Jesus presented a radical departure from conventional wisdom of the day. I don't know how many rebellious sons were actually killed - I doubt many, if at all, but you never know - people were certainly stoned and otherwise executed in those days. In the verses from Deuteronomy, the rebellious son is not given an opportunity to repent, or if he is, it doesn't matter that he repented, it's too late once the sin is committed. Or is it that a person in rebellion by definition will NOT repent so the point is moot? In Luke, the father is patient and kind, went above and beyond anything he ought to have done. The son was not entitled to anything, but the father gave without complaint, even though he must have known what was going to happen. The simple fact that this kid had the nerve to ask for his inheiritance shows his attitude and state of mind. I wondered if these two passages showed some kind of change on God's part; then realized that this is not possible, God does not change.If a man has a son who is stubborn and rebels, who will not obey his father's voice or his mother's voice, even when they have chastened him he will not listen to them, then his father and his mother shall lay hold on him and bring him out to the elders of his city, and to the gate of his place. And they shall say to the elders of his city, this son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice. He is a glutton and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones so that he dies. So shall you put evil away from you, and all Israel shall hear and fear. (Deuteronomy 21:18-21)
And He said, A certain man had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me the portion of goods that is coming to me. And he divided his living to them. And not many days afterward, the younger son gathered all together and went away into a far country. And there he wasted his property, living dissolutely. (Luke 15:11-13)
And he arose and came to his father. But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. (Luke 15:20)
"All that God is He has always been, and all that He has been and is He will ever be." Nothing that God has ever said about Himself will be modified; nothing the inspired prophets and apostles have said about Him will be rescinded. His immutability guarantees this. A.W. Tozer, The Knowledge of the Holy(New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1961), 50.
Justice vs. Mercy. So did God mellow out, having realized that He was going to have to kill us all if He didn't? No. He knew that from the beginning. There is no dichotomy, any more than there is between predestination and free will. God has always been just and holy, and God has always been merciful. What seems like a change from a human perspective, when considered from an "eternal" perspective where God is on the throne is completely different. If He does not complete an illustration in our lifetime, that doesn't make the lesson invalid. The more I read the Bible, I find that things that seem contradictory on the surface are not, when you look at it from the perspective that it's all about God, always has been, always will be. We exist ONLY to glorify Him.
|||109051517556032152|||Did God Mellow Out?