The Sovereignty of God and the Non-Elect, Part 4

We do not squabble as much over God choosing the elect, but what do we say about the non-elect? When we affirm that the non-elect are left to destruction and nothing we do can change that, are we from the bible simply making mere inferences?

Here is a good passage to wrestle with – Joshua 11:18-20

18 Joshua made war a long time with all those kings.19 There was not a city that made peace with the people of Israel except the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon. They took them all in battle. 20 For it was the LORD's doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that they should be devoted to destruction and should receive no mercy but be destroyed, just as the LORD commanded Moses.

Go ahead and read verse 20 again, slowly. How does that sit with you?

What could be plainer than this? Here was a large number of Canaanites whose hearts the Lord hardened, whom He had purposed to utterly destroy, to whom He showed “no favor.”

Granted that they were wicked, immoral, idolatrous; were they any worse than the immoral, idolatrous cannibals of the South Sea Islands to whom God gave the Gospel through John G. Paton! No. Then why did not God command Israel to teach the Canaanites His laws and instruct them concerning sacrifices to the true God? Plainly, because He had marked them out for destruction, and if so, that from all eternity. “The Lord hath made all things for Himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.” (Proverbs 16:4).

Here is something to keep firmly in mind: That God made us, not for our own sakes, but for Himself; not for our own happiness, but for His glory; is, nevertheless, repeatedly affirmed in Scripture— Revelation 4:11.

But Proverbs 16:4 goes even farther: it expressly declares that the Lord made the wicked for the Day of Evil: that was His design in giving them being. But why, you ask? Does not Romans 9:17 tell us why, “For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, Even for this purpose have I raised you up, that I might show My power in you, and that My name might be declared throughout all the earth!”

God has made the wicked that, at the end, He may demonstrate “His power”—demonstrate it by showing what an easy matter it is for Him to subdue the stoutest rebel and to overthrow His mightiest enemy. “And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: Depart from Me, you that work iniquity” ( Matthew 7:23).

Now listen, the devil will have his day. But even Satan and his angels were marked out and chosen by the absolute sovereign God of the universe for destruction (cf. Matt. 25:41).

God did not create anything for its sake; but God creates all things for His sake!

End of Part 4