God's Will - Part One
Notes
Transcript
Handout
Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, 2nd ed. Will of God
God’s will is identical with his being, his wisdom, his goodness, and with all his attributes. And it is for this reason that man’s heart and mind can rest in that will, for it is the will not of blind fate, incalculable fortune, or dark energy of nature, but of an omnipotent God and merciful Father” (Doctrine of God, 235).
Revelation 17:17
17 for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled.
Here we see God’s will that the ten kings destroy Babylon as instruments of his judgement, thus fulfilling his word.
Let’s do a survey of God’s will to begin to build a foundation to understand how his will acts upon his creation. We will start with the Old Testament.
There is no one-to-one equivalent for the word “will” in the Hebrew language. There are nine Hebrew words that express the idea of “will”. The nouns are “ḥēp̱eṣ” -“delight” or “pleasure”, “rāṣôn” -“favor”. The verbs are “ʾḥāp̱ēṣ”- “desire” or “take pleasure in”, “rāṣâ” - “be pleased with”, “āḇâ” - “consent,” or “be willing”, the hiphil of “yā’al” - “begin,” “intend”, “bāḥar”- “choose”, “ʾāhaḇ”- “love”, “”ḥāšq” - “love,” or “desire”.
(J. R. Michaels, “Will of God,” ed. Geoffrey W. Bromiley, The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, Revised (Wm. B. Eerdmans, 1979–1988), 1064.)
Let’s take a look at these usages in the OT.
For the noun “ḥēp̱eṣ” we will start with the English word translated “purpose”. The first occurrence is in Isaiah 44:24-28.
24 Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself,
25 who frustrates the signs of liars and makes fools of diviners, who turns wise men back and makes their knowledge foolish,
26 who confirms the word of his servant and fulfills the counsel of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited,’ and of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built, and I will raise up their ruins’;
27 who says to the deep, ‘Be dry; I will dry up your rivers’;
28 who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’ ”
We again have God using a pagan king to accomplish his will or purpose. Concerning working through Cyrus and doing what he wills, he says this in Isaiah 45:9-10:
9 “Woe to him who strives with him who formed him, a pot among earthen pots! Does the clay say to him who forms it, ‘What are you making?’ or ‘Your work has no handles’?
10 Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’ or to a woman, ‘With what are you in labor?’ ”
The second occurrence is in Isaiah 46:8-11.
8 “Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors,
9 remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me,
10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,’
11 calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.
Here we are reminded of our place and that we are to remember who God is and that he will accomplish his purpose.
The third occurrence for “ḥēp̱eṣ” is in Isaiah 48:12-14.
12 “Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am he; I am the first, and I am the last.
13 My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together.
14 “Assemble, all of you, and listen! Who among them has declared these things? The Lord loves him; he shall perform his purpose on Babylon, and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
We again see God accomplishing his purpose, validated by who he is as Creator.
The Hebrew word “ḥēp̱eṣ” is also translated as “will” twice. Only one of those is in the context of God’s will. The reference is Isaiah 53:10. Let’s take a look at Isaiah 53
1 Who has believed what he has heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 For he grew up before him like a young plant, and like a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his wounds we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned—every one—to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people?
9 And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
11 Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors.
Here we see God’s will to work through the Suffering Servant to bring redemption to all who believe.
Okay, now let’s take a look at the noun “rāṣôn” when it is translated as “will.” We will see that these references are in regard to us doing God’s will. The first occurrence is Ezra 10:11.
11 Now then make confession to the Lord, the God of your fathers and do his will. Separate yourselves from the peoples of the land and from the foreign wives.”
The second occurrence is Psalm 40:8.
8 I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart.”
The third occurrence is Psalm 103:20-21.
20 Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word!
21 Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will!
The fourth occurrence is Psalm 143:10.
10 Teach me to do your will, for you are my God! Let your good Spirit lead me on level ground!
These texts make it clear how important it is to do God’s will, and that it is taught by God.
Okay, we have looked at the two nouns in Hebrew that are translated as “purpose” or “will of God”. Now we are going to take a look at the verbs which are translated as “will” or “purpose of God.”
The first verb is “ʾḥāp̱ēṣ,” which appears in the OT 73 times, and is only translated four times as “will,” and once as “purpose.”
The first occurrence is Proverbs 21:1
1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.
The second occurrence is 1 Samuel 2:25
12 Now the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the Lord.
13 The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come, while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand,
14 and he would thrust it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or pot. All that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.
15 Moreover, before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give meat for the priest to roast, for he will not accept boiled meat from you but only raw.”
16 And if the man said to him, “Let them burn the fat first, and then take as much as you wish,” he would say, “No, you must give it now, and if not, I will take it by force.”
17 Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord, for the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt.
18 Samuel was ministering before the Lord, a boy clothed with a linen ephod.
19 And his mother used to make for him a little robe and take it to him each year when she went up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.
20 Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say, “May the Lord give you children by this woman for the petition she asked of the Lord.” So then they would return to their home.
21 Indeed the Lord visited Hannah, and she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew in the presence of the Lord.
22 Now Eli was very old, and he kept hearing all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who were serving at the entrance to the tent of meeting.
23 And he said to them, “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all these people.
24 No, my sons; it is no good report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading abroad.
25 If someone sins against a man, God will mediate for him, but if someone sins against the Lord, who can intercede for him?” But they would not listen to the voice of their father, for it was the will of the Lord to put them to death.
26 Now the boy Samuel continued to grow both in stature and in favor with the Lord and also with man.
27 And there came a man of God to Eli and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Did I indeed reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt subject to the house of Pharaoh?
28 Did I choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me? I gave to the house of your father all my offerings by fire from the people of Israel.
29 Why then do you scorn my sacrifices and my offerings that I commanded for my dwelling, and honor your sons above me by fattening yourselves on the choicest parts of every offering of my people Israel?’
30 Therefore the Lord, the God of Israel, declares: ‘I promised that your house and the house of your father should go in and out before me forever,’ but now the Lord declares: ‘Far be it from me, for those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed.
31 Behold, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your father’s house, so that there will not be an old man in your house.
32 Then in distress you will look with envious eye on all the prosperity that shall be bestowed on Israel, and there shall not be an old man in your house forever.
33 The only one of you whom I shall not cut off from my altar shall be spared to weep his eyes out to grieve his heart, and all the descendants of your house shall die by the sword of men.
34 And this that shall come upon your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, shall be the sign to you: both of them shall die on the same day.
35 And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do according to what is in my heart and in my mind. And I will build him a sure house, and he shall go in and out before my anointed forever.
God’s will is often difficult to accept. Why was it God’s will to put Hophni and Phinehas to death?
The third occurrence we already looked at in Isaiah 53:10.
10 Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
The fourth occurrence is in Isaiah 55:10-11.
10 “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
11 so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
God’s word will accomplish its purpose.
Let’s recap what we have observed so far.
First, God is Creator and therefore does what he wills.
Second, God sometimes uses pagans to accomplish his will.
Third, God calls humanity to do his will, expressed through belief and obedience.