December 3: THE REALITY OF FREE WILL
The elder and honorable, he is the head; The prophet who teaches lies, he is the tail. For the leaders of this people cause them to err, And those who are led by them are destroyed. Isaiah 9:15-16
Isaiah is instructed to tell God’s professed people that their highly esteemed leadership has taken a wrong path. And the “trickle-down” effect is producing, en masse, followers who become spokespersons for the errors that they have learned, rendering them false prophets. Remember that at the beginning, the Holy Spirit was enlightening Isaiah that, from top to bottom – or head to tail, there was no soundness of spiritual health among the people of God (see 1:5-6).
These circumstances parallel those around the original great controversy, begun before our world was created. This event instigated a spiritual war that continues to this day. The beautiful lead angel was highly esteemed by the angelic host, but he had cultivated within his heart a self-centeredness that is the very root of sin. Instead of dismissing such thoughts as out-of-bounds, he nurtured and cherished them in his heart (see Isaiah 14:13); he promoted himself as the one whom the rest of the angels, symbolized as stars, should be worshiping. Ironically, his argument against the governing style of God Almighty centered upon false accusations against Him as a selfish withholder of good things (Genesis 3:5 – compare to James 1:17). Lucifer abused his exalted position to deceive and draw his fellow angels away from God by spreading lies about Him; he is the embodiment of a completely corrupted head and a lying tail (see Revelation 12:3-4a).
From Isaiah 9:8-10:34, the displeasure of God is expressed in strong, unmistakable terms. No less than four times, this true prophet states: For all this His anger is not turned away, but His hand is stretched out still (9:12,17,21; 10:4). This repeated passage indicates the character and goals of our God. If He had wanted to destroy His people, He could have given them up to the Assyrians all at once. But, like the period of the judges, He allowed His people to experience some of the results of their disloyalty and folly to help them understand what they were doing wrong and provide the opportunity to make better choices. But as they hardened their hearts against the multiple opportunities to repent, He further withdrew His protection. However, they continued to rebel. This cycle was repeated in a downward spiral until there was nothing more that He could do (see 5:4).
On display here is the divine gift of free will. If God had not created us with a free will, our expressions of love could never be genuine. This free will of ours involves the option to do wrong. Though God repeatedly seeks to draw us by revealing His great heart of love, He will also allow us to taste the bitter fruit of our wrong decisions, including pain and suffering. Even in His righteous anger and judgement, we see Him stretching out His mighty hand of mercy. Free will is a good thing, and we would not be human without it. But woe to those who use it wrongly . . . and thus perpetuate erroneous attitudes and actions. God is reaching out to multitudes (see Revelation 17:15), to clue us in on what is wrong, even as He stretches out His hand of mercy.
Stretch out Your hand from above; Rescue me and deliver me out of great waters, From the hand of foreigners, Whose mouth speaks lying words, And whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood. Psalm 144:7-8