Dear Friends of "Dial Daily Bread,"
Are God's hands ever tied so that He cannot do what He wants to do? How could that be if He is omnipotent?
The Bible as a whole makes it quite clear that He cannot force the human will, any more than a man by brute force can make a woman love him. The Old Testament reveals how God tried every way possible to get His people Israel of old to receive the blessings He longed to give them. Jesus said to them: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!" (Matt. 23:37).
God tried every method except forcing their will: "The Lord God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people. ... But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, ... till there was no remedy" (2 Chron. 36:15, 16).
He tried sending calamities, letting them be oppressed by the Philistines, sending famines (no rain for three and a half years in the time of Elijah), the conquest of the northern kingdom by the Assyrians, and finally letting the Babylonians destroy their magnificent Temple and Jerusalem itself, and take them captive to a heathen land (vss. 17-20).
If fear is a valid motivation to produce repentance, how could fear be made more effective? Imagine walking in chains for 500 miles to Babylon, driven like cattle! Princesses and princes alike! No luxury buses.
You may say, "It worked! After those disasters and 70 years of captivity in a pagan land, they never again worshipped idols! God finally found the right method." Yes, that's a mark in favor of using the fear motivation.
But did it truly reconcile Israel to God? After they came back and rebuilt the city and the Second Temple, what did they do? Matthew 26, 27 tells us: they crucified their Messiah. The old covenant had finally run its full course.
Now, can we learn, and find room for the new covenant?
--Robert J. Wieland
From the "Dial Daily Bread" Archive: May 9, 2001.
Copyright © 2014 by "Dial Daily Bread."
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