We Think That We Understand What We Don't Understand

 9 And he said, "Go and say to this people: "Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.' 10 Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed."

The question asked of me, last week on the phone, went something like this:  “Do you believe in the sovereignty of God?  Then she went on to talk about how she didn’t feel that God controlled every little thing in her life.”  The questions and conversation didn’t end there.  

She also talked about why God would “harden” people’s hearts.

She got my inquisitive juices running.  First I looked up the Greek word for sovereignty.  

“The Greek for sovereignty is ‘basileia.’  Which means "kingdom —a place of  royal power.  This royal power and dignity belongs to God."

To define sovereignty you have to think of it as a kingdom.  "A place, a territory subject to the rule of a king.   Meaning a lawful king." 

"This kingdom is linked with wisdom.”  

Those are not my words!  They came from the Theological  Dictionary of the New Testament.(Bromiley)

The English dictionary defines it this way:  “Supreme power or authority.  

Then I read this from christianity.com:   I have never gone to this sight before.  I am simply quoting!

 “God is in control of all things and rules over all things.  He has power and authority over nature, earthly kings, history, angels and demons.  Even Satan himself has to ask God’s permission before he can act. (Ps 103:19)

That is what being sovereign means.  It means being the ultimate source of all power, authority, and everything that exists.   Only God can make those claims; therefore, its God’s sovereignty that makes Him superior to all other gods and makes Him, and Him alone, worthy of worship.”

Sooooo, what I am thinking is that between the Greek and the English, something has gotten lost — something HUGE.

Then I ventured into the subject of “hardening.”  A word that has also been confused by the human intellect.  “To harden”  — poroo — is “to make fat,” “insensitive,”  “to make impervious,”  “persistent un-receptivity to God’s saving will.”   

This “hardening” happens in two ways.  “One, through God’s judgment,  two, self-hardening/judgment,  this action is thought to be specific within the history of divine faithfulness of an elect people.” 

There is also another form of the word — peroo — Which basically means to “disable,” “maim,” wound,” “blind!”

Unquote!

Then this morning I returned to the issue of sovereignty and wrote these words on my paper:

“If God was the God, we humans have made him out to be;  if he was indeed out to “control” our every action and thought, because he is all powerful,  then the question of “hardening hearts” wouldn’t even be on the table for discussion

. 

If!  If God had complete control of our lives, our minds and hearts, he would have softened all hearts, and cleaned out all of our eyes and ears. 

The truth is, God could not make his human creature  hear.  All you have to do is read the Old Testament. 

As hard as he tired, he could not make them listen.  He could not make them see,  And, even when they saw, with their own eyes wide open, when he walked the earth in Jesus skin.  They were blind to his presence and deaf to his words.  

Sooooooooo!  Explain that.  

I am not saying that God is not all powerful; because I believe he is.   

I am say that God did not create us to be marionettes on strings.  He gave us minds to think and wills to follow.  And I believe the original plan was that we would follow. 

Humans changed that plan.

We can believe it — or not.

6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out." 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!" 9 And he said, "Go and say to this people: "Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.' 10 Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed." (Isaiah 6)