God in the Ways of Man
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- We must put a difference between what is revealed to our understanding (what is in our ways) and those things which are hidden from our understanding, secret, and solely understood by God (in His ways). “The secret things belong to the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deut. 29:29). We are sinful creatures created by an exalted and hidden Creator Who dwells in an unapproachable and lofty arena called heaven: The “high and holy place.” If God will speak, then His words bear this title, “Thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, Whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place” (Isa. 57:15). With such a title and Person we should be sharply aware of our low, vile, and unholy person and passions; therefore when He speaks we would be “of a contrite and humble spirit” (Isa. 57:15). There should be a keeping of ourselves before this God, a slowness to speak or think, and a readiness to hear. Why? “For God is in heaven” and we are “upon earth” (Eccl. 5:1-2). As it is written, "Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few" (Ecclesiastes 5:1-2).
“Our Father which art in heaven…come…in earth…as it is in heaven” – Matthew 6:9-10
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If He would speak and relate to us, then it would be by an infinite condescension! In Isaiah 57:15 God reveals this condescension. God is in heaven, a place of infinite height, holiness, and loft. We are on earth, a place infinitely beneath, below, and unholy. God does inhabit eternity, timelessly and terribly filling all things with Himself, and yet we are a single vessel of perishable clay in a single space of matter and time. Even under the degeneration and deterioration of time we cannot stay standing. As the earth rotates and time passes, we cannot but wither, wrinkle, and waste away. And lo! It is an infinite condescension for God to come and dwell upon this revolving earth with men. It is condescension because of the place from which He comes – namely heaven! Heaven bestows upon Him endless honors and adorations as it and all its inhabitants therein are exercised by the impossible powers that pour forth from the Being of this Person. Billows of endless and sweeping glory rouse heaven’s creatures to gasping explosions of ecstatic wonder. What an unimaginable humbling and dishonor it is for Him to dwell upon the devil’s earth (2 Cor. 4:4). If this God finds you worthy, if He chooses you as an earthen vessel to dwell in, then your soul will be likewise exercised by heaven’s King! You too will be overwhelmed into an ejaculatory joining with heaven’s choir. By understanding where He is from and who you are, you may become this humble one. As He saith, “I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones” (Isa. 57:15). God is high, so high, but let the world wonder that He would come here below, so low, that He would dwell with you and me. “Though the LORD be high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly: but the proud He knoweth afar off” (Ps. 138:6). Now if He comes to you and is still yet hidden from this world, if they pay no attention to Him still, this coming down to the earth is a great humbling of God and condescension to man.
Hallowed is the place of His dwelling in heaven. When God shows man how High and hallowed He is, when He shows us the place of His dwelling in heaven, it ought to bring our minds to the low place of blind obedience. He dwells in heaven! Well then, what can be said of His works on earth? Up there is a language, life, learning, and location we know nothing of. It is HOLY. His works below are therefore mind-shattering in greatness! He does gather “the winds in His fists,” bind “the waters in a garment,” and establish “all the ends of the earth” (Prov. 30:3-6). These works declare an incomparable wisdom and knowledge in God. Therefore men, mere earth-inhabiters, should have a boundless awe of the wisdom and knowledge of a God Who doth infinitely stride in secret wonders. Ascending to heaven and descending to earth, it is God that worketh all things for His glory and Name which are unknowable, unbearable, and eternally significant. If we cannot tell or teach ourselves these things, nor find out the ways in God, then we ought to be teachable, believing, and obeying! When He speaks and teaches therefore, “add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar” (Prov. 30:3-6). This is the humble confession we need to believe: "I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy. Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? Who hath gathered the wind in His fists? Who hath bound the waters in a garment? Who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, if thou canst tell? Every word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar" (Proverbs 30:3-6).
Hallowed is the place of His dwelling in heaven. When God shows man how High and hallowed He is, when He shows us the place of His dwelling in heaven, it ought to bring our minds to the low place of blind obedience. He dwells in heaven! Well then, what can be said of His works on earth? Up there is a language, life, learning, and location we know nothing of. It is HOLY. His works below are therefore mind-shattering in greatness! He does gather “the winds in His fists,” bind “the waters in a garment,” and establish “all the ends of the earth” (Prov. 30:3-6). These works declare an incomparable wisdom and knowledge in God. Therefore men, mere earth-inhabiters, should have a boundless awe of the wisdom and knowledge of a God Who doth infinitely stride in secret wonders. Ascending to heaven and descending to earth, it is God that worketh all things for His glory and Name which are unknowable, unbearable, and eternally significant. If we cannot tell or teach ourselves these things, nor find out the ways in God, then we ought to be teachable, believing, and obeying! When He speaks and teaches therefore, “add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar” (Prov. 30:3-6). This is the humble confession we need to believe: "I neither learned wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the holy. Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? Who hath gathered the wind in His fists? Who hath bound the waters in a garment? Who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is His name, and what is His Son’s name, if thou canst tell? Every word of God is pure: He is a shield unto them that put their trust in Him. Add thou not unto His words, lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar" (Proverbs 30:3-6).
“Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; and His greatness is unsearchable” – Ps. 145:3
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What does God want us to understand? “God is greater than man” (Job 33:12-13) and therefore He “giveth NOT account of any of His matters” to man (Job. 33:12-13). If you think that you have found something to strive with God about, “Behold, IN THIS THOU ART NOT JUST: I will answer thee, that God is greater than man. Why dost thou strive against Him? For He giveth not account of any of His matters" (Job 33:12-13). “Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth” but let not the potsherd strive with the Potter (Isa. 45:9). God is an incomprehensible Person dwelling in an incomprehensible place; likewise are all His matters. There is a realm of things which God says is “secret” (Deut. 29:29). I will forewarn you of a danger, of error you may commit: The wonder of the Trinity and that God is an uncreated mystery; most are not offended with these two things. They say, “Amen,” even though they don’t understand it. Men are humbled that He is three and one, content that we cannot understand how there was never a time when He had a beginning. Why? HE IS GOD. Now listen! As soon as an Armenian sees God making a judgment they can’t understand, they contend with Him about it. As soon as a Calvinist sees God in a way that is inconsistent with His sovereignty, they have a problem with it. Oh that you would silence your biases and break before HIS HAMMER (Jer. 23:29).
God is incomparable to the greatest nobility or majesty on earth and therefore is worthy of the highest degree of respect that HE is “right” and “most just.” We are earth-dwelling creatures of His creation, even “the work of His hands.” He gave you a mouth to praise Him and a mind to be overwhelmed with a holy perplexity and awful wonder. Now consider this! "Shall even he that hateth right govern? And wilt thou condemn Him that is most just? Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art wicked? And to princes, Ye are ungodly? How much less to Him that accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor? For they all are the work of His hands" (Job 34:17-19). "Behold, God exalteth by His power: who teacheth like Him? Who hath enjoined Him His way? Or who can say, Thou hast wrought iniquity? Remember that thou magnify His work, which men behold. Every man may see it; man may behold it afar off. Behold, God is great, and we know Him not, neither can the number of His years be searched out" (Job 36:22-26). He uses flying angels to declare the day of His judgment! He is the Creator that “made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters” (Rev. 14:6-7); therefore when you read what He writes, even the journals, biology, physiology, and psychology of God – “FEAR GOD and GIVE GLORY to HIM” (Rev. 14:6-7). “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters” (Rev. 14:6-7).
No man “hath enjoined Him His way,” and “we know Him not” (Job 33:22-26). “His ways are everlasting” (Hab. 3:6) and “we cannot find Him out” (Job 37:23). “There is no searching of His understanding” (Isa. 40:28). He is Almighty God; "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being His counsellor hath taught Him? With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and shewed to Him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, He taketh up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto Him" (Isa. 40:12-18)? He has “measured” the humanly immeasurable, “comprehended” the numbers of the earth that are humanly innumerable, His balances and scales are precisely perfect expanding in universal length and accuracy, and all this immeasurable immensity is caught up in the hollow of His hand.
My dear reader, God is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. These three characteristics are solely His. But Oh! God does lay aside all three of these glories to relate to men in the ways of men. There is a way that is God’s – omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience – and yet there is another way in which God does relate to men - God in the ways of man. If it were not so, we could not survive His presence and power. We would not understand His will, word, or work. Oh my reader, oh that you would understand this great condescension! You would be as I am now, powerless, perplexed, and full of praise! Bless His Holy Name! Consider Abraham.
God is incomparable to the greatest nobility or majesty on earth and therefore is worthy of the highest degree of respect that HE is “right” and “most just.” We are earth-dwelling creatures of His creation, even “the work of His hands.” He gave you a mouth to praise Him and a mind to be overwhelmed with a holy perplexity and awful wonder. Now consider this! "Shall even he that hateth right govern? And wilt thou condemn Him that is most just? Is it fit to say to a king, Thou art wicked? And to princes, Ye are ungodly? How much less to Him that accepteth not the persons of princes, nor regardeth the rich more than the poor? For they all are the work of His hands" (Job 34:17-19). "Behold, God exalteth by His power: who teacheth like Him? Who hath enjoined Him His way? Or who can say, Thou hast wrought iniquity? Remember that thou magnify His work, which men behold. Every man may see it; man may behold it afar off. Behold, God is great, and we know Him not, neither can the number of His years be searched out" (Job 36:22-26). He uses flying angels to declare the day of His judgment! He is the Creator that “made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters” (Rev. 14:6-7); therefore when you read what He writes, even the journals, biology, physiology, and psychology of God – “FEAR GOD and GIVE GLORY to HIM” (Rev. 14:6-7). “And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters” (Rev. 14:6-7).
No man “hath enjoined Him His way,” and “we know Him not” (Job 33:22-26). “His ways are everlasting” (Hab. 3:6) and “we cannot find Him out” (Job 37:23). “There is no searching of His understanding” (Isa. 40:28). He is Almighty God; "Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being His counsellor hath taught Him? With whom took He counsel, and who instructed Him, and taught Him in the path of judgment, and taught Him knowledge, and shewed to Him the way of understanding? Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, He taketh up the isles as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering. All nations before Him are as nothing; and they are counted to Him less than nothing, and vanity. To whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will ye compare unto Him" (Isa. 40:12-18)? He has “measured” the humanly immeasurable, “comprehended” the numbers of the earth that are humanly innumerable, His balances and scales are precisely perfect expanding in universal length and accuracy, and all this immeasurable immensity is caught up in the hollow of His hand.
My dear reader, God is omnipresent, omnipotent, and omniscient. These three characteristics are solely His. But Oh! God does lay aside all three of these glories to relate to men in the ways of men. There is a way that is God’s – omnipresence, omnipotence, and omniscience – and yet there is another way in which God does relate to men - God in the ways of man. If it were not so, we could not survive His presence and power. We would not understand His will, word, or work. Oh my reader, oh that you would understand this great condescension! You would be as I am now, powerless, perplexed, and full of praise! Bless His Holy Name! Consider Abraham.
Abraham discoursed with God about the justice of His judgments under an infinite condescension. When doing so, he did wisely and fearfully understand himself to be unworthy for such a conversation, and more so, unworthy to even speak a word if ever he was given a glimmering secret of what God was about to do. His inquiries and answers back to God were not without trembling of soul, not without deep and loathsome reflections of his own demeaning presence and clay-tongued speech as such a matter of discussion did light upon him from God. Can dust and ashes understand the justice and judgment of an eternal, uncreated, timeless, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, and almighty God? Loathing himself as Isaiah did while in the presence of God’s enthroned presence (Isa. 6), he did present the humble inquiry, “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right” (Gen. 18:25)? There is a righteousness at work active in the Person of God that is comprehensible to man, and yet if our ash-like comprehension does climb the angelic ladder of His higher revelations, it will be sin to think that we could even understand God’s righteousness, justice, and judgment. We must learn the wonder of this question that Abraham was able to righteously ask, a question that would have been forbidden to speak in heaven (Rom. 9:20).
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“who art thou that repliest against God?” – Rom. 9:20 “shall I answer Him” – Job 9:14 “What doest Thou?” – Eccl. 8:4 “What doest Thou?” – Job 9:12 “What doest Thou?” – Daniel 4:35 “What makest Thou?” – Isa. 45:9 “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” – Gen. 18:25 “Is there unrighteousness with God?” – Rom. 9:14 “Who hath enjoined Him His way? Or who can say, Thou hast wrought iniquity?” – Job 36:23 |
Isaiah 55:9
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”
To be humble, one must look up, see, and find out – how high are the heavens above the earth? "Look unto the heavens, and see; and behold the clouds which are higher than thou" (Job 35:5). Until we see this, we cannot understand the mystery of God’s condescension. God came down to Abraham! Consider all the matters of God’s condescension. God came down and did eat and drink man’s food and water! Solomon wondered at the prospect of God coming down to men, saying, “But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain Thee; how much less this house which I have built” (2 Chron. 6:18)! God is infinite in space, unlimited in all characteristics, and yet, though the heaven of heavens cannot contain Him, He that hath no limit, will God indeed limit Himself to a single location and dwell there? Yet even more so, would God eat man’s food? He allowed Abraham a little service with “a little water,” to run and bow before Him, and then Abraham “hastened into the tent unto Sarah” to “make ready quickly three measures of fine meal.” Abraham “ran into the herd” and fetched a calf for a young man to hastily dress (Gen. 18:2-7). Abraham had this supreme privilege, and “he stood by them under the tree, and they did eat” (Gen. 18:8). Is this not the context of an infinite condescension? Is God in any need of water for His feet, rest for His body, and meat for His hunger? God, “Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; Whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to Whom be honour and power everlasting,” EVEN HE did say: “I will take no bullock out of thy house, nor he goats out of thy folds. For every beast of the forest is Mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are Mine. If I were hungry, I would not tell thee, for the world is Mine, and the fulness thereof. Will I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink the blood of goats” (Psalm 50:9-13)?
Can Abraham wash the feet of God? “Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned” (Prov. 6:27-28)? Then how could one reach forth and touch the feet of God which are “like unto fine brass as if they burned in a furnace” (Rev. 1:15)? A man cannot even touch the ark of God and live…how more the feet of God!? While the apostle John was in heaven in the presence of God, did he ever dare approach God and think to do Him some kindness by washing His feet, which from everlasting are clean? How did Abraham put forth his hand to touch the feet of God as “Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God” (2 Sam. 6:6)? As the oxen shook the cart and Uzzah saw a need, the feet of God were dirty and Abraham did reach forth and wash them. How? Is this not an infinite condescension? To be in the presence of God’s ark was a dangerous thing; nevertheless men were able to keep standing. Howbeit when men enter into the presence of God, a place where they may behold His burning feet of bronze, there they will fall down as dead. On the plane of earth, a lower ground, the few and privileged did know the hallowed feeling as they drew near to a condescended Creator. God does hide His glory, for our safety, that He might tenderly draw near in a diminished form and visage compatible to our weak and feeble frames. This Preferred King condescends to make servants of men, stepping down in an earthly gown He allows Abraham to wash His feet. Even God, “Whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose” (John 1:27).
Can Abraham wash the feet of God? “Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned” (Prov. 6:27-28)? Then how could one reach forth and touch the feet of God which are “like unto fine brass as if they burned in a furnace” (Rev. 1:15)? A man cannot even touch the ark of God and live…how more the feet of God!? While the apostle John was in heaven in the presence of God, did he ever dare approach God and think to do Him some kindness by washing His feet, which from everlasting are clean? How did Abraham put forth his hand to touch the feet of God as “Uzzah put forth his hand to the ark of God” (2 Sam. 6:6)? As the oxen shook the cart and Uzzah saw a need, the feet of God were dirty and Abraham did reach forth and wash them. How? Is this not an infinite condescension? To be in the presence of God’s ark was a dangerous thing; nevertheless men were able to keep standing. Howbeit when men enter into the presence of God, a place where they may behold His burning feet of bronze, there they will fall down as dead. On the plane of earth, a lower ground, the few and privileged did know the hallowed feeling as they drew near to a condescended Creator. God does hide His glory, for our safety, that He might tenderly draw near in a diminished form and visage compatible to our weak and feeble frames. This Preferred King condescends to make servants of men, stepping down in an earthly gown He allows Abraham to wash His feet. Even God, “Whose shoe’s latchet I am not worthy to unloose” (John 1:27).
God is Omnipresent
Can God indeed be limited to a single place, so humbling Himself as to lay aside His omnipresence? God “dwelleth on high!” God “humbleth Himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and the earth,” but will He come and visit the earth in a limited space of time to walk in a certain place? This is an awesome wonder, for no one “is like unto the LORD our God, Who dwelleth on high” (Psalm 113:5-6). "What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest him" (Psalm 8:4)? Will God limit Himself not only to a single place, but a certain frame of limited energy that man might rightly say to Him as He stands with a company of angels, “rest yourselves under the tree” (Gen. 18:4)? Does God need rest? "Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool: where is the house that ye build unto Me? and where is the place of My rest" (Isaiah 66:1)? It is written, “Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep” (Psalm 121:4)! "Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of His understanding" (Isaiah 40:28). What is time to God? Men are so weak, finite, and insignificant; we cannot even sit under the Sun and live. We will dehydrate, burn, blister, break into a fever, and die. “What is man?” And again, what is time? Time is merely the rotation of the earth. Men are so insignificant that we will wither, sag, waste, bruise, break down, and age while simply undergoing the rotations of the earth. Old men are so wasted under the effect of time – sagged, hunched, hurting, and disproportioned – they have become an unrecognizable creature from the man they once were just some thousands of rotations ago. And God! God wants to meet with you before your skin melts like wax under time and gravity. Surely it is right for us to understand that this is an infinite condescensio
"And he said, I beseech Thee, shew me thy glory. And He said, I will make all My goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy. And He said, Thou canst not see My face: for there shall no man see Me, and live. And the LORD said, Behold, there is a place by Me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock: And it shall come to pass, while My glory passeth by, that I will put thee in a clift of the rock, and will cover thee with My hand while I pass by: And I will take away Mine hand, and thou shalt see My back parts: but My face shall not be seen." (Exodus 33:18-23)
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When heaven invades earth and God fulfills the prayer, “Thy Kingdom Come,” the proudest men of the earth will flee. Having nowhere to go, they will cry out, “Hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the Throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb” (Rev. 6:16). This is the fulfillment of what is written, “And I saw a GREAT WHITE THRONE, and Him that sat on it, from Whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them” (Rev. 20:11). Yet can it be?! Can it be that Abraham did look upon the face of God without burning up? Consider the shining sun that makes the day. No man is so bold, so unflinching and straight-faced, to look upon the sun. The stoutest men will hide their eyes from its shining strength. If ever there is a man so proud to lock eyes upon this earthly light, then those around him of the meeker sort will find a helpless blind man left to their care. This arrogant man now humbled, he would never leave the proud ground from which he stood when he opposed the burning, earthly sun except by the care of those meek men who “led him by the hand” (Acts 9:8). Is this light of any earthly significance? Even it can humble the sons of pride, but lo, how much more the face of Almighty God? Can you believe it? “If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things” (John 3:12)?
How much more the face of God, even His countenance which is “as the sun shineth in his strength” (Rev. 1:16)? The face of God is the chief glory of God; not even Moses could see His face and live! God said, “Thou canst not see My face: for there shall no man see Me, and live” (Ex. 33:18-23). God passed by Moses and Moses could scarcely survive it. Even to pass by the poor man Moses he had to hide in the “clift of the rock!” Not even the rock was enough to withhold the dangerous presence of God’s glory passing by. Do you think it was like a gentle breeze and soft whispers? “And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice” (1 Kings 19:11-12). Not even the rock of unmovable mountains can stay still or intact. They will fracture and quake at the impact of God’s holy presence. They cannot hold together when God passes by, nor could they, save God strengthens the rock with the shield of His hand. God covered the opening behind Moses as he hid in the clift because only the hand of God can safely shield and reflect the majesty of God’s passing glory. Only after He was passed by, it was then that God said, “I will take away Mine hand, and thou shalt see My back parts: but My face shall not be seen” (Ex. 33:18-23). This was the time when His “glory passeth by!” Moses had to run away and take cover from God as He passed by, but Abraham ran to God and requested that He passed him not by. How can this be? “He ran to meet them from the tent door” and said, “pass not away I pray Thee from Thy servant” (Gen. 18:2-3). It is an infinite condescension. Even the mountains run away from God. Even they are “ailed” at His approaching! Mindless, sightless, and senseless, inanimate mountains are more humble than earthly princes: They stand up, skip, and flee for safety from their Maker Who dwells in a whirlwind of impossibility (Psalm 114:3-7).
How much more the face of God, even His countenance which is “as the sun shineth in his strength” (Rev. 1:16)? The face of God is the chief glory of God; not even Moses could see His face and live! God said, “Thou canst not see My face: for there shall no man see Me, and live” (Ex. 33:18-23). God passed by Moses and Moses could scarcely survive it. Even to pass by the poor man Moses he had to hide in the “clift of the rock!” Not even the rock was enough to withhold the dangerous presence of God’s glory passing by. Do you think it was like a gentle breeze and soft whispers? “And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake: and after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice” (1 Kings 19:11-12). Not even the rock of unmovable mountains can stay still or intact. They will fracture and quake at the impact of God’s holy presence. They cannot hold together when God passes by, nor could they, save God strengthens the rock with the shield of His hand. God covered the opening behind Moses as he hid in the clift because only the hand of God can safely shield and reflect the majesty of God’s passing glory. Only after He was passed by, it was then that God said, “I will take away Mine hand, and thou shalt see My back parts: but My face shall not be seen” (Ex. 33:18-23). This was the time when His “glory passeth by!” Moses had to run away and take cover from God as He passed by, but Abraham ran to God and requested that He passed him not by. How can this be? “He ran to meet them from the tent door” and said, “pass not away I pray Thee from Thy servant” (Gen. 18:2-3). It is an infinite condescension. Even the mountains run away from God. Even they are “ailed” at His approaching! Mindless, sightless, and senseless, inanimate mountains are more humble than earthly princes: They stand up, skip, and flee for safety from their Maker Who dwells in a whirlwind of impossibility (Psalm 114:3-7).
God is Omnipotent
God must lay aside His omnipotence to speak and relate to creatures of insignificance. Nothing living can bear the power of the GREAT I AM. He always was and is; “and the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). By His breath we breathe – He is THE LIFE – but when He arises like the sun over this cursed earth and the brightness of His burning glory approaches, all creatures will obey the command given of old; “Enter into the rock, and hide thee in the dust, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of His majesty. The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the LORD of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low” (Isa. 2:10-12). As Moses fled for cover, even so, this great company of sinners – “the kings of the earth and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man” – they shall “go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of His majesty, when He ariseth to shake terribly the earth.” Therefore God says, “Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils: for wherein is he to be accounted of” (Isa. 2:21-22)? If the Lord comes down to earth without any condescension, every exalted earthly power or majesty will scramble like roaches for cover. As worms flee to their holes and moles into the dust, even so the men of high degree will scramble and flee, crawling on their hands and knees, diving into the place of their accounted glory: the company of worms and the coverings of dust. “Wherein is he to be accounted of?” Behold, the mighty men of the world will finally see! They will happily agree with God that they are worms, and they will earnestly hope the LORD would leave them in their holes. Nevertheless, “they shall move out of their holes.” “The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf. They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of Thee” (Micah 7:16-17).
He that “sitteth upon the circle of the earth” sat down before Abraham (Isa. 40:21-23). The earth was His footstool and yet His feet are now grasped by the tiny hands of Abraham (Isa. 66:1). “He stood, and measured the earth: He beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow” – this is the strength and glory of God! In this way everlasting He is, Godlike in every way, unchanging and limitless, eternal and strong, omnipotent, omniscient, holy, and never wrong; “His ways are everlasting” (Habakkuk 3:6). Yet now, lo, God sits before Abraham, stands in his company, beholds the humble dwelling of an earthly tent, and walks among His creature being comforted by Abraham’s manufactured structures which are grasshopper-like and meager. Abraham stretches out animal skins or woven hairs spun by needle working men; in them he is housing God and comforting Him within, but God, behold, He “stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in!” "Have ye not known? Have ye not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: That bringeth the princes to nothing; He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity" (Isaiah 40:21-23). Can vanity verily serve God? All things are possible with God. Do you see that God must lay aside omnipotence and omnipresence to employ earthly servitude?
He that “sitteth upon the circle of the earth” sat down before Abraham (Isa. 40:21-23). The earth was His footstool and yet His feet are now grasped by the tiny hands of Abraham (Isa. 66:1). “He stood, and measured the earth: He beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow” – this is the strength and glory of God! In this way everlasting He is, Godlike in every way, unchanging and limitless, eternal and strong, omnipotent, omniscient, holy, and never wrong; “His ways are everlasting” (Habakkuk 3:6). Yet now, lo, God sits before Abraham, stands in his company, beholds the humble dwelling of an earthly tent, and walks among His creature being comforted by Abraham’s manufactured structures which are grasshopper-like and meager. Abraham stretches out animal skins or woven hairs spun by needle working men; in them he is housing God and comforting Him within, but God, behold, He “stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in!” "Have ye not known? Have ye not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: That bringeth the princes to nothing; He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity" (Isaiah 40:21-23). Can vanity verily serve God? All things are possible with God. Do you see that God must lay aside omnipotence and omnipresence to employ earthly servitude?
Isaiah 55:9
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” |
We have seen something of the ways of God, but what about the thoughts of God? God is omnipresent; however, He reveals Himself most often in a relational way to man from one localized place. In this localized place, He does what man is limited to do. God is everywhere and in every place, thus for Him to walk from one place to the other is not possible, for He is in all places. In Genesis 3:8-9, God is walking in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve sinned. They heard the noise of Him and hid themselves, and God said, “Where art thou?” “And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou” (Gen. 3:8-9)? God was confined to one place walking in Eden. This is not very startling, but what is more notable is that God not only was in one localized position, but the knowledge that He related to Adam with was as if He did not know where they were. This knowledge was as if God was subject to His location and His knowledge was limited to His observation from that single position. This is as if He was limited to the five sensory observations which are in man as He walked in the garden. In the ways of man, He related to the man Adam. He knew where Adam was already, but He wanted to have a relationship in the ways of man.
Likewise to the Edenic scene God said, “Where is Abel thy brother?” But He knew already, seeing his “blood crieth unto” Him “from the ground.” He asked the question in a spectrum of relationship necessary to condescend to man. “And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper? And He said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground” (Gen. 4:9-10). This condescension can be clearly seen simply by a localized voice, for the Lord could speak with an innumerable number of voices from His innumerable Presences that are everywhere! Then His voice would be like the rolling thunder in strength, “as many waters,” and men would not be able to endure such a terror, let alone converse with Him in such a glory (Revelation 1:15). A simple reading of scripture is edifying and illuminating without considering all these things. It does not have to be understood in each passage how the Lord condescends from His ways to our ways. However, given the passage and subject of study, it will become increasingly relevant to understand this condescension and two spectrums of relationship.
Judge then who is speaking in this verse: man or God? “I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto Me; and if not, I will know.” In Genesis 18:20-21, God spoke to Abraham as if He did not know the sins that have been committed in Sodom and Gomorrah and He had to go down into the city and see it for Himself to know for sure, like He said, if “the cry” is accurate to what is actually there. All of this is as if He is not already in the city! “And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto Me; and if not, I will know” (Gen. 18:20-21). Abraham is aware that God already knows about the sin in Sodom and Gomorrah, but the emphasis left to us is the gravity of when God visits. He is establishing a relationship with us based upon our limitations, and He desires that we remember the magnitude of what is happening when He visits or does draw near!
Likewise to the Edenic scene God said, “Where is Abel thy brother?” But He knew already, seeing his “blood crieth unto” Him “from the ground.” He asked the question in a spectrum of relationship necessary to condescend to man. “And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper? And He said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground” (Gen. 4:9-10). This condescension can be clearly seen simply by a localized voice, for the Lord could speak with an innumerable number of voices from His innumerable Presences that are everywhere! Then His voice would be like the rolling thunder in strength, “as many waters,” and men would not be able to endure such a terror, let alone converse with Him in such a glory (Revelation 1:15). A simple reading of scripture is edifying and illuminating without considering all these things. It does not have to be understood in each passage how the Lord condescends from His ways to our ways. However, given the passage and subject of study, it will become increasingly relevant to understand this condescension and two spectrums of relationship.
Judge then who is speaking in this verse: man or God? “I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto Me; and if not, I will know.” In Genesis 18:20-21, God spoke to Abraham as if He did not know the sins that have been committed in Sodom and Gomorrah and He had to go down into the city and see it for Himself to know for sure, like He said, if “the cry” is accurate to what is actually there. All of this is as if He is not already in the city! “And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto Me; and if not, I will know” (Gen. 18:20-21). Abraham is aware that God already knows about the sin in Sodom and Gomorrah, but the emphasis left to us is the gravity of when God visits. He is establishing a relationship with us based upon our limitations, and He desires that we remember the magnitude of what is happening when He visits or does draw near!
God is Omniscient
God is omniscient. Would God ever need to scan a city with His eyes, walk the length of it to observe the sin, or search the Garden of Eden by walking the whole terrain as to find His hiding humans, Adam and Eve? The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, Adam and Eve, or any other sin committed throughout all time…was it hidden from His observance? Would God ever need to be restricted to one radius of sight so that all other things cannot be seen by Him, and, if He were searching for something, would He need to look here and there, to and fro, as a man would do when he turns his head and moves his eyes? A man existing in one place surely would, but God is in all places and sees all things. Nevertheless, it is written in 2 Chronicles 16:9, “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him.” Here, it is as if the eyes of the Lord are confined in one place at one single time. And again in Psalm 33:13-14, “The LORD looketh from heaven; He beholdeth all the sons of men. From the place of His habitation He looketh upon all the inhabitants of the earth.”
Even though the scriptures speak this way, we still do know that His eyes are not restricted to one place, that they are in every place, as it is written in Proverbs 15:3: “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” Nothing is hidden from His sight, as it is written in Hebrews 4:13: “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do.” He sees not as man sees, but He can look into the heart, as it is written in Psalm 44:21: “Shall not God search this out? for He knoweth the secrets of the heart.” And again in Proverbs 15:11: “Hell and destruction are before the LORD: how much more then the hearts of the children of men?” God’s omnipresence is a way of His Highness, and it should humiliate humans in the lower world, for in it we can see a great amplification of the Lord’s omnipotence and omniscience. David scribed this wonder well when he wrote Psalm 139:1-10:
Even though the scriptures speak this way, we still do know that His eyes are not restricted to one place, that they are in every place, as it is written in Proverbs 15:3: “The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.” Nothing is hidden from His sight, as it is written in Hebrews 4:13: “Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of Him with Whom we have to do.” He sees not as man sees, but He can look into the heart, as it is written in Psalm 44:21: “Shall not God search this out? for He knoweth the secrets of the heart.” And again in Proverbs 15:11: “Hell and destruction are before the LORD: how much more then the hearts of the children of men?” God’s omnipresence is a way of His Highness, and it should humiliate humans in the lower world, for in it we can see a great amplification of the Lord’s omnipotence and omniscience. David scribed this wonder well when he wrote Psalm 139:1-10:
“To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. O LORD, Thou hast searched me, and known me. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it. Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; Even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand shall hold me.”
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Can you see how David describes God as a Being infinitely and wonderfully beyond human comprehension? Even so, dear reader, an unknowable God makes Himself knowable by a condescension in the ways of man. Thus, we understand what it means for God to look “to and fro” for a man who has a perfect heart, and why? Well, when we read this text, then the emotion that we have experienced when we looked for someone or something of value is aroused in our minds, and we understand that this is the heart of God on this matter. Our ways in those cases when we look for something precious, this is used by God to communicate His heart and mind toward us even though He does not have to look for anything. So also, when God’s eyes are upon you, it is to communicate a special sense that He is with you, though His eyes and presence are everywhere. Do you see how this language of God in the ways of man does communicate a very special message, a message which we could not otherwise understand? You see, we know the safety, comfort, and strength of faithful companions like a friend, wife, or fellow soldier. Their eyes are upon you for friendship, intimacy, and protection, but how much more is communicated to us when God speaks of His relational connection with us in such understandable terms as this – that His eyes are upon you. This communicates well, by language of a condescension in the ways of man, that God cares – even a care and devotion that “will guard your hearts in Christ Jesus” (Php. 4), that is, when you believe the “too wonderful” (Ps. 139) realities of God never leaving you nor forsaking you, ever-hearing you, even “from His holy heaven with the saving strength of His right hand” (Ps. 20:6)!
Peradventure, while Abraham and God communed one with another on that green hill overlooking the plains, and then, a crumb of secret judgment fell from the table of heaven so that Abraham caught a glimmer of what was about to happen to Sodom and Gomorrah, and what awful amazement is this that God did allow Abraham to reply to God a little – even to ask that fearful, otherwise forbidden question – “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right” (Gen. 18:25)? If God did not come down but rather Abraham went up to the lofty, holy, clean, and eternal abode of heaven, “the high and holy place” (Isa. 57:15), the place where the higher ways of God orchestrate all the happenings of men (Job 1:6-12), then it would have been sin for Abraham to speak to God like he did when God was on earth.
From heaven God does look to earth, and do you see the amazement?! God comes to the earth and visits men behind the veil of condescension! Hear ye His own declaration: “Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool: where is the House that ye build unto Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things hath Mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word” (Isa. 66:1-2). However, if a man was brought up to God to catch a glimpse of all those high wonders “before the LORD” (Job 1:6-12) in His eternal abode, of which, if a man was translated to see and hear – those things which he would see, who can bear to hear!? Like “such an one caught up into the third heaven,” “caught up into paradise,” there in this place, what would be heard is “unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter” (2 Cor. 12:2, 4). In this place, “the high and holy place,” the apostle John fell down as a dead man before God. Without strength, without words, without fleshly life or boldness to converse with the Almighty, it is there he was as a dead man. The closest he ever came to the I AM, “The Life” (John 14:6), the Wellspring of Life Eternal, it is then that he was shocked “at His feet as dead” (Rev. 1:17). The Life of God is a deadly energy of lightning, strikingly awful for everything living, prostrating all in a paralysis of praise “as dead.”
When confronted by the potent and Brilliant Life of God, then the dust settles down, is without strength, and is dead. In our clayish creations, we may surmise a proud ascent to the heavens. We may be so infatuated with ourselves that we would build upon or trust our own logical and self-defined justice, and so, repeat that ancient apostate cry, “Let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name” (Gen. 11:4). I denounce this cry! Nay! There is no Name but His which reacheth to the heavens, and when His justice drops down, we will all be confounded, humbled, and broken under His heavenly language of justice and truth. My reader, do you want to be “as gods,” at the height of the heavens, knowing justice and judgment, “good and evil” with the same sophisticated stature as God (Gen. 3:5)? If you listen to the voice of the devil you will share his fate, “for thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit” (Isa. 14:13-14).
Peradventure, while Abraham and God communed one with another on that green hill overlooking the plains, and then, a crumb of secret judgment fell from the table of heaven so that Abraham caught a glimmer of what was about to happen to Sodom and Gomorrah, and what awful amazement is this that God did allow Abraham to reply to God a little – even to ask that fearful, otherwise forbidden question – “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right” (Gen. 18:25)? If God did not come down but rather Abraham went up to the lofty, holy, clean, and eternal abode of heaven, “the high and holy place” (Isa. 57:15), the place where the higher ways of God orchestrate all the happenings of men (Job 1:6-12), then it would have been sin for Abraham to speak to God like he did when God was on earth.
From heaven God does look to earth, and do you see the amazement?! God comes to the earth and visits men behind the veil of condescension! Hear ye His own declaration: “Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool: where is the House that ye build unto Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things hath Mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at My word” (Isa. 66:1-2). However, if a man was brought up to God to catch a glimpse of all those high wonders “before the LORD” (Job 1:6-12) in His eternal abode, of which, if a man was translated to see and hear – those things which he would see, who can bear to hear!? Like “such an one caught up into the third heaven,” “caught up into paradise,” there in this place, what would be heard is “unspeakable words which it is not lawful for a man to utter” (2 Cor. 12:2, 4). In this place, “the high and holy place,” the apostle John fell down as a dead man before God. Without strength, without words, without fleshly life or boldness to converse with the Almighty, it is there he was as a dead man. The closest he ever came to the I AM, “The Life” (John 14:6), the Wellspring of Life Eternal, it is then that he was shocked “at His feet as dead” (Rev. 1:17). The Life of God is a deadly energy of lightning, strikingly awful for everything living, prostrating all in a paralysis of praise “as dead.”
When confronted by the potent and Brilliant Life of God, then the dust settles down, is without strength, and is dead. In our clayish creations, we may surmise a proud ascent to the heavens. We may be so infatuated with ourselves that we would build upon or trust our own logical and self-defined justice, and so, repeat that ancient apostate cry, “Let us build us a city and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name” (Gen. 11:4). I denounce this cry! Nay! There is no Name but His which reacheth to the heavens, and when His justice drops down, we will all be confounded, humbled, and broken under His heavenly language of justice and truth. My reader, do you want to be “as gods,” at the height of the heavens, knowing justice and judgment, “good and evil” with the same sophisticated stature as God (Gen. 3:5)? If you listen to the voice of the devil you will share his fate, “for thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit” (Isa. 14:13-14).
"Look unto the heavens, and see;
And behold the clouds which are higher than thou.” – Job 35:5 |
If ever you are “caught up” there where Elijah could not take himself, if ever you appear before this great God wherein is the place of His Kingdom, you will not understand the riding of His heavenly cavalry which gallops in flames of fire, nor their mysterious whirlwind-like speed (2 Kings 2:10-12). Up there the wisest become witless. Senseless and unable to stand, holy men scarce know what to worship because the image of God’s Majesty shines upon all God’s holy angels (Rev. 19:10, 22:9). Likewise there is a similar difficulty when the Image of God shines upon earthen vessels. At this time the foolish of the earth are confounded to conclude, “the gods are come down to us in the likeness of men” (Acts 14:11). “Which when the apostles, Barnabus and Paul, heard of, they rent their clothes, and ran in among the people, crying out” (Acts 14:14). “Sirs, why do ye do these things? We also are men of like passions with you” (Acts 14:15), they said, even as the angels told the wisest and holiest of men humbled on the higher ground of heaven, “See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God” (Rev. 19:10, 22:8-9)! The wisest on earth are fools in heaven as the fools on earth grossly err to worship clay pilgrims endued with heavenly power. We are used to worshipping the reflection of God during our sojourning on earth, because, if we were confronted by His face we could not endure it. “No flesh should glory in His presence” (1 Cor. 1:29). Christ Jesus had to lay His right hand upon John’s melted soul as a gentle touch of mercy to endure (Rev. 1:17, Psalm 18:35). At former times it was angels that strengthened men when they were exercised by the most debilitating, heavenly visions. Most often throughout history it was angels that conversed with men in the stead of God on matters of human significance, for what man can endure the “great voice as of a trumpet” and “many waters” (Rev. 1:10, 15)? Understand God, my reader, that if He spoke to you in His greatness without a condescension then you too would cry out, “Let not God speak with us, lest we die” (Exodus 20:19)! And God will say to you as He said to them – “[you] have well spoken that which [you] have spoken” (Deut. 18:17).
Until God says, “Understand O son of man,” how can we understand (Dan. 8:17)? This was the voice of an angel and yet Daniel said, “as he was speaking with me I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground: but he touched me, and set me upright” (Dan. 8:17-18). Again at another time, when apocalyptic visions did burst upon Daniel’s sides, he “fainted and was sick certain days” (Daniel 8:27). Of what he saw, “none understood it” (Dan. 8:27). Visits from heaven are violent to the flesh; scarcely can the earth endure its holy purity and power. At another time, Daniel saw a “great vision” and said, “there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength,” until “behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon my palms of my hands” (Dan. 10:5-12). We are clouded creatures dwelling on a cursed earth, but when heaven (by a measure) comes down or ever we go up, we will be like Daniel and become “dumb” (Dan. 10:15). We will be unable to speak without His empowering touch. We cannot stand stable under the weight of heaven’s glory. Rightly did Daniel exclaim, “O my lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength. For how can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? For as for me, straightway there remained no strength in me, neither is there breath left in me. Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me, and said, O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me” (Dan. 10:15-19). Nay, ye men of the earth, God is not interested in your swelling muscles, nor will you be able to flex them in His Almighty Presence. As it is for your carnal muscles, likewise it is for your intellectual might and muscular wits – you would not be able to pick up the dumbest dumbbell in heaven, and below this, you could not lift up your own self! “The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Cor. 1:25). Thou wilt not speak unless you are spoken to, but will you answer Him rudely now when He does speak to you softly in the writing of a Book? Will you murmur against God’s secret (Deut. 29:29) higher things? Live out now, on earth, what you will say then in heaven, even though here you only see darkly (2 Cor. 3:18) and are clothed in fleshly sin: “I know that Thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from Thee. Who is He that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:2-6).
Until God says, “Understand O son of man,” how can we understand (Dan. 8:17)? This was the voice of an angel and yet Daniel said, “as he was speaking with me I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground: but he touched me, and set me upright” (Dan. 8:17-18). Again at another time, when apocalyptic visions did burst upon Daniel’s sides, he “fainted and was sick certain days” (Daniel 8:27). Of what he saw, “none understood it” (Dan. 8:27). Visits from heaven are violent to the flesh; scarcely can the earth endure its holy purity and power. At another time, Daniel saw a “great vision” and said, “there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength,” until “behold, an hand touched me, which set me upon my knees and upon my palms of my hands” (Dan. 10:5-12). We are clouded creatures dwelling on a cursed earth, but when heaven (by a measure) comes down or ever we go up, we will be like Daniel and become “dumb” (Dan. 10:15). We will be unable to speak without His empowering touch. We cannot stand stable under the weight of heaven’s glory. Rightly did Daniel exclaim, “O my lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength. For how can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? For as for me, straightway there remained no strength in me, neither is there breath left in me. Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me, and said, O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me” (Dan. 10:15-19). Nay, ye men of the earth, God is not interested in your swelling muscles, nor will you be able to flex them in His Almighty Presence. As it is for your carnal muscles, likewise it is for your intellectual might and muscular wits – you would not be able to pick up the dumbest dumbbell in heaven, and below this, you could not lift up your own self! “The foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Cor. 1:25). Thou wilt not speak unless you are spoken to, but will you answer Him rudely now when He does speak to you softly in the writing of a Book? Will you murmur against God’s secret (Deut. 29:29) higher things? Live out now, on earth, what you will say then in heaven, even though here you only see darkly (2 Cor. 3:18) and are clothed in fleshly sin: “I know that Thou canst do every thing, and that no thought can be withholden from Thee. Who is He that hideth counsel without knowledge? Therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:2-6).
Job 37:19-24
"Teach us what we shall say unto Him; for we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness. Shall it be told Him that I speak? if a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up. And now men see not the bright light which is in the clouds: but the wind passeth, and cleanseth them. Fair weather cometh out of the north: with God is terrible majesty. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find Him out: He is excellent in power, and in judgment, and in plenty of justice: He will not afflict. Men do therefore fear Him: He respecteth not any that are wise of heart." |
Shall a cricket declare the beauty and exactitude of a famous, castle-like city on earth? Even so, an orator for heaven who can find save when He the Holy Ghost comes down from heaven? I am less than a wretched cricket squeaking in the blindness of the night; at all times I am thus except when the Holy Spirit is lighting upon me. My wretched insufficiency is like the monotonous racket of a thousand shouting crickets. I am a nuisance, an annoyance to all peaceful prospects. Those singers of the daylight are covered in fair feathers of artistic color. They sing with a sweet sound and vibrant melodies. Yet the blackness of night is welcomed by the chattering laughter of hyenas, the creeping of scaly creatures, and those shrieking crickets. I am not sophisticated enough for heaven, I deserve to sweat under the curses of the earth, and had there never been a dispensation of mercy which recreates malefactors into new creatures (2 Cor. 5:17), none would enter the heaven’s new creation. Concerning the things of earth, I fare well on their expertise. It is no hardship for me to compete with bloody rags and putrid messes. Like boils on the human body, I am a swelling infection upon this earth. Yet to mingle myself with those holy subjects which do lie in the depths of God (1 Cor. 2:10), those matters written in the Holy Book, “who is sufficient for these things” (2 Cor. 2:16)? Shall a cricket correct the conscience of God and offer a sharper or more definite execution of justice? It would be a thorn in the way of God or as a barrier of briers before His charging stride. “Who would set the briers and thorns against Me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together,” says God (Isa. 27:4)! If you argue with His word you argue with fire; be sure of this, you will be broken and burned (Jer. 23:29).
I am not as sophisticated as a crippled gnat stuck on its back, flying circles upon a tabletop. I have no more wisdom than an insect mindlessly burned out, endlessly drawn to fly into a light bulb’s burning heat. This is its slow suicide, pound by pound the flying creature’s body is melted away. I am not as civilized as these creeping things: next to me they are complex creatures! I am as a boneless worm, and lower – I am faceless, graceless, and helpless. “As for God His way is perfect:” "Dominion and fear are with Him, He maketh peace in His high places. Is there any number of His armies? And upon whom doth not His light arise? How then can man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in His sight. How much less man, that is a worm? And the son of man, which is a worm" (Job 25:2-6, Isa. 41:14)?
The sun is an emblem of the love of God shining upon all of His creatures; night is an scenery representative of evil, a time and hour when the wicked awake to do evil (1 Thess. 5). Night is the hour in which God has ordained for evil, because it is then that “the beasts of the forest do creep forth” (Ps. 104:20). There are “rulers of the darkness of this world” which reign in secret evils. If I do confide in them or ever arise to take their counsel on righteousness, likewise if ever I do trust in my fleshly wisdom supposing I have a self-sufficient mind, it is then that I am trusting in “the vanity of [my] mind” (Eph. 4:17). Humans: we are fallen creatures of no hope, who by creation are unfit, unwise, and without light, “having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness” (Eph. 4:18-19). If we take counsel and learn the judgments of this lower earth, we are having “fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness” (Eph. 5:11). To attain the mind of God and find His judgments, which alone are right, wise, and saving, then we need the gift from His hand which was said to be “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened”, and illuminated, as with “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God” (Eph. 1:17-18, 2 Cor. 4:6). You see, there is night and there is light. An orator of the night is pale in comparison to the orators of light, so it is infinitely more contrasting to compare an orator of earth to the speakers of heaven. A conscience of clay cannot be compared to the conscience of God. There is no room for flesh upon Christ’s throne, and if you will share a coheir’s seat there, it will be because God killed your flesh and hid you in Jesus, “in Whom is no darkness at all” (1 john 1), “in Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3, 3:3).
If Abraham got to the top of Jacob’s ladder, there would be no more conversation, but blazing through the fullness of Abraham’s being, will, emotions, and sensations would be the saying, “O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus” (Rom. 9:20)? A snapshot of sovereignty would not excite sinful murmurings in this holy habitation. If you were there, you would be what you are: dead, dusty ashes. You would be forbidden to do what God has forbidden. You would sit in a holy, silent adoration if ever sovereign ordinances were being spoken in that place. Nothing in you could rise up and wonder, “Is there any unrighteousness with God” (Rom. 9:14) or “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right” (Gen. 18)? When God collects all of His clay on His Judgment Day, they will not speak but be spoken to! They will not stand up but bow down on demand. Devilish and dark angelic majesties alongside intellectual humans from all earthly masteries, they all will be clay features before the Potter-like Preacher as He pronounces from the Books their eternal abode. Thrice it is written for the Three Persons of the Trinity, “Unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear” and “confess.” Every knee, God says, “of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth” (Isa. 45:23, Romans 14:11, Php. 2:10)! In the arena of earth there is a humbling of the Person of God, and there, shockingly, He does not disallow men to converse with Him on matters “revealed” (Deut. 29:29), to the end that men might come to know God. Look with me further into the condescended omniscience of God, that the thoughts of God might become more manlike and earthly, within reach to be understood by the infinitely unworthy – God in the ways of man
I am not as sophisticated as a crippled gnat stuck on its back, flying circles upon a tabletop. I have no more wisdom than an insect mindlessly burned out, endlessly drawn to fly into a light bulb’s burning heat. This is its slow suicide, pound by pound the flying creature’s body is melted away. I am not as civilized as these creeping things: next to me they are complex creatures! I am as a boneless worm, and lower – I am faceless, graceless, and helpless. “As for God His way is perfect:” "Dominion and fear are with Him, He maketh peace in His high places. Is there any number of His armies? And upon whom doth not His light arise? How then can man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Behold even to the moon, and it shineth not; yea, the stars are not pure in His sight. How much less man, that is a worm? And the son of man, which is a worm" (Job 25:2-6, Isa. 41:14)?
The sun is an emblem of the love of God shining upon all of His creatures; night is an scenery representative of evil, a time and hour when the wicked awake to do evil (1 Thess. 5). Night is the hour in which God has ordained for evil, because it is then that “the beasts of the forest do creep forth” (Ps. 104:20). There are “rulers of the darkness of this world” which reign in secret evils. If I do confide in them or ever arise to take their counsel on righteousness, likewise if ever I do trust in my fleshly wisdom supposing I have a self-sufficient mind, it is then that I am trusting in “the vanity of [my] mind” (Eph. 4:17). Humans: we are fallen creatures of no hope, who by creation are unfit, unwise, and without light, “having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness” (Eph. 4:18-19). If we take counsel and learn the judgments of this lower earth, we are having “fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness” (Eph. 5:11). To attain the mind of God and find His judgments, which alone are right, wise, and saving, then we need the gift from His hand which was said to be “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened”, and illuminated, as with “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God” (Eph. 1:17-18, 2 Cor. 4:6). You see, there is night and there is light. An orator of the night is pale in comparison to the orators of light, so it is infinitely more contrasting to compare an orator of earth to the speakers of heaven. A conscience of clay cannot be compared to the conscience of God. There is no room for flesh upon Christ’s throne, and if you will share a coheir’s seat there, it will be because God killed your flesh and hid you in Jesus, “in Whom is no darkness at all” (1 john 1), “in Whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3, 3:3).
If Abraham got to the top of Jacob’s ladder, there would be no more conversation, but blazing through the fullness of Abraham’s being, will, emotions, and sensations would be the saying, “O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus” (Rom. 9:20)? A snapshot of sovereignty would not excite sinful murmurings in this holy habitation. If you were there, you would be what you are: dead, dusty ashes. You would be forbidden to do what God has forbidden. You would sit in a holy, silent adoration if ever sovereign ordinances were being spoken in that place. Nothing in you could rise up and wonder, “Is there any unrighteousness with God” (Rom. 9:14) or “Shall not the judge of all the earth do right” (Gen. 18)? When God collects all of His clay on His Judgment Day, they will not speak but be spoken to! They will not stand up but bow down on demand. Devilish and dark angelic majesties alongside intellectual humans from all earthly masteries, they all will be clay features before the Potter-like Preacher as He pronounces from the Books their eternal abode. Thrice it is written for the Three Persons of the Trinity, “Unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear” and “confess.” Every knee, God says, “of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth” (Isa. 45:23, Romans 14:11, Php. 2:10)! In the arena of earth there is a humbling of the Person of God, and there, shockingly, He does not disallow men to converse with Him on matters “revealed” (Deut. 29:29), to the end that men might come to know God. Look with me further into the condescended omniscience of God, that the thoughts of God might become more manlike and earthly, within reach to be understood by the infinitely unworthy – God in the ways of man
Disrobed from omniscience and by way of condescension, God wills and speaks words. There is a counsel and will that cannot be changed as afore mentioned, “God is not a man, that He should lie; neither the son of man, that He should repent: He hath said, and shall He not do it? Or hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good” (Numbers 23:19)? Again, this is sensible for the qualities and characteristics inherent in God. How could He ever need to repent or change His mind, seeing that He knows everything and transcends time? How could He ever need to change His mind from one will to another as if He would be regretful of a decision made or an outcome and event undetermined? Why would He ever go back on His Word, or lie, seeing that what He says determines everything else? These sovereign ways are certainly not our ways. We can say that they are higher than our ways, as it is written they are the ways of God. However, are you seeing that there are other ways that God uses, even our ways, and this great condescension affects even His purposed will and spoken word? Did you know that there are two ways God uses, simultaneously, and there are therefore two wills in God? My reader, look closely now at the scriptural description of God in the ways of man.
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God removes His Divinity like as a King would remove His robes of royalty, that henceforth, they become approachable and relatable in other ways which were formerly impossible in the scenery of court and crown. In the case of God, He relates in ways which are not His own ways: He wills and speaks words which are inconsistent and irreconcilable to omniscience, but it is so that He may have a relationship to clay creatures. He disrobes Himself from His ways and clothes Himself with ours, but even when the humble raiment of humanity’s ways do clothe Him – HE IS STILL GOD – thus He does simultaneously and everlastingly coexist on the higher ground of His higher ways at the same time.
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God is not a man that He should lie, and He is not a man that He should repent, but did you know He repents and goes back on His word all throughout biblical history? God has a will that is determinate and a will that is like the will and ways of man. Therefore, I have categorized the second spectrum of relationship God uses by means of condescension as God in the ways of man. It is the way of man to repent. Our words do not determine everything. Even so we can therefore go back on them, and likewise, when we speak words, they can fail to come to pass. This is not confusing to us because this is common humanity, but for God to will and speak in these capacities is an amazing condescension!
Jeremiah 18:7-11
7 At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; 8 If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. 9 And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; 10 If it do evil in My sight, that it obey not My voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them. 11 Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good. |
In a matter of judgment and wrath God can and does speak “to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy.” God can and does whole-heartedly “pronounce” these judgments with the full intention of doing it. Therefore He genuinely thinks to do this wrathful judgment. But if they turn from their sin, God says He will repent, or change His mind, of “the evil I thought to do unto them.” God was not playing a fake role. He was genuinely thinking to do this evil to them.
God can speak for blessing and salvation “to build and to plant” with the full intention to do it, but if they do afterwards turn to sin then God will “repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.” I repeat, God can pronounce a salvific blessing and fully intend to do it, and if they do afterwards turn to wickedness He can go back on what He said He would do. I am not sure if you are thinking this…but how can God genuinely think to do good to a people at a certain instance in time, only to change His mind at a later time because of the evil He sees them doing, unless, somehow, God did not know that the people were going to do the evil that they did. Somehow God’s former thoughts and intents were genuine as if He was limited from a foreknowledge of what was going to happen later, and also, as if He was limited from a determinate power whereby He is able to make all things happen according to His will. If He knew beforehand of the evil that was later done, then how could He have genuinely thought or spoken a blessing to them? If you say He was not genuine, then He didn’t genuinely repent (or change His mind), and this, according to the verse, is not possible because it clearly states that God will repent (change His mind). If He did not genuinely think to do it, then He would not have to repent of it. The will of God that is able to repent is therefore responsive to the actions and deeds done within time; therefore as God observed the deeds done, then His will changed. What is the source of all the questions of how this can be possible with God? It is that this repentance of God is an operation inconsistent with omniscience and absolute sovereignty. It is as if God is in the ways of a man… right?
It is as if the actions and deeds were not foreknown so that the will, heart, salvation, and emotion in God which preceded the actual commission of the deeds observed were entirely unaffected and separate from Godlike qualities – omniscience to name one. This localizes the will of God into the limitations of time so that He does genuinely respond to the will of man as if He was not outside of time and in complete determination of the will of man at the same time. It is as if God’s will is in the limitations of manlike capacities and ways. How can He genuinely intend to bless a person that He has already determined from eternity past to hate and destroy, only then to change His mind from intending to bless someone when the manifestation of their wicked rebellion takes place, and surely, even this rebellion God did ordain to happen by an eternal intent and unchanging purpose?
Please let me be repetitive and inculcate these truths… the scriptures certainly do. There is a counsel of God that cannot be changed, right?
God can speak for blessing and salvation “to build and to plant” with the full intention to do it, but if they do afterwards turn to sin then God will “repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them.” I repeat, God can pronounce a salvific blessing and fully intend to do it, and if they do afterwards turn to wickedness He can go back on what He said He would do. I am not sure if you are thinking this…but how can God genuinely think to do good to a people at a certain instance in time, only to change His mind at a later time because of the evil He sees them doing, unless, somehow, God did not know that the people were going to do the evil that they did. Somehow God’s former thoughts and intents were genuine as if He was limited from a foreknowledge of what was going to happen later, and also, as if He was limited from a determinate power whereby He is able to make all things happen according to His will. If He knew beforehand of the evil that was later done, then how could He have genuinely thought or spoken a blessing to them? If you say He was not genuine, then He didn’t genuinely repent (or change His mind), and this, according to the verse, is not possible because it clearly states that God will repent (change His mind). If He did not genuinely think to do it, then He would not have to repent of it. The will of God that is able to repent is therefore responsive to the actions and deeds done within time; therefore as God observed the deeds done, then His will changed. What is the source of all the questions of how this can be possible with God? It is that this repentance of God is an operation inconsistent with omniscience and absolute sovereignty. It is as if God is in the ways of a man… right?
It is as if the actions and deeds were not foreknown so that the will, heart, salvation, and emotion in God which preceded the actual commission of the deeds observed were entirely unaffected and separate from Godlike qualities – omniscience to name one. This localizes the will of God into the limitations of time so that He does genuinely respond to the will of man as if He was not outside of time and in complete determination of the will of man at the same time. It is as if God’s will is in the limitations of manlike capacities and ways. How can He genuinely intend to bless a person that He has already determined from eternity past to hate and destroy, only then to change His mind from intending to bless someone when the manifestation of their wicked rebellion takes place, and surely, even this rebellion God did ordain to happen by an eternal intent and unchanging purpose?
Please let me be repetitive and inculcate these truths… the scriptures certainly do. There is a counsel of God that cannot be changed, right?
“The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: That I will break the Assyrian in My land, and upon My mountains tread him under foot: then shall his yoke depart from off them, and his burden depart from off their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? And his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back?” (Isa. 14:24-27)
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This is easy enough to understand. Who can stand against God? Therefore whatever He decides to do, He will do. The counsel of God is His purpose, intention, plan, will, and pleasure - all of these things cannot be resisted. All of this can be summed up into God’s will. There is a will in God that cannot be changed, resisted, stood against, or hindered, and it will always be accomplished. This is easy for us to understand since this is inherent in the characteristics that God would own in the powers of Himself. Such powers are omniscience, omnipotence, and omnipresence. As God laid aside His omnipotence and omnipresence, likewise He lays aside His omniscience (in a sense)! Consider Genesis 6:5-7.
"And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth Me that I have made them" (Genesis 6:5-7)
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Can God repent? It says, AFTER “GOD SAW” the wickedness of man, it was then that He “repented”. After seeing that this is what humanity was incessantly doing, as if He did not have omniscience as to already know what they would do before He made them, He was now sorry He made man, and He changed His mind, deciding to no longer keep them alive, by destroying all men except Noah and his family. God has a changeless mind and will, and yet here is a genuine repentance in the ways of man. It is as if God related to men in a genuine will to keep them alive, for the good of them, but because of their sin, He was minded to destroy them now, therefore He was repenting. He was once minded toward them in a good, loving, favorable will, as if He could say that this love was uninterrupted by a consciousness of their future rebellion and His future repentance, as if He could say that He loved them so much so that He would affectionately express to them how He wanted them to stay alive, how He wanted to never have to judge them for doing this deed, which is to say in other words, “neither came it into My heart” (Jer. 7:31), when speaking of what that the people did evilly commit.
Yet, if God had a will to save them and a mind to keep them alive and prosper them, why did He not determine their salvation by His irresistible grace and sovereign counsels? God is relating to them in the ways of man, that’s why. When God is in the ways of God, if He desired for men to be saved, He would turn their heart into faith and repentance. This is God’s irresistible will, word, and counsel that works through the sovereign influences of His omnipotence which govern the interior capacities of men. The will that is contrary, genuine and simultaneous to this will is God in the ways of man. This is God’s resistible will, word, and counsel that works through limited and human-like influences which are exterior from the interior capacities of men. The omniscience of God can never be nonexistent, but somehow God relates to men in the ways of men wherein He has a genuine will active and completely irrelevant from omniscience and all the ways of God.
Yet, if God had a will to save them and a mind to keep them alive and prosper them, why did He not determine their salvation by His irresistible grace and sovereign counsels? God is relating to them in the ways of man, that’s why. When God is in the ways of God, if He desired for men to be saved, He would turn their heart into faith and repentance. This is God’s irresistible will, word, and counsel that works through the sovereign influences of His omnipotence which govern the interior capacities of men. The will that is contrary, genuine and simultaneous to this will is God in the ways of man. This is God’s resistible will, word, and counsel that works through limited and human-like influences which are exterior from the interior capacities of men. The omniscience of God can never be nonexistent, but somehow God relates to men in the ways of men wherein He has a genuine will active and completely irrelevant from omniscience and all the ways of God.
God in the Ways of God
-Irresistible will, word, and counsel.
-Influential through interior capacities to save. -Incomprehensible justice of condemnation. -Incomprehensible justice of salvation. -Changeless and eternal counsel, will, mind, emotion, and word. Isaiah 14:27 "His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back" |
God in the Ways of Man
-Resistible will, word, and counsel.
-Influential through exterior capacities to save. -Comprehensible justice of condemnation. -Comprehensible justice of salvation. -Changing and temporary counsel, will, mind, emotion, and word. Romans 10:21, Isaiah 65:2 "All day long I have stretched forth My hand unto a disobedient and gainsaying people" |
Can God be undecided over what He will do, or in other words, can He be unsure?
“…therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do with thee” (Exodus 33:5).
“How shall I…how shall I…how shall I…how shall I…Mine heart is turned within Me, My repentings are kindled together” (Hos. 11:8). |
In striving to save the house of Judah, God published the horror of His curses which He purposed to do in hopes that they would hear of the coming doom and repent. Can God hope or say, “it may be” in this circumstance?
"It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin." (Jeremiah 36:3)
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You can see the genuine hope God has mentioned again just a few verses later:
"It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD hath pronounced against this people." (Jeremiah 36:7)
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Notice that God is using exterior influences to try to bring man to repentance, as a man would seek to change another man’s mind. Men cannot change another man’s mind or will except by exterior means. They cannot reach into another man’s heart and change it. Now God can, but in these instances He relates to men in a genuine will through the ways of man, even to the laying aside of the inevitable emotions consistent with and operable in omniscience and sovereignty. Again, like publishing the judgments and curses in Jeremiah 36:3 & 36:7, the Lord has His prophet Ezekiel display future banishments with the same good, loving, willing hope.
"Therefore, thou son of man, prepare thee stuff for removing, and remove by day in their sight; and thou shalt remove from thy place to another place in their sight: it may be they will consider, though they be a rebellious house." (Ezekiel 12:3)
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One could conjecture that God is not sincerely bound in these manlike limitations, that He is acting it out or something of this sort, meaning that He would not be able to say within Himself, “it may be they will consider”, in sincerity. THIS IS WRONG. Consider the following passage:
"The just LORD is in the midst thereof; He will not do iniquity: every morning doth He bring His judgment to light, He faileth not; but the unjust knoweth no shame. I have cut off the nations: their towers are desolate; I made their streets waste, that none passeth by: their cities are destroyed, so that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant. I said, Surely thou wilt fear me, thou wilt receive instruction; so their dwelling should not be cut off, howsoever I punished them: but they rose early, and corrupted all their doings." (Zephaniah 3:5-7)
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His attempts for their salvation by a genuine, willing love are in a context as if God is limited to the influential and relational capacities of a man, and is therefore subject to the free will of men, therefore the justice of their condemnation is vindicated because of the righteousness of God that He did all that He could have done to save them. This is a comprehensible justice that God is reasoning with His people in, which is logical recompense based upon our deeds and His deeds, as if we were free to choose as a self-governing creature, and as if God is subject to our free will so that His ability to influence our free will is solely by exterior actions, as if God could not change our will without our conscious understanding that it is being changed by God instead of our free decisions (“Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so” (Isa. 10:7)). God vindicates salvation and condemnation based upon these terms of comprehension, as if God is altogether relating to us in the limitations, capacities, and conversations of the ways of men.
"Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching His vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: And He fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and He looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt Me and My vineyard. What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now go to; I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down:" (Isaiah 5:1-5)
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In the Person of God by condescension: successfully or unsuccessfully yet sincerely and hopefully, God does strive to save His people through the means of outward, exterior works or attempts of a saving communication (as if He does not know what they will do, as if He is unable to savingly influence His people, and is subject to attempts and hopes to turn or change their free will). The terror of warnings (Jer. 36:3, 7), the demonstrations and teachings of prophets’ words and deeds (Ezek. 12:3), chastisements and just punishments for past sins as to gain what God hopes for, which is a present repentance wrought in the people of God (Zeph. 3:5-7), and more than what is listed here…all of these instances are examples of what God means when He says in Isaiah 5:1-5: “What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not done in it?” God was sincerely stretching out His hands hoping for their repentance (Rom. 10:20-21), and He demonstrates this sincerity by saying to Himself (as if He is assuring Himself of future hopes), “Surely thou wilt fear Me, thou wilt receive instruction; so their dwelling should not be cut off” (Zeph. 3:7) – and yet they refused the hopeful, loving, saving, good will of a merciful God Who self-declares that He has a universal love when He saith:
“I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord GOD: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye” (Ezek. 18:32).
“Have I any pleasure at all that the wicked should die? Saith the Lord GOD: and not that he should return from his ways, and live” (Ezek. 18:23)? "For He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men" (Lamentations 3:33). "To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not" (Lamentations 3:36). |
How can this be logically reconciled or justly understood by our meager conceptions of justice? If God did not declare Himself to be sovereign, a hidden governor of our hearts, then this is very understandable, but those doctrines of His sovereignty, election, predestination, salvation and condemnation in the higher ways of God (God in the ways of God) are forbidden to be understood by men: henceforth we should be well content to relate to God in a context which we can understand, in a condescending relationship in the ways of man, and leave those higher things to be acknowledged and appropriated in their rightful places.
"But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought Me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after Me. But to Israel He saith, All day long I have stretched forth My hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people." (Romans 10:20-21)
"I am sought of them that asked not for Me; I am found of them that sought Me not: I said, Behold Me, behold Me, unto a nation that was not called by My name. I have spread out My hands all the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was not good, after their own thoughts;" (Isaiah 65:1-2) “His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back” (Isa. 14:27)? |
God explains that He is just in condemning His people because, “All day long I have stretched forth My hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people” (Rom. 10:20-21). What He has done to save them, He states, is, “All day long I have stretched forth My hands,” and this makes them without excuse or answer when He does destroy them. This sense of justice has a logical answer, and it is contradicting the sense of God’s work in the higher sense (God in the ways of God) which men are forbidden to understand, question, or answer God in any wise. Bending over, as it were, from the arena of heaven unto humanity, by this great condescension, God converses with man, yet when His steeped Person is lifted back up into the realm of His Godlike loft, those things which appeared to be a free will of our own, are revealed to be what they are in truth: formations and ordinations of His hand, as if He intimately molded a piece of clay for His own purpose, pleasure, and glory! As it is written, “His hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back” (Isa. 14:27)? When God is no longer bent over in condescension, as it were, and He doth stand up straight, He is as He is in heaven, where there is no condescension. Up there, it is then that God is God, in His ways, as He is in His infinite powers The Sovereign, and what He does in heaven, no man can comprehend or even question! “Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the things formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus? Hath not the Potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour” (Rom. 9:20-21)?
Look at the hopeful love of God behind the sending of Jesus Christ. God hoped to save the Jews by the sending of so royal a Messenger:
Look at the hopeful love of God behind the sending of Jesus Christ. God hoped to save the Jews by the sending of so royal a Messenger:
"Then said the Lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send My Beloved Son: it may be they will reverence Him when they see Him" (Luke 20:13).
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Do you see the exact parallel here that it is as the former passages? And what is the emphasis we can take away from this? It was the good mind of God to send so valuable a Person for so merciful a salvation, and yet they killed Him! God relates to them as if He had no omniscience of this deed, but in pure love, He minded their condemnation after their free will justly determined this cursed, wrathful fate. When the Lord of the vineyard saw what they did, afterwards, “He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others” (Lk. 20:16). The focal point of their salvation or condemnation hinges upon their deeds, and so by their deeds the favor and love of God is stedfast or changed into wrath and condemnation. This is a comprehensible justice by way of condescension.
Calvinists relate to God in the spectrum of His sovereignty, His eternality, and His changeless mind and will of love or hatred. They believe that God loves or hates all men with an eternal, unchanging, determining love or hatred, and this is true. However, simultaneously, there is another counsel, will, mind, emotion, love, and hatred of God genuinely coexisting, and yet it is logically contradicting. It is another jewel of God’s impossible wonders for men to praise Him for. A Calvinist would never believe that God would love or desire to save a man who He does not save, because He would save those He desires to save with His irresistible grace. They would never believe that God loves someone within time – the same one that He hates outside of time – but this is possible because there is a temporary, condescending will coexisting with an eternal, unchanging will. Therefore Calvinists conclude that God loves a select and limited amount of people which are determined to be covered by the blood; a limited atonement. Limited Atonement = Limited Love.
Now consider again the generation of Jesus Christ. God gave most of Israel “the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear,” so that only “the election hath obtained” salvation “and the rest were blinded” (Rom. 11:7-8). Those that were blinded were not the elect, therefore they were hated by God with a changeless and eternal wrath. NOW, will you know that there is another will in God besides this hatred: a will that is genuine, within time, and perfect in love, only it is not active in sovereign operations to save, which means therefore that it is limited to manlike limitations, powers, and ways to save, but it is nevertheless all the while willing, hopeful, and striving (in thought, word, and deed) till all deeds of love are expended and nothing else can be done? Jesus Christ eternally hated the damned generation that crucified Him, and simultaneously, He desired to save them, He sought to save them, and He had weeping lamentations over the fact that they refused to be saved. My reader, THIS IS LOVE! Can you read the following passages and honestly conclude that Jesus Christ did not love them?
Calvinists relate to God in the spectrum of His sovereignty, His eternality, and His changeless mind and will of love or hatred. They believe that God loves or hates all men with an eternal, unchanging, determining love or hatred, and this is true. However, simultaneously, there is another counsel, will, mind, emotion, love, and hatred of God genuinely coexisting, and yet it is logically contradicting. It is another jewel of God’s impossible wonders for men to praise Him for. A Calvinist would never believe that God would love or desire to save a man who He does not save, because He would save those He desires to save with His irresistible grace. They would never believe that God loves someone within time – the same one that He hates outside of time – but this is possible because there is a temporary, condescending will coexisting with an eternal, unchanging will. Therefore Calvinists conclude that God loves a select and limited amount of people which are determined to be covered by the blood; a limited atonement. Limited Atonement = Limited Love.
Now consider again the generation of Jesus Christ. God gave most of Israel “the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear,” so that only “the election hath obtained” salvation “and the rest were blinded” (Rom. 11:7-8). Those that were blinded were not the elect, therefore they were hated by God with a changeless and eternal wrath. NOW, will you know that there is another will in God besides this hatred: a will that is genuine, within time, and perfect in love, only it is not active in sovereign operations to save, which means therefore that it is limited to manlike limitations, powers, and ways to save, but it is nevertheless all the while willing, hopeful, and striving (in thought, word, and deed) till all deeds of love are expended and nothing else can be done? Jesus Christ eternally hated the damned generation that crucified Him, and simultaneously, He desired to save them, He sought to save them, and He had weeping lamentations over the fact that they refused to be saved. My reader, THIS IS LOVE! Can you read the following passages and honestly conclude that Jesus Christ did not love them?
"And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation." (Luke 19:41-44)
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see Me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Luke 13:34-35) |
This weeping, lamenting Savior is brokenhearted that Israel and Jerusalem “would not” repent even though He is as a willing Hen “often” reaching to “gather her brood.” God could have saved Jerusalem, even as He could have saved Sodom and Gomorrah, but He is restrained by a simultaneous, contradicting will (Matt: 11:20-24). Could you hate a people with an eternal hatred, have no desire to save them or any pity to regard them, and so you blind them to damn them into everlasting perdition, and then, in a separate location another person of yourself does look upon and behold all of this happening and you weep through desperate brokenness wishing it were not so?! You cannot do this because YOU ARE NOT God…but God can. Could it be that Christ loved those that are hopelessly damned by God, by and through the Spirit of the Father which hated and damned them according to His own pleasure, and now this Spirit of love reigns in love through us toward eternally hated men, that we as Christ live in love toward the elect and non-elect? How do you love all men if God loves only some men? Away with logical consistency and Calvinistic simplicity!
As further proof of the genuine love of God to save the 1st century Jews, consider Luke 13:6-9 and Mark 11:12-21 in comparison to their Old Testament parallel, Isaiah 5:1-5.
As further proof of the genuine love of God to save the 1st century Jews, consider Luke 13:6-9 and Mark 11:12-21 in comparison to their Old Testament parallel, Isaiah 5:1-5.
“He spake also this parable; A certain man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon, and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold, these three years I come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground? And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it: And if it bear fruit, well: and if not, then after that thou shalt cut it down” (Luke 13:6-9).
“And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, He was hungry: And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, He came, if haply He might find any thing thereon: and when He came to it, He found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And His disciples heard it. And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And He taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy Him: for they feared Him, because all the people was astonished at His doctrine. And when even was come, He went out of the city. And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto Him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away” (Mark 11:12-21). |
In the first passage of scripture, Luke 13:6-9, we can see a metaphor which clearly communicates God’s mind and heart toward His Israelite people. They are His planted vineyard and to them He comes seeking fruit. After finding none for three years, it is then that the good will to save Israel is held fast again, and the servant says, “let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it”, so that it is understood by us that if this vineyard is cut down, it is after that God had done everything that could have been done to it. Therefore the Lord could have said, “What could have been done more to My vineyard, that I have not done in it? Wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes” (Isa. 5:4)? In the second passage we can see this metaphor directly connected with the very deeds of Christ to Israel, emblematic in His deeds towards the Temple. As God sought fruit on His vineyard in the OT, and as the lord sought fruit on the vineyard of Luke 13:6-9, so also Christ is “hungry” for fruit from Israel, and He has come to seek it out, “if haply He might find any thing thereon”, but like the fig tree ”He found nothing”. So also, we can see that time has run out for Israel! That now the Temple is forsaken by God! “The fig tree” which was cursed just “withered away” when it bore no fruits for Christ’s hunger, and so also, God did cast away Israel with a deluding curse and turned to the Gentiles to save them! Do you disbelieve it? Is this not what is meant in the fullness of the parable afore mentioned? Read it carefully:
“Hear another parable: There was a certain householder, which planted a vineyard, and hedged it round about, and digged a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and went into a far country: And when the time of the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the husbandmen, that they might receive the fruits of it. And the husbandmen took his servants, and beat one, and killed another, and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they did unto them likewise. But last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him. When the lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will he do unto those husbandmen? They say unto him, he will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes? Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder. And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard His parables, they perceived that He spake of them. But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet” (Matthew 21:33-46).
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This very moment was foretold thousands of years ago, all the way back to Deuteronomy 32 (the song of Moses). God had just mightily saved Israel through the instrumentality of Moses, and thus He is called their “Father” (Deut. 32:6); they are His purchased possession (Deut. 32:6, 9), “the apple of His eye” (Deut. 32:10), and an eagle’s young under her wings (Deut. 32:11). “So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him” (Deut. 32:12). Nevertheless, Israel rebelled and turned to idolatry (Deut. 32:15-17) insomuch that the Lord “abhorred them because of the provoking of His sons, and of His daughters. And He said, I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end shall be” (Deut. 32:19-20), and so God did. Then God said this: “They have moved Me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked Me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation” (Deut. 32:21). Israel moved God to jealousy, so God prophesies that He will move them to jealousy, and how? This is a prophecy of the casting away of Israel, and their jealousy, when God does turn to the Gentiles for salvation. Paul quotes this very verse to mean this very thing in Romans 10:19. So Paul further comments, “I say then, Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid: but rather through their fall salvation is come unto the Gentiles, for to provoke them to jealousy” (Rom. 11:11). Thus God accounts of His works long before they were to come to pass, and explains, Israel will rebel (Deut. 32:15-17), God will forsake them and hide His face (Deut. 32:18-20), He will then choose the Gentiles in their stead to make them jealous (Deut. 32:21), He will nearly annihilate Israel in His wrath (Deut. 32:26-27), and He will repent of His wrath when He sees that Israel is humbled (Deut. 32:36). Now God knew that Israel would rebel just as He states in Deuteronomy 32, and in another place He said, “I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb”, and again, “I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass; I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them” (Isa. 48:8, 4-5). This is the foreknowledge of God, for He is omniscient, but there are other verses which show the condescended relationship of God to Israel during this prophesied, predestinated course of Israel’s rebellion, rejection, and near annihilation.
Just as God said to Israel, as it were in the parable, sincerely:
Just as God said to Israel, as it were in the parable, sincerely:
“But last of all He sent unto them His Son, saying, They will reverence My son” (Matt. 21:37).
"Then said the Lord of the vineyard, What shall I do? I will send My Beloved Son: it may be they will reverence Him when they see Him" (Luke 20:13). |
So also the Lord said of Israel before they finally rebelled unto near annihilation:
“For He said, Surely they are My people, children that will not lie: so He was their Savior” (Isa. 63:8).
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You see? There is a will, desire, and spoken word which is as if God is minded this way toward Israel because He does not have a foreknowledge that they will eventually rebel. This is His will and word in the condescension (God in the ways of man). And again in Psalm 81:10-16 the Lord explains His good will to save, that, if they would have just obeyed Him, He was completely willing, desirous, earnest, and fervent to save them forever:
“I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. But My people would not hearken to My voice; and Israel would none of Me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels. Oh that My people had hearkened unto Me, and Israel had walked in My ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned My hand against their adversaries. The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto Him: but their time should have endured for ever. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee” (Psalm 81:10-16).
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Can you see it so clearly? As Jesus wept, mourned, and lamented over the damnation of the 1st century Jews, so also here, in generations beforehand which were types of the 1st century Jews, God is lamenting over Israel’s rebellion saying, Oh! “Oh that My people had hearkened unto Me, and Israel had walked in My ways!” It is clear that He wanted them to be saved, He wanted them to be obedient, so that, even then, God would have done what we wanted to do, which was what? God would have, as He said – “soon have subdued their enemies”, and not just for a little while. Do you see how that God said, “I should have soon subdued their enemies”? Again He says, “the haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto Him”, and not just for a little while. God had in His mind that this should have happened FOREVER, and that Israel never would have been destroyed, thus He said – “their time should have endured for ever”. God says that He chose the Gentiles as an afterthought because Israel provoked His wrath in Deuteronomy 32, and so also thereafter, Israel should not have rebelled but continued forever without falling according to the good will, hope, and love of God that they “will not lie”, and He would then, unto forever, be “their Savior” (Isa. 63:8). Could the Lord be any clearer about His will to save them when He says things like this?
“I said, Surely thou wilt fear Me, thou wilt receive instruction; so their dwelling should not be cut off, howsoever I punished them: but they rose early, and corrupted all their doings” (Zephaniah 3:7).
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Even so, it is true that there is a condescension by which God has a resistible, changeable, will, with resistible and changeable words, and this relationship of God by way of condescension (God in the ways of man) is mysteriously paradoxical and contradictory to the sovereign, eternal, determinate, irresistible, changeless, and predestinating will and words of God (God in the ways of God).
God in the ways of man is logically irreconcilable to God in the ways of God. God seeking fear, seeking to know by trial, seeking to know their repentance and doing all the means by which He would justly expect them to repent (as if He, by His own ordination, is not hardening and softening their hearts in every present moment of time while they live); this is God in the ways of man exhausting all the means to save sinners and wayward saints, and after those means are lovingly and hopefully executed by the Omnibenevolent will of God (God in the ways of man), if they still don’t repent and believe, it is then that God vindicates their damnation and justifies Himself in it because of what He has done to save them, and what they have done in response to His wooing (“All day long I have stretched out My hand”). This is a sense of justice which is comprehensible to men, a justice that is responsive to our own actions and responses to God’s actions and responses. This is a justice which is an antithesis and contradiction from sovereign justice in the invisible, higher ways of God. The justice of God’s damnation of sinners based upon their responses to His pursuit of their salvation is understandable by men because we feel as though we have a free will, or are justly guilty of those sins we are committing because we do not sense the invisible hand of God hardening our hearts. It is not confusing to us but we feel guilty, and we are. However, in the light of the higher workings of God, His sovereign hardenings or softenings, how can we be held accountable for our actions if they are all ordained by His determining will? Therefore, in the light of the full spectrum of God’s relationship to man, namely in the light of His higher ways (God in the ways of God), it is then that the justice of God to punish men based upon their deeds is not a comprehensible justice because we do not have a free will. Yet if we do not, then the justice of God judging us based upon our deeds is a relational experience made possible through a great condescension God has undergone to have a relationship with us, and though He has given us a snapshot of His higher workings by the written revelation of inspired scripture, we must understand that this work of God is incomprehensible, humanly illogical, and inconsistent with God’s condescension, which is, God in the ways of man saving, judging, and condemning on the basis of our works (rooted in the presence or absence of faith) in a logical vindication of His own works based upon the guilt they have for their unlawful deeds.
Oh Calvinist, will you not collapse as you read the following ways of God by condescension? They do break the boundaries of your theological system, and why? Your theology is built under the unbiblical premise that theology must be logically consistent instead of biblically consistent. In truth, we must take off our shoes from off our feet, as it were, and take off our human comfort in everything that makes logical sense. The scriptures argue that God is humanly incomprehensible, and how much more all of His ways? Nevertheless, it is sensible and logical, in truth, to understand that God cannot be understood. God relates to men outside of the realm of sovereignty, and, the significance of this you will see. According to all of these passages, did not God choose Israel so that their fruits “should” remain (Ps. 81:10-16), which is to say that they should have persevered? Could this be at all relevant in the New Covenant so that God could say to us who are in Christ, that we are chosen so that our fruit “should remain” forever (John 15:16)? But if it is like as they were chosen, and our “should” (John 15:16) is like as their “should” (Ps. 81:10-16), what does that mean for us? Calvinist, you may be leaning upon a broken reed. God’s condescension affects God’s will, word, counsel, and therefore, His promises, which then do affect the doctrine of eternal security.
God in the ways of man is logically irreconcilable to God in the ways of God. God seeking fear, seeking to know by trial, seeking to know their repentance and doing all the means by which He would justly expect them to repent (as if He, by His own ordination, is not hardening and softening their hearts in every present moment of time while they live); this is God in the ways of man exhausting all the means to save sinners and wayward saints, and after those means are lovingly and hopefully executed by the Omnibenevolent will of God (God in the ways of man), if they still don’t repent and believe, it is then that God vindicates their damnation and justifies Himself in it because of what He has done to save them, and what they have done in response to His wooing (“All day long I have stretched out My hand”). This is a sense of justice which is comprehensible to men, a justice that is responsive to our own actions and responses to God’s actions and responses. This is a justice which is an antithesis and contradiction from sovereign justice in the invisible, higher ways of God. The justice of God’s damnation of sinners based upon their responses to His pursuit of their salvation is understandable by men because we feel as though we have a free will, or are justly guilty of those sins we are committing because we do not sense the invisible hand of God hardening our hearts. It is not confusing to us but we feel guilty, and we are. However, in the light of the higher workings of God, His sovereign hardenings or softenings, how can we be held accountable for our actions if they are all ordained by His determining will? Therefore, in the light of the full spectrum of God’s relationship to man, namely in the light of His higher ways (God in the ways of God), it is then that the justice of God to punish men based upon their deeds is not a comprehensible justice because we do not have a free will. Yet if we do not, then the justice of God judging us based upon our deeds is a relational experience made possible through a great condescension God has undergone to have a relationship with us, and though He has given us a snapshot of His higher workings by the written revelation of inspired scripture, we must understand that this work of God is incomprehensible, humanly illogical, and inconsistent with God’s condescension, which is, God in the ways of man saving, judging, and condemning on the basis of our works (rooted in the presence or absence of faith) in a logical vindication of His own works based upon the guilt they have for their unlawful deeds.
Oh Calvinist, will you not collapse as you read the following ways of God by condescension? They do break the boundaries of your theological system, and why? Your theology is built under the unbiblical premise that theology must be logically consistent instead of biblically consistent. In truth, we must take off our shoes from off our feet, as it were, and take off our human comfort in everything that makes logical sense. The scriptures argue that God is humanly incomprehensible, and how much more all of His ways? Nevertheless, it is sensible and logical, in truth, to understand that God cannot be understood. God relates to men outside of the realm of sovereignty, and, the significance of this you will see. According to all of these passages, did not God choose Israel so that their fruits “should” remain (Ps. 81:10-16), which is to say that they should have persevered? Could this be at all relevant in the New Covenant so that God could say to us who are in Christ, that we are chosen so that our fruit “should remain” forever (John 15:16)? But if it is like as they were chosen, and our “should” (John 15:16) is like as their “should” (Ps. 81:10-16), what does that mean for us? Calvinist, you may be leaning upon a broken reed. God’s condescension affects God’s will, word, counsel, and therefore, His promises, which then do affect the doctrine of eternal security.