Why pray, when we cannot change God's will?

[tqualey]

Hi, SGWessells,

That was quite a ramble!

God’s Will is not a problem to be ‘solved’ - rather, as was previously identified, we pray so as to change our minds - not God’s. If you do not like the Eternal Now - then come up with your own response. The issue is that God knows everything (or, else … He would not be God!) and He specifically made each one of us individually with a Free Will. How God works with these two items tries to put us strictly in God’s domain.

We change our minds on a regular basis. If we get new information, we need to re-evaluate the situation and determine if any change is necessary… if it is not too late. God can not get ‘new informaiton’ - everything is known to Him. What we do not know is how we will be responding. If the basis for our relationship is to do good and avoid evil - we are off to a good start. What will carry the day, however, is focusing on increasing our love for God, no matter what comes our way.

God bless

Scripture mentions several occasions when God changed his mind. In Num. 14:19,20 God pardons Israel at Moses’ request. In Num. 22:12-22, God tells Balaam not to go with Balak, changes his mind and tells him to go, then gets angry at him for going. In 2 Kings 20:1-6, God relents at Hezekiah’s prayer and gives him 15 more years of life. This has unsettling implications regarding the common notion that God has a fixed and unalterable plan for everyone’s life, and the idea that all times are simultaneously present to him. If that were the case, he would be telling Balaam not to go and to go simultaneously; he would be telling Hezekiah “you shall not live” at the same time he told him “I will add fifteen years to your life.” The notion is nonsensical.
And yes, before you all throw God’s convenient incomprehensibility at me, he allegedly gave us the Bible to teach us about his nature in a way we could understand. He tailored it to our level of understanding which, if he created us, he knows very well. If we take refuge behind “his thoughts are higher than our thoughts” every time we don’t understand something in his revelation, we confess that he is a poor communicator.
The idea of God living in an eternal Now is merely a human interpretation designed to dodge the incompatibility of God’s foreknowledge and our free will. It doesn’t solve it, but it confuses people enough that they forget about the whole thing, and recite “God transcends time” as a handy incantation to banish the problem whenever it comes up.

 

[Danno2281]

When we look at the world as pre-determined by the mind of God, we may neglect to realize that God is dynamic, not static, and that He loves dynamically, but without change. This is hardly an easy concept for fickle humans to wrap their heads around, but we must not put our limitations on Him Who has no limits. It seems that the word “mystery” is in order. We don’t like mystery that we cannot solve, but God is insoluble mystery for us whether we like it or not.

 

[Swiss_Guy]

When we look at the world as pre-determined by the mind of God, we may neglect to realize that God is dynamic, not static, and that He loves dynamically, but without change. This is hardly an easy concept for fickle humans to wrap their heads around, but we must not put our limitations on Him Who has no limits. It seems that the word “mystery” is in order. We don’t like mystery that we cannot solve, but God is insoluble mystery for us whether we like it or not.

I like this post.

 

[Swiss_Guy]

I think it is sort of like this:

God predetermined/predestined everything, but God can still “change his mind” - whatever htat means.

We aren’t able to comprehend God.

But I’d still like to know how God “changes” his mind.

 

[tqualey]

Hi, Swiss Guy,

Let me try my hand at explaining this…

Throughout the OT, God speaks and apparently demonstrates, Anger and Changes of His Mind. He also Rejoices, apparently throws parties and conveys to mankind when He is pleased. No doubt about that. But, let’s take a look at what is really going on here.

God is Spirit - and as such has NO EMOTION. God knows everything in advance - NO THING surprises God. As an example, look at the life of Saul, the first King of the Jews. He certainly started off in a promising manner … but, not only ran into problems but failed to obey God. Samuel repeatedly tried to get Saul to change - but, ultimately God had Samuel annoint a new King. Now, if I was picking kings - and knew that one would be a real dud - I certainly would not have picked Saul. But, God did, so we are now confronted with the idea of, “Why did He do that?” To KNOW the answer to this would be to know the Mind of God - and that is strictly God’s domain.

As another example, look at the life of King Solomon, who, when given any gift from God that could be asked for - chose the wisdom to rule God’s People well. Hey, now it is hard to top that - and King Solomon burst forth as a wise and holy ruler. Unfortunately, little by little his wisdom became clouded until he became a profound disappointment to God - at least according to the written accounts. Are we to think God did not know Solomon would abandon trying to rule God’s People well? Hardly. But, again, we are confronted with the question of, “Why did God do that?” And, this has no answer.

When we read passages in the Bible we must truly look at the context in which they appear. Chrst wept over Jerusalem, he angrily flogged he money changers out of the Temple, He would have rathered NOT drink the Chalice His Father had given to Him in the Garden - but, subordinated His Will (and that would be His human will) to God.

I guess that God is preparing the heart of His People throughout the OT and then shows His tremendous love for all in the NT. There is no evasion here - just like we can not really describe an astronomical ‘Black Hole’ - just draw infrences based on observations. We can not really describe or know God. But, we can look at what took place as Jesus taught His Disciples.

God bless

What is going on is that He is inspiring the Human Authors of Scripture

This is confusing, but I need to know the answer (if a mortal can comprehend it ), since I’m just one of those persons who likes to know everything.

I think it is clear from scripture that God changes his mind. but it is also clear from scripture that God has predestined what will happen. So if God predestined what will happen, then God knew he would change his mind. Therefore, his mind wasn’t actually changed, since he knew what the end result would be. But in Scripture it said God changed his mind. This doesn’t make sense to me.

Ideas?

 

[fixxer]

For me knowing everything is not always a good thing or should I say thinking I know everything is not a good thing. It is so much easier for me to accept things when I am truly humble and think with humilty that all I need to know today is… God loves me and He will guide me to accomplish the task he gives me today. This is so hard some days or should I say most days. At the end of the day I realize it is easier when I am able to do this. But in the morning I start the battle again forgetting lessons learned.

 

[SGWessells]

tqualey wrote: "If you do not like the Eternal Now - then come up with your own response. "

What I like or don’t like is irrelevant. I don’t choose my beliefs according to what I like, but according to what makes sense to me. “God’s eternal now” does not make sense.

Also this: " Now, if I was picking kings - and knew that one would be a real dud - I certainly would not have picked Saul. But, God did, so we are now confronted with the idea of, “Why did He do that?” To KNOW the answer to this would be to know the Mind of God - and that is strictly God’s domain."

Sorry, but you can’t claim, on the one hand, to know nothing of the mind of God, and on the other, that he “has a plan for our life” or “has a secret purpose for evils and calamities that justifies them, even though we don’t know what that is.” If our ignorance of God’s mind is that abysmal, you can’t invoke some hidden purpose in the same mind of God you know nothing about whenever doing so gets you out of a jam. The fact is, when you have a particular dogma of what God is like, everything that happens has to fit that concept, whether it is a good fit or not. Because you assume God makes no mistakes, then when God changes his mind, you have to make another assumption that God had a good reason, though you have no basis except arbitrary assertion for either. Doesn’t it strike anyone as odd that God allegedly inspired the Bible to reveal to us – not to himself or his angels, but to us, with all our limitations, which he fully understood – what his character is like, yet despite this purpose of an infinitely wise being, the Bible creates more fog than light, and tangles our minds uip into confusion after confusion trying to make sense of it? Either God is a poor communicator, or – drum roll here – the Bible is a merely human production containing the same kinds of confusions, contradictions, and impossibilities as any other collection of ancient books. Few here will accept this, since it means that the Church is wrong about a core teaching, but that’s the view of it that makes most sense to me.

 

[SGWessells]

Swissguy wrote: "I think it is clear from scripture that God changes his mind. but it is also clear from scripture that God has predestined what will happen. So if God predestined what will happen, then God knew he would change his mind. Therefore, his mind wasn’t actually changed, since he knew what the end result would be. But in Scripture it said God changed his mind. This doesn’t make sense to me. "

Me either. Perhaps because it simply makes no sense, period. For one thing, we are constantly told that just because God knows beforehand what we will do, we still freely choose to do it. Why isn’t it the same for God? He can know he is going to change his mind, yet still choose to do it; knowing about it beforehand doesn’t change the fact that he changed his mind. It makes sense that we limited beings, who don’t know the future and have a limited understanding of the present, might regret a previous decision. It makes no sense for an infinitely wise, all-knowing being to do so. Therefore, the Bible is wrong when it says he did, or God is not that kind of being.
It is a dead giveaway whenever people invoke God’s incomprehensibility. Whenever people say, “God is beyond our feeble capacity to understand,” what they really mean is, “this statement is totally irrational and contradictory, even though it exists in a revelation specifically designed for our limited understanding to comprehend,.but accept it anyway.”

 

[fred_conty]

Quick question,

God Bless.

PiousTemplar.

A quick question deserves a quick answer.

We do not pray to change God’s mind, but we pray that God will change our mind.

 

[tqualey]

Hi, SGWessells,

I see your ‘variable’ religion is an appropriate choice… but, let’s see if can add a bit more depth to what you have posted.

tqualey wrote: "If you do not like the Eternal Now - then come up with your own response. "

What I like or don’t like is irrelevant. I don’t choose my beliefs according to what I like, but according to what makes sense to me. “God’s eternal now” does not make sense.

So, while you claim that your likes or dislikes are irrelevant, you don’t like things that don’t make sense… It may be important to realize that God is beyond our scope when it comes to Him making sense to us. But, being beyond our sense of reason does not make Him UN-reasonable. If you want reason, look at the patterns of nature. Patterns identify the work of a Pattern-Maker and this shows a logical progression.

Sorry, but you can’t claim, on the one hand, to know nothing of the mind of God, and on the other, that he “has a plan for our life” or “has a secret purpose for evils and calamities that justifies them, even though we don’t know what that is.”

Try not to go to extreems, SGWessells. Look at two related concepts together: Simply because we can not understand God as He understands Himself, does not mean can know nothing of Him. Combine this with the fact that He tells us that His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55). Now, one way to look at Saul’s kingship is that he started out strong, but started deviating from the plan God laid out for him. This downward spiral went all the way to actively engaging in murdering God’s annointed successor, David. There is a take home less in Saul’s life for each of us - if we are willing to learn from it.

If our ignorance of God’s mind is that abysmal, you can’t invoke some hidden purpose in the same mind of God you know nothing about whenever doing so gets you out of a jam. The fact is, when you have a particular dogma of what God is like, everything that happens has to fit that concept, whether it is a good fit or not. Because you assume God makes no mistakes, then when God changes his mind, you have to make another assumption that God had a good reason, though you have no basis except arbitrary assertion for either.

There’s the problem, SGWessells: you apparently think God makes mistakes, and as a matter of Faith, I believe God can only be Perfect. A mistake would me less than perfection - and then the question is, what are you defining as a ‘mistake’? And, while you are at it, just what dogma are you referencing. God has told us a number of things about Himself - and many simply refuse to believe the Author of Creation. For example:

1Tim 2:4 God wants all men to be saved. Where we have trouble with this is trying to balance this with the concept of free will.

James 4:17 “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

So we have two dogmas - God knows everything, He created us and wants us to be saved - yet, He loves us so much He will will not violate the free wills He created each of us with. God is able to work with this - our job is to follow His commandments so that we can be saved. No conflict here - unless, of course, you want to be ‘variable’ and follow some on some days while violating others on some days. That approach puts mans’ will in conflict with the Divine Will.

Because you assume God makes no mistakes, then when God changes his mind, you have to make another assumption that God had a good reason, though you have no basis except arbitrary assertion for either.

Actually, I assume just the opposite - God is INCAPABLE of ‘changing His mind’ Now, I know that the Bible tells us that God changes His mind … but, just stop and think it through for a moment. What possible NEW information could God ever get? There are no ‘instant news updates’ on what is going on in the minds of His creatures. We are the ones who can and do change. Sometimes these changes are not for the better - like Saul towards the end of his life, and sometimes real positive change takes place - like David’s repentence for adultery and murder.

Either God is a poor communicator, or – drum roll here – the Bible is a merely human production containing the same kinds of confusions, contradictions, and impossibilities as any other collection of ancient books. Few here will accept this, since it means that the Church is wrong about a core teaching, but that’s the view of it that makes most sense to me.

Drum roll, eh? Well, do you have a better Book to beleive? Do you have a better God to believe? Christ founded His Chruch (Matt 16:18) and Chrsit (True God and True Man) promised that His Spirit would remain with the Church He had founded so that it could not teach error (John 14:26). Our prayers are that we will conform our lives to God’s Will.

God bless

 

[wheels10]

Quick question,

God Bless.

PiousTemplar.

What is God’s will? Is God’s will not always to do Good? If we ask for something Good, **we need to have Faith **that we will receive what we have asked for. More often than not we will receive something much better!

Remember, if one has the Faith of a mustard seed, one can move mountains. If the mountains in one’s Life aren’t moving, God is not the problem, one’s Faith is the problem!

 

[tqualey]

Hi, Wheels10,

Good post!

One of Christ’s biggest complaints about the Apostles is that they were, “…of little faith…” - and those guys had Christ walking and talking with them every day for three years.

Our challenge is clear that we pray for an increase in Faith - and this is the prayer that God will answer. Note this is not an increase in understanding - whether that comes or not is immaterial - this is with this increase in Faith we can do God’s Will.

God bless

What is God’s will? Is God’s will not always to do Good? If we ask for something Good, **we need to have Faith **that we will receive what we have asked for. More often than not we will receive something much better!

Remember, if one has the Faith of a mustard seed, one can move mountains. If the mountains in one’s Life aren’t moving, God is not the problem, one’s Faith is the problem!

 

[meltzerboy]

Swissguy wrote: "I think it is clear from scripture that God changes his mind. but it is also clear from scripture that God has predestined what will happen. So if God predestined what will happen, then God knew he would change his mind. Therefore, his mind wasn’t actually changed, since he knew what the end result would be. But in Scripture it said God changed his mind. This doesn’t make sense to me. "

Me either. Perhaps because it simply makes no sense, period. For one thing, we are constantly told that just because God knows beforehand what we will do, we still freely choose to do it. Why isn’t it the same for God? He can know he is going to change his mind, yet still choose to do it; knowing about it beforehand doesn’t change the fact that he changed his mind. It makes sense that we limited beings, who don’t know the future and have a limited understanding of the present, might regret a previous decision. It makes no sense for an infinitely wise, all-knowing being to do so. Therefore, the Bible is wrong when it says he did, or God is not that kind of being.
It is a dead giveaway whenever people invoke God’s incomprehensibility. Whenever people say, “God is beyond our feeble capacity to understand,” what they really mean is, “this statement is totally irrational and contradictory, even though it exists in a revelation specifically designed for our limited understanding to comprehend,.but accept it anyway.”

I think you’re assuming that Scripture is meant to elucidate G-d to us humans in His totality. I don’t believe it is meant to do this since the nature of G-d cannot be fully expressed through the medium of language. Even though Jews believe that Torah (Pentateuch) is the Written Word of G-d given directly to Moses (as is the Oral Law, or Talmud), it still had to be transcribed into the Hebrew language as the means of communication that people could understand. However, the very nature of language also presupposes the potential for certain ambiguities of meaning. One question deals with which verses should be interpreted literally and which metaphorically? Jewish scholars are nearly unanimous that there are many passages which are evidently metaphorical–as in the New Testament, several of the parables told by Jesus–while others are indeed literal, but nonetheless expressed in anthropomorphic language so that we can understand G-d using our human faculties. Further, exactly what the metaphorical meaning conveys is often open to debate. Sometimes there may be more than one metaphorical meaning, as well as both a literal and figurative meaning to a passage. The Kabbalah focuses on both the straightforward and the more arcane interpretations. That does not mean, however, that anything goes, for the text must be interpreted in relation to its context within the passage which is being analyzed and across other passages. One might wonder why G-d would not have made Scripture crystal clear to us. The answer, I think, is that He wanted us to use our reason to arrive at a deeper faith. If He had revealed everything to us plainly in Scripture, there would be less incentive to reflect on and ponder our faith and less opportunity for our faith to grow stronger.

 

[choliks]

I think we are equating prayer with petitions, or that prayer is just restricted to petitions. It’s hindering our understanding. My suggestion is to understand what prayer really is. I think the Saints that have come before us got it…

forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=8239336&postcount=2

 

[Faithdancer]

I don’t think that Jesus Himself would have taught us how to pray, if He did not know that prayer could be efficacious. In the Lord’s Prayer we first praise God, then we submit to His will, then we ask Him for for 4 things: sustenance, forgiveness, His strength to resist temptation, and His protection from the evil one.

One of our pastors gave a homily on this subject not long ago, in which he said that when we pray we should first glorify God, then confess His power and our weakness, and only last, ask for things we want, and this only very sparingly (since God already knows what we need). I did this not long ago, and it worked! I was hurting badly financially, as I was unemployed over the summer- I’m a substitute teacher- waiting for school to start. I had been denied unemployment benefits as the state said I was “on recess” not unemployed. This seemed unfair to me, since substitute teachers are paid per diem (and not that much) and don’t have the opportunity to select a 12 month payment plan like the regular classroom teachers do. I had gone round and round with our state unemployment office about it and had finally resigned myself to not getting any income for July or August. I was in a very critical state, but I prayed as our pastor recommended. I avoided asking God for money, but accepted His will and His knowledge of my needs. Well, the very next Monday I was on the phone with the unemployment department about a document I had received and the lady noticed I wasn’t being paid for the summer months. She put me on hold, called the supervising department, and within a few minutes got me retroactive pay for the weeks that school was not in session. She said, and I quote: “It’s the right thing to do.” Since when does a government bureaucracy worker say something like that, unless moved by the Holy Spirit?"

Now school is back in session and I’m getting called to work every day. But I won’t forget that God can answer prayers, big time. Perhaps it’s not a matter of His changing His mind, but simply that He has suspended His decision. That is, He has all the time in the universe to wait and see if we will accept His will and glorify Him, if we truly love and obey Him, before deciding to grant our petitions! And if He chooses not to, we cannot question His decision, only continue to love and obey Him.

 

[tqualey]

Hi, Faithdancer,

Yes, God is a BIG-TIME responder to our prayers - even when He does not hit over the head with the proverbial 2’ x 4’ board to get out attention!

Thank you for sharing your experiences in this area - and, Praise God, you are getting regular work.

Now, when it comes to the lowly bureaucrat doing the right thing … I honestly think this takes place more often than we give them credit for… While there are those who only rise to the occasion to do the minimum every so often - I think they are the minority. Most people really do want to do their jobs properly. And, yes, one can see the Hand of God working in them (either with or without their knowledge) as they touch lives.

Continue to pray for all who are still seeking work.

God bless

I don’t think that Jesus Himself would have taught us how to pray, if He did not know that prayer could be efficacious. In the Lord’s Prayer we first praise God, then we submit to His will, then we ask Him for for 4 things: sustenance, forgiveness, His strength to resist temptation, and His protection from the evil one.

One of our pastors gave a homily on this subject not long ago, in which he said that when we pray we should first glorify God, then confess His power and our weakness, and only last, ask for things we want, and this only very sparingly (since God already knows what we need). I did this not long ago, and it worked! I was hurting badly financially, as I was unemployed over the summer- I’m a substitute teacher- waiting for school to start. I had been denied unemployment benefits as the state said I was “on recess” not unemployed. This seemed unfair to me, since substitute teachers are paid per diem (and not that much) and don’t have the opportunity to select a 12 month payment plan like the regular classroom teachers do. I had gone round and round with our state unemployment office about it and had finally resigned myself to not getting any income for July or August. I was in a very critical state, but I prayed as our pastor recommended. I avoided asking God for money, but accepted His will and His knowledge of my needs. Well, the very next Monday I was on the phone with the unemployment department about a document I had received and the lady noticed I wasn’t being paid for the summer months. She put me on hold, called the supervising department, and within a few minutes got me retroactive pay for the weeks that school was not in session. She said, and I quote: “It’s the right thing to do.” Since when does a government bureaucracy worker say something like that, unless moved by the Holy Spirit?"

Now school is back in session and I’m getting called to work every day. But I won’t forget that God can answer prayers, big time. Perhaps it’s not a matter of His changing His mind, but simply that He has suspended His decision. That is, He has all the time in the universe to wait and see if we will accept His will and glorify Him, if we truly love and obey Him, before deciding to grant our petitions! And if He chooses not to, we cannot question His decision, only continue to love and obey Him.

 

[wheels10]

Hi, Wheels10,

Good post!

One of Christ’s biggest complaints about the Apostles is that they were, “…of little faith…” - and those guys had Christ walking and talking with them every day for three years.

Our challenge is clear that we pray for an increase in Faith - and this is the prayer that God will answer. Note this is not an increase in understanding - whether that comes or not is immaterial - this is with this increase in Faith we can do God’s Will.

God bless

Hi Tqualey,

Yes praying for an increase in Faith is a Good prayer!

Thanks for your words of support! God Bless!

 

[SGWessells]

So, while you claim that your likes or dislikes are irrelevant, you don’t like things that don’t make sense… It may be important to realize that God is beyond our scope when it comes to Him making sense to us. But, being beyond our sense of reason does not make Him UN-reasonable. If you want reason, look at the patterns of nature. Patterns identify the work of a Pattern-Maker and this shows a logical progression.

Whether I like an idea or not is irrelevant to whether or not it is true.Liking things to make sense is different, because it is a preference. Things are true because they make sense, not because I prefer them to other thoughts.
Patterns can also come into being as incremental combinations of smaller patterns acting according to their own natures.

Try not to go to extreems, SGWessells. Look at two related concepts together: Simply because we can not understand God as He understands Himself, does not mean can know nothing of Him. Combine this with the fact that He tells us that His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55). Now, one way to look at Saul’s kingship is that he started out strong, but started deviating from the plan God laid out for him. This downward spiral went all the way to actively engaging in murdering God’s annointed successor, David. There is a take home less in Saul’s life for each of us - if we are willing to learn from it.

This has nothing to do with the issue. If God knows the future, he knows before he made Saul king that Saul would do all these things. Therefore it makes no sense that he made Saul king if he regretted it afterwards, as he also “tells us.”

There’s the problem, SGWessells: you apparently think God makes mistakes, and as a matter of Faith, I believe God can only be Perfect. A mistake would me less than perfection - and then the question is, what are you defining as a ‘mistake’? And, while you are at it, just what dogma are you referencing.

A mistake is an act one regrets making afterward, isn’t it? Or are you glad when you make mistakes? Since God says he regrets some of his actions, he made mistakes, or else (which gets my vote) the Bible is confused and self-contradictory.
One of the dogmas I referred to is that “God can only be perfect.” If he regrets something he did, how can that be perfect? That would mean God regretted doing something perfect, which would make the regret itself imperfect, so God is not perfect either way.

God has told us a number of things about Himself - and many simply refuse to believe the Author of Creation. For example:

1Tim 2:4 God wants all men to be saved. Where we have trouble with this is trying to balance this with the concept of free will.

James 4:17 “Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.”

So we have two dogmas - God knows everything, He created us and wants us to be saved - yet, He loves us so much He will will not violate the free wills He created each of us with. God is able to work with this - our job is to follow His commandments so that we can be saved. No conflict here - unless, of course, you want to be ‘variable’ and follow some on some days while violating others on some days. That approach puts mans’ will in conflict with the Divine Will.

I fail to see why this issue is pertinent, but since you bring it up, try reconciling 1 Tim. 2:4 with Romans chapter 9. Good luck with that.

Actually, I assume just the opposite - God is INCAPABLE of ‘changing His mind’ Now, I know that the Bible tells us that God changes His mind … but, just stop and think it through for a moment. What possible NEW information could God ever get? There are no ‘instant news updates’ on what is going on in the minds of His creatures.

Congratulations – you understand the problem.

We are the ones who can and do change. Sometimes these changes are not for the better - like Saul towards the end of his life, and sometimes real positive change takes place - like David’s repentence for adultery and murder

Unfortunately, this is not a solution. The problem is not that we change, the problem is that God allegedly knows this in advance yet acts as though he doesn’t know it.

Drum roll, eh? Well, do you have a better Book to beleive? Do you have a better God to believe? Christ founded His Chruch (Matt 16:18) and Chrsit (True God and True Man) promised that His Spirit would remain with the Church He had founded so that it could not teach error (John 14:26). Our prayers are that we will conform our lives to God’s Will.

Just about any book would be a better book to believe. But why believe in a book at all, in that absolute, inflexible way? If they’re all written by fallible humans, as seems likely, believe in them only to the extent that they seem reasonable.
A better God to believe would be one that doesn’t command genocide, endorse slavery, claim to know the future with infinite wisdom, yet regret some of his actions, torture people for eternity, and so on. That isn’t the God described in the Bible.

God bless

You too.

 

[SGWessells]

I think you’re assuming that Scripture is meant to elucidate G-d to us humans in His totality. I don’t believe it is meant to do this since the nature of G-d cannot be fully expressed through the medium of language. Even though Jews believe that Torah (Pentateuch) is the Written Word of G-d given directly to Moses (as is the Oral Law, or Talmud), it still had to be transcribed into the Hebrew language as the means of communication that people could understand. However, the very nature of language also presupposes the potential for certain ambiguities of meaning. One question deals with which verses should be interpreted literally and which metaphorically? Jewish scholars are nearly unanimous that there are many passages which are evidently metaphorical–as in the New Testament, several of the parables told by Jesus–while others are indeed literal, but nonetheless expressed in anthropomorphic language so that we can understand G-d using our human faculties. Further, exactly what the metaphorical meaning conveys is often open to debate. Sometimes there may be more than one metaphorical meaning, as well as both a literal and figurative meaning to a passage. The Kabbalah focuses on both the straightforward and the more arcane interpretations. That does not mean, however, that anything goes, for the text must be interpreted in relation to its context within the passage which is being analyzed and across other passages. One might wonder why G-d would not have made Scripture crystal clear to us. The answer, I think, is that He wanted us to use our reason to arrive at a deeper faith. If He had revealed everything to us plainly in Scripture, there would be less incentive to reflect on and ponder our faith and less opportunity for our faith to grow stronger.

I do not assume scripture is meant to reveal God “in his totality” – there are not enough trees in the universe to print such a book. I do expect a God of infinite wisdom, who created human nature and supposedly knows what we say before we say it, to be able to reveal that part of his nature we can understand in a clearer way than he has; which is one of many reasons why I don’t believe in the inspiration of the Bible.
You have a point about metaphor, though, which is why it is tricky to use as an escape from contradiction or pre-scientific cosmology. My experience is that people take literally the parts of scripture that appeal to them and mythologize the rest, or sweep it under the rug of God’s incomprehensibility. Saying that God left his revelation to the mercies of ambiguity to make our faith stronger means, as I read it, that faith means believing what you can’t make sense of but want to believe anyway. If that is what floats your boat, paddle away. I prefer reason myself.

 

[pwoodfi]

“Does God know the day you’ll die? Yes. Has he appointed that day? Yes. Can you do anything to change that day? No. Then why do you eat? To live. What happens if you don’t eat? You die. Then if you don’t eat, and die, then would that be the day that God had appointed for you to die?…Quit asking stupid questions and just eat. Eating is the pre-ordained way God has appointed for living.” (A. A. Hodge)

I recently heard this quote in a sermon and thought it interesting. It comes down to simple obedience. Jesus has called His people to pray. He even said His Father’s house would be a house of prayer. While we can’t understand it all, we can obey if we have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit.