The Patriarchs - Inhumanly Precise

This is the ninth post in a series that I am doing based on the lives of the Patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob), the accounts of which are found in the book of Genesis.  In spite of the title of this series, the record of the experiences of the men listed above are only incidental to me.  What I find far more interesting, relevant, and important is the revelation of the character and nature of God that we can see by observing these men's lives.  Each post will coincide with a lesson being taught in a classroom.  As such, they will not be in a traditional essay format.  Rather, it will be a slightly expanded version of the notes that I hand out in class.

The Genesis Account

Gen. 24 – Consider how perfectly these events fell into place so as to result in Rebekah becoming Isaac’s wife.  Eliezer was very specific in his request to God about helping him find the right woman for Isaac.  Rebekah “just happened” to be the very first person to come to the well.  And it was not even after Eliezer was done with his request, it was while he was still speaking.  Eliezer arrived on a particular day at a particular time to meet a particular woman who was the daughter of a particular relative and who responded in a particular way to a particular request.  The odds against this all occurring in precisely this way are great.  It seems very obvious that God arranged all of this according to His specific standards.

Gen. 27:20 – Jacob, in deceiving his father, said that the Lord caused him to find game so quickly.  He was clearly lying in an effort to cover his tracks and avoid suspicion.  Further, he was actually in violation of the 3^rd commandment that would be given later at Mt. Sinai.  And although the Law was not yet in effect in a technical sense, the Law reflects who God is and God doesn’t change, so therefore the principle of the commandment already existed in the universe.  But beyond the scheming and lying that Jacob and Rebekah were certainly guilty of, perhaps there is a little bit of unwitting prophecy to be seen here.

Supporting Scriptures

Pro. 16:33 – The casting of lots was an ancient practice which would be analogous to our modern custom of rolling dice.  It was a method of producing a random result by tossing small decorated objects such as sticks or small flat rocks and watching to see how they landed.  It was used in the Bible both religiously in an effort to determine the will of God and secularly by people who simply wanted to randomize a decision.

Num. 26:55; Jos. 18:6; Josh. 7:10-15; Acts 1:23-26 – The verses listed show humans, prior to the giving of the Holy Spirit, using the cultural practice of casting lots for the purpose of seeking the will of God in a particular situation.  Moses and Joshua relied on this method in parceling out tracts of land to the tribes of Israel.  Joshua used lots at God’s direction to ascertain that it was Achan who had sinned and caused the defeat of Israel in battle.  And Peter used lots to select Matthias as the man who would replace Judas Iscariot as the 12^th Apostle.

Esth. 3:7; Jon. 1:7; Joh. 19:24 – These passages demonstrate the usage of the casting of lots in a secular sense.  Haman casts lots to determine the time of year that would be best for the extermination of the Jews.  The frightened sailors cast lots to find out who was responsible for the storm that was swamping their ship.  And the Roman guards cast lots to decide who would get Jesus’s clothes.

Questions For Meditation

Did God specifically and authoritatively control and bring about the circumstances that led to Isaac and Rebekah’s marriage or was it a case of human volition being factored into God’s plans so as to bring about the result He desired.

My answer to this question is…yes.  I see both of these factors at work in the arrangement and resolution of the events depicted here.  Consider the situation.  Eliezer is given very specific instructions by Abraham in verse 4.  He is told to travel back to Abraham’s country, meaning Haran.  He is further instructed not to take a wife for Isaac from just any family, but from Abraham’s own kinsmen.  Eliezer is understandably a little bit apprehensive about this assignment and he most definitely does not possess the same level of faith as his master.  It seems reasonable to assume that he is considering the enormity of the challenge involved in first finding the right place, then the right people, and then convincing a young girl to come back with him to marry Isaac sight unseen.  So Abraham gives Eliezer additional reassurance in verse 7 by telling him that an angel from God will guide him to the right place and people.  Furthermore Abraham says, his God is so trustworthy that if He does not show Himself faithful in this then the servant is freed from any obligation.

As we skip down to verses 12 to 14 we see Eliezer standing by the well outside the city of Nahor.  Notice how specific he is with his request to God regarding the particulars of what will happen.  Verse 15 tells us that he was still speaking to God, presumably in his mind, when who should appear but Rebekah.  And of course she responds exactly as Eliezer had hoped.

Now then, any rational person reading this and accepting it as an accurate historical account should be willing to admit that the odds against this all falling into place exactly the way it did is so unlikely as to be virtually impossible.  It would require a determined assumption of fabrication on the part of the author to interpret this account as anything other than God guiding and controlling the people and circumstances involved in this.

But at the same time, the Bible is quite consistent about holding individuals personally responsible for their own actions.  We have to look no further than Genesis chapter three to read of how God refused to accept Adam and Eve’s attempts to deflect blame for sin from themselves to someone else.  In the situation described in Genesis 24 although God was clearly in control of everything that happened Abraham was still responsible to demonstrate his faith to his servant, Eliezer was still required to place his trust in the God of his master, and Rebekah was still expected to act with integrity, respect, and submissiveness when she encountered an unfamiliar man at the well.

We can see a similar pattern in Genesis chapter 27.  Rebekah and Jacob are deceiving Isaac into giving Esau’s blessing to Jacob.  In verse 20 Isaac asks Jacob how he was able to find game so quickly.  Falling ever deeper into the web of lies being constructed by his own actions, Jacob profanes the character of God by saying that He caused it to happen.  Jacob and his mother did not need to act with deception here.  The Lord had already guaranteed Rebekah that Esau would ultimately serve her favored younger son.  But apparently she felt that she needed to manufacture events to help God along and she passed that incorrect conclusion along to Jacob.  Ultimately their efforts ended in disaster, although this might not be immediately obvious from the text.

The blessing that Jacob stole was not the covenantal blessing first given to Abraham.  The stolen blessing was a material one relating to possessions, wealth, and prosperity.  The covenantal blessing, dealing with offspring and land and specifically mentioning Abraham’s name, is given later when he is getting ready to leave for Haran.

So not only did Jacob and Rebekah’s plot not result in the desired blessing but they never saw each other again after Jacob left and he had to spend two decades providing free labor for an uncle at least as manipulative and deceitful as he was.

But in the midst of all this, consider again the statement that Jacob makes to his father: “the Lord your God caused it to happen to me.”  Although I have no doubt Jacob didn’t have the slightest clue about what he was saying beyond trying to escape being caught, I believe he was unwittingly speaking truth here.  God demonstrates Himself to be fully in control of events, as in the case with Eliezer and Rebekah, somehow mysteriously merging His sovereign and precise control of events with the responsibility of man to act appropriately in a process that we don’t fully understand.  And if this is true then Jacob, even in the midst of his selfish scheming, was still ultimately in the hands of the God he would come to know a short time later.

Does the casting of lots described in Proverbs 16:33 literally mean that God determines how every single lot that is cast will fall or is Solomon referring exclusively to the casting of lots when men are seeking after the will of God?

Two principle objectives can be seen in Scripture for the ancient custom of casting lots.  One goal was to determine the will of God on a matter of importance such as distribution of land or Apostolic selection.  Another was a more secular aim such as selecting a date for the execution of a plot or gambling for a condemned prisoner’s clothing.  Examples of both of these methods are given above.  The question is, which type is Solomon referring to in Proverbs 16?

I would argue that in the absence of any clues given to the contrary, why would we not assume that the author is refraining from making such distinctions because his proverb applies to both?  The clearest and most reasonable understanding of Proverbs 16:33 is that any time lots are cast or dice are rolled it is exclusively God who decides how they will land and God alone who causes it to happen.

If the aforementioned verse points to God controlling every “die roll” what does that imply regarding the rest of creation?  What does it imply if God is only specifically involved in the “die rolls” that directly relate to His plans.

The vast and encompassing reality, if God really has a direct hand in controlling every “roll of the dice” every moment of every day everywhere in all of creation, is that nowhere is His hand not seen.  Nowhere is His influence not predominant.  Nowhere is His presence absent.  Think about it.  If you have a division within your church and if God is really in control down to this level of detail, then God is ultimately the driving force behind that division.  If you have problems with your neighbors, God is directing the associated relationships according to His own design.  If you have rebellious children it is God who is permitting that rebellion for His own purposes, not yours.  If you have difficult professors or teachers at school.  If you have a vehicle accident.  If you are diagnosed with cancer.  If you suffer a home invasion.  All of it is completely under the purview, authority, and direct involvement of an Almighty creator God whose sole purpose in creating all of reality was to showcase His glory to His creations.  This is a world view that is completely saturated with God.  John Piper calls it a “God entranced world view”.

Now consider the opposite possibility.  Let’s say that Proverbs 16:33 is referring more narrowly to those times and incidents throughout human history when men have expressly sought to know the will of God.  And furthermore, God is not directly involved in controlling the aforementioned “every roll of the dice” every moment of every day everywhere in all of creation.  First of all, the most obvious and immediate implication is that God’s plans do not extend to every corner of creation.  That would mean that there are areas in the world that are outside the scope of what He is working to accomplish.  God immediately gets a whole lot smaller in our minds eye.  And to be blunt, He becomes a whole lot more palatable to our man centered egos.

Beyond that, let’s consider those same circumstances briefly described above.  Perhaps you have a division within your church.  The people causing the problems are the driving forces behind it.  Your neighbors are giving you fits.  They are the object of your frustrations.  Your kids are causing all kinds of problems.  Their immaturity and irresponsibility are what you focus on.  Your professors and teachers don’t like you and it’s all on them.  You get into a vehicle accident, you’re diagnosed with cancer, or you suffer a home invasion.  Where do the eyes of your heart instinctively turn if God is not directly and precisely involved in every one of these areas?  They turn to man.  I am describing a man centered world view that ultimately, if the person holding the view is true to their own philosophy, will have no other result than to establish man as the god of his own very small universe.

I pray earnestly that you can see the problem with making the assumption that God is not the be all and end all of reality.  But on the chance that you are still struggling with this, let me encourage you to consider that by no means does this doctrine of the precise sovereignty of God hang on Proverbs 16:33 alone.

To begin, remember from weeks past how Jacob worked to breed Laban’s flocks to his own advantage, in the process becoming exceedingly wealthy and powerful.  Then in the next chapter as he describes the preceding years to his wives he very specifically identifies God as the source of every single good thing that happened to him.  Do we take Jacob at his word?  Do we think he was just throwing platitudes with no basis in reality?  Or do we believe he was an idiot who dreamed up the sovereign hand of God precisely controlling every part of his life?

In the latter chapters of the book of Job God appears on the scene to take Job to task for his presumption in questioning the purposes of the Lord.  In doing so God describes example after example of His limitless power as seen in nature.  Chapter 38, verses 39 to 41 describe how He “hunts the prey for the lion” and “prepares for the raven its nourishment”.  Chapter 39, verse 27 tells how it is God who commands the eagle to take flight.  And in chapter 41, verses 1 through 9 the Lord talks about a creature called Leviathan.  He describes its immense power and absolutely unquestioned rule of the seas.  He goes on to point out that no one can stand before the Leviathan, therefore who is it who can stand before the Lord God Almighty who made Leviathan.  God says that “whatever is under the whole heaven is Mine.”

In Matthew 10:26-31 Jesus teaches that people ought not to fear other people who are merely capable of taking physical life.  Rather they ought to fear God who is capable of destroying both physical and spiritual life.  The example is given that this God who is to be feared has numbered every hair on our heads individually.  Who can stand against such a God who exercises such minute control over His creation?

In Romans 9:14-24 the Apostle Paul delivers a roundhouse kick to human pride by asking the rhetorical question of whether God prepared beforehand vessels (people) of wrath destined for destruction.  Our human sensibilities cower at this thought and our instinct screams out that God is not fair or loving.  And Paul responds very similarly to how God responded to Job.  Who are we to question the Almighty?  Is not His creation His own to do with as He pleases?  This is not the answer we would like to hear but it is the answer that Scripture gives.

Finally, both Hebrews 1:3 and Colossians 1:17 tell us that all things, meaning everything that exists, only does so because God holds it all together with the word of His power.  I honestly don’t understand how one can read that and somehow convince themselves that even though God is literally keeping all of creation from imploding every moment He is somehow disconnected from portions of it some of the time.

The answer that I believe the Bible sounds forth repeatedly, is that God is in fact sovereign both broadly and narrowly.  He orchestrates the march of the sun and moon across the sky and He tenderly causes a sparrow to fall to the ground.  He spun the stars into place with the word of His power just the same as He spun every single event of your life into its proper position while simultaneously holding you responsible for how you conduct yourself within that framework.  This may perhaps seem conflicting to our human minds.  But the basis of whether something is true or not is not nor has ever been whether we understand it.  People change and are as ephemeral as the grass that withers and burns.  But the Word of the Lord as revealed in the Bible has not changed since it was first written down by the super-intention of the Holy Spirit.  Who are you going to trust; your own sensibilities that typically don’t remain constant for even an hour let alone a day or the Bible that has been miraculously preserved for millennia in spite of herculean efforts by man to suppress it and over which countless theologians have poured their lives into an effort to comprehend it?