The Christian believer, especially a seasoned Christian can give many examples of the intervention or intervening part of the Lord. We are always surrounded by divine intervention, even those times when we are numb or blind to it, as we grow in Christ we begin to feel the joy of reacting to God's intervening.
I have never heard the combination of "reactionistic intervening" of God but it's a wording that I'll answer. First, I feel whether God made things known timely or not timely is going to receive a reaction from a believer no matter what. Personally, I'm not numb to anything "the Lord does" and this is a good thing in my faith.
For the unbeliever, those who are halfway in belief of God cannot receive the full "reactionistic intervening" on the part of the Lord. There always has to be a worldy explanation to them and this is sad because it limits the unbeliever while remaining in an earthly box of disbelieving miracles.
What are not examples of "reactionistic intervening" on the Lord's part is when a person spends his last 10 bucks at the liquor store "wishing oneself good luck" and wins the lottery. Or, nearly broke due from not holding down a job and forcing oneself to succeed in getting a loan for a new car. Or cutting corners (untruthful intentions) in order to marry a stunning man or woman and calling it a marriage from heaven. In all these they claim it was "God's work" but there is no true confession of "God's glory."
Small or huge, believers can explain their reactionary joy from the intervention of God. The parents of a dying infant survives the worst of illness and actually see the intervening of God's great healing, the spouse who loses it's life partner unexpectedly receives a miracle of another spouse sent by God, the young couple who lose their newborn baby brings the couple closer together in their faith, or the Bible revealing the many, many affairs of the earth from Genesis through Revelation. To the believer, these are the joyful reactions to the miracles of God.
Also, God does not "do God" by chance, it's His ordained sovereign choice reference Romans 9. Though we won't know all the times and ways God intervenes in our lives, His miracles, healing or supernatural signs, we will always be awed not just by God's intervention but constantly seeking His direction, not secret signs.
God bless you all and your families.
Bob
Thank you, Bob. I understand your response, because pointing at any one thing in specific does indeed run aground onto the beaches of "assumption" on our part because of the limited scope of our ability to see beyond the merely physical.
So, what, then, is the answer to it all?
Well, let's explore this some: Dare we point at some event that we feel the inkling to declare there was an intervening act of God involved, or an angel, et al, we have to ask ourselves, "I see X number of potential outcome paths for what MIGHT have been, and yet XXXXXX was the actual outcome, so God MUST have intervened since those other outcomes did not play out!" Hmm. Really? To say that they were at all possible outcomes under the infinite power and control of the Lord, is that a legitimate observation on our part?
I've heard many times from people, "Well, if only Adam had not sinned, we all would be living blissful lives in the garden..."
Really? Is the basis of our labeling any given outcome, or set of outcomes, in the face of our imagining the existence of potential alternatives, does that ever lend any authority to our declaring something as God's alleged "intervention"?
The implication, therefore, is that the label of "intervention" finds itself in the mire and muck of subjectivity, and thus calls into question the absolute control our Lord exercises. In other words, we must assume a subjectively measured amount of lack in God's control. Do we see that anywhere in the Bible? THAT is the thrust of what I seek, and have not found.
This also begs the question...how can I be for certain that any of the other outcomes might ever have even been possible in the economy of God's Sovereign control over everything?
After all, we are indeed told in the Bible of God's absolute control over all of creation down to the level of the atoms that comprise our bodies, this planet, this solar system of ours, and even that hydrogen atom in the center of that star in the most distant galaxy at the very edge of the universe.
You see, this goes to yet another of countless reasons for us to admire, worship and praise the Lord whose power is great and wondrous.
Now, if we look at the Bible where the Lord warned of potential if-then outcomes to His chosen people Israel, such as obedience versus disobedience to Torah, even though Israel promised they would obey it
all, did not the Lord know in advance that they would disobey? Did He not already know of their stiff-necked character as a nation? Can we say, then, that, on the basis of that knowledge, the Lord had already set in motion, through His creative power from back before the world ever was, His own plans and stimuli in all the atoms, all the forces of nature, that He controls, and did so on the basis of what He already knew was the outcome?
Now, everyone, please understand that I'm not saying that it's wrong to assume either way in relation to this topic. The Lord never did command that we understand the nature of His Sovereignty over all of creation. We know only what He has inspired to be written, and what He reveals in individual lives.
(Also, I'm not suggesting that the Cannon is not closed, so let's avoid that rabbit hole.)
What we CAN say for sure if that He is perfectly just, and only punishes on the basis of personal choices made throughout each person's life here on earth. In other words, the one thing He does not control is our decisions. To say otherwise is to accuse the Lord of injustice, and I will not go there with such bold indifference to the perfection of His justice as it is revealed in His word to us.
Blessings to one and all.
MM
