Dev: Dec 13 - Jeremiah 31:15

¹⁵ This is what the Lord says:

“A voice is heard in Ramah,
mourning and great weeping,
Rachel weeping for her children
and refusing to be comforted,
because they are no more.”

Jeremiah 31

What is the difference between foreknowing and foreordaining?

·       Foreknowing means you know that something is going to happen. 

·       Foreordaining means that you are causing, purposing, and ordaining that something will happen. 

One of the most horrible events in history occurred just after Jesus was born. Matthew 2 records what happened after the wisemen left like this, "¹⁶ When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi."

The question is: Did God foreknow this … or foreordain this?

Do you see that how you answer this question says a lot about God … and a lot about you?

To say that God foreordained this event says that at some level God is not good. In fact, many in our world do say that. And/or they use examples like this to say that such things (like the Bible and even the God of the Bible) are myths because a good God certainly wouldn’t allow such things.

But all we have to do is open the newspaper to know that God (if he exists) does allow such things … because such things happen every day.

But – says the argument – if God knows what’s going to happen and doesn’t stop it, then he’s either not good or not powerful. He’s not caring enough to stop it, or not powerful enough to stop. Again for many, their thoughts about God end there. (Why believe in a God who is uncaring or unpowerful enough to stop evil, right? Thus many reject the God of the Bible.)

But … notice where they are pointing their fingers and assigning the blame. They are pointing at God. They are saying that he is bad. They are not pointing the fingers at humanity. We’re the ones who create sin. We murder and kill. We wound and betray. We lie and we cheat. We are to blame. Every one of us. We may not shoot anyone with a gun, but how many of us kill with our words … daily?

We’re the problem! And yet isn’t it a problem that God allows sin and evil? Does it say something about his character (or lack of power)?

Remember what season we’re in as we read this passage. God does something about sin. He does something about evil. God so loves the world that he gives his only Son. The Son of God so loves the world that steps out of the bliss of heaven and submits to conditions of this murderous world. In fact, he allows himself to get murdered.

And why? Because he is doing something about the sin! Christmas is God’s way of conquering the Herods and the murders and the betrayal.

No, you might not have chosen to do it this way. Your friends who rail against the cruelty of God might not have chosen to do it this way. Nevertheless, we’re not God! And we choose to trust – or not – that this was the best (God-ordained) way for God to give us freewill and save us.

That’s the key – freewill and salvation. Both appear to be his highest values. He could have made us sinless by making us robotic. But robots can’t love. He gave us the freedom to love him … or not. To trust him … or not. And when we sin and fall short, he comes to rescue us. To pay our price.

God foreknows the pain. And it breaks his heart.

Or maybe I should put that another way … God foreknows the pain of this world. And it breaks his body. Isn’t that what the cross was all about?

·       God doesn’t make the pain. We do.

·       Indeed, God doesn’t make the pain. Rather, he solves it. (And that’s what the Gospel is all about.)

In Christ’s Love,

a guy who worships

The Answer and

not The Problem