God's Sovereignty and Our Free Will

In his hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind. Job 12:10

The Lord brings death and makes alive; he brings down to the grave and raises up. The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts. 1 Samuel 2:6-7

The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. Proverbs 16:9

So I am writing my point of view on this subject as it I understand it be right now. For some, this is the most divisive areas of Scriptures with proponents and opponents on both sides tightly dug into their trench. Is God sovereign and in control of all of creation (including us)? Do we have free will and can choose our paths for our own lives? I think the answer is yes.

Note: This is not a post about salvation!

I want to stress that I am not the source of truth, Scripture is. I also believe God works in mysterious ways and I'm okay with that. I don't know God's reason for everything that He does (and me being who I am, I probably wouldn't even agree if I did) but I have faith that God's plans are bigger than me and He has more for my life than I can do on my own. God is in control. God is in so much control that He intervenes in my life through blessings and through reprimands. Both are ultimately for my benefit.

That's the Calvinist side of me...

A Calvin of a different kind (If you don't know who John Calvin is, look it up).

I do however believe that it is up to me to decide in my day to day life if I want to follow God's plan. It's also my choice to pursue that which is Holy and make myself a willing vessel that can be used by the Holy Spirit. So what does Scripture say?

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in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:6

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2:38

If you love me, you will keep my commandments. John 14:15a

And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:17

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So it's clear that we have a choice. We're not the product of a puppet master who changes us to believe or not believe. We have a choice to follow God and we will reap what we sow in this life or the next.

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Galatians 6:7-8

God is sovereign and He has designed us with our own gifts and talents and given us a chance to follow His plan for our life. He knows us and He knows how long we will be here and our potential. However He has given us free will to choose His path which is straight and leads to joy and eternal life in Christ or our own path which is a winding road that leads to no place except death. I can tell you, honestly, that pursuing God has an intrinsic (for lack of a better word) joy and satisfaction in it and that I am miserable and unsatisfied when I pursue anything else. 

(and because I am sinful, I catch myself pursuing things that are unsatisfactory all the time).

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I want to throw in a revelation that I had today when thinking about this topic, that I also backed up with a little research. Sometimes an English translated Bible will say that "God hardened someone's heart" or "God made him..." and when read for the first time (and the second and third...) I thought, why would God do this? The most famous example is when the Bible says in Exodus:

But the LORD hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said to Moses. Exodus 9:12

And then God proceeded to nail Pharaoh and the Egyptians with the most insane plagues ever recorded just short of destroying everything. In fact, if you read more of the Bible, especially the Old Testament, this happens a few times. The Bible would say that God hardened someone's heart and then they were punished. 

That's not fair, right? That's a contradiction! God can't say He loves everyone (and He does) and then damn who He chooses!

The trick here is in how it is read. Apologetics Press has a great article that details it more but I'll give you the short and sweet version.

(Here is a link to the long and sour one)

https://www.apologeticspress.org/apcontent.aspx?category=11&article=1205

There is a little bit of flavor in the text that is lost in the English translation, a sort of figure of speech. The verb for hardened is a passive verb that lines up with a number of other verses where Scripture says "Pharaoh hardened his heart". Pharaoh's heart was hardened by the idea of submitting to another authority that is God. 

It would be like me saying, "The Republican and Democratic parties turned me off to politics"

The Republican National Committee and their leftist counter-parts have not actively sought me out and turned off my politics switch. I am hardened to politics like Pharaoh was hardened to God. 

Note: This is all an illustration. I actually find politics quite interesting.

The idea of submitting to God hardened Pharaoh's heart and God punished His nation for it as to make an example for His power, Pharaoh's (lack of) power, and as a remembrance to the Hebrews of God's promise to them.