Me: Prodigal, what are you doing?
Prodigal: I am staring at the light that this candle is giving off. It is pretty and smells good too!
Me: Well, as you look at that light I can share with you about God’s light. I was reading What In The World is Going On by Dr. David Jeremiah and I wanted to share today.
I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you out, with all your army, horses, and horseman” Ezekiel 38:4 It will be in the latter days that I will bring you against My land. (v16) and I will turn you around and lead you on, bringing you up from the far north, and bring you against the mountains of Israel (39.2)
Passages such as these confuse many people because of the seeming implication that God leads men to be evil or to do evil things. But the Bible never says that God instills evil in the hearts of men. Some would attempt to refute this claim by pointing out that during the Exodus, the Bible explicitly says that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart. It does say that, of course, but the statement speaks about the nature of Pharaoh’s heart, not about God overriding man’s free will. Some hearts are like clay; the sun’s heat will harden them. Others are like wax; the sun will cause them to melt. It’s not the sun’s fault that it hardens one substance and melts the other; it all depends on the nature of the material. Pharaoh’s heart was the sort that would harden when exposed to God’s light. It had nothing to do with God coercing him to do evil.
The Old Testament, especially, is intended to show that God is the sovereign ruler over all. Even though men try to thwart His plan and wreak great destruction, God’s purpose will always win out. When Ezekiel wrote that God will bring the enemy against His land, he was simply saying that God will bring these nations to the doom that their wickedness inevitably demands. Everyone accomplishes God’s will in the end. Those who conform to His will accomplish it willingly; those who do not conform accomplish it inadvertently as an unwitting tool in His hands.
Jennifer Van Allen
www.theprodigalpig.com
www.faithincounseling.org
