27 June 2023
There is more than enough deep consideration to occupy us in what God reveals. We don't need to create sorrow for ourselves by chasing questions He pointedly did not answer. One of the biggest stumbling blocks is the false assumption that we should be able to understand God's purpose in Creation.
There was a time I was a big fan of CS Lewis. I still consider him one of the clearest thinkers in Christian writing, but I see no evidence at all that he understood the Hebrew mind in the Bible. His writing is just a very smart and honest western approach. It shook me loose from a lot of even worse nonsense, but I had to leave it behind to get any farther down the path.
As I recall, it was in his Narnia book, Voyage of the Dawn Treader, where he proposed the parable of Creation as a song. In essence, the parable lays out the proposition that God created the Earth and mankind to explain His judgment against Satan's rebellion. It's a plausible explanation, but it simply is not in the Bible. I'm convinced it answers a question we have no business asking.
We are told some elements of God's character as revealed in Creation, but the actual purpose of Creation itself is not declared. Rather, we are warned that it's not possible for us to grasp as mortals. Worse, Lewis's answer is misleading enough to distract from the things God has revealed.
If you pull together the Ancient Near Eastern lore of how sheikhs ruled, you get a better understanding of Satan's position. But if all you have is the Bible, then at least get a clue from the jailer in Pharaoh's court that we meet in the Genesis narrative about Joseph. Satan is God's jailer. The western mythology of Loki is wholly out of place in trying to understand Satan.
From what I've seen, the single biggest problem westerners have is the assumption that time/space somehow affects things in the Spirit Realm. There is this crazy notion that Satan is still in rebellion, and that his activities reflect that. Job alone shoots that down. Satan is a faithful servant in God's court, but is confined to the time/space bubble to serve out his punishment for something we cannot grasp that took place in Eternity.
All we can know about it is that Satan's primary inducement to us is the same folly by which he got himself in trouble: to scrape off a little of God's glory for ourselves. It's not always that obvious, but this is the fundamental flaw in the mistake Adam and Eve made in the Garden. Satan's final pitch was that eating from the Forbidden Tree would make them like God, judging for themselves what is good and evil. Thus, the symbolic name for that tree. It's translated into English as knowing, but the thrust of the Hebrew word is deciding or judging.
In other words, it's usurping God's authority.
This is how Satan lost his former position as God's Covering Cherub, though the picture is hardly that clear in Scripture. It's fuzzy for good reason; we cannot grasp exactly what happened. Rather, we are shown indirectly that Satan's new assignment is God's Left Hand, the jailer and prosecutor of His Elect. It takes awhile for people to absorb that God intentionally includes in His divine court a sort of espionage to test His children's loyalty. Still, the image is not utterly foreign if you delve into Ancient Near Eastern culture.
It's not fair and objective; it's very intensely personal. That's how eastern potentates approach things.
So far, so good; most people can absorb this much, given time and encouragement. What chokes them harder is when they come to the question of predestination. They choke on that because they are still operating too much in the flesh. Paul writes in Romans 9, flatly warning his readers not to question the justice of God simply because it makes no sense to humans. They keep slipping back into judging God on the basis of their human cultural idols.
"It's not fair!" It's not fair for you to do that, but you aren't God. If God has to meet your approval, then you are in deep trouble, because that puts you in Satan's hands. Then again, it simply reflects the rebellious nature of our culture, and Satan had a lot do with that. It works as he intended, keeping us in thrall under his dominion. It takes advantage of the fundamental flaw of our fallen nature. Escaping that must include that you stop asking the wrong questions.
The only valid question you could ask is: What does this demand of us? We desperately need to understand our situation before Him. He redeems whom He will and hardens others. Where does that leave you? That's a fundamental Hebrew approach to life. You shouldn't expect an explanation of why, only what is required of you.
And in case it isn't that clear to you, I want you to notice that Paul says in that same chapter of Romans that human political activity is also predestined. Not so much in the finite details, but in the outcomes. God will command Satan to destroy one kingdom and raise up another. The whole human enterprise is part of Satan's domain as Prince of This World. Every civilization and every empire are wholly his.
In the final analysis, there is nothing of this world worthy of preservation. Can you imagine what kind of human knowledge was lost since the making of the Nazca Lines or the Pyramids? And can you further imagine what is likely to be lost when the solar catastrophes strike in the next 20 years or so? Do you really value any of that?
What part of any of it will get you closer to God's favor?
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