What God Foreknows May not Come to Pass.
By John Nevins Andrews
PERHAPS the reader may be surprised that such an assertion should be made by one who reverences that infinite Being, whom the Scriptures call God. While that feeling of surprise remains upon the mind, let me speak of a certain kind of folly which arises from mistaken ideas of the effect of God's foreknowledge. Such is the aversion which many persons feel toward the service of God, the denial of self, the bearing of the cross, and the daily dying to the world, which the Christian religion requires, that they seem willing to play into the hands of Satan in almost any way, in order to prevent the Spirit of God from operating upon their hearts. They will resort to excuses for continuing in sin, which their own judgment must cause them to regard as utterly futile and deceptive. How many persons excuse themselves by saying, "God knows whether I shall be saved or not. If he knows I shall be saved, then I am sure of Heaven. If he knows that I shall be lost, then I never can gain Heaven. What is the use for me to try? Do you not believe that it will be just as God foreknows it?" It is vain to tell such persons that God foreknows that those who bear the cross, deny self, cleanse their hands, purify their hearts, walk with him in humility, and endure to the end, shall be saved, and that he offers each of us grace to enable us to do this very thing; and also that he foreknows that those who neglect this gracious offer, and attend not to this work, will be damned; and moreover, that he foreknows that it will be solely their own fault, because they might have been saved if they would have used the grace offered them. The infatuation still remains upon the mind of this class, and they waste their time in speculation upon foreknowledge, as if God in the day of Judgment was to determine the destiny of men by his foreknowledge of them, and not by what their conduct has actually been. Now let us illustrate the folly of such reasoning as that whereby men quiet their own minds in the service of the devil, under the vain impression that they have shifted the responsibility of their disobedience from their own shoulders to the foreknowledge of God. Here is a case in which what God foresaw did not come to pass. And it does not furnish the smallest chance for an infidel to assail the foreknowledge of God, unless also he does violence to his own reason and sense of justice. David had rescued the city of Keilah from the Philistines. 1 Sam. 23. When David was at Keilah, Saul thought it an excellent opportunity to take him, and prepared to do it. And thus we read:— "Then said David, O Lord God of Israel, thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake; Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul come down as thy servant hath heard? O Lord God of Israel, I beseech thee, tell thy servant. And the Lord said, He will come down. Then said David, Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hands of Saul? And the Lord said, They will deliver thee up." Verses 10-12.
David had now the benefit of God's foreknowledge. He could now act as multitudes at the present day, and say, "God foreknows just how it will be, and all my efforts will not change the foreknowledge of God." Happily, David, who at this time truly feared God, did also possess a good share of practical common sense. He knew very well that the foreknowledge of God did not bind him hand and foot, and confine him in Keilah. So the record tells us what David did:— "Then David and his men, which were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go." Verse 13.
Certainly that was the very thing that David ought to do. It was just what the Lord intended that he should do. And now what about Saul's coming to Keilah? The record adds:— "And it was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah; and he forbare to go forth." Verse 13.
Had David remained in Keilah, as he no doubt would have gladly done, and as he certainly might have done, Saul would have come down against him to Keilah, and the men of Keilah would have delivered him up into the hands of Saul. The foreknowledge of God did not make a mere machine of David, nor does it of ourselves. It was in David's power to remain in Keilah or not, as he chose, and the coming of Saul depended on that very thing. So it is in our power to accept and use the grace of God so freely offered to us, and our salvation or damnation will turn upon this one thing, whether we have, or have not, done this.