- May 7, 2017
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• Gen 18:20-21 . . And Jehovah said: The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. I will go down now, and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry, which has come to me; and if not, I will know.
An "outcry" is defined as a protest. Exactly who was doing the protesting isn't known for sure except that 2Pet 2:7-8 says that Lot was very unhappy with the local morality. The same passage describes Lot as a righteous man, which strongly suggests to me that he was a man of prayer; so Lot would be my first guess on a short list of possible protesters.
Anyway, the gist of Jehovah's statement indicates that He was aware of S&G's depravity, but His statement also suggests that He hadn't actually seen it for Himself.
That presents a difficulty for folk who sincerely believe that God is omniscient, i..e. He knows all, sees all, and hears all, viz: nothing escapes His notice-- ever.
Well; ancient rabbis, at a loss to explain God's apparent lack of omniscience have suggested there are two Jehovahs. There's the supreme Jehovah, and then there's a mysterious being they called Metatron whose name is his master's. (The name Metatron is only for convenience; sort of like the names "dark matter" and "dark energy" which are convenient names of certain mysteries in the cosmos till such a time as astrophysicists figure out what they really are.
The existence of this mysterious being is strongly suggested by Ex 23:20-23 so I would not recommend disputing the rabbis about it.
However, I'm inclined to suspect that God isn't satisfied with omniscience.
There are at least three kinds of knowing. One is intuitive, another is academic, and a third is knowledge gained by personal experience. For example "knew his wife" is a biblical expression that speaks of personal experience. Well; I think there are times when God prefers to know things by personal experience instead of only by omniscience.
"I will go down now, and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry, which has come to me; and if not, I will know."
In the matter of S&G: how did Jehovah see, and how did Jehovah know? Not by omniscience only but also by personal experience. In other words: God was there and He saw for Himself, in person, on-site, just how accurate the protest was.
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• Gen 18:20-21 . . And Jehovah said: The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave. I will go down now, and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry, which has come to me; and if not, I will know.
An "outcry" is defined as a protest. Exactly who was doing the protesting isn't known for sure except that 2Pet 2:7-8 says that Lot was very unhappy with the local morality. The same passage describes Lot as a righteous man, which strongly suggests to me that he was a man of prayer; so Lot would be my first guess on a short list of possible protesters.
Anyway, the gist of Jehovah's statement indicates that He was aware of S&G's depravity, but His statement also suggests that He hadn't actually seen it for Himself.
That presents a difficulty for folk who sincerely believe that God is omniscient, i..e. He knows all, sees all, and hears all, viz: nothing escapes His notice-- ever.
Well; ancient rabbis, at a loss to explain God's apparent lack of omniscience have suggested there are two Jehovahs. There's the supreme Jehovah, and then there's a mysterious being they called Metatron whose name is his master's. (The name Metatron is only for convenience; sort of like the names "dark matter" and "dark energy" which are convenient names of certain mysteries in the cosmos till such a time as astrophysicists figure out what they really are.
The existence of this mysterious being is strongly suggested by Ex 23:20-23 so I would not recommend disputing the rabbis about it.
However, I'm inclined to suspect that God isn't satisfied with omniscience.
There are at least three kinds of knowing. One is intuitive, another is academic, and a third is knowledge gained by personal experience. For example "knew his wife" is a biblical expression that speaks of personal experience. Well; I think there are times when God prefers to know things by personal experience instead of only by omniscience.
"I will go down now, and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry, which has come to me; and if not, I will know."
In the matter of S&G: how did Jehovah see, and how did Jehovah know? Not by omniscience only but also by personal experience. In other words: God was there and He saw for Himself, in person, on-site, just how accurate the protest was.
_
