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1 Chronicles
21:15
the Lord saw and was sorry over the calamity
"And God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but as he was
about to destroy it, the Lord saw and was sorry over the calamity,
and said to the destroying angel, “It is enough; now relax your
hand.” And the angel of the Lord was standing by the threshing floor
of Ornan the Jebusite," (1 Chron. 21:15 ).
This verse is admittedly a difficult one to analyze. David was
moved to number the people of Israel and in so doing, he sinned
against God. So, the Lord gave David three options of how
God's judgment for this sin would fall on Israel. David chose
to fall into the hands of the Lord and let the Lord decide which
option to use. God then sent a pestilence upon Israel and
70,000 people died (1 Chron. 21:14 ). Then,
"...God sent an angel to Jerusalem to destroy it; but as he was
about to destroy it, the Lord saw and was sorry over the calamity,
and said to the destroying angel, 'It is enough; now relax your
hand,'" (1 Chron. 21:15 ). There
doesn't seem to be any reason to delay such as intercession, or a
lesson to be given to the people through a trial or calamity.
It is a punishment issue and for some reason, the Lord tells the
angel to stop before it destroys Israel. This text brings several
questions to mind.
Did God not know His own heart and know that He would
not want Jerusalem destroyed? If so, why would He send an
angel that He would later recall when there doesn't seem to be any
intercession involved, any prayers by anyone? Are we to
conclude that God was relenting over the very destruction He had
caused? Does God's emotional state change so that His actions
change even though He has perfect knowledge of all things?
Open theism offers no better explanation for these
questions than does classical theism. From the open
theist position God knows all things present, including His own
heart. Surely He would have known His own anger and would have
perfectly been able to predict His own behavior thereby relenting on
the destruction of Jerusalem. Of course, it is most probable
that the people of Israel were praying and the Lord heard those
prayers and relented, but that isn't what the text says.
The only explanation I can offer is that these verses
are portraying God as both judgmental and compassionate.
Furthermore, God's compassion is demonstrated in His relenting to
destroy Jerusalem which, God sure knew, would be the future place of
Christ's crucifixion which may have had something to do with the
Lord not destroying it.
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