In order to form any conclusion on so broad of a topic, I think that having a basis for speculation is helpful. I believe that the stories contained in the lineage of Christ located in The New Testament’s Book of Matthew encapsulate God’s attributes, reveal His general intentions, and illustrate how He gets involved in world events. With so many crises around the world spurring interest in the apocalypse, all these related issues are a hot topics.
To start off with, let’s examine descriptors we use to describe God. One word is “transcend” (to rise above or go beyond the limits of), another is “omniscient” (possessed of universal or complete knowledge), or even “omnipotent” (having virtually unlimited authority or influence). Then there is “omnipresent” (present in all places at all times), “perfect” (being entirely without fault or defect), and “sovereign” (having undisputed ascendancy). These words alone that we choose to describe God denote that His reasoning and ways are beyond what our finite minds can even begin to grasp. Considering that scholars and theologians have batted this subject around without drawing definite conclusions, I’ll decline to engage in a philosophical debate. But, I can talk clearly and definitively about my viewpoints based upon the lineage of Christ.
My favorite story involves Rahab, a woman mentioned in the Old Testament. At the point in history when the Hebrew Nation, bent on conquest, approached Jericho she was an independent businessperson of sorts, or simply put, a prostitute who owned an inn. When the Israelites’ spies infiltrated the town and then needed a place to hide, Rahab anticipated Jericho’s inevitable defeat and traded her family’s safety for that of the spies’. Eventually when the Israelites conquered Jericho and honored their promise to her, Rahab chose assimilation into the Jewish culture by marrying a Hebrew named Salmon.
About the time all this was happening in another part of the world, a woman named Naomi fled Bethlehem with her husband and two young boys toward a country forbidden to the Israelites by God because of its then-evil practices – a place called Moab. During the family’s tenure there, her men folk died and bitter old Naomi changed her name to Marra, which meant “bitter”. Left with only her two daughters-in-law, she dismissed them to return home to their families so she could journey alone back to Bethlehem. One of them, Ruth, a woman of great character, refused to leave and instead accompanied Naomi home. Unfortunately, once she arrived home, Naomi was unable to reclaim her properties because women couldn’t hold title. Dear brave Ruth, in spite of being a despised Moabitess, faced their situation squarely and went to work in the fields gleaning leftovers from what was harvested. There she met Boaz, Rahab and Salmon’s son.
Now, here’s where the story gets interesting.
If one looks closely, God’s sovereign, yet permissive hand seems apparent. Rahab, though celebrated as a heroine for hiding the spies, still had a less-than-perfect reputation as a former prostitute. It’s not too much of a stretch to assume that Boaz, though protected by his father’s name, experienced some rejection and rough treatment as a result. Unlike other men his difficulties growing up under the ambiguities his mother faced would have sensitized him to look past appearances to see character and worth in a person, as was the case of Ruth. Boaz ordered the field hands to protect her, and not to hassle her as they did other women gleaning. He eventually married her.
In my book “The Golden Thread”, I try to bring out a number of these points either subtly or blatantly. Though each individual in the story exercised free will, God used the succession of events in both families to advance His purposes for good – both in their lives and to continue the lineage leading to His Son’s birth. I believe Rahab’s choices culminating with Boaz marrying Ruth portray how free will is worked into God’s higher purposes. Naomi even got a new grandchild – and of course he, Obed, was listed in the lineage of Christ Jesus.
When “The Golden Thread” needed background material incorporated into it I included the story of Joseph – the son of Jacob and the brother of Ruben who is listed in the Gospel of Matthew. Though outside the lineage of Christ, it is relevant to the book. Joseph, of whom you may be aware, was the youngest and favored of his twelve brothers. Enraged by their father’s flagrant favoritism his brothers sold Joseph to a slave trader and then pretended a wild lion had killed him. Over time, Joseph grew up into a man that even impressed a Pharaoh. His gift of being able to interpret dreams through the power and intervention of God won him a place at Pharaoh’s side in Egypt. Eventually this succession of events brought his family, the then-entire Hebrew Nation, to Goshen from Canaan because of a famine. Under this Pharaoh, the Israelites prospered but with the next dynasty, came slavery. This sequence of events was revealed to Abraham long before Joseph entered the picture.
Drawing from not only this instance but many others, I believe that governments rise according to God’s timetable. Today many people struggle with who is in power, what they’re doing and what will happen as a result of each leader’s decisions. The beauty of hindsight here is that we see how the events once played themselves out and how God intervened hundreds of years ago.
Did He plan these things, condemning people to commit acts they had no choice but to carry out? Personally, I think that if one balances the revealed character of God against these questions, the only answer would be that history’s driving forces were contained within the decisions individuals made and that God wove His purposes through and around them. Foreknowledge empowered by freewill wrapped itself around us, using our future choices to bring about the amazing and often hidden purposes of God. Free will and eventual consequences, whether immediate or in eternity, are virtually stamped on every page in the Bible. Perfection cannot violate itself; neither can the Almighty.
Many of us are familiar with the movie, “The 10 Commandments” showcasing Moses’ life. The cruel Pharaoh’s daughter rescued Moses, the son of a Hebrew slave she found floating in a basket on the Nile River and then adopted him as her son. As a man, Moses killed an Egyptian guard abusing a Hebrew slave, and then fled into the desert to avoid execution. A few years later God appeared to Moses in a burning bush, and asked Moses to lead his people out of slavery. The famous movie classic portrayed how God revealed Himself to both His people and the world through tremendous miracles done to protect His people. The decisive factor is that God revealed the entire chain of events to Abraham, beginning with Joseph and ending with Moses, years before it ever happened.
The question again is, “Did God intervene in the affairs of mankind, taking away our will to choose, or did He somehow weave the freely made decisions of rulers and slaves alike into His ultimate purposes – knowing in advance what would happen because He isn’t bound by time and space?”
There are other examples from other stories. One big-picture illustration includes the fall of Jerusalem after the Babylonian conquest – and the city’s reformation. God promised beforehand that His people would return within seventy years to begin rebuilding Jerusalem. Though it took a series of dynasties’ rising and falling to help bring about this feat, events happened as predicted. Again, incorporated into and precipitated by man’s choices, God’s foreknowledge and sovereign will are apparent.
“The Golden Thread” reveals a God so interested in humanity that He somehow manifested Himself in the form of a Man. Born under the humblest circumstances; this God-Man named Jesus Christ came to do something we couldn’t do for ourselves. Lacking purity – the kind that can get close to God who is Perfect Purity – we needed help. Somehow, by His atoning death on the cross, Jesus Christ completed the golden thread of events leading up to Christ’s birth. Jesus died a horrible death on the Cross so that we, exercising our free will, could choose whether to believe Him.
To sum it all up, if the unchanging nature of God as revealed through the stories is accurate, then He will continue to be the same. Today’s leaders will make decisions at the national level and we will make individual choices just as our predecessors did. There is a scripture in Isaiah that says, “In returning and rest is your salvation; in quietness and confidence is your strength.” If we accept that God is true as He is revealed, then we can sleep secure and not fear. The title “The Golden Thread” is by itself my book’s most revealing description. By tying yesterday with the present as a historical inspirational novel, it provides invaluable insight to help shed light on present-day challenges many r
