The Sovereignty of God
Unwanted Results of an Inordinate Emphasis on
the Exercise of Sovereignty
Another interpretation inconsistency as a result of an inordinate
emphasis on the sovereignty of God is found in Exodus 4:10-12. One author, in an effort to attribute to
God’s sovereignty sweeping exercise latitude, claimed that God made
everyone. Then, he proceeded to
attribute all human deformity to God by His deliberate intervention in the
birth of humans. I can only assume that
he means that God overrides genetic transmission in the normal process of
birth. He said that God does this in all
who are born deformed in particular.
His support for this is found in Exodus 4:10-12.
Exodus 4:10–12
10 And Moses said unto the Lord, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither
heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant: but I am slow
of speech, and of a slow tongue. 11 And the Lord said unto him, Who hath made man’s
mouth? or who maketh the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I
the Lord? 12 Now
therefore go, and I will be with thy mouth, and teach thee what thou shalt say.
As a person who helps people all over the world, this claim is
particularly vulgar and odious. I have
seen deformity in the world, and it is a horrible picture to behold, especially
in an under-developed nation. There is
not glory for God in such terrible deformity and mental deficiency.
It is even harder to accept that in this life a person is decreed by God
to suffer untold agonies of deformity or mental deficiency; and then, this
person is also deemed unworthy of salvation because God declared him reprobate
as Calvin taught. Then, that person would
burn in hell forever only because God took pleasure to do this.
I believe that our author has lifted a statement out of context and made
a sweeping claim of doctrine. The
context of this passage is not deformity and mental deficiency. This is not an admission by God that he is
personally responsible for each horrible deformity or deficiency in the
world. It does not approach the level of
importance that would make us believe that God pre-imps the standard birth
process which he established just to make sure that there are deformed or
deficient people in the world.
The specific context is Moses feeble excuses about his ability to do God’s
work in the deliverance of Israel. This
is all that is addressed; not a universal statement that makes each individual,
deformed human being a special object of God’s negative attention.
Moses is not speaking of a deficient speech because of physiology, but
he is speaking of needing God's great sufficiency to help his ability to
communicate. There is no indication in
scripture that Moses was physically unable to speak clearly, because of
deformity. The thrust of Moses entire argument
is who will listen to him; he is not gifted in elocution and articulation of
thought; and he is fearful that he will be unbelievable to those listening to
him. It would be inconsistent to assume God’s
answer is a broad admission of horrible physical actions against human beings
because of this lame, at best, rebuttal from Moses. This is made clear in verse 12.
The context is accomplishment of God's will, and God can control speech
and sight if it is necessary to accomplish His will. Here God clarifies that he can make the deaf
and dumb, blind and seeing for the work of his will. That is all he is saying. Zacharias is a perfect example of this
argument in favor of God’s will.
Luke 1:18–20
18 And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall
I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. 19 And
the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of
God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings. 20 And,
behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these
things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled
in their season.
This type of interpretation lends itself to the thinking that God can do
things strictly for the purpose of his good pleasure apart from the other
attributes he possesses. God can do
horrible things to man because he wants to, and because He is sovereign. From that argument comes the thinking that
God can reprobate men into hell as Calvin taught, simply because he is
sovereign, no matter how horrible it might be.
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