God Responds to Our Decisions

  

Gen 3: 23 So the Lord God banished them from the Garden of Eden, and he sent Adam out to cultivate the ground from which he had been made. 

In trying to understand God's will, I turn again to Leslie Weatherhead's sermon series "The Will of God" wherein he describes three aspects to God's will: His Ultimate will, His Intentional will, and His circumstantial will.  Having briefly examined God's ultimate will yesterday and determining that in reality all source of hope, at least as far as I'm concerned, hinges on Christ, His victory over death and His forthcoming ultimate victory in today's ongoing spiritual warfare - God's ultimate will. 

Today I want to consider the second aspect of God's will, His intentional will.  Leslie delivered this series of sermons during the height of WWII and was motivated by individuals who ascribed the tremendous atrocities and personal tragedies of that war as "the will of God."  Leslie took great umbrage with people who resignedly ascribed the tragic loss of especially innocent women and children as the will of God.  Instead Leslie pointed to the fact that it wasn't God's intention for these tragedies any more than it was God's intention for Adam and Eve to partake of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge.  God certainly allowed it to happen due to man's freedom of choice, but it was not God's intention.  In fact, God completed His creation by placing Eve at Adam's side to dwell in the garden and simply be in relationship with Adam and God.  God responded to their choice to disobey His command by banishing them from the garden and beginning His ongoing pursuit of a lost mankind.  In fact, Weatherhead makes the point that it wasn't God's original intent to send Jesus to the cross, but it became necessary when mankind, all of us, chose to sin. 

I like Leslie's development because it forces us to look for other causes to our circumstances.  Often it is not God who has placed tragedy in our lives, instead often tragedies are born of our own decisions.  Decisions to drive under the influence, for instance, have taken countless otherwise blameless lives.  Did God do that to the blameless?  No!  He certainly allowed it to happen just as He allowed Satan to destroy Job's life.  But he has allowed humankind the freedom to choose and often our bad choices lead to tragedy. 

Other times Satan is to be blamed directly.  Clearly Satan was allowed by God to destroy both directly and indirectly Job's entire life here on earth.  While I lack the spiritual discernment to point to specific instances of Satan's work, I believe wholeheartedly that in cases such as infant mortality, mass genocide, and other overwhelming tragedies, Satan is clearly at work. 

So, my conclusion is to not resignedly point to God as the cause of all of life's circumstances.  God clearly allows tragedies to occur within His ultimate will, but I don't believe that our God who loves us intends for all of life's issues to occur.  Often we bring these things upon ourselves.  Other times, Satan is actively working to thwart God in His battle for the souls of mankind.  So as I look upon issues and circumstances in life, I know that God loves me and intends only the best.  My own selfishly motivated decisions, however, often take me off of His narrow path leading to issues outside of His original intent.  Fortunately, God doesn't leave us there and is always ready to respond to us out of love.  His original intent may be altered by our poor decisions or undeserved tragedy, but He always stands ready to respond to us in love and put us on a new path in relationship with Him.