But also, the overriding fact is, God is good. So whether or not my car breaks down because I’ve sinned, because I live in a fallen world, or because Satan is attacking me, I can also know God will graciously work out the circumstances for my good—good defined as conforming me to the image of His Son, a la Romans 8:29.

Becky

Rebecca LuElla Millers last blog post..Drying Up – A Writer Runs Out of Words

Great post, Sally. I read a book recently that was anti-Christian and it had some great elements that could have been improved by leaving out the bias. It was Octavia Butler’s “The Parable of the Sower.”

This is the key, I think.

God is not trying, in that passage, to teach us that he’s limited in knowledge.

To say so would be like going to Jesus’ story of the Good Samaritan and saying, “he said, ‘by chance’ the man was was walking down the street, therefore Jesus affirms that some things happen by chance.” That’s not what Jesus was saying. That story was not a lesson in whether or not God was sovereign.

And neither is the story of Abraham’s obedience about whether or not God knows all things.

And clearly, that “now I know” statement about Abraham is for our benefit. It’s like prayer. God doesn’t need us to inform Him of what we need. But He wants that communication, He wants that obedience, and we benefit. So with Abraham.

God knew what Abraham would do, but in the doing, it was obedience completed, worship offered, not thought about. Abraham benefited and so did Isaac.

He saw his father’s faith. As Hebrews shows, Abraham believed God would raise his son from the dead. He didn’t think, I have to obey which means God isn’t going to keep His promise. He thought, I have to obey AND God will still miraculously keep His promise.

We get too caught up in trying to understand God from our perspective, I think. We have no idea how one operates who is omniscient or how He should communicate with those who are not.

To take a verse like that and think it contradicts the host of others that tell us God does in fact know … well, Pastor Martin has indeed slipped. I mean look at Jesus. He knew there would be a gold coin in the mouth of a fish, knew over and over again what the Pharisees thought and planned, knew Peter would deny Him … three times … before the second crow of the rooster. And on and on. He demonstrated his omniscience so completely

Becky

Rebecca LuElla Millers last blog post..The “S” Word