The Provocation and Provision
By Herbert E. Douglass

A Commentary on the Sabbath School Lesson for December 25–31, 2004

We often think of the Garden of Eden as the beginning of "provocation"—the testing of God’s resolve. But long, long before Adam and Eve, "the Lamb was slain" (Rev. 13:8; 1 Pet. 1:19, 20). That was a "risky act!" It must have been very important to God!

How could that be? Because God saw it all in advance! He saw what would happen if he gave freedom to his creation. Yes, he could have created a universe of smiling, perfectly contented robots that bowed in his presence, in unison, every time the organ played. But he wanted freely loving individuals who could share some of the joy of creation that the Heavenly Trio enjoyed.

God decided that the gift of freedom would be worth the cost! As soon as that decision was made (if we can think of moments of time in God-time) he began paying the cost, not vicariously, in real time!. We should ask ourselves if we would give freedom to others when we could see in advance how the gift would be abused. Would parents have children if they could see in advance that one would die at three in an auto accident or a daughter at fifteen would ruin her life with drugs and prostitution?

Some ask, what’s the risk? Because the gift of freedom also means freedom to say "yes" or "no" to God. Saying "yes" without the freedom to say "no" is the response of a robot. And there is no love or joy, no mutual trust and appreciation, in a robot even if the robot is a perfect "angel." God did not start us off with a wind-up key in our backs that always said, "I love You, I love You." Freedom is God’s great gift to his creation—certified by Jesus Christ on Calvary. Freedom is the incubator of genuine love. Ask any genuinely happy husband and wife!

Dante got it right in The Divine Comedy: "Supreme of gifts, which God creating, gave of His free bounty, sign most evident of goodness, and in His account most prized was liberty of will; the boon, wherewith all intellectual creatures, and them sol, He had endow’d."

From that dreadful moment in the Garden when both Adam and Eve manifested a distrust of God’s explicit command, God has had a planet filled with those who say "yes" to his will, and those who say "no." God is the Forever Paramour comparing himself as a husband to his bride—those who "profess" to say "yes." (Hos. 2:16; Eph. 5:25–27). Yet, a lover, even God, can be rejected. What kind of pain does the Divine Lover feel when those he loves sleep with his enemy? What kind of risk is that—to have a planet filled with rebels saying they wanted to do it "my way."?

How could God resolve all this and do it without coercion, without fear or pandered favor?

First, God would not give up. Often he (they) had to watch his bride go into enormous embarrassment and experience the consequences of forsaking God for another. But he kept the light burning. He looks forward to the Wedding Day of the universe. The Cosmic Lover will not give up on his reluctant, wayward bride! He does everything he can to help her get herself ready for the wedding (Rev. 19:7–9). Imagine that! The Creator and Sustainer of the universe motivated by a love more personal and intense than that of a human lover, more tender than a nursing mother—all that boggles our minds!

Secondly, he knows that all this attention to a rebel wife (and to a rebel band of angels) is putting himself on trial. The universe’s first minister of cosmic communication, the "bearer of God’s light of truth," had one major responsibility—to make the Heavenly Trio look good! But he grew weary over time; he wanted some of that honor and glory for himself. Envy never thinks that it has enough of anything!

For the first time in the universe of free intelligences, the craving for "power," the desire for "self-exaltation," emerged. Freedom was changed in Orwellian magic—it now was sold as the "right" to self-expression and the right for self-government. Lucifer, charming and compelling touched a nerve in one-third of the angels who began to sense the excitement of less restraint and the lure of "freedom for all."

The question is: Why didn’t God zap Lucifer and nip the revolution in the bud? If he did, the angels, perhaps all of them, would always simmer with the thought that perhaps Lucifer was right after all. "Maybe God is the smiling Tyrant who allows no real disagreement. Maybe it doesn’t pay to cross God?"

So God in his infinite wisdom let the drama play out. The whole universe would see how the law of cause and effect really works. They would eventually see that mistaken freedom, Orwellian style, would lead only to the inevitable result of sin, rebellion, and chaos.

We call this drama, the Great Controversy. This theme runs like a scarlet cord from Genesis to Revelation. One day, God’s patience, compassion, and fairness will be so etched into the minds of unfallen worlds and the history of Planet Earth that intelligent beings will never want to defy the wisdom of their Creator and the universe’s Best Friend. All this is proleptically set forth in the first three chapters of Genesis.

Questions: