Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

The Bible makes reference (as in Matthew 17:14-21) to the benefits and necessity of faith, and also speaks (as in Hebrews 4:16) of Christians being able to approach God with boldness. But that is entirely due to what Christ has already done for us out of pure grace, with no worthiness on our part. 

To me, it is always necessary to maintain a sense of humility and a proper perspective of our relationship to God. In my opinion, expressing that faith or confidence in the form of a command would be indicative of a presumptive or proud attitude on the part of the individual that would, in fact, make it less likely that God would "obey" it. (Christians can issue commands to evil spiritual forces in God's or Christ's name (as Christ indicated in Mark 16:17, and as Paul did in Acts 16:18), but that is far different (in my view) from commanding or ordering God Himself to do something.) 

The closest instance from the Bible that occurs to me is Joshua 10:12-14, where Joshua "ordered" the sun and moon to stand still until Israel had defeated the Amorites. But Joshua's "command" was tempered by the fact that his desire was completely in accordance with God's will, as indicated by the note in the passage that God was fighting for Israel.

(Also, as the Bible notes, there has never been a day like it (before or since) when God hearkened to the voice of a man, which further indicates to me the inability of a human to command God.)

December 08 2019 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report