[Sermons] SERMON: We Aren't Supposed to Know the Future

[Eric Carswell]

We Aren't Supposed to Know the Future
By the Rev. Eric H. Carswell
April 18, 1999

        But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and
that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?"  Exodus 3:11

The beginning of the book of Exodus describes how the Children of Israel
prospered and grew very numerous in the land of Egypt where they had gone
during the great famine of Joseph time.  It recounts the suspicions that
Pharaoh had and how he tried to reduce the population by various means
including having all the male babies cast into the river.  The mother of an
infant boy tried to protect him from this death until he was too old and
presumably too noisy to hide any longer and then she partially fallowed
Pharaoh's command.  She put her son in the river but protected in a
water-proof basket which served as a tiny boat for the little one.  It
seemed that by chance one of Pharaoh's daughters came to that spot to wash.
 She saw the basket, retrieved it, and claimed the child as her own, named
him Moses, and took him home to be raised as a prince in Pharaoh's court. 
By these remarkable means an Israelite was trained to be a leader in the
palaces of the Israelites oppressor.  But then by apparent twist of fate,
Moses had been forced to flee from his princely life out into the
wilderness of Sinai where he lived and guided a flock as a shepherd for a
considerable amount of time.  Meanwhile back in Egypt it seems that the
death of one Pharaoh led to another who was even worse than his father.  We
read the following from end of chapter two following the description of
Moses being settled in the land of Midian:

        Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died.
Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried
out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage.  So God heard
their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac,
and with Jacob.  And God looked upon the children of Israel, and God
acknowledged them.  (Exodus 2:23-25)

How is God going to help a slave nation caught in a foreign land? 
Actually, He has already prepared the perfect leader to lead them from
their misery.  He has raised up a man who is an Israelite, who has been
trained as a leader and is familiar with the workings of the court of
Pharaoh, who also is experienced with the rigors and challenges of living
in the wilderness of Sinai.  This set of qualifications was a most unusual
and demanding one.  Yet the Lord had the perfect person:  Moses.  But Moses
wasn't at all aware of his past life as being a preparation for anything in
particular.  He may have thought it a remarkable tale, but he seemed
content where he was serving as a shepherd for his father-in-law.  When the
Lord appeared to Moses in the burning bush and called him to return to
Egypt to lead the Israelites from their slavery, Moses responded:

        "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the
children of Israel out of Egypt?"  Exodus 3:11

When the Lord answers all his questions, Moses tries nevertheless to tell
Him to find someone else.  But in reality there was no one else for the
job.  Moses had a unique set of qualities that the Lord had carefully
overseen develop in Moses life.  He was the one and only right person to
lead the Children of Israel from slavery.  Moses had a very hard time
accepting that this was the case.  He resisted strongly.

This story of Moses' preparation and call reflects qualities of the Lord's
government.  It shows the Lord guiding the life of an individual in a
remarkable way.  A series of seemingly chance events, some of which seemed
tragic at the time, all gathered together for good in Moses life.  They
were important for him and absolutely essential for the Israelites who were
suffering in slavery.  This story is a remarkable reflection of the Lord's
work.

This sermon is the fifth in a series of sermons on the laws that guide the
Lord's care for each of us or as we often call them, the laws of the Divine
Providence.  The first sermon focused on the law that each person needs to
act in freedom according to reason.  This means that people need to have a
sense that they are making choices in events large and small based on their
own best understanding of what is to be done.   The second law of the
Divine Providence states that it is our task to change our externals, that
is our habits of thought, speech, and action from ones that are more evil
and destructive to ones that are good and useful.  Without this effort at
conscious obedience on our part the Lord cannot bring us a new will or a
new heart.  It is this new will that has us wanting to do good and useful
things that we had not previously wanted to do.  The third law of the
Divine Providence states that on one should be compelled by external means
to think and will, and therefore to believe and love, the things of
religion.  This means that the Lord will not use miracles, interventions by
angels, lightening bolts and so on to make us think and do what is right. 
In spite of His Infinite wisdom, knowledge, and power, the Lord very
purposefully chooses a relatively quiet presence in this world.  He leaves
us freedom to believe or to disbelieve.  He won't make us believe and do
what it is right but there are many times that we need to persuade and at
times compel ourselves to do so.  The fourth law of Divine Providence
states that we are to be led and taught by the Lord from heaven by means of
the Word, and doctrine and preaching from the Word, and this to all
appearance as of ourselves. 

The fourth law of the Divine Providence states that:

        If  people perceived and felt the operation of the Divine
Providence they would not act from freedom according to their thought and
planning (that is, their "reason"), nor would anything appear to them to be
coming from themselves. It would be the same if they foreknew events. 
(Divine Providence 176)

Consider what would have happened if the Lord had appeared to Moses while
he was a prince in Pharaoh's court and told him that he needed to go to the
land of Midian and get experience as a shepherd in the wilderness.  How
likely would it have been that Moses would have thought this was a good
idea?  How likely would he have been even more resistant to the Lord's
plans?  

The Lord from His  infinite love and wisdom knows the tiniest details of
our lives.  He is aware of all that we experience and how we experience it.
 He knows the ebb and flow of the tiniest concerns or affections that arise
in our minds.  He sees the source of every thought that occurs to us even
in the vaguest way.  He has a clear sight of what is important for each of
us in the immediate present, in the coming hours, days, and years of our
natural life.  He has a knowledge of our capabilities and roles in the life
after death to eternity.  He knows all of this for all of us.  In a manner
that absolutely exceeds any conception we could possibly have, the Lord
weaves these infinitely complicated and numerous strands to serve each and
all of us to eternity.

A key part of the Lord's work is to prepare us for things that we will care
about in the future, but don't care about now.  Think of the development of
a single person.  What might a little girl think was the most important
thing in her life?  Would it be the same as she thought was most important
when she was a teenager, in her twenties, forties, sixties, and so on?  Of
course not.  Yet if someone was to tell a teenager that in her fifties she
would be committed to certain goals and would be willing to sacrifice her
time and energy to accomplish them she might think it was either silly or
even worse would reject this future with horror.  Having once had this
foretold she might fight against any event, motivation, or thought that
might incline her to this life.  For example, she might in her fifties
sense a strong desire to care for her aging parents.  Imagining how this
might work when she was a teenager may be impossible or so undesirable that
she might harden herself against the possibility.  But having lived a
number of decades more of life and having grown as a wisely caring human
being, she might be wonderfully well prepared to do this work with a deep
sense of usefulness and satisfaction when took it on.

If our future was foretold and we didn't fight against it, we would become
like a pre-programmed robot following a path that had been given to us.  If
we could know the future, a part of many people would incline them to seek
guidance on the tiniest details.  It would be like a child working on a
recipe in the kitchen asking at each step of the way, "And now what do I
do?"  Then a few moments later, "And now what?"   Certainly we can benefit
from guidance and help when we're first beginning a job or working on
something quite unfamiliar, but the Lord has given us eyes to see, ears to
hear, and a mind that can think so that we can have the delight of planning
and working on things as if we were the only ones contributing to our own
choice and direction.  

There is one further possible problem from our knowing the future,
depending on how it came to us.  We might think this knowledge was from
ourselves and so make ourselves God.  We would take credit for the insights
and understanding that can only be a part of infinite wisdom and love.  

While we may feel tension and doubt about the future outcome of important
areas of our lives, it is in the Lord's government that we do not and can
not know these outcomes with sureness.  The Lord wants us to have the
delight of thinking and planning, of hoping and dreaming.  He wants us to
have the delight of working at things that don't come easily for us.  He
wants us to be able to love what our present state is focused on without
being too concerned about roles and a future that is beyond our present
comprehension.  He wants us to have something of the heavenly happiness
that comes from accomplishing something important through using the body
and mind that He has given us.  For all these reasons He carefully guides
our lives without revealing our futures beyond what we are ready to see. 
AMEN.

       Lessons: Exodus 3:1-11
                
        If a people perceived and felt the operation of the Divine
Providence they would not act from freedom according to their thought and
planning (that is, their "reason"), nor would anything appear to them to be
coming from themselves. It would be the same if they foreknew events. 
        It is a law of the Divine Providence that people should act from
freedom according to their thought and planning; also that everything
people will, think, speak and do should appear to them as if it came from
themselves.  Without this appearance people would have nothing of their
own, nor would they be human beings in their own right.
        People would have no liberty to act according to their thought and
planning, and nothing would appear to them to be as from themselves if they
perceived and felt the operation of the Divine Providence because if they
perceived and felt it, they would also be led by it. Therefore, if people
had a conscious perception and feeling of being led they would not be sense
that they lived: and they would then be moved to utter sounds and to act
much like a robot. If they did still sense that they were alive they would
be led like one bound hand and foot, or like a beast of burden yoked to a
cart.
        People are not granted a knowledge of future events in order that
they may be able to act from freedom according to their thought and
planning.  It is well known that people desire to accomplish whatever they
love, and they lead themselves to this goal by their thought and planning.
It is also known that everything people consider in their thought and
planning arises from the love of accomplishing it  by means of their
thought. Therefore, if they knew the effect or result from Divine
prediction their thought and planning would come to rest, and with it their
love; for love with reason comes to an end in the effect, and from that
point it begins anew.   Divine Providence 176, 178


All books mentioned, other than from the Bible, are written by Emanuel
Swedenborg and are often referred to in the New Church merely as "the
Writings."  We believe that they are equally the Word of God as the
revelation of the Old and New Testaments.