CHAPTER 3 – IS GOD SOVEREIGN OVER NATIONS?

Is God Sovereign over nations? Does He control or influence significant political or spiritual leaders? Is His sovereignty affected by human free will or by Satan’s kingdom? These are some of the issues we’ll explore in this chapter. But first, let’s begin with an overview of the chapter’s contents.

Chapter Summary

Some passages say God has authority over the earth (Matthew 28:18, Daniel 4:32) while others say Satan does (1 John 5:19, Luke 4:6).

Satan’s authority is obtained through human agreement with his way. Mankind can choose to give Satan dominion in this way because God first gave authority over the earth to mankind (Genesis 1:28, Psalm 115:16). In fact, even God has chosen to make His influence in the earth dependent to some extent on the prayers, faith, and obedience of His people.

Some verses about God’s authority over the earth refer to a settled aspect of the future as though it were already present. Others refer to His ability to shape national or global events through national calamities, blessings, or raising up or influencing spiritual or political leaders.

God raised up prophets in the Old Testament to speak His words to His people (Deuteronomy 18:18). During the period of the Judges, He raised up judges to deliver them from their enemies (Judges 2:16-18). Specific examples of God raising up spiritual and political leaders in scripture include Ehud and Othniel (Judges 3:9, 15), Samuel (1 Samuel 2:35), King Josiah (1 Kings 13:1-3, 2 Kings 23:16), Baasha (1 Kings 14:14, 1 Kings 15:27-29), Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:5), and Paul (Galatians 1:15-16).

However, there were other times in Israel’s history in which God wanted to raise up a leader but was unable because there was no one whose heart was with Him (Ezekiel 22:30-31 and Isaiah 59:16-18, 63:5-6). This indicates that God did not override the free will of the aforementioned spiritual/political leaders He raised up, but rather their hearts were such that God was able to use them as He planned.

Furthermore, God also raised up leaders who were not obedient to His call. For example, God chose and provided abundant, transformational grace to King Saul (1 Samuel 10:1, 6, 9), but Saul rebelled to such an extent that God regretted His choice and rejected Saul as king (Samuel 15: 11, 35). Likewise, God raised up, established, and fathered Solomon and gave him unsurpassed wisdom (2 Samuel 7:12-14, 1 Kings 3:12). Yet Solomon fell to worshipping false gods (1 Kings 11:4-8), including sacrificing children, despite likely understanding he was worshipping fallen angelic beings (Leviticus 20:2, Acts 7:39-43). Similarly, some of the Pharisees rejected God’s purpose for themselves (Luke 7:30).

God sometimes influences without controlling a king to accomplish a purpose (Proverbs 4:23, 21:1). This appears to be the kind of influence God exercised upon Nebuchadnezzar, whom God used to judge Israel’s wickedness and take them into exile (Jeremiah 27:5-8, Daniel 4:37), and Cyrus, whom God used to return the Jews to Jerusalem after the exile (Ezra 1:1, 6:22). We are commanded to pray for our leaders (1 Timothy 2:2) because they are subject to influence by both God’s and Satan’s kingdoms.

God can bestow power upon a specifically appointed ruler, and sometimes He chooses to do so (Daniel 5:21). However, scripture speaking about political leaders as being raised up by God is the exception, not the rule. Most kings in scripture appear to have come to power through the course of naturally unfolding events and circumstances, not divine appointment.

God ordained different types of authority systems in scripture that He commands believers to submit to, including civil authorities (Romans 13:1). However, scripture does not teach that every person who ever got into a position of power (political or otherwise) was specifically placed there by God.

A rare, possible example of God overriding a king’s free will for the sake of His high-level purposes was in the case of Sihon king of Heshbon (Deuteronomy 2:30). But the most famous example was Pharaoh in Exodus. Early on, Pharaoh’s heart was most hardened by himself (8:15, 9:34) or an unnamed party (7:13, 7:22, 8:19, 8:32, 9:7, 9:35). Later, God explicitly hardened his heart several times (9:12, 10:1, 10:20, 10:27, 11:10, 14:8). Pharaoh had already witnessed the several astounding plagues and still refused to repent before the first time God hardened him. His conscience may have already been seared (ex. 1 Timothy 4:2

Had God not hardened Pharaoh’s heart, he might have yielded to Moses due to pressure from the Egyptian people, the high cost of continued defiance did not seem worth it, or pressure from Satan to prevent God’s agenda from advancing. God hardened Pharaoh’s heart to save as many souls from Egypt (Exodus 7:3-5, 14:4, 14:17-18) and the surrounding nations (Ezekiel 20:9) as possible, in addition to saving Israel, and to execute judgment against the fallen angels that presided over Egypt (Exodus 12:12). At times God tried to minimize the suffering associated with the plagues (Exodus 9:18-19, 31-32).

While some passages chide men and women for worshipping inanimate, graven idols (Deuteronomy 4:28, Psalm 115:5, 135:16, Daniel 5:23), other passages indicate that many of these worshippers, particularly rulers, understood that graven images were merely a conduit for worshipping real, fallen angelic beings (2 Kings 17:16, 21:3). In fact, the Israelites defaulted to the Egyptian practice of offering sacrifices to fallen angels for the entire forty years they wandered in the desert (Acts 7:39-43).

When scripture says God hardened a person or group, it does not necessarily mean overriding their free will. In some cases, it means God gave them a revelation of His nature, character, or existence that He knew they would reject, thus provoking them to continue all the more swiftly down the path they were already headed. One example of this is when the Father spoke audibly to Jesus from heaven (John 12:28-40). One man’s hardening can be another man’s softening – it depends on how his heart responds to God. This is why Jesus often spoke in parables to large crowds. He knew that teaching certain truths explicitly would unnecessarily/prematurely harden many of His listeners (Mark 4:33). Therefore, parables were a way of fishing for men to see who would respond by seeking Him for understanding afterward (Mark 4:10-12). 

While the majority of Israel (as a corporate entity, not specific individuals) was predetermined to reject Jesus, this does not mean God bypassed their free will (Romans 11:7, 17, 25). Rather, it means God revealed Himself through Jesus in such a way that He knew most of them would reject Him. God’s purpose in partially hardening Israel was to ultimately save as many souls as possible throughout the course of history (Romans 11:25-35).

There is a difference in scripture between being called to salvation and being chosen for salvation (Mathew 22:14, Revelation 17:14). The latter depends on how an individual responds to God’s call.

Since God has chosen to respect human free will, the reach of His grace depends, to some extent, on human agreement (via prayer, faith, and obedience). Therefore, He must at times make difficult choices on how, where, and when to apply that grace. He may have to choose between sending His grace to one nation and not sending it to another nation knowing that perhaps millions of additional souls will be saved from one and lost from the other in the decades or centuries that follow. For example, He exchanged Egypt, Cush, and Seba as a ransom payment to preserve Israel (Isaiah 43:4). Israel at times was given special grace and mercy that other nations were not for the sake of their fathers (Romans 11:28).

Satan demands access wherever he thinks he is legally entitled to it (Luke 22:31-33, Revelation 12:10, Zechariah 3:1-5). God can hold Satan back and give an individual or nation more time, mercy, and grace to repent. But if they persist in rebelling long enough, there comes a point when God permits Satan the access to which he is entitled.

It is rare for someone not to succumb to the current of the culture around him. Family of origin, nationality, ethnic group, generation… all these influences help form our ideas about God, morality, spirituality, life after death, the purpose of life, the origin of the universe, etc. These influences affect a person’s likelihood and ability to be saved. God created us as relational, community-oriented beings that are deeply connected to and affected by one another, even to the point of affecting our eternities.

There is a satanic veil that is stretched over all nations that blinds mankind from the truth about how to be saved (Isaiah 25:7).  This veil is constructed through human agreement and varies over time and from one region and people group to the next. When God gave human beings the capacity to love, serve, and teach one another, He also by necessity allowed for the capacity to abuse, neglect, and mislead one another.

One of the ways that God’s sovereignty shapes national or global events is by allowing or directly causing calamity, including military defeat, drought, famine, and pestilence (2 Chronicles 6:24-31, Exodus 7-10, Numbers 21 and 1 Chronicles 21:14, 2 Samuel 24:10-14). When God caused or allowed calamities, they were typically because the nation reached a point where the greatest possibility of souls being saved would come from calamity rather than allowing unrepentant sin to continue festering (Isaiah 19:22).

There are several examples in scripture where calamity befalls an individual or a nation that is allowed or appointed by God, but is actually carried out by Satan, other fallen angels, and/or human beings under their influence. Examples include Job’s possession, family, and health being struck (Job 1), Israel being struck with pestilence after David took a census (2 Samuel 24, 1 Chronicles 21), King Ahab being deceived into an ill-fated military engagement (1 Kings 22), the destroyer killing rebellious Israelites (Exodus 12:23, 1 Corinthians 10:10), the Babylonian conquest and exile (Ezekiel 16:8-39, Jeremiah 16:13, 18:11, and 19:3-9), and many other military defeats (Nehemiah 9:26-30, ex. Joshua 2:11-15). In these examples, God’s role can best be understood as protection-removal even though parallel passages sometimes make His role sound more proactive.

God sovereignly chose ethnic/political Israel to receive and steward His revelations, covenants, and promises to mankind (Romans 9:1-5). Ethnic/political Israel is distinct from spiritual Israel, or the remnant of saved individuals (Romans 9:6-8).

God sovereignly chose to bring forth ethnic/political through the specific bloodlines of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, and Jacob. As a result of this choice, the nation that descended from Jacob’s brother Esau eventually descended into wickedness and judgment (Romans 9:9-13).

There was no injustice in God sovereignly choosing ethnic/political Israel for its calling because His purpose in doing so was ultimately to disseminate the gospel truth of individual salvation by grace/mercy through faith as broadly as possible over the course of human history. This is also why God used Pharaoh to initially establish Israel as a distinct political entity (Romans 9:14-17).

This is the motive behind how God sovereignly chooses where and how to dispense His mercy at a national level, and why He sometimes hardens a nation or a political leader’s heart to accomplish this mercy. This explains His dealings with Israel, Pharoah, and Egypt when He established Israel as a distinct political entity (Romans 9:18).

As a result of God’s choices, some nations received mercy while others descended into spiritual darkness and judgment. However, accounting for the big picture of all nations throughout history, God’s choices were designed to maximize the reach of His mercy. This includes partially hardening Israel to Jesus Christ’s ministry, which resulted in remnants of gentile nations turning to salvation (Romans 9:19-24).

Who Has Authority Over the Earth?

Who has authority over the earth? Some passages say God does. For example, Jesus said in Matthew 28:18, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.” Similarly, Daniel 4:32 says, “…the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind and bestows it on whomever He wishes…” However, other passages say Satan has the authority. For example, the apostle John wrote in 1 John 5:19, “…the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” Also, when Satan showed Jesus all the kingdoms of the earth in Luke 4:6, he said, “…all this domain and its glory… it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.”

How do we reconcile these passages? Let’s apply our aforementioned approach for addressing seemingly contradicting passages. We ask:

1)      Is there any sense or context in which both sets of passages could be true at the same time without any contraction?

2)      Or are both sets true at the same time despite contradicting because it is simply beyond our limited human capacity to grasp how they can both be true?

3)      Or is one set meant to be taken at face value while the other is meant to be taken figuratively?

We start by searching for any possibility in which the first scenario works. This assumes that God spoke plainly and His word means exactly what it says. In order to determine whether both sets of passages can be true without any contradiction, we first need to consider how scripture characterizes both divine and satanic authority. Here are three ways:

1)      Authority can refer to broad human agreement.

2)      Authority can refer to a future condition that has not fully manifested yet.

3)      Authority can refer to the ability to sovereignly, unilaterally intervene in earthly events to accomplish one’s purpose.

Let’s briefly discuss each of these.

Human Agreement

The only sense in which Satan has worldwide authority is through human agreement. Satan said all the kingdoms of the earth had been “handed over” to him. This referred in part to Adam’s initial transgression, but it also referred to the ongoing collective choices of mass humanity and its rulers to live in agreement with Satan’s ways, thus coming under his influence. 

God’s influence in the earth also depends to some extent on human agreement – not because He does not have the power to act, but because He has chosen to respect our free will. He often does not intervene in our lives or our nations unless we invite His influence through prayer, faith, and obedience.

When God created mankind, He told them to “subdue… and rule over” the earth (Genesis 1:28), meaning He gave them authority over it. Likewise, Psalm 115:16 says, “The heavens are the heavens of the Lord, but the earth He has given to the sons of men.” God did not take back the authority He gave Adam and Eve when they fell because “the gifts and callings of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:22). Mankind still has dominion over the earth and we choose whom we give that dominion to – God or Satan – through our choices.

A Future Condition

Sometimes the Bible speaking about God’s authority over the earth refers to a settled aspect of the future as though it were already present. In other words, it is speaking about an eternal truth that has not fully manifested yet.

When Jesus said “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18), it referred to the fact that He has been irrevocably appointed future King of the earth.  However, His authority on earth had not fully manifested yet, as we see from His very next statement, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations…” This was a command for His disciples to go out and increase the reach of His kingdom in a spiritual sense for the remainder of the church age. When Christ returns, He will take full authority over the earth. For example, Revelation 11:15-18 says:

“The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever…  You have taken Your great power and have begun to reign… and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints…”

Sovereign Power

Some verses about God’s authority over the earth refer to His ability to shape national or global events. He does this in several ways. Examples include national calamities, national blessings, and raising up or influencing spiritual or political leaders. We will discuss these examples in more detail in future chapters.

Conclusion Concerning Authority Over the Earth

After considering these three types of divine/satanic authority, in my opinion, there is ample room for both sets of passages to be true without contradiction. When the Bible speaks of Satan’s authority over the earth, it refers to broad human agreement in this fallen age. However, when the Bible speaks of God’s authority over the earth, it refers to a settled future outcome or to His power to shape national or global events over time.

God’s Ability to Raise Up Political/Spiritual Leaders

As stated, one way God shapes national or global events is by raising up or influencing political or spiritual leaders. Let’s look at several examples. In Deuteronomy 18:18 God said:

“I will raise up a prophet from among their countrymen like you [Moses], and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.”

In context, this appears to not refer to any specific prophet, but to God’s general ability to raise one up whenever He chooses. Similarly, Judges 2:16-18 says the following about Israel during the period of the judges whenever Israel forsook God and He allowed them to fall into the hands of their enemies until they cried out for help:

“Then the Lord raised up judges who delivered them from the hands of those who plundered them… When the Lord raised up judges for them, the Lord was with the judge and delivered them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge…”

While these passages speak of God’s general ability to raise up leaders, there are specific examples as well. For example, Judges 3:9, 15 says God twice “raised up a deliverer” for Israel in the forms of Ehud and Caleb’s younger brother Othniel. Likewise, God foretold the following of the prophet Samuel in 1 Samuel 2:35:

“But I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who will do according to what is in My heart and in My soul; and I will build him an enduring house, and he will walk before My anointed always.”

In 1 Kings 13:1-3, a man of God prophesied to the wicked King Jeroboam (who reigned around 900 B.C.) as he was standing by an altar about to burn incense, saying:

“Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall be burned on you… [and] the altar shall be split apart and the ashes which are on it shall be poured out.”

Correspondingly, 2 Kings 23:16 says the following happened around 350 years later, during the reign of King Josiah (around 650 B.C.):

“Now when Josiah turned, he saw the graves that were there on the mountain, and he sent and took the bones from the graves and burned them on the altar and defiled it according to the word of the Lord which the man of God proclaimed, who proclaimed these things.”

This wasn’t the only fulfilled prophecy that addressed Jeroboam’s wickedness. In 1 Kings 14:14, the prophet Ahijah told the Jeroboam’s wife to tell him:

“Moreover, the Lord will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who will cut off the house of Jeroboam this day and from now on.”

Sure enough, after Jeroboam’s son Nadab ruled for just two years, 1 Kings 15:27-29 says:

“Then Baasha the son of Ahijah of the house of Issachar conspired against him, and Baasha struck him down… It came about as soon as he was king, he struck down all the household of Jeroboam. He did not leave to Jeroboam any persons alive, until he had destroyed them, according to the word of the Lord…”

As two final examples of God raising up influential leaders, consider Jeremiah and Paul. In Jeremiah 1:5, God said to Jeremiah:

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations…”

Similarly, Galatians 1:15-16 says of Paul:

“But when God, who had set me apart even from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, was pleased to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles…”

However, passages like these need to be juxtaposed with passages such as Ezekiel 22:30-31 and Isaiah 59:16-18, 63:5-6, which show that there were other times in Israel’s history in which God wanted to raise up a leader but was unable because there was no one whose heart was with Him. This indicates that God did not override the free will of the aforementioned spiritual/political leaders (Ehud, Othniel, Samuel, Josiah, Basha, Jeremiah, Paul, etc.), but rather their hearts were such that God was able to use them as He planned. As a reminder, Ezekiel 22:30-31 says:

“I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one. Thus I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath…”

Similarly, Isaiah 59:16-18 says,

“And He saw that there was no man, and was astonished that there was no one to intercede; then His own arm brought salvation to Him… and He put on garments of vengeance for clothing. According to their deeds, so He will repay…”

Finally, Isaiah 63:5-6 says:

“I looked, and there was no one to help, and I was astonished and there was no one to uphold; so My own arm brought salvation to Me, and My wrath upheld Me. I trod down the peoples in My anger…”

Furthermore, the passages we saw about God raising up various spiritual/political leaders also need to be juxtaposed with examples in which God raised up leaders who were not obedient to God’s call. For example, according to 1 Samuel 10, God not only specifically chose and “anointed [Saul] a ruler over His inheritance” (vs. 1), but God’s Spirit even came “upon [Saul] mightily, and… changed [him] into another man” (vs. 6) and “changed his heart” (vs. 9). Nevertheless, despite God’s calling and abundant grace, Saul rebelled to such an extent that God “regretted that He made Saul king” (Samuel 15: 11, 35) and therefore “rejected [him] from being king over Israel” (Samuel 15: 26).

Similarly, in 2 Samuel 7:12-14, God said He would “raise up” Solomon, “establish his kingdom,” “be a father to him,” and “correct him” as necessary. Further, 1 Kings 3:12 says God gave Solomon “a wise and discerning heart” beyond any lived ever lived “before” or “after” him. Nevertheless, despite God’s calling and abundant grace, Solomon eventually fell to breathtaking depths of depravity. 1 Kings 11:4-8 explains:

“For when Solomon was old… [he] went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites… [and] built a high place for Chemosh the detestable idol of Moab… and for Molech the detestable idol of the sons of Ammon.”

As we will learn in a coming section, there was considerable understanding for centuries among Israel’s population and leaders that sacrificing to graven idols was merely a conduit for worshipping fallen angelic beings. Molech, in particular, required his worshippers to sacrifice their own children to him (ex. 2 Kings 23:10, Jeremiah 32:35), which God explicitly warned of and forbade hundreds of years prior, before Israel even entered the promised land (Leviticus 20:2).

Therefore, the examples of Saul and Solomon (others could be cited as well) show that just because God appoints, raises up, and even provides abundant grace for a leader to follow Him, this still does not override his free will to choose from his heart whether or not to obey God’s call.

Speaking of not obeying God’s call, look at what Luke 7:30 says:

“But the Pharisees and the lawyers rejected God’s purpose for themselves, not having been baptized by John.”

This statement reveals that God had a good, redemptive purpose in mind for at least some of the Pharisees and lawyers who chose to reject it. Although scripture does not indicate God raised up any of the specific Pharisees or lawyers in power during Jesus’ ministry, this passage nevertheless has important implications concerning God’s respect for human free will.

King Nebuchadnezzar and King Cyrus

Proverbs 21:1 says, “The king’s heart is like channels of water in the hand of the LORD; He turns it wherever He wishes.” This is an interesting analogy. Scripture (ex. Proverbs 4:23) compares a spring of water to that which comes out of man’s heart, such as his private thoughts, motives, and convictions – the essence of his will. Therefore, this verse is not a picture of God having absolute control over a king as though he were a puppet or a robot. Rather it is a picture of a king’s heart having its own inertia, like flowing water, which God then influences to accomplish His purposes in the nations.

This appears to be the kind of influence God exercised upon Nebuchadnezzar, whom God used to judge Israel’s wickedness and take them into exile. For example, God said in Jeremiah 27:5-8:

“I have made the earth… and I will give it to the one who is pleasing in My sight. Now I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant… All the nations shall serve him… It will be, that the nation or the kingdom which will not serve him, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon… I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine and with pestilence…”

However, we see in Daniel 4 that God clearly did not control Nebuchadnezzar like a puppet since He warned him against walking in pride and then disciplined him when exalted himself anyway. Nebuchadnezzar later stated:

“Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise, exalt and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are true and His ways just, and He is able to humble those who walk in pride.” (vs. 37)

God working through Nebuchadnezzar is an excellent example of God influencing the heart of a king without overriding his free will.

This also appears to be the kind of influence God exercised upon Cyrus and the king of Assyria in the book of Ezra. Ezra 1:1 says the Lord “stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia” to proclaim the return of the Jews to Jerusalem after the exile. Ezra 6:22 says the Lord “turned the heart of the king of Assyria toward them to encourage them in the work of the house of God.” Once again, the wording in this passage suggests Cyrus’ heart had its own inertia and will that God influenced to accomplish His purpose. 

Interestingly, each of these men did not know God, at least in the early stages of being used by Him. Because fallen humanity is spiritually blind and sheep-like, our choices are often subject to influence by God’s kingdom and/or Satan’s kingdom without our realizing it. This is especially true of those in authority, upon whom both kingdoms at times apply tremendous pressure. This is why we are commanded to pray for our leaders (ex. 1 Timothy 2:2), regardless of whether they are saved. 

God Can and Does Appoint Rulers… But Not All of Them

Nebuchadnezzar’s reign was unique in Israel’s history. God’s specific dealings with and through Nebuchadnezzar was the context into which Daniel famously stated in Daniel 5:21:

“…the Most High God is ruler over the realm of mankind and that He sets over it whomever He wishes.”

Some Christians have misinterpreted this statement to mean that God specifically appointed every ruler who ever took power in world history. However, it should be noted that scripture speaking about political leaders as being raised up by God is the exception, not the rule. This includes the majority of political leaders in Israel and Judah. While God’s assistance was certainly available to any king who sought Him, most kings in scripture appear to have come to power through the course of naturally unfolding events and circumstances, not divine appointment. Therefore, I believe Daniel 5:21 indicates God can bestow power upon a specifically appointed ruler, and sometimes He chooses to do so. But that is not the same thing as saying that God does appoint every ruler.   

Furthermore, as we have already seen, 1 John 5:19 says, “…the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.” And Satan said in Luke 4:6, he said, “…all this domain and its glory… it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.” This perspective harmonizes well when one studies the reigns of most of the kings in the Bible, especially the kings of the northern kingdom of Israel, who repeatedly led God’s people to worship false gods.

Finally, we should note that Romans 13:1 does state: “For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.” However, in context, I believe this refers to the different types of authority systems God ordained in scripture that He commands believers to submit to, such as civil authorities, church leaders, and family authority. It does not teach that every person who ever got into a position of power (political or otherwise) was specifically placed there by God

God Influencing Kings by Overriding Free Will

As stated, in the vast majority of biblical passages where God shapes national or global events by raising up or influencing political or spiritual leaders, there is no strong evidence that God overrode their free will. However, it does appear that God occasionally overrode the free will of a king to accomplish a vital purpose.

One possible example of God overriding a king’s free will for the sake of His high-level purposes can be found in Deuteronomy 2:30, which says:

“But Sihon king of Heshbon was not willing for us to pass through his land; for the Lord your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, in order to deliver him into your hand, as he is today.”

However, the most well-known example of God temporarily overriding a king’s free will is that of Pharaoh in the book of Exodus. The progression of Pharaoh’s heart is interesting. In most of the early mentions, Pharaoh either hardens his own heart (8:15, 9:34) or his heart “was hardened” (7:13, 7:22, 8:19, 8:32, 9:7, 9:35) by an unnamed party, which theoretically could have been himself, Satan, God, or a combination of these. However, in verse 9:12 and from chapter ten onward (10:1, 10:20, 10:27, 11:10, 14:8), God is explicitly the One who hardens his heart.

How are we to understand this progression? It may be that Pharaoh’s heart became so hard through his ongoing defiance that he was no longer redeemable, like those whom Paul said were “seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron” in 1 Timothy 4:2. He had already witnessed several astounding plagues and still refused to repent before the first time God hardened him in Exodus 9:12. Perhaps there came a point when there was no longer a struggle in his heart to decide between good and evil. In fact, some scholars identify him as a type of the antichrist.

Perhaps if God did not harden Pharaoh before the final plagues, Pharaoh would have yielded to Moses, not because of a crisis of conscience, but for some other reason. He might have yielded because of pressure from the Egyptian people, or because the cost/benefit ratio of continued defiance did not seem worth it, or because Satan would have influenced him to yield so God’s fame didn’t increase any more among the Egyptians or surrounding nations, as we will discuss in a moment.

In any event, there apparently came a point when it was expedient for God to repeatedly harden his heart and complete the course of events He had in mind – the remaining judgments, the parting of the Red Sea, and the drowning of Pharaoh’s army. God even hardened members of Pharaoh’s army during this sequence (Exodus 14:17), whom we can surmise also repeatedly hardened their own hearts prior since they continued to obey Pharaoh throughout the plagues.

Why did God want to complete this sequence? Simple – to save as many souls as possible. In addition to saving Israel, Ezekiel 20:9 says God’s name became known among the nations by how He judged Egypt. Likewise, multiple passages in Exodus (7:3-5, 14:4, 14:17-18) say God acted so that “the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord”. All these nations were in bondage to idol worship, but God loved them and wanted to deliver as many as possible. In fact, Exodus 12:12 even says one purpose of the plagues was to execute judgment “against all the gods of Egypt”.

Just before the final plague, scripture says both Moses and the Jews had great favor with the Egyptians (Exodus 11:3). It is therefore likely that a great revival took place among them and, when the final plague came, many of them applied the blood of the lamb both to their doors and to their hearts. God’s judgments were an expression of mercy since, by increasingly revealing His holiness and power, He confronted lost people with their sin and forced them to decide whether to repent or harden their hearts.

It might also be noted that God at times tried to minimize the suffering associated with the plagues. For example, when the plague of hail came, He gave specific instructions for how to remain safe (9:18-19) and He sent the plague in such a way that it only ruined flax and barely, not wheat and spelt, (9:31-32) so they would have food afterward.

Just before the final plague, scripture says both Moses and the Jews had great favor with the Egyptians (Exodus 11:3). It is therefore likely that a great revival took place among them and, when the final plague came, many of them applied the blood of the lamb both to their doors and to their hearts. God’s judgments were an expression of mercy since, by increasingly revealing His holiness and power, He confronted lost people with their sin and forced them to decide whether to repent or harden their hearts.

It might also be noted that God at times tried to minimize the suffering associated with the plagues. For example, when the plague of hail came, He gave specific instructions for how to remain safe (9:18-19) and He sent the plague in such a way that it only ruined flax and barely, not wheat and spelt, (9:31-32) so they would have food afterward.

Worshipping Fallen Angels

Let’s embark on a brief tangent here to discuss God’s choice to execute judgment “against all the gods of Egypt”, as Exodus 12:12 says. I have often heard Bible teachers emphasize (perhaps overemphasize) the foolishness of Old Testament Gentile nations and Israel during periods of apostasy for worshipping inanimate, graven images. They point to passages like Deuteronomy 4:28, Psalm 115:5, 135:16, and Daniel 5:23, which chide men and women for worshipping inanimate, graven “gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which do not see, hear or understand,” to quote Daniel.

However, it is important to juxtapose these with other passages which show that many of these worshippers, particularly rulers, understood that graven images were merely a conduit for worshipping real, fallen angelic beings. For example, 2 Kings 17:16 says: “They forsook all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves molten images… and made an Asherah and worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal.” Likewise, 2 Kings 21:3 says: “For he [King Manasseh]… erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah… and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.”

Furthermore, when Moses came to the Israelites proclaiming deliverance by the God of their fathers, they had lived in Egypt for 400 years and had taken on many Egyptian practices, including the worship of fallen angels. While the legend of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob persisted through the centuries (see Exodus 3:13-18), many of the Israelites probably likened Him in some ways to another fallen angel like the ones they were accustomed to worshipping.

In fact, when Moses later delayed coming down from Mount Sinai (see Exodus 32:1), the Israelites defaulted to their habitual practice of worshipping fallen angels via graven conduits. Not only that, they even continued offering sacrifices to these fallen angels for the entire forty years they wandered in the desert! Acts 7:39-43 explains: 

“Our fathers… repudiated [God] and in their hearts turned back to Egypt, saying to Aaron, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us; for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt—we do not know what happened to him.’ At that time they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and were rejoicing in the works of their hands. But God turned away and delivered them up to serve the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, ‘It was not to Me that you offered victims and sacrifices forty years in the wilderness, was it, O house of Israel? You also took along the tabernacle of Moloch and the star of the god Rompha, the images which you made to worship.”

This helps to explain why it was so crucial for God to execute judgment “against all the gods of Egypt.” God needed to make a distinction between Himself – the all-powerful Creator of the universe who loved them with all His heart – and the gods of Egypt – created angelic beings who hated God, hated human beings, and wanted to see them damned for eternity. God’s actions in Egypt were not only intended to set the Israelites free from physical/political slavery to Pharoah, but also from spiritual slavery to fallen angels allegiant to Satan.

Hardening Does Not Always Mean Free Will Suspension

It is also worth mentioning here that when scripture says God “hardened” a person or group, it does not necessarily mean overriding their free will. In some contexts, it can mean God gave them a revelation of His nature, character, or existence that He knew they would reject. In so doing, He provoked them to continue all the more swiftly down the path they were already headed.

John 12:40 is a good example of this. Shortly before Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion, John quoted Isaiah’s prophecy, saying:

“He has blinded their eyes and He hardened their heart, so that they would not see with their eyes and perceive with their heart, and be converted and I heal them.”

This verse seems bizarre, out of context. It sounds like God did not want these Israelites to be saved. However, in context, we see two things. First, they had already witnessed countless signs before this. (Verse 37 says, “But thought He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him.”) Second, they had all just heard the Father audibly speak to Jesus from heaven. (In verse 28, the Father said audibly, “I have both glorified it [My Name], and will glorify it again.”) Speaking audibly from heaven appears to be how God finally “blinded their eyes” and “hardened their heart”. He forced them to make one last, culminating rejection of Jesus’ ministry.

In fact, notice the second Isaiah prophecy John quoted in verse 38, which he linked to his statement about them having witnessed so many miraculous signs:

“Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”

This is the question God continually asked of the Israeli population throughout Jesus’ ministry. However, after they made their choices and became sufficiently polarized, it seems the Father gave a final sign that “blinded” and “hardened” some, but no doubt provided further confirmation and softening to those who believed. One man’s hardening is another man’s softening – it depends on how his heart responds to God.

Incidentally, this is also why Jesus often spoke in parables when He addressed large crowds. He knew that teaching certain truths explicitly would unnecessarily/prematurely harden many of His listeners. This is why Mark 4:33 says:

“With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it…”

Jesus used parables as a way of fishing for men. He showed them the bait and waited to see who would respond by seeking Him for understanding afterward. This is clearly stated earlier in Mark 4, alongside yet another quotation of Isaiah’s blinding/hardening prophecy from John 12:40 (although here it uses slightly different wording). Look at Mark 4:10-12:

“As soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables. And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven.”

So we see three factors present in Mark 4:

·         Jesus spoke the word to large crowds in parables “so far as they were able to hear it…”

·         Jesus waited for the crowd to leave until only “His followers” (distinct from the twelve disciples) remained before explaining the meaning of the parables.

·         Jesus quoted Isaiah’s blinding/hardening prophecy and applied it to those who did not care enough to stay behind and seek Him further for understanding.

Thus, the parables acted like a sieve that divided Israelites who were ultimately hardened by Jesus’ message from those who were softened. Again, one man’s hardening is another man’s softening.

Now it is true that the majority of Israel (as a corporate entity, not specific individuals) was predetermined to reject Jesus, as we see in some biblical passages, such as Romans 9-11. Romans 9-11 will be discussed in more detail later. However, what I’ll mention here is that, when Paul described God “partially hardening” (Romans 11:25) Israel so gentile remnants could be “grafted in” (Romans 11:17) to salvation God’s salvation plan, it does not mean He bypassed their free wills. In my opinion, it simply means He revealed Himself through Jesus in such a way and to such an extent that He knew most of them would reject Him.

It might also be noted here that when Paul said in Romans 11:7 that the Israelites “who were chosen obtained it [salvation], and the rest were hardened,” the Greek word for “chosen” comes from the same root as the word used by Jesus when He said in Mathew 22:14, “Many are called, few are chosen.” In other words, there is a difference between being “called” to salvation and being “chosen” for salvation. The latter depends on how an individual responds to God’s call. (Revelation 17:14 always distinguishes between being “called” and “chosen”.)

God partially hardened Israel without overriding individual free will for the same reason He repeatedly hardened Pharaoh by overriding his free will – to save as many souls as possible, not only in Jesus’ generation but throughout the course of history. This is precisely why Paul summarized his discourse in Romans 11:25-35 by saying:

“For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery… that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in… For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.”

If we view Paul and Jesus’ generation in isolation, God’s sovereignty temporarily worked against the welfare of ethnic Israel. However, Romans 11 is clear that in the ages to come we will recognize how this choice was ultimately in the best eternal interests of both the Jews and gentile nations.

The Unimaginable Choices God Must Make

While God’s choice in Jesus’ generation temporarily worked against ethnic Israel, He made many choices in previous generations that worked to their benefit. For example, look at what God said to Israel in Isaiah 43:4:

“Since you are precious in My sight, since you are honored and I love you, I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life.”

Wow. In generations before the cross, God handed over entire nations and people groups into eternal perdition in order to preserve a believing remnant among His chosen nation.

God has made choices that we cannot imagine having to make. Since He has chosen to respect our free wills, the reach of His grace depends, to some extent, on human agreement (via prayer, faith, and obedience). Therefore, He must at times make choices on how, where, and when to apply that grace. He may have to choose between sending His grace to one nation and not sending it to another nation knowing that perhaps millions of additional souls will be saved from one and lost from the other in the decades or centuries that follow. Is this not essentially what God said He did in Isaiah 43:4?

In fact, God even named the nations He traded away, saying, “I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place.” I do not believe this means that any specific individual in those nations was inevitably damned with no possibility of being saved. However, it does mean that God knew the overall trend of those nations would be to descend into wickedness, resulting in the vast majority being damned.

Isaiah’s use of the words “ransom” and “exchange for your life” allude to the involvement of a third party who is demanding a ransom payment. This party, we could surmise, is Satan. Satan continually demands access wherever he thinks he is legally entitled to it. For example, Satan demanded permission to “sift [Peter] like wheat” in Luke 22:31-33 because there was pride and self-reliance in his heart. Revelation 12:10 says Satan “accuses” believers to God, day and night. In Zechariah 3:1-5, Satan stands beside Joshua the high priest “to accuse him” before God.

Of course, God has the power to hold Satan back and give an individual or nation more time, mercy, and grace to repent. But if they persist in rebelling long enough, there comes a point when God says to Satan, “You’re right. They don’t want to repent. You may now lay ahold of the authority they have chosen to give you.” Therefore, Satan presumably demanded permission to lay ahold of Israel in Isaiah 43:3-4 and God acknowledged that he was legally entitled to do it. However, rather than giving Satan what he demanded, He gave him increased access to three other nations instead.

Israel at times was no more righteous or obedient than the nations around it, despite having far more understanding of the true God than all other nations. Nevertheless, it was given special grace and mercy that other nations were not. Why? One reason was “for the sake of the fathers” as Paul said in Romans 11:28. The seeds of faith and obedience sown by men such as the patriarchs, Moses, Joshua, and David continued to yield a harvest of grace to their descendants long after they died. Perhaps we too can live before God in such a way that extra grace will be shown to our children and grandchildren if they go astray.

Speaking of Joshua, the remainder of Zechariah 3:1-5 beautifully illustrates God’s unmerited mercy toward Israel. When Satan stood beside Joshua and accused him, God replied: “The Lord rebuke you, Satan! Indeed, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” God then gave orders for Joshua’s filthy garments to be replaced with clean festal robes, and said: “See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes.”

The Current of Culture

In the Bible, the nations are compared to a great sea (ex. Isaiah 17:13, 60:5, Ezekiel 26:3, Revelation 17:15). Why? In large bodies of water, such as an ocean, there are massive ebbs and flows, enormous eddies, and currents that stretch for thousands of miles. This is a picture of the cultures of the world.

Each human being is like a single drop of water in the sea of humanity. Just as an ocean current is too powerful for a drop of water to escape its pull or alter its course, so too is a single human being at the mercy of the culture he or she is born into. It’s true that we are each responsible for how we respond to our consciences (ex. Romans 2:14-15), the witness of creation (ex. Psalm 19:1, Romans 1:20), God’s pursuing presence (ex. Acts 17:27), and whatever truth and righteousness has been taught or modeled to us. However, it is nevertheless extremely rare for someone not to succumb to the current of the culture around him. Even those who do abandon one culture or belief system usually only do so because they were influenced by another, not because they somehow extricated themselves from all outside influences.

Family of origin, nationality, ethnic group, generation… all these influences help form our ideas about God, morality, spirituality, life after death, the purpose of life, the origin of the universe, etc. These ideas really do affect a person’s likelihood and ability to be saved. We do not live in a bubble. God created us as relational, community-oriented beings that are deeply connected to and affected by one another, even to the point of affecting our eternities. God meant this for good, but when sin entered it also became a force for evil.

Isaiah 25:7 says there is a “veil which is stretched over all nations” that blinds us from the truth about salvation. This veil was not created by God; it was constructed by Satan through human agreement. It is not uniform or constant; it is a grotesque, dynamic patchwork that varies over time and from one region and people group to the next. Every nation, culture, city, and family has its own combination of blind spots and strongholds, as well as some truth mixed in so the deception will penetrate more effectively. The veil’s purpose is simple: Deceive people so they will either not realize they need to be saved or think salvation is based on their own goodness. This way, they will either disregard God’s provision of the cross or take offense at it. 

I remember feeling angry when I started to realize our choices could affect other people’s eternities. It felt unfair, especially for those born into seemingly impossible-to-be-saved situations. It also felt like an unfair amount of pressure on me and other believers to convert the lost. I thought people’s eternities should only be based on their individual responses to God, not influenced by any third parties. Then I realized the only way to accomplish this would be a world devoid of relationships.

Take parenthood, for example, one of the deepest joys of life. God gave us the capacity to produce children in our own image who are totally dependent on us to love them, provide for them, and teach them truth. This joy could not even exist if people’s eternities had to be based only on their individual responses to God. When God gave us the capacity to love, provide for, and teach our children, He also gave us the capacity to abuse, neglect, or mislead them, which in turn could impact every generation thereafter, eventually growing into corrupt cultures and false belief systems. The risk was inescapable. A similar dichotomy could be identified for every other type of relationship – spouses, friends, teachers, spiritual leaders, civil authorities, etc. For everything God created that was good and beautiful, when He chose to allow free will to exist, there was also potential for those things to become ugly and evil. This is how the world reached the state it is in today.

God Causes/Allows Calamity for Redemptive Purposes

As stated previously, one of the ways that God’s sovereignty shapes national or global events is by allowing or directly causing calamity. In 2 Chronicles 6:24-31, Solomon identified military defeat, drought, famine, and pestilence as possible consequences for God’s people falling into sin. Military defeat is unique because it requires human agreement. We will discuss military defeat in more detail shortly. The latter three require no human agreement and can be directly caused by God at times. There are several examples of this such as Exodus 7-10, Numbers 21, and 1 Chronicles 21:14. It is interesting to note David’s response in 2 Samuel 24:10-14 when he was told to choose between three types of judgment – famine, military defeat, or pestilence. He chose pestilence, reasoning, “Let us now fall into the hand of the Lord for His mercies are great, but do not let me fall into the hand of man.”

When God caused or allowed calamities, they were typically meant to be redemptive. The nation reached a point where the greatest possibility of souls being saved, both at that time and in future generations, would come from either allowing or directly causing calamity rather than allowing unrepentant sin to continue festering. From an eternal perspective, His actions were not evil, but merciful, since they carried the potential for more people to escape eternal suffering by undergoing temporal suffering. This motive can be seen in passages about gentile nations as well. For example, Isaiah 19:22 says, “The Lord will strike Egypt, striking but healing; so they will return to the Lord, and He will respond to them and will heal them.”

Some Calamities Result from God’s Protection Being Removed

There are several examples in scripture where calamity befalls an individual or a nation that is allowed or appointed by God but is actually carried out by Satan, other fallen angels, and/or human beings under their influence. In these examples, God’s role can best be understood as protection-removal even though parallel passages sometimes make His role sound more proactive. Let’s look at several examples.

Job’s Afflictions

Job 1:10 says of Job that God “made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has.” However, Satan accused Job’s motive for worshipping God as being self-serving. Citing God’s blessing and protection, Satan rhetorically asked: “Does Job fear God for nothing?” In response to Satan’s charge, God agreed to temporarily withdraw His protection, saying, “all that he has is in your power” (Job 1:12) and, later, “he is in your power, only spare his life” (Job 2:6). Satan then orchestrated a series of calamities against Job. Two were natural disasters (fire from heaven, a destructive wind), two required human agreement (Sabeans and Chaldeans who raided his wealth and murdered his children and servants), and one was pestilence (sore boils all over Job’s body).

However, even though Satan was the orchestrator of these calamities, God affirmed that He shared some responsibility, saying to Satan (Job 2:3), “you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause”. This sequence establishes a pattern that repeats with other scriptures: First God removes His protection, then Satan or an evil spirit inflicts a calamity.

David’s Census

Next, let’s look at David’s census-taking, recorded in both 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21. Samuel 24:1 says: “Now again the anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and it incited David against them to say, ‘Go, number Israel and Judah.’” Taken by itself, this passage could lead one to erroneously conclude God acted unilaterally against Israel, overriding David’s free will, and without any involvement from Satan.

However, a parallel passage, 1 Chronicles 21:1 says, “Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved David to number Israel.” Therefore, Satan desired to attack Israel by enticing David to sin, which could in turn subject the entire nation to calamity since it was under David’s authority. Additionally, in 2 Samuel 24:10, David says, “I have sinned greatly in what I have done. But now, O Lord, please take away the iniquity of Your servant, for I have acted very foolishly.” So we see Satan’s attack required David’s agreement, which he gave when he chose to sin.

Taking all three passages together, along with the biblical law from James 1:13 that God “does not tempt anyone”, we see the pattern from Job occur once again: God removed His protection from David and Israel. This allowed Satan access, which he exploited by enticing human agreement.

Ahab’s Deceiving Spirit

As a third example, in 1 Kings 22, King Ahab sought 400 prophets for a word from the Lord about whether he would succeed in battle against Ramoth-gilead. All four hundred declared that Ahab would succeed (vs. 6). However, we learn in verses 19-23 that God permitted an evil spirit to “be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.” Even though the evil spirit committed the act, God once again affirmed His shared responsibility via the prophet Micaiah, who explained to Ahab: “…behold, the Lord has put a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; and the Lord has proclaimed disaster against you.”

The Destroyer Kills Israelites Who Rebelled Despite So Much Experiential Revelation

Two additional examples are Exodus 12:23 and 1 Corinthians 10:10. In Exodus 12:23, God permitted an evil spirit called “the destroyer” to kill the firstborn child of every family in Egypt that did not apply lamb’s blood to their door, symbolizing the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the sins of mankind. This was the culmination of a series of catastrophic plagues God sent to deliver His people from Egypt. According to 1 Corinthians 10:10, which references Number 16:41-50, God permitted the same evil spirit, “the destroyer”, to strike Israel for openly complaining after God supernaturally put down a rebellion against Moses’ leadership by Korah and 250 renowned leaders of Israel (see Number 16:1-35).   

As we discussed in Chapter 2, people are judged according to how much light they have been exposed to and how they respond to it. There is a higher level of accountability for those who are given experiences that diminish the need to exercise faith in God’s existence, character, or power. It is unlikely that any Christian alive today has as much first-hand revelation of the Lord as the average Israeli citizen of that generation. This is why they were held to such a high level of accountability for their rebellious actions.

The Babylonian Conquest/Exile and Other Military Defeats

Next, consider the conquest and exile of the southern kingdom of Judah around 600 B.C. In Ezekiel 16:8-39, God recounted how He entered into a marriage covenant with Judah. However, instead of remaining faithful and only worshipping God, Judah became an adulteress by worshipping many other gods. This idol worship became so pervasive that they built shrines and idols to these gods on every high place and every town square. And their worship became so perverse that they sacrificed their own children.

Also, as we saw earlier from 2 Kings 21:3, Judah’s population understood that they “worshiped all the host of heaven and served them” by these actions. (2 Kings 21:3 describes Judah during Manasseh’s reign, one of Judah’s final and wickedest kings before the exile.) Therefore, according to Ezekiel 16:8-39, God’s judgment was to deliver them into the hands of the very fallen angels they were worshipping, who also hated them. The passage states:

“I… entered into a [marriage] covenant with you so that you became Mine… But you… played the harlot… and made for yourself male images that you might play the harlot with them… you took your sons and daughters whom you had borne to Me and sacrificed them to idols to be devoured… You slaughtered My children and offered them up to idols by causing them to pass through the fire… you built yourself a shrine and made yourself a high place in every square… And I delivered you up to the desire of those who hate you…”

“Because… [of] your harlotries with your lovers and with all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your sons which you gave to idols, therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers… I will gather them against you from every direction… I will also give you into the hands of your lovers…”

So Ezekiel explained in retrospect that Israel’s conquest and exile resulted from God allowing fallen angels to use the human nations/armies they spiritually ruled over to attack. Nevertheless, when God spoke through Jeremiah before the exile, He affirmed His shared responsibility for the calamity, even to the point of the besieged inhabitants cannibalizing their own children to survive. God stated in Jeremiah 19:3-9:

“Behold I am about to bring a calamity upon this place… I will cause them [Judah] to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life; and I will give over their carcasses as food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth. I will also make this city a desolation… I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and they will eat one another’s flesh in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life will distress them.”

In fact, a biblical case can be made that every military defeat Judah/Israel experienced was attributable to God removing His protection, which allow for nations that worshipped fallen angels to attack. For example, consider Nehemiah, one of the last books written under the Old Covenant. Look at how Nehemiah 9:26-30 summarized Israel’s entire history from the period of the Judges to the Babylonian exile:

“But they [Israel] became disobedient and rebelled against You… Therefore You delivered them into the hand of their oppressors… when they cried to You… You gave them deliverers who delivered them… But as soon as they had rest, they did evil again before You; therefore You abandoned them to the hand of their enemies… You bore with them for many years, and admonished them by Your Spirit through Your prophets, yet they would not give ear. Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples of the lands.”

Significantly, this passage emphasizes Israel’s human enemies. However, when we compare it to Ezekiel 16:8-39, their actions can reasonably be considered in sync with Israel’s spiritual enemies – Satan and his angels – since these nations openly worshipped fallen angels by name and were essentially directed by them in their military campaigns. Therefore, I believe viewing these events as divine protection-removal is the most logical perspective despite the fact that other portions of scripture sometimes speak about these same events in ways that sound as though God played a more active role. For example, 2 Chronicles 21:14 says the Lord prepared to “strike [the] people” of Judah, and in Jeremiah 16:13, 18:11, and 19:3, God said He would “hurl [Judah] out of this land,” He was “fashioning calamity against” them, and He was “about to bring a calamity upon.” 

As a final example, consider Joshua 2:11-15, which describes God once again handing Israel into the hands of the surrounding nations after Israel began worshipping the same fallen angels as them:

“Then the sons of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD and served the Baals, and they forsook the LORD… and followed other gods from among the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them… So they forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtaroth. The anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He gave them into the hands of plunderers who plundered them; and He sold them into the hands of their enemies around them…”

Romans 9:1-5: Paul Discusses God’s Choice of Ethnic/Political Israel

We bring this chapter to a close by examining Romans 9. This can be a difficult chapter to follow because it talks about both ethnic/political Israel and spiritual Israel (the remnant), as well as both nations and individuals. Let’s step through and see if we can make sense of it.

In verses 1-5, Paul discusses ethnic/political Israel. He refers to them as his “kinsmen according to the flesh” and those from whom is “the Christ according to the flesh.” He recounts how God sovereignly chose ethnic/political Israel to receive and steward:

·         The revelation that mankind was created for “adoption as sons” or heirs of God’s eternal kingdom

·         The revelation of the “glory” of God’s marvelous nature

·         The “covenants” that God enacted in pursuit of our souls, including the Old Covenant “Law and the temple service”

·         The “promises” that God would bless all nations through Israel and send a Savior to all mankind

In verses 1-3, Paul focuses specifically on the unsaved contingent of ethnic/political Israel, for whom he felt such “great sorrow and unceasing grief” that he could wish himself “accursed, separated from Christ” if it would result in their salvation. This incredible statement is comparable to when Moses asked God in Exodus 32:32 to blot him out of the book of life if his countrymen did not obtain forgiveness for their sins.

Romans 9:6-8: Paul Contrasts Ethnic/Political Israel with the Remnant

In verses 6-8, Paul briefly switches his focus to the remnant, or the eternally saved contingent of ethnic/political Israel, whom he calls “children of the promise,” in contrast to “children of the flesh.”

Romans 9:9-13: Paul Recalls Ethnic/Political Israel’s Bloodline

In verses 9-12, Paul recounts how God sovereignly brought forth ethnic/political through a specific bloodline. First, he quotes God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 18:10 that Sarah would have a son, Isaac, by whom God promised to make them a “father of a multitude of nations” and a “mother of nations” (Genesis 17:5, 16). Paul then moves to the next generation by quoting Genesis 25:23, in which God said to Isaac’s wife Rebekah:

“Two nations are in your womb; and two peoples will be separated from your body; and one people shall be stronger than the other; and the older shall serve the younger.”

However, as an introduction to this quote from Genesis 25:23, Paul first states in verse 11:

“…for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls…”

Some believers mistakenly think verse 11 speaks of individual predestination, but the context is clearly God’s selection of the lineage of ethnic/political Israel. The context does not relate to the salvation of Jacob or Esau’s souls, despite the fact that Jacob did ultimately walk with God (Genesis 32:28-30) and Esau did not (Hebrews 12:16).

Finally, Paul recalls the long-term outcome for the nation that descended from Esau, the Edomites. He quoted Malachi 1:2-3, which was written over a thousand years after Jacob and Esau died and speaks about the nations that descended from them, not the individuals themselves. For context, Malachi 1:2-5 says:

“Yet I have loved Jacob; but I have hated Esau… They [the Edomites, Esau’s descendants] may build, but I will tear down; and men will call them the wicked territory, and the people toward whom the Lord is indignant forever.”

This prophecy against Edom was God’s judgment for their participation in attacking Israel. For example, Psalm 137:7 says, “Remember, O Lord, against the sons of Edom the day of Jerusalem, who said, ‘Raze it, raze it to its very foundation.’” Likewise, Obadiah 1:10 says, “Because of violence to your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame, and you will be cut off forever.” As we will see, this history of Edom is relevant to what Paul will say in verses 19-24.

Romans 9:14-18: Paul Explains that God Chose Israel to Disseminate His Mercy as Widely as Possible

In Romans 9:14-18, Paul begins by explaining that there is “no injustice” or impartiality in God’s nature that caused Him to choose ethnic/political. This is because His purpose in doing so was to ultimately bless all nations and to extend mercy as broadly as possible. (As we will discuss shortly, Paul covers this purpose in more detail in Romans 11 when he explains how God partially hardened ethnic/political Israel in order to bring a fullness of Gentiles to salvation (vs. 25), and concludes in vs. 32 with: “For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.”)  

In verse 15, Paul quotes God as telling Moses in Exodus 33:19: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” In context (of Exodus), this statement had both a national and individual application. On the national side, God spoke the words of Exodus 33:19 in response to Moses asking (in Exodus 33:15-16) for God’s presence to go with ethnic/political Israel to distinguish them from all other people. God’s response in Exodus 33:19 indicated He would show unmerited mercy and compassion to ethnic/political Israel, just as Moses requested.

On the individual side, God’s statement in Exodus 33:19 prepared Moses for when He dramatically passed before him in Exodus 34:6-7 and declared that it was His nature both to forgive and to justly punish individuals’ sins, in accordance with their faith/repentance. Thus, in Romans 9:16, Paul momentarily continues with this individual application by reminding the reader of the basic gospel truth that individual salvation depends on God’s mercy, not on man’s works, saying: “it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy.”

Next, Paul reminds the reader in verse Romans 9:16 of how God first formed Israel as a distinct political entity. He used Pharaoh to “demonstrate [His] power… and that [His] name might be proclaimed throughout the whole earth.” In other words, God’s purpose for establishing Israel as a distinct political entity, and the manner in which He did it, was to draw the world’s attention to the message that Israel was called steward: Salvation is based on God’s mercy and forgiveness, not on works. 

Romans 9:18: Paul Summarizes God’s Dealings with Israel, Pharoah, and Egypt

In verse 18, Paul states: “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.” The first part is a general statement about how God sovereignly chooses where and how to dispense His mercy at a national level. The second part is a general statement about how God sometimes hardens a nation or a political leader’s heart in order to accomplish the first part. By this statement, Paul summarizes how God dealt with Israel, Pharoah, and Egypt when He established Israel as a distinct political entity.

Once again, some believers mistakenly think Romans 9:18 speaks of individual predestination, but the clear context is God’s dealings with Israel, Pharoah, and Egypt on a national level, not any specific individual’s salvation.

As we discussed previously, Pharaoh hardened his own heart (Exodus 8:15, 9:34, and possibly 7:13, 7:22, 8:19, 8:32, 9:7) well before scripture says God hardened his heart (9:12, 10:1, 10:20, 10:27, 11:10, 14:8). We also discussed how God did this so that “the Egyptians will know that I am the Lord” (Exodus 7:3-5, 14:4, 14:17-18) and to execute judgment “against all the gods of Egypt” (Exodus 12:12). In other words, God wanted to save as many souls from the Egyptian population as possible and He wanted to deliver both the Israelites and Egyptians from continuing to worship wicked, fallen angels who hated them (Acts 7:39-43).      

(As a side note, the Greek word Paul uses for “desires” (theló) in verse 18 is the same word he uses in 1 Timothy 2:3-4 when he says God “desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”)

Romans 9:19-24: Paul Responds to Objections About God’s Selective Mercy 

Finally, in verses 19-24, Paul says:

“You will say to me then, ‘Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?’ On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? What if God, although willing to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction? And He did so to make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy, which He prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom He also called, not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles.”

Here, Paul responds to an anticipated objection about whether it is fair for God to choose some nations to receive His mercy while others descend into spiritual darkness and judgment. The objection is verbalized (vs. 19) as: “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” This objection likely arose in the minds of some readers as they were reminded of the judgment Edom experienced (vs. 13) and the devastating plagues Egypt experienced (vs. 17).

As we saw previously, God sometimes had to make hard choices on how, where, and when to apply His grace and mercy, as He did in Isaiah 43:4 (when He traded away Egypt, Cush, and Seba as a ransom in exchange for Israel), knowing that perhaps millions of additional souls would be saved from one nation and lost from others in the decades or centuries that followed. This did not mean that any specific individual in those nations was inevitably damned with no possibility of being saved. But it did mean that God knew the overall trend of those nations would be to descend into wickedness, resulting in the vast majority being damned.

Therefore, Paul answers the objection by comparing God’s dealing with nations to a “potter” (vs. 20) fashioning clay vessels (an analogy also applied to nations in Jeremiah 18:6). Some are fashioned for eventual “wrath” and “destruction” despite God’s interim “patience” with them, while others are fashioned for “mercy” and “glory”. However, Paul reminds the reader that everything God does is to “make known the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy” (vs. 23). In other words, His dealings with the nations are designed to maximize the reach of His mercy.

Lastly, Paul notes that the vessels of God’s mercy include not only the remnant of Israel, but also the remnants of gentile nations (vs. 24). As we saw previously, Paul goes on in Romans 11 to explain that “a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in” (vs. 25), and that “God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.” (vs. 32) In other words, while it facilitated God’s goal of maximizing the reach of His mercy to bestow upon Israel selective grace in the Old Testament, it facilitated the same goal to partially harden Israel in the church age. In this case, “hardening” simply means that God revealed Himself through Jesus’ ministry in such a way and to such an extent that He knew most of Israel would reject Him.

Closing Narrative

Having completed a nuanced exploration of who has authority over the earth and how that authority functions, let us conclude this chapter by stepping through a simplified narrative of how God has brought and is bringing earthly and heavenly authority structures to a redemptive climax. 

1. God Creates Angels and Delegates Authority to Them

Before God created mankind, he created a race of beings called angels. The Bible teaches that there are different categories of angels. For example, some wage war against fallen angels (Revelation 12:7), some are given charge over a new convert (Matthew 18:10), some worship before God’s throne continually (Revelation 4:8), some deliver messages (Luke 1:19), and some execute God’s judgment (1 Chronicles 21:15). Some rank higher in authority than others (Daniel 10:13).

Based on these and dozens of other Bible passages concerning angels, it is reasonable to consider that before sin existed, God delegated various authorities and responsibilities to the angels He created in the administration of His heavenly kingdom. The following picture illustrates how an angelic hierarchy might have worked. This is not dissimilar to how human organizations operate on earth.