HoHum:
Simon, Garfunkel “I Am a Rock”: I've built walls, A fortress deep and mighty, That none may penetrate. I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain. It's laughter and it's loving I disdain. I am a rock, I am an island. I have my books, And my poetry to protect me; I am shielded in my armor, Hiding in my room, safe within my womb. I touch no one, no one touches me. I am a rock, I am an island. And a rock feels no pain; And an island never cries.
WBTU:
A. Exegesis of Isaiah 45:20-25
Vs. 20- We have seen this language time and time again. God is in a courtroom trying to get the nations to see that their gods are nothing. He is openly confronting the gods of heathen.
Vs. 21
The repetition of this in these chapters, Isaiah 40-48, suggest that it is very clear and definite, and certainly it is very important for God’s people to understand. God has foreknowledge.
In the beginning of this chapter and the end of 44 we have the prediction of Cyrus who will come and set the Israelites free from their Babylonian captivity. This is 150 to 200 years in the future from Isaiah’s day. Isaiah looks beyond the current Assyrian danger (Assyrians tried to invade Judah during Hezekiah’s reign at the high point of Isaiah’s ministry). He foresees the end of another nation, Babylon. It would be another hundred years of so before Babylon would carry Judah away captive even as the Assyrians carried away northern Israel.
For those with little faith, this kind of prophecy seems impossible. In fact, many try to break up Isaiah into at least 2 sections and say that the last section was not written by Isaiah.
The Bible presents God as the only Living God, the Everlasting One, who not only announced the future but who acts to bring about foretold events. For people of faith, the prophet Isaiah, through the Living God, is looking back on a day that is still future to his own time. The Living God Who is Always Present with His people, is in unique position to know.
Vs. 22
What we might expect next are words of judgment, but instead we have an invitation to these people from the ends of the earth to turn to the Lord and be saved. Foreshadowing of Gentiles coming to faith in the Christian era.
If he is the only God, then he is also the only Savior. The Living God is the One to whom all persons must turn to if they are to realize the purpose of their lives.
Now this is not a blanket offer of universal salvation. There are those who accept God’s offer and come, and there are those who refuse to come and suffer shame and defeat.
Vs. 23
This is foretelling of a future time, the time of Jesus Christ.
“that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:10, 11.
This chapter goes from Cyrus, at least 150 years in the future, to Jesus Christ, 700 years.
Vs. 24
It is and through Jesus Christ that persons will be able to say that “in the Lord alone are righteousness and strength.”
Romans 3:21-24: “But now a righteousness from God, apart from law, has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. This righteousness from God comes through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”
Good stuff but like 2 weeks ago, I said that many times there are things that we accept as true that we have not examined that might not be true. 2 weeks ago we talked about the view of God and time called simultaneity. God does not go through time in any way. Everything is one eternal NOW for God. Doesn’t make sense but people have accepted it as truth. Open theists come along with a different view and we have to look at the Bible and see what is the truth from the Biblical perspective.
In much the same way, open theists have overreacted to a view that has been largely accepted until recent times. Need to go back to the Bible to see what is the correct view. From Simon, Garfunkel we find that they want to be a rock. Why? Because a rock has no feelings, a rock is untouchable with pain, a rock (an island) never cries. Isaiah 44:8 uses this imagery of God.
There is no rock to build upon for salvation, but Christ the rock of ages. Also we see here that God is unchangeable, He is a Rock. The unchangeableness of God is from Micah 3:6 “I the LORD do not change.” The picture here is of God as untouchable, no feelings, no emotions, immovable, never vulnerable, never changing his mind. Wait a minute!
3 areas of God’s unchangeableness that open theists rightly reject. One is timelessness. Already looked at this. Another one is that God does not experience any kind of anguish or grief, joy or delight, no emotion of any kind. The other is that God does not react to the world, he only acts. In the end we are left with a God who is static, immobile, rigid, and apathetic. He is the perfect stoic- A person who does not suffer from emotions or changes
Impassibility is the idea that God has no emotions. The eternal decree is the idea that God does not react to the world, he only acts.
Thesis: Let’s talk about these 2 extremes and come to a more biblical understanding.
For instances:
Eternal decree (God does not react to the world, He only acts)
We find in the area of creation (Genesis 1-2), that God is the one who acted. This was not a reaction in any way. God acted freely. The Big Bang Theory: God Spoke and Bang, it happened! This is definitely the eternal decree in action.
However, we find that when sin entered the world in Genesis 3, we find that God reacted.
God acts upon the world and then the world acts upon God implies a relationship between God and the world. A relationship is not a one way affair.
God reacts to such things as obedience, to which He responds with pleasure or joy. “And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” Hebrews 13:16, NIV.
When people sin, God responds with wrath. “God is a righteous judge, a God who expresses his wrath every day.” Psalms 7:11, NIV.
When God’s people pray, He responds with blessings. “Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress.” Psalms 107:28, NIV.
When God’s people pray, He does change his mind. “Then the LORD relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.” Exodus 32:14, NIV.
God’s attitude toward individuals does change when their relationship to God changes. “Come near to God and he will come near to you.” James 4:8.
There are times when God acts upon world, and also there are times when God reacts to world. Considering that we are discussing God’s foreknowledge, can we really say that anything is a “reaction” from God’s perspective because He already knows what is going to happen? Too deep to get any definite answers
In OT passages such as in Hosea, God finds joy and pleasure in His relationship with Israel when they respond to Him in love. At the same time, God is pained and hurt and deeply disturbed at Israel’s rebellion; it gives Him inward conflict, distress, and bitter disappointment.
Impassibility (God has no emotions)
Some explain God’s emotions like the descriptions of God having a body. God does not have a body. Such language is used for us to understand. God does not have emotions. Such language is used for us to understand. I don’t know! Emotionless God is foreign to Scripture.
“The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.” Genesis 6:6, NIV.
“And the LORD was grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel.” 1 Samuel 15:35, NIV.
“When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the LORD was grieved because of the calamity and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” 2 Samuel 24:16, NIV.
How is the incarnation real, how can we say that both the divine and the human were united in a single person, if the divine nature did not suffer when Jesus suffered? The incarnation, and the substitutionary atonement are impossible without suffering. This idea is dangerous and devastating.
“He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” Romans 8:32, NIV. We see here that God the Father did suffer when the Son suffered. Now, the Father did not suffer what the Son suffered, but because the Son suffered. He was not experiencing the agonies of Calvary; only God the Son was experiencing those. The Father rather was experiencing the agonies of a Father as He watched His only begotten Son go through an ordeal unlike anything eternity had ever seen or ever will see again.
I think we need to get back to the original intent of the idea that God does not change. Basically, this is saying that God is faithful. But what is faithfulness? A person is faithful if they can be depended upon to do what they promised. Is God faithful? “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” Numbers 23:19, NIV.
