- Jun 29, 2019
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God in Jeremiah 29:11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jesus in Matthew 5:19 says, “...whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven...” There is an inference that God’s plans will be fulfilled for those who do His Will, but others who take a different path will not see God’s Plans fulfilled in them. The inference may be that God’s patience in bestowing His Grace to an eternal life goes only so far.
Some have been fortunate in obtaining God’s Grace at the very end of their sinful life. The condemned man on the cross next to Jesus acknowledged God, so Jesus says to him in Luke 23:43, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Did God plan for the condemned man all along, from the time of his birth that he would end up on the cross yet will be with Him in Paradise?
As God knows us all, we’ve all been predestined. Has God predestined some to sin and then suffer the consequences? Romans 9:11-13 says, “[T]hough [Jacob and Esau] were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— [Rebekah their mother] was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ As it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’” So, it says in Malachi 1:2-3. One may very well be compelled to ask, ‘What “hope” did Esau have? What “future,” when, unlike his brother Jacob he was already born with one divine strike against him?
Seems that for some, God plans for the best and for some He plans for the worst. Are Esau and others in his shoes to be considered as non-existent under God? We don’t know if Esau was fortunate like the condemned man on the cross, whom God has taken into His Paradise despite the wrong the man had done. Compared to Esau, the condemned man on the cross is the lucky one it seems. Did the condemned man enter Paradise because God gave him a future and a hope? Did God ultimately deprive Esau of any future and hope?
One may wonder about these things, especially in these times of inordinate amounts of death due to a disease that has been ravishing many countries lately. One may wonder about those who have been working to save such people from death. Do they blame themselves for failing to save their lives? Do they see themselves as heartbroken failures?
We have all been predestined. Many of us were slated to walk in the same shoes that Jacob wore, while some will walk in Esau’s shoes through no fault of their own. Some may start out in Jacob’s shoes, but they change their path. Maybe God predestined for those to do that too, but we don’t know for sure. Proverbs 3:5 tells us not to figure out what God does, but to put our trust in Him in whatever He does. We only know that with God all things work for good, for those who are called.
What can you say to a person who fails to save anther’s life from a disease, despite all efforts to do so? Probably that God planned to call that other to Him regardless of what the person did? The other will either spend eternity in Paradise, or they’ll spend it in hell, depending on how they’re judged. But that shouldn’t stop a person from trying to save a next person’s life. Perhaps with the next person, God had plans to continue living on earth, and so any efforts for saving their life will bear fruit.
And it may not be wise to stand back from doing anything and just let God decide the patent’s fate, is it? To not do anything would show a lack of works. And where does a lack of works leave a person who merely has faith in God? And I don’t mean works that can enable a person to boast, but is it not better that a person who has faith in God show God their works? Is it not better for them, especially if they may have started out in Jacob’s shoes under God’s Grace?
Some have been fortunate in obtaining God’s Grace at the very end of their sinful life. The condemned man on the cross next to Jesus acknowledged God, so Jesus says to him in Luke 23:43, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Did God plan for the condemned man all along, from the time of his birth that he would end up on the cross yet will be with Him in Paradise?
As God knows us all, we’ve all been predestined. Has God predestined some to sin and then suffer the consequences? Romans 9:11-13 says, “[T]hough [Jacob and Esau] were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad—in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of him who calls— [Rebekah their mother] was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ As it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’” So, it says in Malachi 1:2-3. One may very well be compelled to ask, ‘What “hope” did Esau have? What “future,” when, unlike his brother Jacob he was already born with one divine strike against him?
Seems that for some, God plans for the best and for some He plans for the worst. Are Esau and others in his shoes to be considered as non-existent under God? We don’t know if Esau was fortunate like the condemned man on the cross, whom God has taken into His Paradise despite the wrong the man had done. Compared to Esau, the condemned man on the cross is the lucky one it seems. Did the condemned man enter Paradise because God gave him a future and a hope? Did God ultimately deprive Esau of any future and hope?
One may wonder about these things, especially in these times of inordinate amounts of death due to a disease that has been ravishing many countries lately. One may wonder about those who have been working to save such people from death. Do they blame themselves for failing to save their lives? Do they see themselves as heartbroken failures?
We have all been predestined. Many of us were slated to walk in the same shoes that Jacob wore, while some will walk in Esau’s shoes through no fault of their own. Some may start out in Jacob’s shoes, but they change their path. Maybe God predestined for those to do that too, but we don’t know for sure. Proverbs 3:5 tells us not to figure out what God does, but to put our trust in Him in whatever He does. We only know that with God all things work for good, for those who are called.
What can you say to a person who fails to save anther’s life from a disease, despite all efforts to do so? Probably that God planned to call that other to Him regardless of what the person did? The other will either spend eternity in Paradise, or they’ll spend it in hell, depending on how they’re judged. But that shouldn’t stop a person from trying to save a next person’s life. Perhaps with the next person, God had plans to continue living on earth, and so any efforts for saving their life will bear fruit.
And it may not be wise to stand back from doing anything and just let God decide the patent’s fate, is it? To not do anything would show a lack of works. And where does a lack of works leave a person who merely has faith in God? And I don’t mean works that can enable a person to boast, but is it not better that a person who has faith in God show God their works? Is it not better for them, especially if they may have started out in Jacob’s shoes under God’s Grace?
