Election Day

Since all the talk this year is about elections, I thought it interesting to talk a bit about an election that transcends all others….God’s election.

If ever there was fodder for theological arguments, the grand-daddy of all would be in the areas of election and free-will. How do you wrap your head around the concept that God has already designed and chosen you to perform His will when you inherently have a free will?
If it’s a matter of God simply knowing ahead of time what you will choose…that certainly doesn’t sound much like a “plan” that God has designed. On the other hand,  if what God has planned will absolutely be fulfilled by your choices no matter what….how is that a free will?
So the dilemma continues and will most likely always continue until the day we meet up with Him on a personal level. Really all we can do is experience this paradox through examples found in the Bible…and simply accept them.

As I was reading through Judges an account of Gideon struck me as a perfect example. The story unfolds as Gideon has been directed by God to defeat the community of Midian. Gideon initially assembles 32,000 men to fight. God tells him there are too many and doesn’t want the men to feel as if they defeated Midian by their number and strength…the defeat needed to be clearly God’s doing. Gideon told anyone who was afraid to fight could leave…which 22,000 did. Left with only 10,000 God said, “Uh, uh…..still too many.” As a test of character God told Gideon to choose only the men who drank from the spring by bringing the water to their mouths rather than getting on all fours and lapping it up like a dog. This left 300 men for Gideon’s army. Read Chapter 7 to find the outcome of this very interesting battle.

Do you believe these 300 men were the original chosen by God to perform this battle? I certainly do. This is the perfect example of the juxtaposition of God’s election and free will. These men were selected by their free-will choices…yet God’s plan all along had been to use these men. I don’t pretend to understand the totality of election and free will, I simply know that it exists and this is the way God works….3,000 years ago and just as much today.

So when you go to cast your vote in November, will something in the back of your head remember this story? Will you wonder if your free will choice is really part of a grand design? I don’t have the answers and probably never will. I do know, however, that I love to pose questions and make people squirm mired in their own confusion to understand the things that cannot be understood. My work here is done.

Blessings.

Greg Morton
© July 2012


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