Shall the clay say to the potter… (pt. 1)

Just how free is free will?

You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use? - Rom. 9:19-21

For centuries, theologians and philosophers far greater and more studied than myself (I would in no wise compare myself with those who have gone before me) have pondered, discussed, and debated the concept of free will, so I lay no claim to a dogmatic answer, nor do I expect to provide one in the course of a couple of articles (this is too deep a subject to restrict it to a single article). I do, however, hope to provide material that will spark your own thought and encourage you to look for yourself at how Scripture handles the notion of free will.

There are fatalists who believe God controls absolutely everything and free will is merely an illusion. Others believe our will is completely free and God leaves us to our own devices only inserting Himself into human history to offer guidance here or there. Still others find the reality is somewhere in the middle, a sort of synergism between free will and God’s imposition upon His creation. Among Christian theologians, the main thrust of most arguments regarding free will is in regard to salvation. This conundrum also frequently leads to friction over the question, “are humans free to choose God? Or are humans incapable of faith on their own and in such dire straits that God must choose us?” 

I will begin by providing what I believe is a fair definition of “free will,” if you will accept it, as some may choose to argue even over this. Free will, as most posit, is the ability of man to make choices separate from, and unaffected or unimpaired by, outside influence, and the ability to take action based on those choices. If you believe this definition inaccurate or inadequate, feel free to propose any modifications or something other in the comments. 

While Romans 9 is often a key passage in the discussion of free will, with the definition of “free will” out of the way, I would like first to look at a few biblical examples in which an individual’s will may not have been particularly “free” to do as they wished (I will come back to Romans 9 in more detail in the next installment). We’ll begin our journey with Jonah.

God came to Jonah and told him to go to Ninevah to preach against their sin. Jonah wanting nothing to do with God’s assignment, believing Ninevah deserved punishment, attempted in his “free will” to flee God’s presence. God, however, had other plans. When Jonah boarded a boat destined for Tarshish, God whipped up a storm to toss the boat to and fro on the sea. Instead of turning back to God, Jonah sought death. Believing he would die, Jonah asked the sailors to throw him overboard claiming that God would, in response, calm the storm. God would not acquiesce. Once Jonah was in the water, God did indeed stop the storm; but He then sent a giant fish to swallow Jonah and preserve, rather than end, Jonah’s life. While in the belly of the fish, Jonah prayed, and God caused the fish to spit Jonah out onto dry land.

After this, God again tells Jonah to “arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you” (Jonah 3:2), and this time, Jonah comports and heads for the city. While some may argue that Jonah was freely making choices, and that the circumstances that befell him were merely consequences for bad decision-making, it is clear that God was overriding Jonah’s desire to not preach to Ninevah.

Next we will look at Pharaoh. Pharaoh is an interesting character. Mention of Pharaoh immediately conjures images of the man who several times, through several plagues, refused to release Moses’ people to go into the desert and worship God. Did Pharaoh have a choice though? In Exodus 4:21-23, we read of God sending Moses to Egypt to confront Pharaoh:

The LORD said to Moses, “When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Israel is My son, My firstborn. So I said to you, ‘Let My son go that he may serve Me’; but you have refused to let him go. Behold, I will kill your son, your firstborn.”’”

Exodus 4:21-23

Long before God caused plagues to fall upon Egypt, He stated that He, the Lord our God, would personally harden Pharaoh’s heart. This would not be a matter of Pharaoh’s will - this is God’s will. God is not simply saying this will happen - He is saying He will make it happen. God clarifies in Exodus chapter 6:

Then the LORD said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for under compulsion he will let them go, and under compulsion he will drive them out of his land.”

Exodus 6:1

God will compel Pharaoh to free the Hebrews, and He will accomplish this by first hardening Pharaoh’s heart. the next we read of this is in Exodus chapter 7:

You shall speak all that I command you, and your brother Aaron shall speak to Pharaoh that he let the sons of Israel go out of his land. But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart that I may multiply My signs and My wonders in the land of Egypt.

Exodus 7:2-3

Then it finally comes to pass. When God, through Moses and Aaron, performs a miracle before Pharaoh, and Aaron’s staff-turned-serpent swallows up Pharaoh’s magicians’ staffs, we are told, “Yet Pharaoh’s heart was hardened, and he did not listen to them, as the LORD had said” (Exodus 7:13). Some will argue that this means Pharaoh hardened his own heart, but notice the phraseology: Pharoah’s heart was hardened not Pharaoh hardened his heart. The passive voice, as this passage is rendered in most translations (some translations actually read “He hardened Pharaoh’s heart”), indicates something was done to Pharaoh, not that Pharaoh did something. Indeed, the rest of the verse confirms that this was “as the LORD had said,” which is to say that God hardened Pharaoh’s heart as indicated in Exodus 4.

Several times over throughout the book of Exodus we are told of Pharaoh’s heart being hardened, and a few times of Pharaoh hardening his heart. That God first hardened Pharaoh’s heart, however, is clear. Pharaoh did not have free will in the matter of dealing with the Hebrews. While it may appear he was acting according to his own desires, the Lord had hardened his heart making it impossible for Pharaoh to act otherwise. Again, God Himself confirms this in Scripture:

For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I raised you up, to demonstrate my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed throughout the whole Earth.”

Romans 9:17

What happened with Pharaoh was orchestrated by God in order to accomplish His purpose - Pharaoh had no choice, despite his will appearing to be free. This is not to say that every single thing Pharaoh did all the days of his life were explicitly ordered by God; it is to say that his will wasn’t always as free as it seemed.

The last example to be examined in this first installment is Sennacherib, king of Assyria. Sennacherib decided to come against Judah. He sent a messenger to King Hezekiah telling Hezekiah not to trust in “your God,” because the Assyrian armies (in Sennacherib’s estimation) would soon take Jerusalem. He boasted about the other peoples Assyria had conquered and asked whether “the gods of those nations which my fathers destroyed deliver[ed] them” (2 Kings 19:12a). Of course, those nations’ gods were not the one true God as was Hezekiah’s God. Hezekiah prayed to God, and God responded saying to Sennacherib, “because of your raging against Me, and because your arrogance has come up to My ears, therefore I will put My hook in your nose, and My bridle in your lips, and I will turn you back by the way which you came” (2 Kings 19:28). Sure enough, God’s will prevailed:

Then it happened that night that the angel of the LORD went out and struck 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians; and when men rose early in the morning, behold, all of them were dead. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and returned home, and lived at Nineveh

2 Kings 19:35-36

In this case, God directly abrogated Sennacherib’s will. Even the terminology used by God in stating what would happen is evidence of forcibly overriding Sennacherib’s will. Consider the ideas of putting a hook in someone’s nose and leading him in a direction opposite that which he wishes to travel. Think about a bridle and bit put on a horse and how the rider leads the horse, despite where it may wish to go. Clearly Sennacherib was not free to act upon his will in this instance.

In all three of these instances, and more, God contravened the will of man in order to accomplish His own will. However we slice it, whether by saying God simply enacts consequences that push a person’s will in another direction or God directly contravenes a person’s will, it is abundantly clear that God has the ability to violate our concept of free will, and when it suits His purposes, He does so.

In the next article in this series, we will take a closer look at Romans 9 and what it specifically indicates about free will.

---

Read the next article in the series: Shall the clay say to the potter... - part 2