Diabolical Manipulator or Merciful God?

So it depends not on human will or exertion, but on God who shows mercy. (Romans 9:16 NRSV)

As we get into the troubling story of Pharaoh and the extended arguments as to who hardened his heart during the plagues of Egypt, it needs to be remembered that it was God's attributes of mercy and compassion that are highlighted in this story, not His supposed forcing of Pharaoh to resist God's wrath. Again this story drives home the point that it is not human actions or events that determine God's plans or influence how He acts toward us but it is the character of God Himself coupled with His foreknowledge that determines His actions and attitudes towards us.

I believe that if we looked at this story about Pharaoh through the eyes of heaven instead of our twisted misconceptions about God that we could see a very different picture with very different conclusions about God. God loved Pharaoh just as much as he loved Moses. That has to be the starting point and the reference point from which to read the rest of the story or everything begins to fall apart very quickly. However it is very clear that Pharaoh was one of those people who were determined to have nothing but a hateful relationship with God. God actually offered Pharaoh repeatedly chance after change to be a vessel of mercy and glorify God's name in the earth by responding in repentance and assisting God's chosen people instead of resisting them.

The hardening of Pharaoh was not a description of his choice to resist God but was a result of that choice. We too often confuse the two things. In God's government of absolute freedom of choice for every being, Pharaoh made the choices to stay in his pride and rebellion against all odds, resisting the kindness of God that could have led him to repentance instead of surrendering to overwhelming evidence of God's mercy and compassion. In fact, this story should really be a strong warning to us of the dangers of our own hearts becoming hardened when we refuse to believe in God's mercy and compassion and instead try to paint a picture of Him as a mix of both good and evil. If you may remember, that was part of the original lie that the serpent told to Eve from the tree."For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (Genesis 3:5)

So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires. You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?" On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, "Why did you make me like this," will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? (Romans 9:18-21)

If a fire hardens a distorted lump of clay is it fair to tell the fire that it should not have that effect on clay?

Likewise, is it fair to demand that the One who knows everything should not see problems inside the people who are suffering from their resistance to His love for them?

Is it fair to think that God should not use His foreknowledge of a person's decisions in His planning for the lives of those people and those around them? We would say that a person was negligent and derelict if they ignore their knowledge of important facts in making life and death decisions, and yet we think God should not do the same?

Just because God decides to allow a person's resistant choices to wreak havoc on their life or their nation does not make God to blame for those choices that they make. If He decides to arrange circumstances so that those very choices of resistance end up in highlighting His own mercy, does that give us grounds for accusing Him of inducing the behavior of the impenitent?

If we honestly believe that God is the cause behind someone's bad choices, or forces a person to resist His goodness; if we believe that God preordains some, irregardless of their own will, to be used as instruments and containers through which to demonstrate His hostility, spite and meanness, then it would follow that maybe we should wake up one day and pray, “God, make me an instrument of your wrath today. Harden my heart against your love and cause me to be resistant and stubborn today to glorify your name.”

As absurd as that sounds, would it not be in harmony with the “will of God”? To be consistent in our beliefs we would have to say that if it is God's predetermined intention to use certain people through which to demonstrate His negative, dark side, and that somehow this returns glory back to God's reputation, then it would also seem right to pray for this part of His will to be done as well. And since it would be wrong for us to judge that someone else should be the object of His “wrath”, then maybe when we feel hopeless and all so full of evil inside we should offer up ourselves as objects of His fury so that we can do Him a favor by demonstrating the alleged dark side of His character through our messed up lives.

We do not need God's help to live out a life of sin and rebellion. Of course, all of this nonsense is absolutely absurd and even worse than it sounds and I hope nobody is seriously considering doing it. But it is the kind of thinking that follows from settling for a simplistic surface understanding of this passage according to the way it is often believed to read. I believe it is useful sometimes to follow an idea to its logical next step to see what direction it may be leading us so we can see if we are working with reasonable assumptions or if our beliefs need some serious re-thinking and divine modification. But sometimes this kind of reasoning is useful to enhance the brightness of the real truth about God by contrast when we begin to see it in its true beauty and perfect consistency.

What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, "I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION." So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. (Romans 9:14-16)

We may secretly think that the injustice of God is in forcing certain people to be the fall guy for Him. According to what we might conclude from this passage we may think that God simply overwhelms the resistance of anyone whom He has arbitrarily chosen to be the “bad guy”, to be a vessel of His wrath.

But in fact, God turns it around and shows us that the real injustice we are accusing Him of is being too merciful and compassionate. For ever since sin entered the universe this has been one of the lies of Satan that he plays off against his other lies about God to keep us in confusion. Either we believe that God is harsh and judgmental and arbitrary or we might believe He is too lenient and soft on those that in our opinion deserve to be punished severely. Of course, it is usually ourselves that we think are being treated too harshly and others that are treated too softly.

But look at what these verses are really saying. What is the “it” that is referred to in verse 16? What is not dependent on human will or exertion? The “it” refers to the active mercy and compassion of God toward sinful human beings. What this text is actually saying is that God's mercy and compassion is not dependent on anything we do or choices we make but on the purpose and desires of God toward those He has created. God's mercy is not predicated on human will or exertion but on God who has mercy. I see God here insisting that He will be merciful and compassionate whether we like it or not, because that is a part of who He is.

I find this rather fascinating. Here is Paul defending God for choosing to show compassion and mercy. I don't see God here trying to defend Himself against charges of punishing someone or abusing them but only about things in His true character. Even in the following verses it could be legitimately said that the hardness that takes place is not because God forced it on someone but was a result of resistance to His very presence. It is the same issue that we see in the pervasive misunderstandings about the fire of God and what happens in hell. (For insights on that visit Surprise Ending and Heavenly Sanctuary)

It is also interesting that the analogy of a potter and clay is used in this passage. Adam was made from the clay of the earth, but what happened when God breathed into him (kissed him really)? Did he suddenly become very hard – a porcelain doll? No, he became a living soul with a soft body of flesh and a heart wide open to love and be loved. God's presence and life, the very essence of who He is, was breathed into the clay body of Adam and Adam took on those characteristics so much that he was very similar to God. What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! (Psalms 8:4-5) He was created in the image of God, in His likeness. (By the way, the concept of Adam at that point was both male and female. Eve was, in a way, still inside of him and just needed to be drawn out and given a separate identity. But the Bible says “man” was male and female. See Gen. 1:26,27.

But sin soon entered into this creation made in the image of God and caused an alienation of resistance due to a breakdown of trust between the Creator and His beloved creation. Adam and Eve's choice to believe “The Lie” about God put them out of synchronization with their Source of power and introduced the deadly element of resistance into the relationship. What does a resistor produce when power passes through it? Ask any electronics person and they will tell you – it produces heat. And what happens when heat is applied to clay instead of the life-giving breath of God? You have a hardening of the heart.

So we see then that there are two very different reactions to the same presence of God. When one is in harmony with the way things are created and synchronized with their Creator they are energized and come alive the more they experience His power and presence. But when they choose to believe lies about God and try to live outside of the harmony and principles that they were designed to live within, they experience dysfunction, pain and all sorts of symptoms that eventually lead to death if no intervention is received. Nothing has changed really since Adam and Eve chose to embrace mistrust in their loving Father; we still distrust Him due to the same lies about Him that they embraced and God is still intervening with His grace and mercy to allow us time to be reconciled to Him.

You will say to me then, "Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?" (Romans 9:19)

There is yet another ironic turning of a question on its head. We may think at first reading that this verse means God is looking for an excuse to punish someone after He Himself caused them to be vessels of His wrath. That seems grossly unfair to us and it rightly should – if it was true! But once again the question can be found to be saying something quite different than at first thought, actually incriminating us instead of God.

If the question is looked at from a different angle it can be seen as a complaint that God is not qualified to be our Judge. “Why does God have the right to see any faults in us? It's not fair for Him to say that we are at fault when we resist His love, mercy and compassion towards us when it actually works out to be for His glory.”

In essence, it can be seen that we are demanding the right to resist God and all the principles of reality and even the very design for which we are created but still not suffer any of the natural consequences. That makes as much sense as filing a lawsuit because gravity causes us to fall to the ground when we step off a cliff and receive serious injuries or death as a result.

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, "FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH." (Romans 9:17)

Isn't it just as possible that if Pharaoh had surrendered to God's mercy and compassion that he could have demonstrated God's power and name throughout the whole earth through his cooperation with God and Moses? Was it absolutely necessary that Pharaoh be a resistant “vessel of wrath” for God's power to be seen in him? As Paul would say – God forbid! God does not need evil people through which to display some hidden evil part of His own nature. That thinking comes straight from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil inhabited by the enemy of God. God does not have a dark side as most suppose Him to have. God is all light and God is love. Any darkness that we see about Him is due to our misapprehensions about Him and residual lies that still cloud our thinking and darken our own vision. And where we see darkness we need to ask for more light of truth to dispel that darkness, not simply attribute the darkness to the nature of God.

The end of chapter 9 begins to make these points even more clear. I will explore that more when I get into those verses.

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