God’s Sovereignty & Our Free Will
It has been just over a year since my last blog post and hopefully it won’t be another year before the next one.
Today good old Facebook reminded me that it was 8 years ago today that my family moved back to Wichita Kansas as we were seeking a path to overseas mission’s work. I was reflecting on that and how things have gone very differently than I ever could have imagined. Not only are we not overseas but my wife had another affair, and we are now getting divorced. As I reflected on that I was immediately reminded of one of my favorite revelations God has given me. He helped me understand His sovereignty by thinking of Him as the Ultimate Chess Master.
Years ago, I started using the illustration of God as the Ultimate Chess Master to help explain how I think of God’s Sovereignty in conjunction with our free will. I’m sure many of you have heard questions or even asked the question yourself, “how can man have free will if God has already determined/predestined what will happen?”
All throughout scripture we see examples of God’s sovereignty (meaning God is in control and reigns over all of creation). In my Bible classes I learned that Genesis 3:15 is referred to as the Protoevangelium (first telling of the gospel). God tells us in the beginning of scripture what will come to pass a couple thousand years later when Jesus comes. "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15, NIV)
God has told us what He will do, and He has given us evidence to trust him now and forever. It is not blind faith when you study His Word.
Abraham & Isaac – I will make you a great nation, I will give you this land, kings shall come from you, I will bless your offspring, I will be their God (Genesis 12:1–3, 15:18, 17:3-8.) Yet God tests Abraham and his trust in Him by telling Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.
The Passover (Exodus from Egypt) points to Jesus (Exodus 12:7, 12-13, 23, 46) as the blood of the perfect, unblemished lamb. God’s judgement will pass over those who place their faith in Jesus’ blood.
In the story of the “Lost Son” (Prodigal) Jesus was communicating the love of the father in the joy of his returning wayward son. The father could have refused to give his son his inheritance (attempting to control his decision to go) but instead he allows him to go (allowing him his free will). The audience hearing the story would have thought it crazy as it would have been a disgrace. Then, even worse would be the fact that the father ran to his son (considered undignified for a wealthy older man to run, especially to his disgraced son). The father knew his son had to make his OWN decision (free will).
I love strategy board games – where you must be patient and keep the END IN MIND. Much like Dr. Strange in Marvel’s End Game, he chose a path that was difficult because he had already seen the outcome of the possibilities. Although that is just a movie and Dr. Strange is nothing like God, it is an example to help understand the analogy of the Chess Master.
God makes it clear that he knows everything “beginning to end” and he is using EVERYTHING to bring about his purposes. “I have said what I would do, and I will do it” (Isaiah 46:11.) He said that His Word will come to pass, and He will accomplish His desire and purposes (Isaiah 45:11.)
Just like the prodigal, God lets us choose not only our path, but every
step we take. The amazing thing is that God already knows every decision each
of us will make. I don’t believe he is sitting idly by, but instead is actively
engaging His creation in daily intimate ways.
The Ultimate Chess Master – A chess master can see 10+ moves ahead that you are beat, but they wait patiently. God had the world in checkmate before the game even started. There are times in my life where I come to a roadblock and think well, I must have made a wrong turn “in the will of God” (heard him wrong.) God knows what we are going to do before we do it. He is moving pieces around the board all around us. The question is “do we trust him,” do we believe that He is sovereign. There are many things, even with a good illustration, we can’t fully understand, but we can trust that since God did it this way it is the right way. We may think we know better than God but like Romans 9:20 says, “will what is molded question the molder.”
I want to give one more biblical example of God as the Ultimate Chess Master in conjunction with man’s Free Will by using the story of Joseph and then one more illustration using a cross stitch picture.
The very reason Israel was in Egypt is another example of God’s sovereignty in the midst of circumstances that would have seemed to man’s thinking as anything but God’s plans in the moment.
Gen
37:6-10 - Joseph was given multiple dreams from God telling him he would be
elevated over his entire family.
Then his brothers throw him in a pit and make
plans to kill him but instead decide to sell him into slavery (v20)
Gen 39:2-6 - Joseph finds favor with his
master as he serves with excellence and is blessed by God.
Gen 39:7-18 - Then his master’s wife falsely
accuses him of trying to rape her because he refuses her advances, as it would
be a sin against God.
Gen 40 - He spends years in an Egyptian
dungeon before he is called out by Pharoah to interpret a dream.
He was around 40 when his own dream became a reality,
and he was raised up as 2nd to Pharoah over all the land.
How many times do you think that Joseph
wondered if he made a “wrong turn” as he faced roadblocks that many of us
cannot even begin to fathom? How many of
you had your brothers plan to kill you and then sell you into slavery? Or face multiple years in prison for refusing
to do something evil?
Gen 50:19-20 - Joseph tells his brothers, when
they fear he will seek revenge for what they did, “Do not fear, for am I in the
place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good,
to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”
Joseph's circumstances were greatly affected by the free will of other's decisions.
Lighthouse cross stitch – I have experienced many times where I wondered why things happened the way they did. We often can’t see how God was at work in the moment. Like the back of a cross stitch, it can look messy and might not make sense why this string in our life is going here or looks so ugly.
It is often later down the road, when we can look back and see how he was at work stitching a beautiful picture (or moving pieces on the board) all along the journey. I believe we won't see the true beauty of our picture until we are looking at it from heaven.
God’s timing is perfect but often we don’t feel that way in the moment. I, like Israel, often become impatient and want to be in the future instead of trusting God in the present.
We just need to
trust that HE IS GOD AND HE IS AT WORK IN AND THROUGH
ALL THINGS!
I am so thankful for God making His truth clear to me many years ago. Otherwise, this season of divorce could have easily brought me to an even darker place than it did and resulted in me being angry at Him instead of trusting Him through it ALL.
If you feel abandoned by God, like Israel did when God spoke to them through the Prophet Isaiah. Or don’t believe God exists because of the pain, suffering, and evil you have experienced in this life. I hope you will open your heart and ears to Him and hear His voice telling you that He loves you and He is worthy of your trust.
I believe that we are a chess piece on the board that God is using to bring about his purposes, but it goes even further in that others are also a piece that God is using in each of our lives. God is at work in and through us, but like Joseph, we must depend on Him to do the work and trust Him no matter what the circumstances look like. He is faithful in keeping His promises and He has promised us an eternal inheritance as His adopted children.
This season is hard for me to understand, but God… will use it
ALL.
-Kimbo
Comments
Post a Comment