Predictable God

From mankind’s perspective, is God more predictable or more unpredictable? 

On the one hand, God never changes. He’s all knowing. He’s all powerful. He’s all loving, and is everywhere. “I am the Lord,” he says, “I change not” (Malachi 3:6). Something or someone who never changes must be predictable. 

On the other hand, God is not a God of cause and effect. God’s ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55). Throughout the Scriptures, God is a God of surprises: Surprise in judgment, surprises with grace. It would be easy to argue that God is really highly unpredictable. 

In the parable of the talents, the servant who received a single talent makes an impassioned argument that God is unpredictable: 

 “Now the one who had received the one talent also came up and said, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you did not scatter seed. And I was afraid, so I went away and hid your talent in the ground. See, you still have what is yours.’” (Matthew 25:24-25)

God’s unpredictability affected the servant’s behavior. He says in effect that the only thing predictable about the Master is that he is unpredictable, therefore he (the servant) could not take any risks or responsibility for his actions. “I was,” he says quite simply, “afraid.” 

What makes one afraid of God? Is an unpredictable God a cause for fear? 

This question takes us back to the two tree trees in the garden of Eden: The Tree of Life, which is predictably lush with living fruit. “Eat it,” God said, “and you shall live.” The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is there too. To discriminate between good and evil is to depend on circumstances, context, probability, and judgment. The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil introduces us to uncertainty and unpredictability. 

Is God unpredictable? Abraham received a message from God (the story is told in Genesis 22) to take his son Isaac to the mountain and offer him as a sacrifice. Abraham must have at least had a moment where he wondered at the unpredictability of God. Isaac was everything to Abraham—his son, his air, his birthright, his entire legacy. The future of the promises that God would make of him a great nation rested on the person of Isaac. How can God promise a legacy and then ask for its sacrifice? To say the least, this is an unpredictable act. Who could have imagined it?

This story is seen and taught as a test of Abraham’s faith, but perhaps it says more about God than it says about Abraham. On the way up to Moriah, Isaac asks: “Where is the lamb?” Abraham replies: “God will provide”—and in the end, he did, in the form of a ram caught in the thicket. 

The lesson to be learned by Abraham, and by us, I think, is this: That everything that we have to give to God, everything that we have to sacrifice, everything we have to place on the altar is never enough. Even our entire legacy is not enough. It is God who will and does provide. The ram in the thicket is God’s grace provided by him free, just when you need it. God will provide the predictable outcome of an unpredictable circumstance. 

So does that make God predictable? Or unpredictable? 

Why are you afraid? Elijah called for a contest of gods on Mount Carmel, a contest between the true God of Israel and the god Baal. After a long day of futile action, Baal is silenced. God sends dramatic fire from heaven, which not only burns the sacrifice, but burns up the stones of the altar, and even the water that was entrenched around the altar. Elijah sees the predictable power of God in this dazzling display of strength, energy, and force.

But in the very next chapter, we see an Elijah devoid of faith. He turns tail and heads for the wilderness to avoid an encounter with Jezebel, who seeks his life. This prophet has just witnessed the most dramatic demonstration of God’s predictable power. Fire is God and God is fire. And yet….

 So He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great and powerful wind was tearing out the mountains and breaking the rocks in pieces before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire, a sound of a gentle blowing. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:11-13)

Why, after such a dramatic display of predictability, does God go all unpredictable on Elijah? He’s not in the wind. He’s not in the rocks. He’s not in the earthquake. He’s not even in the fire. Wouldn’t a predictable God show up with force and energy like he did on Mount Carmel? Why is God found in the most unpredictable place—in a still small voice? 

As we’ve seen time and time again, when God shows up the first words out of his mouth are predictable in that they are always in the form of a question. “Elijah,” God asks, “What are you doing here? Why are you afraid? Are you afraid of an unpredictable god? Is God so unpredictable that he would send fire from heaven on Mount Carmel and then let you be harmed by Jezebel?” 

Another familiar story on the predictability and unpredictability of God is this one: 

 Now the scribes and the Pharisees *brought a woman caught in the act of adultery, and after placing her in the center of the courtyard, they *said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the very act of committing adultery. Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?” Now they were saying this to test Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. When they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Now when they heard this, they began leaving, one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman where she was, in the center of the courtyard. And straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on do not sin any longer.” (John 8:3-11) 

Who would have predicted that God would not condemn a blatant transgression of the law? The response of Jesus is utterly unpredictable, because grace is unpredictable, because God is not a God of cause and effect. 

The single talent servant is afraid to take risks with grace because he is afraid of the master. As was mentioned last week, Revelation 21:8 lists those who are excluded from the kingdom of heaven: Along with the immoral, the idolatrous, and the liars are those who are fearful, those who are afraid of God. 

Why is being afraid of God parable a condition for outer darkness, as this parable says it is?

Are you afraid of God? Are you afraid of the judgment? Are you afraid of God’s unpredictability? What is the difference between the fear of the Lord—which is said in Proverbs 9:10 to be the beginning of wisdom—and being afraid of God? These are different concepts in the Scriptures. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, Proverbs says, and is a sense of reverence and awe in the presence of a holy God. 

We see the contrast of being afraid of God and having fear of God in the different responses to the people at the giving of the decalogue in Mount Sinai: 

 And all the people were watching and hearing the thunder and the lightning flashes, and the sound of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking; and when the people saw it all, they trembled and stood at a distance. Then they said to Moses, “Speak to us yourself and we will listen; but do not have God speak to us, or we will die!” However, Moses said to the people, “Do not be afraid; for God has come in order to test you, and in order that the fear of Him may remain with you, so that you will not sin.” So the people stood at a distance, while Moses approached the thick darkness where God was. 

 Then the Lord said to Moses, “This is what you shall say to the sons of Israel: ‘You yourselves have seen that I have spoken to you from heaven. You shall not make other gods besides Me; gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves. You shall make an altar of earth for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. And if you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your chisel on it, you will profane it. And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, so that your nakedness will not be exposed on it.’ (Exodus 20:18-26)

Moses fears God with reverence and awe. But the people are just afraid, period. Moses was at peace in God’s presence, but the people want distance from him. 

Why does being afraid of God lead to outer darkness? Why are we afraid of God anyway? This is the question. And the key is this: Being afraid of God is a repudiation of God’s grace. If God gives you grace as if it were not a dead but a living grace, then using that grace honors God. But if you see grace as dead, not living, worthy of being buried, then you are rejecting the very gift of grace which will provide you with salvation.

The repudiation of grace is fatal religion and consigns us to outer darkness. If you accept God’s grace, you accept its life, its power, and its ability to save you to the uttermost, as it says in Hebrews 7:25. Then you have nothing to be afraid of, because you’re saved by God’s grace—thoroughly saved, not just from the wages of sin or the consequences of sin, but from the chains of sin as well. Those afraid of God are those who feel inadequate in God’s presence. Those who love God and accept his grace are free from fear: 

 There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love. We love, because He first loved us. If someone says, “I love God,” and yet he hates his brother or sister, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother and sister whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God must also love his brother and sister. (1 John 4:18-21)

So these are the questions: Do you fear God? Do you fear God like the one-talent servant feared the master? Do you fear the judgment? Do you think God is more predictable or more unpredictable? Do you wish that God was more predictable? What are your thoughts on the single talent servant—his risk, his responsibility, his fears, his defense? What are your thoughts about God and his predictability?

David: I think it’s all a little bit misleading. There is mortal fear: Fear of dying, fear of starving, fear of being hurt in some way, fear of cancer, fear of all sorts of things; and then there is spiritual fear: Fear that you’re not going to go to heaven, you’re not going to be saved. There is predictability spiritually, but not materially. You can predict that God will love you, you can predict that God will save you. But you cannot predict that he will save you from cancer, you cannot predict that he will do anything to protect you in life. 

The problem is that the Bible uses metaphors to teach, and those metaphors reduce everything to the material level. The ram in the thicket is a living, breathing animal but it’s meant to represent something spiritual—and we forget that. We latch on to the material side of it, because that’s what we want! We’re looking for comfort, we’re looking for freedom from disease, we want more money, and we “Praise the Lord!” when we get it. We think that we’ve been blessed. We think that’s grace. But it isn’t. 

So to me, it’s very, very difficult to teach the Way by using the material and the worldly as a metaphor.

Robin: I think the man with the one talent, first of all, was disobedient. He knew he was supposed to gather more, and to share. And he really was rather critical of God, and thought that he knew better than God. So I don’t think he displayed any level of faith but I don’t know if we could say that he feared God. It just appears to me that he was trying to best God, or outthink God or maybe to make excuses for his behavior

Donald: So the question might be, should we fear God? It’s not whether we do fear God, it’s should we fear God? I don’t have the sense that people fear Christ. But God is a different thing. Do I fear him because of his judgment? Maybe. Do I fear him because of his power? Probably. I would agree with Robin. Do you think that the one-talent servant thought he was doing the right thing?

Robin: Perhaps he did. I think he thought he knew better than God.

Donald: But did he think he was doing the right thing?

Robin: Perhaps he did. I don’t know. Why do we choose disobedience? We have at least a lapse in thinking that God knows better than we do.

Michael: With regard to spiritual fear vs. material fear, the problem, as David noted, is that the Bible uses material objects like the ram in the thicket. Fear of material things such as cancer can infect or even become a spiritual fear. I’m not sure what the answer is, but I’m just pointing out that they are not easily separated. Can I say that I don’t fear God, but I fear cancer?

C-J: I don’t think that the servant was rebellious or anything like that. He feared God. It was his level of understanding in his relationship with God. He wasn’t mature enough to be able to understand. I don’t think I remember God telling him to multiply it. Remember, this narrative came from humans living in harsh times. Life was short, and it was difficult. If you survived the day, it was a good day. 

We see through our own lens in our own time, reflecting back in a photo, it’s not even a mirror. We have no full understanding of who this man was as an individual, his experiences, his culture, his personal life, the people he had met, and the rawness and cruelty of his natural environment. I think we all do the best we can on a given day. And that’s where we meet grace. 

Some days we are strong and able to fight with full vigor. As we age, we start to question ourselves, our thinking, our strength, our ability to be received by others in a society that prefers youth and strength and certain levels of education or access to people because of privilege and money, etc. This servant, compared to the other two servants who received more talents, was probably the poorest in spirit and in resources in his place in his society. 

If anything, I see grace abounding here. “I will protect what little I have” doesn’t mean that he didn’t believe God, it was just that he didn’t know what portion he would receive from God.

Reinhard: God seems to me very predictable for those who follow his commandments, those who worship him. When we have faith, I think we can predict what God wants in our life. People may barely know God, maybe they are afraid, maybe they think God is unpredictable. In telling the master what he thought he was like, the servant showed no respect to the authority of his master. Lucifer is the source of all this disrespect for authority, of this evil, Lucifer. Lucifer rebelled. He had no respect for God. In fact, he wanted to be like God. 

Adam and Eve knew God as the Creator but I think they had no point of reference, no control, no history. Everything was new. How could God tolerate their disobedience? We have reference points, we have history. When Moses led the Israelites he often had to fear the Lord—worship God and follow his commandments. The Israelites were afraid of the consequences if they contravened God’s will. To them, it was a matter of cause and effect. 

But those who believe in God and have strong faith don’t have to worry about cause and effect. Through the history presented in the Bible, we already know the character of God, we know what God wants from his people. Even Jonah knew that God was a compassionate God. That’s why he didn’t want to do God’s work in Nineveh. 

When we follow God very closely, he’s predictable. We know his law, we know what he wants from us, and we know what we have to do. I think that’s the issue here.

C-J: I think humans want things to be concrete. But the relationship with the Creator is fluid, like real relationships between humans or even how we engage with our pets. It is fluid. We are constantly in a state of being fashioned, recreated, learning new things about ourselves and God and that relationship of restoration and enlarging our borders spiritually. 

The problem with “concrete” is that yes, it’s safe; but we don’t grow on stone—we grow in soil, when we put our roots down, when we seek out living water, even though we haven’t touched it yet. But we know that if the root goes deep enough, by faith, we will find living water, our branches will grow out, and if we stay in community then, when we are weak, others will come and minister to us. They may not know anything differently than we do. But they show up. It is God’s Spirit in them to move them to say “Go and minister.”

The woman at the feet of Jesus with the alabaster and the perfume was moved to minister to Jesus. She could not change what was going to happen—predictably, because of the politics in Jerusalem with the Romans and the Pharisees. They had a contract: Keep the peace, pay the tax, do what you’re asked to do. That’s very predictable. But God is fluid. God is living. We are also. We don’t stay stagnant, or we die.

Michael: It sounds to me like we’re trying to defend the one-talent servant.

Donald: Does he deserve defense? 

Michael: I’m not sure. It’s God’s judgment.

Donald: What shapes our perspective? Our perspective is changing constantly. If you have any interaction with anybody, or anything, it either affirms what you think or it says, “Wait, I need to think about it.” I think that’s why we get together on Sabbath morning. if we all had the same perspective, it wouldn’t be that interesting of a class. But you can contribute something that will change my perspective. My perspective also comes from many years of life and experience. There are so many things that affect perspective.

Maybe that ties in with the idea that God doesn’t protect us. I’ve prayed probably every day of my life for God’s protection. I don’t know what I’m doing that for. Is it for me? Does it change his behavior? It may not change anything, but I still think that it’s a good thing to ask for God’s protection, keeping in the hollow of his hand. 

Our perspective can change in a heartbeat. Lots of little things may influence us and reaffirm or question what we think, but one phone call can shatter our carefully built perspective. So does that change our perspective on God? On the Way? 

Anonymous: God is very predictable, because he showed us himself and he told us about himself and he never changes. However, the part that he is unpredictable (and that is even better than being predictable) is to the faithful regrading when and how God is going to dispense his grace. That’s the best part. It’s always a beautiful surprise when God does something we really don’t deserve. So in that sense, he’s unpredictable. To the believer, that works. We know that because we experience it. For the unbeliever, though, God is still predictable because they know—their conscience tells them—there is a judgment, a consequence of their evil deeds. However, God is unpredictable as to the manner and time of judgment. 

I am sure he is predictable, especially by the end. I don’t know the way he will take, I don’t know when he will work things out. But I know the end is always predictable to me, and it’s always good. 

With regard to the one talent servant: 

 What then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, even as the Lord gave opportunity to each one. I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. Now the one who plants and the one who waters are one; but each will receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. (1 Corinthians 3:5-9) 

God is talking through Paul to tell the Gentiles that being biased towards following Paul or Apollos or any other apostle was wrong, that only God can grow you and increase your righteousness. And God provides the seeds. In the parable, God gives the talents and God gives the increase, so there is no reason for this evil servant to refuse to work with the talent out of fear of God. He has no part in this process. God gives the talent, God gives the increase, and the beauty of it is that the increase is in the fruit of your righteousness. That’s why the master comments later, that: “To he who has much, more will be given.” Those who are righteous, who trust in God and have faith in God, will be given more, while those who have little will have even that little taken away from them. 

What is given and taken away is righteousness. That’s what God is growing in us as a result or consequence to our working in his field. More righteousness, more trust in God. There is no fear in love. If we believe God loves us so much and he’s so graceful, why fear him? Trust in all circumstances of life, spiritually and materially. Don’t worry about needing food in time of trouble. Don’t worry about being cheated because you’re trusting God, don’t worry about disease taking your life because he knows what’s best for you, don’t worry about your children because he loves them just as much, don’t worry about anything. Don’t worry. Trusting God gives us that kind of peace, that he’s the one and only one working in this whole process. We have nothing to do with it. 

Isaiah says, 

 “Behold, you will call a nation you do not know,
And a nation which does not know you will run to you,
Because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel;
For He has glorified you.” (Isaiah 55:5)

We’re looking for more nations to come to God, people we don’t know and people who don’t know us. We are just laborers in God’s field, but God is the one who brings all these people to faith. In that sense, I can see the connection between God reaping where he does not sow and gathering where he does not scatter. So all these nations are coming through the labor of the faithful servants. It’s like God brought them because he is the one who grows. He has all the credit. So he’s right in saying that God gathers where he doesn’t scatter and reaps where he doesn’t sow. I see a connection.

C-J: The problem is that it gets framed in my mind as predestination. To me, the man with one talent would have liked to have a blessing, to put that very liberally. But for some reason, was it withheld? No. I think we each get a different portion of faith. We’re born, some of us, into horrible conditions—poor, sick. at war. It doesn’t mean that God doesn’t love that individual; it doesn’t mean that God doesn’t want to multiply that person. What it means is that God is doing a different work in that person. 

Trying to make it a level playing field demonstrates to me that we really see through a very dark veil, we can’t begin to understand the compassion that God has on those not of a stubborn heart but who just struggle to see. But God uses that person too. It might be different from the one who comes easily before the throne and is rich in terms of his or her relationship and understanding and Revelation and gifts and all those of the things that God promises “the believer.” 

Nobody would willfully choose darkness. If they had even a flicker of light. It’s against what God created us to be, which is in fellowship with the divine. I don’t fault anybody. When I see somebody struggling, I say, “Lord, put your hand on and reveal who you are to that person, do a healing work. Let it be a witness of who you are.” 

I’m around people with trauma and coming from terrible places, mental illness, and I can tell you this: Those are not their demons. That was their burden. They didn’t ask for that stuff. But it happened to them. What they need is what God promises all of us, Grace. And each of us get a different portion. But God’s grace is for those even more so that struggle, even if they don’t see it. 

I don’t like it when people condemn others because, “Well, if they were doing it right, they’d be blessed.” It’s incongruent. It’s incongruent with who God is. The narrative in that book has its own intention. It doesn’t always reflect because we don’t really know the fullness of God. But we want to put him in a box. We want to say: “If this happens, it’s evidence of God’s blessing.” Well, I’ve seen people blessed that are pretty evil. You have to just watch the news for 15 minutes, pick up a newspaper. 

God’s grace, we cannot begin to understand, nor can we deny it when it comes upon us. Or if we’re born in a place that nobody wants to be, we should see the same grace operating in us that fell upon us.

Donald: How does this relate to the Way? Everybody’s journey is different. Some people seem to be blessed all the Way through and some people seem to be cursed. I don’t really think it’s curse—it’s just a matter of their lot in life.

David: Exactly, it’s the Way, it’s what they face. There is a Way in front of them and they must follow it. The Dao De Jing is incredibly short, and the word fear occurs only four times but not in the context of fearing God, or fearing the Way. The words prophecy and predictability don’t even appear at all. These questions are not of concern because the Way is what it is. You are on the Way, God is who He is, as he told Job. 

I think the Bible confuses things. Look at how God treats Jonah compared to the servant with the one talent. Jonah gets away with all sorts of disobedience and is forgiven while the poor servant with the one talent goes to hell! I find it very hard to understand what he did wrong. I don’t see that he was disobedient. He wasn’t told to invest the talent. He was just told to look after it for the master for a while. He did that beautifully, and duly returned it when the master came back. 

To a Daoist, the issues we are discussing are not relevant so not something to worry about. Trying to predict and fearing God/the Way are just not concepts In Daoism, at least as I understand it.

Donald: Could it be described like wind? Some people feel a light wind in front of them and it is easy to move forward. They have the responsibility to move forward because they don’t have much of a wind in their face. Other people have a storm in front of them. They need to move forward but they can’t. I don’t think God’s going to look at that and say “You didn’t do that right.” Who am I to judge? My lot, my journey, is totally different from theirs.

David: Wind is a material thing. What do you mean spiritually when you talk about somebody facing a strong wind? In purely spiritual terms, what do you mean?

Donald: I think spiritually we all have the same goodness coming from God. It’s harder for some people to see it because physically they have a wind in front of them that makes it real tough to go. There are people in life who struggle to eat. There are people caught up in conflict without any support. They have no sense of safety. I’m not going to condemn them for that. I can’t do that. They’d probably look at me and tell me I don’t know what I am talking about.

I don’t have an answer to your question. God’s love and goodness are equal for everybody but it can’t be revealed the same way.

Michael: The arguments go every way. It’s as if we put the Bible in a blender and take whatever comes out. I don’t think there is any clear answer. It has certainly confused everything!

Don: This class is not about answers, it’s about questions.

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