Please read the passage yourself, the death of Ahab, the king of Israel in the Bible. You may want to start as early as First Kings 22:1, though this post speaks only of 22:31 to 22:37. It says, more or less that a Syrian soldier had but one arrow left and decided to just shoot it, at no one person or nothing in particular. That arrow found its mark in Ahab. Therefore, the prophecy was fulfilled that Ahab would die in battle.

I have heard that the arrow was the first guided missile ever in history. You see, Ahab had disguised himself as a plain soldier to keep the Serians from finding and killing him, as foretold in the prophesy. To a point, it worked. The Serians never found him, but, be sure, the prophesy was still fulfilled. Even though the arrow was not aimed, it found its mark and killed one of the worse kings Israel ever had.

I’ve read the story a number of times. Yet, I still have one question. Did God cause the arrow to strike the man or was it something he just foreknew. I mean, he does have the power to make it happen. On the other hand, he does have a perfect knowledge of what has, is and will happen. It simply may not have taken any intervention from anyone to cause it. It might not have been a supernatural thing at all.

In my opinion, this is one of the times God directly intervened in the history of man. Still, He could have caused the death of Ahab in many ways. Apparently, He put the thought in the soldier’s mind. I’d guess he caused him to point and draw the arrow just right to strike the king and kill him; my best guess. On the other hand. he did have the power to make the arrow make a complete 180 if He had wanted to do it that way.

Yet, the Bible, and our national history, and our personal history… we wonder, is it coincidence or did God somehow put His finger on the situation to get it to turn out the way He wanted.

There are some situations where God tells us, either before or after the fact. God told the people of Judah that he would raise up a king from the east that would overthrow the nation. The Jews refused to believe. Nonetheless, the Babylonians, after a little time, overtook the country. We know it wasn’t just foreknowledge because God said he would do it. He left no doubt. He didn’t just say it would happen but that He would make it happen.

Still, when you come right down to it, does it really matter?

In some cases, it does. God had the day of Jesus entering the city of Jerusalem planned right down to the day, likely to the minute, truth be told. We know that, to some degree because of what He told Daniel. It happened right on time; they were watching and waiting, and yet, still the Jews chose not to believe. And, by the way, it was foretold that they would not believe.

Where the question really becomes important is with man’s salvation. Are men determined ahead of time to be saved or not? Does God pick and chose who will be with him eternally. Be not confused when I say, from the time he formed the earth, God knew every person that would not be saved and every soul that would be saved. I mean; what does God not know? What thing will happen that He will be surprised at it.

However, that does not mean that it is the way he wants it to be. Indeed, even Judas was given every chance to repent. The last time Jesus saw Judas as a human, He treated him as friend. After about three years with Jesus, Judas rejected Jesus. Jesus knew he would. He predicted it. And still, Jesus made one more plea to him with the question, Jesus said to him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?”. (Luke 22:48) He was not speaking to him as an enemy but a friend.

Had Judas at that time accepted Jesus as his savior, he would have been saved. If not, why would Jesus asked the question? Jesus wanted Judas to repent and accept Jesus as the Son of God and Judas, in his heart said no and hung himself. How odd. Judas knew what he did was wrong, and yet never repented. It was totally his decision. Yet, even as Jesus chose his as a disciple, He knew what he would do. And, after three years of individual teaching, the man chose to reject Jesus. It was his decision.

It is an important point. While God can force the decision for us, which we would benefit from, God still waits on us to decide.

And so it is, while God does have the power to decide for us, He doesn’t. We all decide on our own. We all go to heaven or spend an eternity in hell based on whether we accept or reject his offer of salvation. However, be ye sure, He will never be surprised by what you decide. Still, I would suspect he is frequently disappointed.

The Bible is full of situations where it might be somewhat difficult to determine if God actually intervenes or simply knows in advance. However, I think Jonah was going to go to Nineveh whether or not he wanted. God created a storm and then a special fish to make sure Jonah went on his mission. I think we can honestly say, Jonah had no choice. Those in Nineveh realized it. They saw what God did to Jonah to get him to their city and they decided to repent. In this case we might guess that Jonah’s rebellion actually increased how effective Jonah’s mission was.

One might try to say the fire and brimstones on Sodom and Gamora might be a simple coincidence. The problem with that logic, I don’t know of many cities so utterly destroyed with fire and brimstone so quickly and right on cue.

Then too, do you suppose that David just happened along to deal with that giant. Do you think that David had no assistance? Even before Sampson was born, it was foretold that he would begin to deliver his people from bondage. Sampson had a free will. He did as he wanted, and he got into a of trouble. But, in the end, he did do as foretold. Debra became one of the judges because the man God chose refused to do as God told him. Now we remember Debra’s name, but few remember the man’s name. Nonetheless, the man did do as he chose and God’s will was still performed. Debra lead them out of bondage.

Did God know the man would not accept his mission. To be sure he did. Yet, God still gave him the opportunity to accept the mission or not. He chose not and lost a blessing because of it.

So is it all predestined or is it free choice? The answer of course is… yes.