Participation with God's Governmental Program (1 Samuel 28:1-14)

The Eikon’s (Imager’s) Participation in God’s governmental program isn’t artificial

God’s plan from the beginning was that He would use His council (His family - both heavenly and earthly) to carry out His decrees

Genesis 1:28 ESV

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

God lends His Eikons His attributes

The basic attribute that defines God’s Eikons is freedom to choose and act.

In choosing to allow His Eikons to carry out His decrees and decisions, His modus operandi is to allow them the freedom to do so utilizing their creativity and offering their input (intercession)

3. God’s Kingdom will being established on earth as in heaven is in some degree dependent on the input of His Eikons

Matthew 6:9–10 (ESV)

Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your Name. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Luke 11:2 (ESV)

And he said to them, “When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be Your Name. Your kingdom come.

James 4:2 (ESV)

You do not have, because you do not ask.

The Eikon’s Participation in God’s governmental program isn’t predetermined

When God makes His sovereign decrees and decisions, they are not implemented in a predetermined manner.

This is important to understand if we are to rightly understand and cooperate with His Kingdom activity in the earth as His children, His servants, as part of His family business, His family bureaucracy.

That beg’s the question: How can this be true if everything is predestined? The answer: Everything isn’t predestined.

Foreknowledge doesn’t necessitate predestination

To see an example of how this is demonstrated, we will now examine 1 Samuel 23

1 Samuel 23:1–13 ESV

Now they told David, “Behold, the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are robbing the threshing floors.” Therefore David inquired of the Lord, “Shall I go and attack these Philistines?” And the Lord said to David, “Go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah.” But David’s men said to him, “Behold, we are afraid here in Judah; how much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines?” Then David inquired of the Lord again. And the Lord answered him, “Arise, go down to Keilah, for I will give the Philistines into your hand.” And David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines and brought away their livestock and struck them with a great blow. So David saved the inhabitants of Keilah. When Abiathar the son of Ahimelech had fled to David to Keilah, he had come down with an ephod in his hand. Now it was told Saul that David had come to Keilah. And Saul said, “God has given him into my hand, for he has shut himself in by entering a town that has gates and bars.” And Saul summoned all the people to war, to go down to Keilah, to besiege David and his men. David knew that Saul was plotting harm against him. And he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring the ephod here.” Then David said, “O Lord, the God of Israel, your servant has surely heard that Saul seeks to come to Keilah, to destroy the city on my account. Will the men of Keilah surrender me into his hand? Will Saul come down, as your servant has heard? O Lord, the God of Israel, please tell your servant.” And the Lord said, “He will come down.” Then David said, “Will the men of Keilah surrender me and my men into the hand of Saul?” And the Lord said, “They will surrender you.” Then David and his men, who were about six hundred, arose and departed from Keilah, and they went wherever they could go. When Saul was told that David had escaped from Keilah, he gave up the expedition.

Summary of 1 Samuel 23:1-13

David appeals two times to the omniscient, all-knowing God to tell him about the future.

Instance One

In 23:1-5, David asks God whether he should go to Keilah and whether he would successfully defeat the Philistines there.

God tells David to go to Keilah and that he would defeat the Philistines.

David goes to Keilah and he does defeat the Philistines.

Instance Two

In 23:6-13, David asks the Lord two questions: would Saul come to Keilah and threaten the city because of David’s presence and would the people of Keilah turn him and his men over to Saul to avoid his wrath?

God answered yes to both questions: Saul would come to Keilah, and the leaders of the city would hand David and his men over Saul.

Neither of these events that God foreknew actually happened.

When David heard God’s answers, he and his men immediately leave the city.

Saul hears that David and his men have left Keilah (v. 13), and then abandons his trip to Keilah.

Saul never made it to Keilah.

The leaders of Keilah never turned David over to Saul.

What are the implications?

God foreknew two things that never happened

That informs us that foreknowledge does not necessitate predestination

God’s foreknowledge did not necessitate the predestination of those events because thet never happened.

God foreknew a possibility - but God’s foreknowledge did not mandate that the possibility foreknown was actually predestined to happen.

If foreknown events never happen, by definition, they could not have been predestined. Get it?

And yet, the omniscient, all knowing God did in fact foresee them.

Predestination and foreknowledge - at least some of the time - are separable.

Theological takeaway: That which never happens can be foreknown by God, but it is not predestined by God, since it never happened.

But what about things that do happen? If they are foreknown by God, are they then predestined?

As we have seen, foreknowledge in itself does not necessitate predestination, all that foreknowledge guarntees ia that something is foreknown.

If God foreknows an event that happens, then He may have predestined that event.

But the fact that God foreknew an event does not necessitate that an event was predestined even if it happens.

The only guarantee is that God foreknew the event correctly, whether it turns out to be an actual event or merely a possible event.

Theological takeaway: Since foreknowledge doesn’t necessitate predestination, foreknown events that happen may or may not have been predestined.

This (and other texts) obliterates several modern theological systems.

Calvinism and their view of determinism (the Holocaust and which shirt you will wear today).

Other systems (open theism) distort biblical foreknowledge by maintaining that God doesn’t foreknow all possibilities, since all possibilities cannot happen.

Or some systems posit multiple universes where all possibilities do in fact happen.

1 Samuel 23:1-13 (and other texts: i.e., Daniel 4, Nineveh) refute all of these other ideas since, as we have seen, foreknowledge does not necessitate predestination.

The sons and daughters of Adam were divinely added to God’s divine family, God shared many (not all) of His attributes with them, one of which is freedom.

When God assigns tasks to His family, whether divine or human, He invites them to participate with Him in the carrying out of His program, plan, and will, and that happens in real time.

God may thus foreknow an event (or series of events), but that foreknowledge does not necessarily include the decisions and/or actions that lead up to that event.

God may foreknown the end - that something is ultimately going to happen (Messiah’s return, someone’s eternal destiny, etc.) without predestining the means to that end.

When God decrees something, He leaves the means up to the decisions of other free-will agents. The end is sovereignly ordained; the means that lead to that end may or may not be.

What we do actually matters

God foreknows what is going to happen.

He knows all things - real and possible

But some of the things that God foreknows don’t happen, even though God foreknows them

Whether they do or do not happen often rely on us and what we do.

Inspiration - the popular view of biblical inspiration has been distorted by the idiosyncratic views of the reformers. The Bible is inspired, just not in the way the reformers view inspiration.

Prophecy - both cessationists and charismatics have missed it in terms of unfulfilled prophecy.

The Takeaway

When God assigns to us a task, in our time, and in our position as His children, as His coworkers, what we do actually matters, and has both temporal and eternal ramifications.

Everything is not pre-programmed, predetermined, or predestined.

So, the Fall was not predestined - otherwise the disobedience and spiritual treason was not free, and, therefore, they could not be held accountable for their decision.

When we experience evil in our life, God surely foreknew it, but He never predestined it.

We can be comforted by the fact that because God knows all things real and possible, He foreknew what we would go through and with that foreknowledge He also has a plan to rectify it.

Evil is in the world because people (and divine beings) have the capacity to exercise free will.

God doesn’t predestine evil, nor does He need evil, or horrible crimes and sins to happen so that some greater plan can come to pass.

God is good all the time; all the time, God is good.