We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded by your direct support for ReKnew and our vision. Please consider supporting this project.

What is the significance of Numbers 14:11?
In the light of the Israelites’ relentless complaining the Lord says to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they refuse to believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?”
The fact that the Lord continued, for centuries, to try to get the Israelites to not despise him and to believe in him indicates that this passage reflects genuine wonder on God’s part. If everything is certain to God ahead of time, however, such wonder would be impossible. God would exhaustively foreknow the answer to this and every other question about free human behavior.
Some have argued that if we take divine questions about the future literally, we should out of consistency be willing to interpret all other divine questions literally as well. But this, they point out, leads to absurd conclusions. When God asked where Adam and Eve were, for example, was he really ignorant of their location (Gen. 3:8–9)? Obviously not. He was speaking rhetorically as a means of getting Adam and Eve to confess their sin. But why then should we not interpret divine questions about the future in the same fashion?
The answer to this question is quite simple: there is a wealth of unequivocal scriptural testimony teaching us that God perfectly knows all of present reality (e.g. Psalm 139). Hence when God asks a question about a present reality (e.g. “Where are you?”) we have very good reason to assume that he’s speaking rhetorically. However, scripture does not teach that God possesses exhaustive definite knowledge of the future. Hence when God asks questions about the future we have no reason to assume he’s speaking rhetorically.
Category: Q&A
Tags: Open Theism, Q&A
Topics: Open Theism
Verse: Numbers 14
Related Reading

What is the significance of Exodus 13:17?
The Lord didn’t lead Israel along the shortest route to Canaan because Israel would have had to fight the Philistines. The Lord wanted to avoid this, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war, and they return to Egypt.” [NIV: “If they face war they might change their minds and return to Egypt”].…

Is it true you’re an “Open Theist” and that you don’t think God knows the future perfectly?
I am an “Open Theist” – though I honestly don’t care for the label, because as I’ll show, the uniqueness of this view isn’t in what it says about God but in what it says about the nature of reality. (I think it would be better to call us something like “Open Futurists.”) In any…

How do you respond to Isaiah 44:28–45:1?
This passage is one of the most persuasive evidences of divine foreknowledge in the Bible. The verse proclaims the Lord as the one “who says to Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall carry out all my purpose’; and who says of Jerusalem, ‘It shall be rebuilt,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall…

Non-Violence and Police Protection
Scott Davidson via Compfight Question: I am a President of a State University. As a frequent podcaster of your sermons and reader of your books, I’m seeking your advice on a matter. Because our campus is some distance from the police headquarters in our city, many within the State University are arguing that we should…

How do you respond to Isaiah 6:10?
The Lord tells Isaiah, “Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed.” (cf. Matt. 13:14–15) If taken out of context this passage may sound…

What is the difference between “libertarian” and “compatibilistic” freedom?
Question: I often hear philosophers and theologians talk about “libertarian” and “compatibilistic” freedom. What do these terms mean? Answer: A person who holds to “libertarian” freedom believes that an agent (human or angelic) is truly free and morally responsible for their choices only if it resides in an agent’s power to determine his or her own choices. Their…