Hebraic Musing – God is Omnipotent, but are there things He Cannot Do?
As the Creator, God cannot also be the creation. Therefore, He has to limit Himself and give
us the space to exist and live. What
does that mean? He will not take away
our freedom of choice. As His
creation we have limits; we are confined to time, space, matter and energy
constraints. If He tampers with those
constraints He would be taking away our choices?
What can God do if He does not like our choices, or
how we exercise our God-given free will?
For God to stop the evil that His creation does, He has these four unpleasant
options:
1. He
might give leave some with freedom of choice, good or evil, (Me of
course). But I want others to have their
freedom removed. God would have to
abandon logic which would result in chaos.
2. Or
to avoid chaos, let’s wish for good behavior for all people. If He removed freedom of choice and left only
good choices, no choice, then life and fellowship would be bland, meaningless
and purposeless.
3. God
could obliterate all creation as we know it and create a different universe with
different rules of logic.
4.
God can continue with His current strategy and
allow humans the freedom to do both good and evil in spite of the pain we
inflict on each other.
In a logical universe, even God cannot make sense of
non-sense. He is stuck when He gave us
our freedom to choose good or evil, and it has resulted in the chaos we call
life.
BUT God has a problem! Habakkuk 1:12 identifies it. “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil;
you cannot tolerate wrong.” Is
God self-limiting, or is it simply “He cannot” tolerate wrong? Paul understood this and told Timothy – “if
we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.” 2
Tim.2:13 NIV We, the creation, cannot change the Creator.
Almighty God may have reasons for not answering our
prayers/requests?
·
Maybe we are rudely demanding an answer? If so, then which one of us do we think is
God?
·
Maybe the answer would be beyond our own ability
to understand.
·
Another explanation for divine silence might be
the God deems us unable to safely handle some of the answers out there. Do we really want to know the future?
·
Do we sometimes blame God for our troubles? “When tempted, no one should say, ‘God is
tempting me.’ For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt
anyone.” James 1:13 NIV
A burning question – If God cannot change situations for
fear of overstepping His role as Creator, then why pray for Him to change
situations, to violate the laws of time, space, matter and energy? Can we expect Him to fix the consequences of
our bad choices?
When we pray, are we to expect God to interfere with His
creation? Or should we be asking for
guidance and faith to deal with circumstances?
(I wish I knew the answer.)
This way of viewing God and His self-imposed limitations reminds
me of child-raising counsel I’ve given to parents – “Your children are living life which is like running the bases in a
baseball game. Don’t move home plate;
don’t change the rules or boundaries. If
you do the result is distrust, chaos and rebellion.” The children of God need to learn to live by
the rules.
Points
to ponder
Are we responsible for the
results of our own decisions/choices?
Does the world depend on
God’s Word for daily existence? Or…
Are the problems of this world the result of ignoring God’s guidance, His rules
and His Word?
Since we cannot change God,
who has to change?
Now I begin to understand
why Father God had to be willing to sacrifice His Son, Jesus, for us!
♫ I serve a risen
Savior, He’s in the world today… He walks with me…♫
Yosef a.k.a.
Joe Brusherd May 10,
2017
Author: “Hebraic Insights – Messages exploring the Hebrew roots of our faith”
“Biblical Marriage” Weekly “Hebraic Musings” www.InsightsByYosef.com
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