The Fore-sight & Fore-love of God

Articles

Jason Cheney
02/11/24 - The Zephyrhills Beacon

Most of my first tries do not end well. Take ironing, for instance. I never asked anyone how to iron (I should have). My thinking was I have an iron, I have a shirt, I have an ironing board, I can iron. Turns out there’s more to it than that.

My problem is that I prefer to learn as I go. But that is not the way God advises to begin. We need to know the answers from the beginning. Solomon told us, “Acquire wisdom!” and, “The beginning of wisdom is: Acquire wisdom . . .” (Proverbs 4:5,7).

Do you think God knew what He was getting into with us? Or is He “learning as He goes”? The scriptures indicate that He has always known exactly how to manage us. Each time the course of man turned, our Creator was prepared to redirect. “From the beginning, from the earliest times of earth,” “Before the mountains were settled,” God knew how to deal with us and our choices. How can we not be impressed at His unfathomable foresight and ability?

Then, when we consider that all of God’s wisdom and planning is driven by His great love, it’s hard not to feel gratitude. The apostle Paul wrote about the great sorrow that he felt in his heart over the lost condition of his Jewish kinsmen. He would do anything for their salvation! It was difficult for Paul to accept the reality that only a very few of Paul’s Jewish brothers were actually children of God (Romans 9:1-8). He understood that they were a people that did not listen to the Lord, and tried to make themselves righteousness. He knew they had more faith in themselves than they did in God. And he knew they had been offered the gospel but rejected it.

But he also knew that God was doing everything in His great power to scheme a great scheme that would win them back to Himself. God allowed Paul to see a great mystery. God showed him how He was lovingly working to save them - “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery–so that you will not be wise in your own estimation–that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles come in” (Romans 11:25). God allowed them to become hardened toward the gospel while He concentrated on saving the Gentiles. “By their transgression,” Paul says, “salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous” (Romans 11:11).

Jealously, hardened heart, their own sin - God in great wisdom uses such things as His own resources. And since He is driven by love and mercy, He uses them to bring salvation to the people Paul loved, to the Jews!

It must have been comforting to Paul that God was doing everything to win the people he loved. And Paul, wanting to work in God’s plan, fervently brings the gospel to the gentiles in hopes that he can provoke his people to jealousy. (Romans 11:11-12). Let us not lose sight of the great wisdom and ancient love of God. It has been His from the beginning. His schemes were laid out before we even entered existence. His plan to save us from our sin was developed in kindness and compassion even before we wronged God. He knows how to guide history down the path of salvation for those who love God. We can joyfully say with our apostle and brother Paul, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and how inscrutable His ways! ‘For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counselor?’ ‘Or who has given a gift to Him that he might be repaid?’ For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be glory forever. Amen.” (Romans 11:33-36).