Drew
Member
Please consider the following text from Daniel 10 (as rendered in the NIV):
1 In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel (who was called Belteshazzar). Its message was true and it concerned a great war. [a] The understanding of the message came to him in a vision. 2 At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. 3 I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over. 4 On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, 5 I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of the finest gold around his waist. 6 His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.
7 I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; the men with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves. 8 So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless. 9 Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep, my face to the ground. 10 A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. 11 He said, "Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you." And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling. 12 Then he continued, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. 14 Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come."
To me, these verses suggest the possibility that many of us may have a bit of a "naive" conceptualization of God's "freedom" to act. To me, the material in bold suggests that God heard Daniel's prayer and "did the best He could" to answer it promptly. But the angel He chooses gets beset with delays and other problems and basically shows up 21 days later.
Now, of course, one can always argue that God intended to leave Daniel hanging for 21 days. But this doesn't seem to be consistent with what the angel says (although I grant that the angel may not know what "God is really up to"). The angel certainly seems to believe that God's intent was for him (the angel) to get to Daniel right away - hence the "I am sorry I am late explanation".
I submit the following for your consideration. When God created the universe, He made certain "commitments" to the effect that "things are one way and not the other". This very act of creation of a richly varied world required that God "give up" some of the infinite freedom to act that we frequently ascribe to Him. We are inclined to think that God can do anything at all, or perhaps we add "that is consistent with his nature" - hence God cannot be a liar.
But I speculate that the very nature of the created order in some ways limits "what God can do". When God said "let things be this way", He also, by necessity was saying "let things be not this other way". So God does not really have "this other way" available to Him after His initial commitment to building the universe a certain way.
Perhaps God "could not help" the 21 day delay in sending the angel to Daniel, precisely because the very nature of a richly complex universe necessitates that certain possibilities get closed off. Before the act of creation, the universe was a set of infinite possibilities in the mind of God. Creation turned some of these possibilities into realities while others were forever lost. Crudely speaking, even God cannot make 2+2 = 5.
Lest ye think I am painting a picture of a lesser God, I will say that a God who creates a universe such as ours, with all the commitments to "things being this way and not that way", can be seen as wise and sovereign and powerful precisely because of His ability to accomplish His purposes in such a world.
1 In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia, a revelation was given to Daniel (who was called Belteshazzar). Its message was true and it concerned a great war. [a] The understanding of the message came to him in a vision. 2 At that time I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. 3 I ate no choice food; no meat or wine touched my lips; and I used no lotions at all until the three weeks were over. 4 On the twenty-fourth day of the first month, as I was standing on the bank of the great river, the Tigris, 5 I looked up and there before me was a man dressed in linen, with a belt of the finest gold around his waist. 6 His body was like chrysolite, his face like lightning, his eyes like flaming torches, his arms and legs like the gleam of burnished bronze, and his voice like the sound of a multitude.
7 I, Daniel, was the only one who saw the vision; the men with me did not see it, but such terror overwhelmed them that they fled and hid themselves. 8 So I was left alone, gazing at this great vision; I had no strength left, my face turned deathly pale and I was helpless. 9 Then I heard him speaking, and as I listened to him, I fell into a deep sleep, my face to the ground. 10 A hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. 11 He said, "Daniel, you who are highly esteemed, consider carefully the words I am about to speak to you, and stand up, for I have now been sent to you." And when he said this to me, I stood up trembling. 12 Then he continued, "Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. 13 But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia. 14 Now I have come to explain to you what will happen to your people in the future, for the vision concerns a time yet to come."
To me, these verses suggest the possibility that many of us may have a bit of a "naive" conceptualization of God's "freedom" to act. To me, the material in bold suggests that God heard Daniel's prayer and "did the best He could" to answer it promptly. But the angel He chooses gets beset with delays and other problems and basically shows up 21 days later.
Now, of course, one can always argue that God intended to leave Daniel hanging for 21 days. But this doesn't seem to be consistent with what the angel says (although I grant that the angel may not know what "God is really up to"). The angel certainly seems to believe that God's intent was for him (the angel) to get to Daniel right away - hence the "I am sorry I am late explanation".
I submit the following for your consideration. When God created the universe, He made certain "commitments" to the effect that "things are one way and not the other". This very act of creation of a richly varied world required that God "give up" some of the infinite freedom to act that we frequently ascribe to Him. We are inclined to think that God can do anything at all, or perhaps we add "that is consistent with his nature" - hence God cannot be a liar.
But I speculate that the very nature of the created order in some ways limits "what God can do". When God said "let things be this way", He also, by necessity was saying "let things be not this other way". So God does not really have "this other way" available to Him after His initial commitment to building the universe a certain way.
Perhaps God "could not help" the 21 day delay in sending the angel to Daniel, precisely because the very nature of a richly complex universe necessitates that certain possibilities get closed off. Before the act of creation, the universe was a set of infinite possibilities in the mind of God. Creation turned some of these possibilities into realities while others were forever lost. Crudely speaking, even God cannot make 2+2 = 5.
Lest ye think I am painting a picture of a lesser God, I will say that a God who creates a universe such as ours, with all the commitments to "things being this way and not that way", can be seen as wise and sovereign and powerful precisely because of His ability to accomplish His purposes in such a world.
