MERCY
OK, the last post about the kings was very much like a broken record.
-- I wonder how many people get that phrase, by the way: broken record. OK...I know Jeff knows (he is my across the nation friend that I know reads my blog) but Jeff ~ do your daughters? hmmmm -- OK, for those of you who might have lived most or all of your life without a record player ~ back in the 'olden' days we had records and record players. The records were like much much bigger cd's, they were black (nic-named licorice pizza) and had a groove that spiraled from the edge to the center. A needle would ride the groove, from the edge to the center, while the record spun on the record player. (If you want to know how the music was held in that grove, you must go to wikipedia or the library ... or someone smart like Jeff, for instance ... cuz I just listened to them -- I have NO idea how the magic happened.) but anyway if the record got a scratch on those groves, it would 'skip'. The needle would make a circle at just that spot, instead of continuing to the center, and repeat just one phrase of a song over and over and over and over --
That is why the last post was like a broken record -- over and over: bad king who did evil, bad king who did evil, bad king who did evil.
Every time I read and reread this part of the Bible, the same thoughts tend to occur, and as I have written these blogs I have had some interesting discussions around those questions --
Why did God give Jeroboam the kingdom to begin with -- He is all knowing so He had to KNOW what choices Jeroboam would make, right? Why tolerate bad, evil king after bad evil king?
I have no clear final answer -- but I do, as I ponder, keep coming to the same conclusion. The dilemma centers for me around the truth in tension of the sovereignty of God vs. the free will of man. This theological debacle has been debated and argued about, batted back and forth for century after century. I don't think a final answer is possible since both are clearly true and Biblical. God IS sovereign. God has given man free will. It seems to me that there must have been a chance of SOME sort, that the choice that Jeroboam made could have been to serve God. Why send prophets to give him the pieces of the cloak, and then to prophecy against the altar? Why continue to send prophets to share the heart of God with the kings and the nation of Israel? God wanted Jeroboam to serve him...Jeroboam didn't. Then the story repeats itself again and again and again. Even if God did not know the outcome before the choices were made ... which is the tricky theological point since God is OUTSIDE of time and can see all time, knowing the end from the beginning ... yet still He continually gives men ~ and in this case, Jeroboam ~ real FREE choice. He speaks, sends prophets, reaches out with miracles, but does not stop the choice. He cannot. To take free will from man is to make man a robot. Obedience becomes a sham, and love disappears. Those two responses matter so much to God that He gave men a really and truly free will.
There is this AMAZING scripture in 2 Peter 3:9:
God is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
And not all -- but some have repented and some do repent and some will repent. I cannot say if before a choice IS made, whether God already knows what we will do. Some things in scripture seem to say He does. Others seem to say He doesn't. BUT in the stories in 1&2 Kings it looks like and God seems to act like He knows both options but He doesn't know which choice will be made -- and He keeps rooting for these kings and for Israel to make the right choices.
This is for me MERCY: God keeps taking the risk on us. He continues to show kindness, and to give help and to love us. And He doesn't just show kindness and love to the 'good' guys! I want to, in the next blogs, look at things God does during these dark days of evil kings of ISRAEL.
-- I wonder how many people get that phrase, by the way: broken record. OK...I know Jeff knows (he is my across the nation friend that I know reads my blog) but Jeff ~ do your daughters? hmmmm -- OK, for those of you who might have lived most or all of your life without a record player ~ back in the 'olden' days we had records and record players. The records were like much much bigger cd's, they were black (nic-named licorice pizza) and had a groove that spiraled from the edge to the center. A needle would ride the groove, from the edge to the center, while the record spun on the record player. (If you want to know how the music was held in that grove, you must go to wikipedia or the library ... or someone smart like Jeff, for instance ... cuz I just listened to them -- I have NO idea how the magic happened.) but anyway if the record got a scratch on those groves, it would 'skip'. The needle would make a circle at just that spot, instead of continuing to the center, and repeat just one phrase of a song over and over and over and over --
That is why the last post was like a broken record -- over and over: bad king who did evil, bad king who did evil, bad king who did evil.
Every time I read and reread this part of the Bible, the same thoughts tend to occur, and as I have written these blogs I have had some interesting discussions around those questions --
Why did God give Jeroboam the kingdom to begin with -- He is all knowing so He had to KNOW what choices Jeroboam would make, right? Why tolerate bad, evil king after bad evil king?
I have no clear final answer -- but I do, as I ponder, keep coming to the same conclusion. The dilemma centers for me around the truth in tension of the sovereignty of God vs. the free will of man. This theological debacle has been debated and argued about, batted back and forth for century after century. I don't think a final answer is possible since both are clearly true and Biblical. God IS sovereign. God has given man free will. It seems to me that there must have been a chance of SOME sort, that the choice that Jeroboam made could have been to serve God. Why send prophets to give him the pieces of the cloak, and then to prophecy against the altar? Why continue to send prophets to share the heart of God with the kings and the nation of Israel? God wanted Jeroboam to serve him...Jeroboam didn't. Then the story repeats itself again and again and again. Even if God did not know the outcome before the choices were made ... which is the tricky theological point since God is OUTSIDE of time and can see all time, knowing the end from the beginning ... yet still He continually gives men ~ and in this case, Jeroboam ~ real FREE choice. He speaks, sends prophets, reaches out with miracles, but does not stop the choice. He cannot. To take free will from man is to make man a robot. Obedience becomes a sham, and love disappears. Those two responses matter so much to God that He gave men a really and truly free will.
There is this AMAZING scripture in 2 Peter 3:9:
God is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.
And not all -- but some have repented and some do repent and some will repent. I cannot say if before a choice IS made, whether God already knows what we will do. Some things in scripture seem to say He does. Others seem to say He doesn't. BUT in the stories in 1&2 Kings it looks like and God seems to act like He knows both options but He doesn't know which choice will be made -- and He keeps rooting for these kings and for Israel to make the right choices.
This is for me MERCY: God keeps taking the risk on us. He continues to show kindness, and to give help and to love us. And He doesn't just show kindness and love to the 'good' guys! I want to, in the next blogs, look at things God does during these dark days of evil kings of ISRAEL.
loving these, barber. a friend recently sent me the lyrics to a song, and while they were extensive and i'd have to look them up to remember all of them, the main line that resonated with me was "i knew what i was getting into when i created you" - reminds me of your remark that God continues to take the risk on us. excited for your reflections coming up. . .
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