical examples where God used horrible oppressors to chasten and correct Israel.  The first was Egypt.  Israel was there by choice, but God used Pharaoh (the embodiment of national Egypt) to chasten Israel and cause Israel to cry out to Him for deliverance.

God raised up the Assyrians to take the Northern Kingdom into captivity in 705 BC, never to return!  Some portion of the peoples of that area drifted down to live in Judah, but the 10 tribes were taken and never formally returned.  The Assyrians were responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths.

Babylon is another example of a terrible oppressor, responsible for innumerable deaths and the displacement of the nation that God raised up deliberately and with the sure purpose of bringing Israel back to obedience and causing him to forsake the idolatry and false religion that become a staple of their national existence.  Babylon kinds many, many tens of thousands over the three separate captivities they exercised (605, 597 & 586 BC)

Those three are very clearly put forth in the Scripture,  and we haven’t even talked about God raising up the Roman Empire, and allowed it to conquer the nation and exercise harsh rulership over that area.  We haven’t mentioned that God raised up Cyrus the Persian, mentioning him by name some 150 years before he came on the scene and conquered both the Israel and the Babylonian empire.  The Persians weren’t the nicest guys on the block either.

The point here is that is wrong to assert that God does not use such instruments to chasten His people.  Israel is alone in this, God uses harsh methods to chasten us all.  Because Israel is a national entity, God used national-level methods.

I do agree with Ray in one area.  It may be a small distinction, but I think it an important one.  All that God has done of the centuries in Israel’s life has not been done by way of punishment.  I think perhaps that this is part of what Ray was trying to get across.  God’s aim with his people, with His chosen ones is never punishment, it is chastening.

Now, one might argue that there is little difference – I beg to differ.  From a human point of view, an experiential point of view – it may be that there is little difference.  But from God’s point of view, the only one that really matters in the long run, there is a big difference.

The aim in punishment is to satisfy God’s wrath against sinful behavior.  That is not the primary aim in any of the occasions we have mentioned.  The intention of in all of those occasions was not punishment – satisfying Himself.  It was chastening.

Chastening has as its aim the teaching of a lesson with the intent of causing the change of perspective, of mindset and the resulting change of behavior.  That was the aim of God in each of the captivities and likewise it was the aim in the holocaust. 

If God is sovereign, and He is, how can we draw any other conclusion?  Is He in charge, except for this?  Has He abandoned His people?  We the Nazi’s stronger than He was? 

It is always the case that God does as He desires and that what occurs in life is as He has planned.  The horror of the crucifixion was planned before the world began happened exactly as God desired it happen.  I completely agree that from a human point of view it makes no sense, and even seems contrary to common sense, but we are not the God of the universe and are not the architect of the world and of the all that is in it.  Our minds are subject to the fall and our reason tainted by the effects of sin.  There is no shame in admitting that.  There is only shame in the pride and arrogance of insisting God conform the creatures standards and not vice-versa.

Was the Holocaust God’s punishment of the Jews.  With the change of single word – (punishment to chastening) and remembering that the intent of chastening in bringing men to glory – I fear we must answer yes. 

God is willing to what He must to bring His people to salvation – to obedience to the Gospel.  He simply is.  Men make the issue any number of things.  Fairness.  Harshness.  Suffering.  Human ideas of right and wrong.  But none of that is what lies at the root.  At the root of the issue is the character of God and His unwillingness to compromise that character for any reason.  That is why Christ had to come and die, and that is why God’s people must be chastened.  It is not our conception morality that rules creation – it is His.  Like it or not – that’s what reality is.

What Exactly Does The Counsel of God “Do”? (Part 1)

It is important for us to understand that the Counsels of God are not theoretical – they are real and they are binding on God’s creation.  By that I mean that they accomplish real things.  these are not the musings of an impotent Being who sits in heaven wishing that His creation would shape up and do what He wants them to do while all the while they do as they please.   

Oh no!  This is a sovereign God, much to the chagrin and the irritation of the secular, unredeemed world.  Much, as well, to the consternation of the unsaved world.  This is a God that they cannot figure out.  They insist on holding Him to human standards and trying measure Him by human measurements, and then are angry and/or frustrated when those measures come out cockeyed.  Their verdict then is this God is either unjust or non-existent.  Neither could further from the truth.  He is simply not a man and cannot be measured by our standards.

Yet it IS important to remember that God is going about accomplishing His plan for His creation.  So, just what is it that these counsels and purposes of God are accomplishing in the world?  Well, the specific acts of God would, of course, be too numerous to list in this context.  But we can do some talking in a “heading” manner.  I see at the least four general headings ^[1] that we can group the actions of under.

1. God Acts in Human History

First we could say that God acts in History.  Just in one grand example, Is. 46:10-11 says:

10 Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things that are not yet done,
Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand,
And I will do all My pleasure,’
11 Calling a bird of prey from the east,
The man who executes My counsel, from a far country.
Indeed I have spoken it;
I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it;
I will also do it.

Those two verses are full of sovereignty language, aren’t they?  People who reject the authority of the Bible will argue that this passage, and others like it were written after Cyrus came and conquered Babylon and returned the people of God to their land.  Their assumption is that such knowledge is not possible a century and a half (that is when Isaiah lived) is not possible and thus this text had to be written after it happen by some Pseudo-Isaiah after the fact. 

But such assumptions only do more to show our own spiritual state than they do to argue for the truth of the text of Isaiah.  The fact of the matter is that there is ample evidence that this passage was written in the 8th century along with the rest of the Book of Isaiah.  It is not unreasonable to accept what is, really, a wealth of textual evidence, for the genuine authorship of Isaiah at that time.

Given that truth, we see a marvelous demonstration of the sovereignty of God in these two verses.  He says that Cyrus the Persian will come, even calling him by name (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1) and that he will overthrow the Babylonian Empire. 

All of this, doing “My counsel”.  God says “I have spoken it, I will bring it to pass”.  This very clear language.  “I have purposed it, I will also do it”.  Using poetic mechanism, God uses a doublet to underscore the truth that His sovereign power will accomplish in human History what His counsel has purposed in His mind.

2.  God Acted In Accomplishing The Death of Christ

This is certainly no surprise to most believers.  That God delivered up Christ by His own purpose, a determined purpose that according to foreknowledge is one of the tenets of the Christian faith.  Acts 2:23 says:

Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;

This is one of those verse that we take great care over.  Every word in this verse is significant and we need to take more care, really, than we have time for in this short space.  But we do have time for a few relevant comments.

First, “determined” is a verb and a participle.  It has two primary meanings^[2].  When it used in the active sense it means “to decide, or determine as seen in Ac 11:29. 2.   When it is in the passive voice, that is when the verb indicates that the object of the sentence is being acted upon and not doing the action, it means “to appoint, to set, or to decree”.  This is the use here.  Christ did not do the delivering, He was delivered. 

Further we would note both that this delivering was a finished act, referring, of course to the act of sacrifice on the cross of Calvary; and that this action was an action accomplished by the Father in a determined action. 

This decree occurred, we’re told according to God’s “foreknowledge”.  Actually what the passage says is that all of this occurred according to the plan that God foreknew.  “Foreknew” is a noun in this case (there is also a verb that means “to foreknow”).  In this context it mean to have knowledge of or to plan out.  Note the use of the word “counsel” just before.  That was what was foreknown.  It was His plan!  Christ was crucified according to the foreknown plan of God.  God saw to it that what occurred was exactly what He had planned would occur in eternity past.

From eternity past God predetermined that Jesus would die an atoning death as part of the His pre-ordained plan.^[3] Our calling is a holy calling according to grace given before time began. 2 Tim. 1:8-9:

8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, 9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,

The names of believers are written in the “Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the Foundation of the World”. Rev. 13:8:

…And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. 8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

The early church preached that the crucifixion of Jesus was according to foreknowledge of God as well.  Acts 4:27, 28:

27 “For truly against Your holy Servant Jesus, whom You anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together 28 to do whatever Your hand and Your purpose determined before to be done.

There was no question in the minds of the Apostles and the early church the the death of Jesus fulfilled the prophesies of the OT.  Acts 13:27–29:

27 For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they did not know Him, nor even the voices of the Prophets which are read every Sabbath, have fulfilled them in condemning Him. 28 And though they found no cause for death in Him, they asked Pilate that He should be put to death. 29 Now when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, they took Him down from the tree and laid Him in a tomb.

All of this demonstrated that God acted in fulfilling His counsels in the death of Christ.  As He did in history in general, He did in this specific aspect of history – He moved with power and authority as the One Who controls all things to do as He had decreed in eternity past to bring about that which He desired – the salvation His people.

___________________________________

^[1] Thomas Nelson Publishers. (1995). Nelson's quick reference topical Bible index. Nelson's Quick reference (156). Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

^[2] Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Greek (New Testament) (electronic ed.) (DBLG 3988, #2). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

^[3] MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Ac 2:23). Nashville: Word Pub.

Just How Is The Counsel of God Described in the Bible? (Part 4 - Sovereign & Eternal)

We’ve seen that the Bible uses at least 4 different descriptions of the Counsels of God ^[1] in the Scriptures thus far.  He speaks of them as “Immutable”, as “Faithful”, as “Wonderful” and as “Great”.

He further speaks of these Counsels in His Word as Sovereign .  The Sovereignty of God can be defined as his absolute right to do all things according to his own good pleasure (Rom. 9:15–23; 1 Tim. 6:15; Rev. 4:11)^[2] .  It specifically refers to the unlimited power of God, who has sovereign control over the affairs of men, nature and history (Is. 45:9–19; Rom. 8:18–39).^[3]

The Bible declares that God is working out His sovereign plan of redemption for the world and that the conclusion is certain. Immediately after the Fall He talked about the curse of human sin and specified the cure for it. To the serpent He said,

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel” (Gen. 3:15).

The whole redemptive story of the Bible is the fulfillment of this prophecy by the sovereign God, as Paul clearly teaches in Romans 8–11.

The story of redemption from Genesis to Revelation is possible only because the sovereign God loves the created world, fallen though it is, and is able to do something about it. Without the sovereign love of the Father ministered to us through the Son and the Holy Spirit, there would be no real human freedom and no hope of everlasting life.^[4]

Daniel 4:35 says:

34 And at the end of the time I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me; and I blessed the Most High and praised and honored Him who lives forever:

For His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
And His kingdom is from generation to generation.

35 All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing;
He does according to His will in the army of heaven
And among the inhabitants of the earth.
No one can restrain His hand
Or say to Him, “What have You done?”

A prime example of human pride in the Scripture is the Babylonian King, Nebuchadnezzar.  When, at the end of his humbling process, he lifted his eyes and saw the God was a sovereign God, and that he (Nebuchadnezzar) was but a tool in God’s hand, he also understood that this understanding was a gracious one.  He clearly recognizes that God is sovereign and that He does as He wills and no man can stop Him.  He confesses that man is answerable to God and that will be held accountable to God. 

All of this speaks of the sovereignty of the counsels of God!  Those counsels are plans that cannot be overturned and are counsels that stand forever!

His Counsels are Eternal

Further, the counsels of God are Eternal counsels.  Commenting on the receiving of His gracious commission to preach the mysteries of Gospel to the Gentiles from God, Paul said in Ephesians 3:8-11:

8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; 10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, 11 according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.

This purpose was an eternal purpose!  It was not a plan cobbled together at the last minute in response to what the Pharisees and Sadducees and other opponents of the Gospel came up with.  Paul was simply fulfilling the plan that God had in His mind from before the world was formed.

What is interesting in that verse in Ephesians is that Paul views that purpose as fully accomplished.  The boldness he now has, he has because the purpose of God is already accomplished, accomplished by means of what Christ has done already.  Now, of course, that points to Calvary and to the finished satisfaction provided there by our Lord’s broken body and shed blood.  Paul added nothing to it by his own work – he looked back and rested on what was already accomplished.  So ought you and I.

If we look to some earthly measure then our purpose is not eternal – it is temporal!  Paul says that the purpose of God is eternal.  He set his purposes back before time began – it was ever His purpose to look to the work of Christ on Calvary and base all there.  It was never, NEVER in His mind to require obedience from men and ask them to adhere to a standard.  It was always His desire to exalt His Son and thus lift up both the Son’s name and His own.

That ought to be our own purpose as well.

_______________________________________

^[1] Thomas Nelson Publishers. (1995). Nelson's quick reference topical Bible index. Nelson's Quick reference (156). Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

^[2] Easton, M. (1996, c1897). Easton's Bible dictionary. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

^[3] Youngblood, R. F., Bruce, F. F., Harrison, R. K., & Thomas Nelson Publishers. (1995). Nelson's new illustrated Bible dictionary. Rev. ed. of: Nelson's illustrated Bible dictionary.; Includes index. Nashville: T. Nelson.

^[4] Ibid.

Just How is the Counsel of God Described in The Bible? (Part 2)

We’ve spoken quite a bit about the Counsel of God over the past weeks.  We’re taking some time to take a look at just how the Bible speaks for itself about those counsels.  The first thing we noted was that the Bible says that God’s Counsels are Immutable – they do not and cannot ever change.  They are ever the same just as He is ever the same.

A second quality¹ of these counsels is that they are Faithful. Isaiah 25:1 says:

Lord, You my God. 
I will exalt You, 
I will praise Your name, 
For You have done wonderful things; 
Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.

William Elwell² defines God’s faithfulness as “maintaining faith or allegiance; showing a strong sense of duty or conscientiousness.” In biblical Hebrew, “faith” and “faithfulness” are grammatically related. Although both concepts are important in the OT, there is no English word exactly equivalent to the Hebrew terms. The most relevant Hebrew verbal root (related to our word “amen”) carries such meanings as “strengthen,” “support,” or “hold up.” In a physical sense it is used of pillars that provide support for doors.  See 2 Kings 18:16 for instance:

At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria.

Moses used the word when he disclaimed any role as supporter of the Israelites.  Numbers 11:12, for instance uses the term:

Did I conceive all these people? Did I beget them, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a guardian carries a nursing child,’ to the land which You swore to their fathers?

The nursing mother is the sole support for the child until the child is able to eat and support itself.

God, however, is an eternally firm support for his people. and that is the connection between that ideas.  Deuteronomy 7:9 says:

“Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments…

Likewise Isaiah 49:7

Thus says the Lord,
The Redeemer of Israel, their Holy One,
To Him whom man despises,
To Him whom the nation abhors,
To the Servant of rulers:
“Kings shall see and arise,
Princes also shall worship,
Because of the Lord who is faithful,
The Holy One of Israel;
And He has chosen You.”

So faithfulness is an attribute of God and it only makes sense that the purpose of God, His plan for His creation, would share that attribute as well.  They are the faithful expression of the faithful character and intention of God’s nature.

If we do a study of the Hebrew word for faithfulness we find that there are three “branches” of meaning for the word in the OT, as we have seen above.  Those branches give us a good rich idea of what God’s faithfulness mean for the believer.  He is a “doorpost” for His children, that is, He is that which gives a sense of solidity and solidness to life, which holds all of life and eternity together.  He is the “frame around which all it held. 

He “nurses” His children, giving them sustenance and all they need to live and walk in the world, seeing to it that they can live as children of God in a hostile world and be faithful men and women of God, witnesses to His goodness and to His power to call and bring men out of the nations.

And He is a Father, with all that implies in the best sense of the word.  A Father will love, command, instruct, guide and warn. He will train, rebuke, restrain, punish, chasten, nourish, and supply needs. A Father is responsible to not provoke His children wrath.  All of this God will do – Praise His holy Name!

Just How is “The Counsel of God” Described in the Bible?

While the phrase “Counsel of God” may seem a bit stilted and old fashioned, it is a useful one. The phrase appears 4 times in the KJV, once in 1 Samuel 14:37 where Samuel asked “counsel of God”. It is used twice in Job (15:8 and 29:4) both speaking the counsel of God in terms of the counsel of a friend. The last instance is the famous instance of Acts 20:27:

27 For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.

Paul here speaks of the entire content of his preaching as the “counsel of God”. From his office as Apostle, a writing Prophet, so to speak, that counsel takes on the authority and impact of one who spoke the very words of God Himself.

The word “counsel” in Acts 20:27 is “boulay” and speaks of a plan, purpose, or a decision^[1]. That makes the idea different than our idea of counsel. It is not a suggestion, it is the Kings objective purpose, laid out and declared for His subjects. When we think of “counsel” we think in terms of suggestions and helpful tips. That is not all the class of idea we are in here. No, no – This is no more a suggestion than the policeman’s light and siren is a suggestion that you pull over!

And so we ask – just how is this “Counsel” described in the Bible? ^[2] Space prohibits a full listing of all of the attributes that are used, but a short list can be supplied. But we’d like to make one observation first if we may – the attributes are all the attributes of God Himself!

And this is not Surprising – in fact we would expect it if we give it but a moment’s thought! It is God’s counsel and there is every reason that it would share the characteristics of His character. What He does should be like Him.

First, the Bible tells us that the counsel of God is Immutable. Speaking of the great purpose he had in Christ, and the truth that this purpose could not be thwarted, The writer to Hebrews said in Hebrews 6:17-18:

17 Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, 18 that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us.

This shows exactly what we said earlier – that we are not talking about suggestions – but are talking about purposes – plans! They are unalterable because God’s character is unalterable! He doesn’t make one plan, have second thoughts and then erase that, and go for plan “B”. His plan is His plan – it is unshakeable! This is, in part why we can rest our hope on what He has promised! He and His Word are immutable.

_____________________________________________

^[1] Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Greek (New Testament) (electronic ed.) (DBLG 1087, #2). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

^[2] Thomas Nelson Publishers. (1995). Nelson's quick reference topical Bible index. Nelson's Quick reference (156). Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson Publishers.

They Have Provoked The Holy One – Part 2c

We’ve looked thus far at 11 characteristics of the counsel of God:^[1]

1. They are Great – High in status, formally great.
2. They are Wonderful – astounding, causing amazement and boggling the mind.
3. They are Immutable – they will stand forever, never to be altered.
4. They are Sovereign – they demonstrate the absolute control of God over His creation.
5. They are Eternal – they extend from now into eternity future.
6. They are Faithful and True - demonstrate God’s faithfulness and truth to His Word.
7. They Cannot Be Frustrated & Shall Be Performed – There is nothing that men can do to prevent God from Doing As He Had Decreed.
8. The Scriptures tells that even the sufferings and death of Christ were according to these counsels – Christ was crucified from before the foundation of the world.
9. Saints are called and saved according to the counsels of God – The root of salvation rests, not in the mind and will of man, but in the determination counsel of God established before time began.
10. We see that the union of all saints in Christ, is according to these same counsels of God – the relationship of believers together, as a church is rooted in these same counsels.
11. Ultimately, all of the Works of God are according to the Counsels of God – in fact, all of his works are according to these self-same counsels of God.

We’ve seen that the counsels of God are the basis for virtually all that we experience as people.  But the Bible has more to say to us that just to declare these truths.  It talks a great deal about what we are supposed, as believers, to do with those truths once we know and understand something about them.

Twelfth, the Scriptures tell us that these truths should be declared by ministers of the Gospel.  Luke, referring to his preaching, said in Ac 20:27:

27 For I have not shunned to declare to you the whole counsel of God.

“The whole counsel of God” refers to the entire plan and purpose of God for man’s salvation in all its fullness, culminating in His Son Jesus Christ: divine truths of creation, election, redemption, justification, adoption, conversion, sanctification, holy living, and glorification. Paul strongly condemned those who adulterate the truth of Scripture (2 Cor. 2:17, 2 Tim. 4:3, cf. Rev. 22:18).^<2>  He did not suppress any truths of the gospel but preached the full gospel to Jew and Gentile. He always used tact and discretion but never compromised the good news.

This is the responsibility of all ministers of the Gospel, formal ministers especially, but certainly this truth applies to all believers as we preach and teach the Gospel to all men.

Thirteenth, we are to attend to these Counsels.  God, of course, does not speak for nothing.  Nor does He speak merely for ornamentation or for the sake of effect.  He intends that men not only pay attention to what He says, but that they take action on them, obeying and implementing them in their lives.

Jeremiah 49:20 says:

²⁰ Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord that He has taken against Edom, And His purposes that He has proposed against the inhabitants of Teman…

“Hear”  specifically refers to use the perception of hearing with the ears specifically to process information ^[3].  The verb is in the imperative and thus is a command.  We MUST hear these commands, we are commanded to do so, it is a responsibility of believers to hear the commands of God and act on them.  It is not something we SHOULD do, it is something we MUST, we are OBLIGATED to do.

As in the prior verse, Jeremiah, speaking to a disobedient people, says in 50:45:

Therefore hear the counsel of the Lord that He has taken against Babylon, And His purposes that He has proposed against the land of the Chaldeans:

As in 49:20, he uses the same word, in the same form.  We are commanded to hear the counsel of the Lord, that is the advice, counsel, i.e., the act. of telling someone what they should do based on a plan or scheme ^[4]. He also uses the word “purposes” speaking of a thought, i.e., the content of reasoning and thinking ^[5].  The point being that the counsel that He has communicated is the content of the plan God has thought through and developed in His mind.

The implication of this is tremendous!  Why in the world would anyone, ANYONE wish to cast aside the plan thought through by the God of the universe?  The overwhelming truth in all of this is that this is not just a matter of authority, but also a matter of wisdom and submission.  It simply does not make any sense for men to cast aside the counsel of, the fruit of the machinations of His mind.  The rest of Bible makes clear the reason for casting that counsel aside is not because men come up with better  ideas, but because sin compels them to do so.

Fourteenth, portions of God’s counsels are secret and, like it or not, cannot and are not to be searched into.  What we mean by this is that though God has revealed much in His Word, He has not revealed all.  This is true in two regards. 

• First, we are not capable of understanding all that His mind thinks.
• Second it is not time for all of His counsels to take place.
• Third, there are surely matters that He has reserved for only He to know, He is not responsible to tell His children all things.

Deuteronomy 29:29 says:

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”

It is clear from this that God, Who is certainly capable of revealing anything that He desires to reveal, has reserved some of that information, some of that plan for Himself.  That which is revealed included the law with its promises and threats; consequently, that which is hidden only can refer to the specific way in which God will carry out His will in the future, which is revealed in His Word and completed in His great work of salvation, in spite of the apostasy of His people.^[2]

Matthew 24:36, for instance, tells us of a portion of the plan of God that is surely set in stone in all  of its aspects, but is reserved for His knowledge alone.

“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only.

Whereas the disciples wanted to know the time and date of His return, but the emphasis of the passage is not that information, but on faithfulness, watchfulness, stewardship, expectancy, and preparedness.^[2] It is important to note that this statement is true to this day.  Any attempts to know the “day of hour” even as we get closer and closer to the time of the end, are effectively stopped by it. 

Similarly, at the time of the ascension, the disciples inquired about the time of Christ’s return.  Christ’s reply in Acts 1:7 was even more direct and to the point:

And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority.

Even at this point, the apostles still believed the earthly form of the kingdom of Messiah would soon be re-established (cf. Luke 19:11; 24:21). They also knew that Ezek. 36 and Joel 2 connected the coming of the kingdom with the outpouring of the Spirit whom Jesus had promised.  But this verse shows that the apostles’ expectation of a literal, earthly kingdom mirrored what Christ taught and what the OT predicted. Otherwise, He would have corrected them about such a crucial aspect of His teaching. times or seasons. These two words refer to features, eras, and events that will be part of His earthly kingdom reign, which will begin at the second coming (Matt. 25:21–34). The exact time of His return, however, remains unrevealed.^[2]  It remains the province of God the Father and He alone.

The essence of the matter is that God has revealed information to us and we are responsible to act on that information.  But there is also information that He has reserved for His own and we are not only NOT responsible for that knowledge, but we are responsible to leave that knowledge with Him.

___________________________________________

^[1]Torrey, R. (1995, c1897). The New Topical TextBook : A scriptural text book for the use of ministers, teachers, and all Christian workers. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos research Systems, Inc.

^[2]MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Ac 20:27). Nashville: Word Pub.

^[3] Swanson, J. (1997). Dictionary of Biblical Languages with Semantic Domains : Hebrew (Old Testament) (electronic ed.) (DBLH 9048, #1). Oak Harbor: Logos Research Systems, Inc.

^{[4] [5] Ibid.}

#6 - They Have Provoked The Holy One – Part 2a

We looked at the first three of the characteristics of the Counsels of God in our last post.  God’s counsels are Great, they are Wonderful and they are immutable. 

We fourthly^[1] observe that they are Sovereign. In the midst of a discourse on the nature of God, Isaiah comments of the this aspect of God’s counsels in Isa 40:13,14:

¹³ Who has directed the Spirit of the Lord,
Or as His counselor has taught Him?
¹⁴ With whom did He take counsel, and who instructed Him,
And taught Him in the path of justice?
Who taught Him knowledge,
And showed Him the way of understanding?

After his humbling time crawling on his belly and eating grass like an animal, Nebuchadnezzar came to know about the wisdom of bowing to the counsels of the God of heaven.  In Daniel 4:35 we hear him say:

All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing;
He does according to His will in the army of heaven
And among the inhabitants of the earth.
No one can restrain His hand
Or say to Him, “What have You done?”

The control of God exercised over His creation is both an encouragement and a consolation.  Looked at from either side of an event, the truth of the sovereign hand of God is essential to a proper, Christian view of life.  From the “before” side, it can encourage us to to look at events with hope the assurance of God’s positive involvement.  From the “during” and “after” side, it can calm and reassure use that the is a controlling hand at the controls and life is not random.  This too is encouraging.

Fifthly, the Counsels are Eternal. Paul says in Ephesians 3:10-12:

^10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, ^11 according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, ^12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.

Dr. MacArthur has said:

“The supreme purpose of the church is to glorify God, which includes the displaying of His wisdom (v. 10) before the angels, who then honor Him with even greater praise.” ^[2]

If this is the supreme purpose of the Church (and it surely is) then those purposes must be eternal.  The highest purposes of God must also be the ones that He will seek to serve for the “longest” time, thus for all eternity. 

Further, sixth, the Counsels of God are proved to be faithful and true. Isaiah said in Isa 25:1:

O Lord, You are my God.
I will exalt You,
I will praise Your name,
For You have done wonderful things;
Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.

This passage begins a section in Isaiah of praise for God concerning His final judgment of the world as laid out in Chapter 24.  The praise is because God ahs planned all of His actions ahead of time, and will act in righteousness and faithfulness to His plan, to His counsel given long ago.

It is interesting that this affirmation is very personal on Isaiah’s part.  Note the use of personal pronouns and very individual nature of the application of the truth here.  This is fairly typical of the way that Isaiah responds to the revelation of God.  It is not a dry and academic truth for him, but something that seizes his mind and his emotions and propels his him forward into the midst of what God is doing.

Seventh, The counsels of God cannot be frustrated, they shall be performed.  Many of these ideas are certainly related, but it is good to consider them separately I believe.  Men seek to frustrate the plans and counsels of God by various means, what means they can think of really.  But the plans and schemes of man come to naught.  God’s counsels are sovereign and will be performed.  Isaiah said in Isaiah 14:26-27:

²⁶ This is the purpose that is purposed against the whole earth,
And this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations.
²⁷ For the Lord of hosts has purposed,
And who will annul it?
His hand is stretched out,
And who will turn it back?” .

This is obviously an rhetorical question, the implied answer being “no one!  We must note that the emphasis here is the power lies with the decree of God.  It is not that God figures out a way to make it work.  The decree is, in and of itself, unable to overcome.  It is the arrogance and sinful pride of man that leads him to set himself against it, but that does not make the decree breachable.  The possibility of it being frustrated does not have to exist in order for this statement to have meaning! 

Our free-will buddies, those who argue for a libertarian free will, that in order for the will to be truly free there must be the possibility to contravene the the final desire of God, could take a lesson from this example.

Just before that statement Isaiah had said in verse 24:

The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying,
“Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass,
And as I have purposed, so it shall stand:

The verb here is in a form that means “to swear an oath”.  It is coupled with the Name of God, “Lord of Hosts” that traditionally is associated with the might of God, His power and ability to do as He has decreed.

“As I have thought” is translated in that fashion because it is an infinitive, an active sense for the verb “to say”.  God has no verbal ability, no tongue with which to speak in the normal way in which in this verb would be used and thus the translator uses the idea of thinking or purposes in this context for God.  The idea is active, ongoing, not passive and looking backward at a finished act. 

The grammar of the phrase is a simple statement, very emphatic and thus the use of “surely.  As I am “thinking” or “saying”, so it shall be.  There is no question that what I purpose will come to pass!

Isaiah 46:11 repeats the idea:

Calling a bird of prey from the east,
The man who executes My counsel, from a far country.
Indeed I have spoken it;
I will also bring it to pass.
I have purposed it;
I will also do it.

Here God speaks more of a settled purpose, and declares that it will be accomplished – it will be done.  But the idea is the same nevertheless.  God has declared, He has purposed it – and those purposes will come to pass!

____________________________________

^[1]  Torrey, R. (1995, c1897). The New Topical TextBook : A scriptural text book for the use of ministers, teachers, and all Christian workers. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos research Systems, Inc.

^[2]  MacArthur, J. J. (1997, c1997). The MacArthur Study Bible (electronic ed.) (Eph 3:11). Nashville: Word Pub.