Breaking God's Sovereignty
"...for though the twins were not yet born, and had not done anything good or bad, in order that God's purpose according to His choice might stand, not because of works, but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, 'The older will serve the younger.' Just as it is written, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.' What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.'" (Romans 9:11-15)
Such a hard passage. It's curious to notice that the Jacob who was loved had to fight stubbornly for the birthright. Esau, not Jacob, was the first-born. Jacob wrestled with the messenger of God and wouldn't let him go until he had been blessed by him. Even though he was in great pain from the dislocation of his thigh. Even though the biological facts and the law were against him. How can the second-born become the first-born? How can we break and ask God to break His own laws? How can we "break" the sovereignty of God? It was a totally illogical, unreasonable thing for Jacob to do.
A pastor was very sick in one of the communist prisons [of 1950's Romania) and obviously going to die, and had accepted this. But his brother-in-law who was in prison with him, an uneducated farmer, said, "Feri, it's okay that you are ready to die. But the rest of us will appeal to a higher court." He got the other prisoners to plead to God for the sick man's life, and the learned pastor was saved and humbled by the wisdom of a peasant.
Even so must I come to God as the second-born, whether I think I am an Esau or a Jacob; I must appeal to the highest court and plead my case; I must fight for the birthright of the first-born. We must, in Luther's words, "take heaven by storm". "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent bear it away." (Matthew 11:12) God's sovereignty is the very medium of my life; but in a sense, it is none of my business. To live, I must fight and try to break God's sovereignty.
[GEN, 1999]
Such a hard passage. It's curious to notice that the Jacob who was loved had to fight stubbornly for the birthright. Esau, not Jacob, was the first-born. Jacob wrestled with the messenger of God and wouldn't let him go until he had been blessed by him. Even though he was in great pain from the dislocation of his thigh. Even though the biological facts and the law were against him. How can the second-born become the first-born? How can we break and ask God to break His own laws? How can we "break" the sovereignty of God? It was a totally illogical, unreasonable thing for Jacob to do.
A pastor was very sick in one of the communist prisons [of 1950's Romania) and obviously going to die, and had accepted this. But his brother-in-law who was in prison with him, an uneducated farmer, said, "Feri, it's okay that you are ready to die. But the rest of us will appeal to a higher court." He got the other prisoners to plead to God for the sick man's life, and the learned pastor was saved and humbled by the wisdom of a peasant.
Even so must I come to God as the second-born, whether I think I am an Esau or a Jacob; I must appeal to the highest court and plead my case; I must fight for the birthright of the first-born. We must, in Luther's words, "take heaven by storm". "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence and the violent bear it away." (Matthew 11:12) God's sovereignty is the very medium of my life; but in a sense, it is none of my business. To live, I must fight and try to break God's sovereignty.
[GEN, 1999]
posted by CS at 2:31 PM
1 Comments:
thank you for your thoughts, as i think of the impossibility of the inclusion the gospel has brought me according to the Father's purposes...i am often left with the pathetic prayers of someone w/little expectation. Thank God for the humiliation of circumstances and relational struggle that causes me to need to cry out to God....i love the hope the ways of God bring to me this afternoon....
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