Day 5: Numbers

As much as I love Leviticus, I may dislike Numbers that much. It just doesn't do it for me. There is one part where the author lists the leader of each of the tribes and then provides an itemized list of the offerings that leader brought to the tabernacle. In and of itself, that's not too bad - but each and every one of them brought the exact same offering. Why couldn't the author have listed the leaders' names and then said, "each of them brought the same offering(s), which were:" and then listed it once? Seriously, the author of Numbers needs an editor.

/end rant

Moving on to the observation of the day from Numbers

An Open-Theists Paradise

Several incidents occur in Numbers that make it a big asset for open theists. Briefly (and if you want more information, google or wiki it), open theism is a position held by some theologians in which God self-limits His knowledge of the future. According to the position of most open theists, God knows only what can be known and - this is the important part - the outcome of a future free will decision cannot be known until the decision is made. Put more simply, if you ask me whether or not I want to go get a pizza, God does not know whether I will say yes or no until I make the decision. (NOTE: the preceding was a very inadequate and all too brief summary of open theism. If you would like a more detailed explanation, drop me a comment w/your e-mail or facebook me)

Anyway, open theism is a position in the debate about predestination and God's knowledge of the future. It attempts to faithfully deal with the Scriptures that indicate God knows everything about the future and those scriptures that indicate God might not. The bellwether question for most open theists is, "Can God change His mind?"

In Numbers, then - yes, all of this relates back to Numbers - we find multiple occurrences of God seeming to do just that. The pattern is always the same: the Israelites do something stupid, God says He is going to destroy them altogether, Moses and/or Aaron intercede for the people and God relents from total destruction. It happens at least twice in Numbers (as well as in other places in the Old Testament).

Here's the thing - I don't know where I stand vis a vis open theism. Part of me thinks it is a legitimate way of understanding how God could know the future and still allow humans to exercise free will. Another part of me, though, wonders if we are meant to understand how God's knowledge of the future works and is afraid that open theism represents too much "anthropomorphizing" of God by humans (i.e. "making God in our own image").

What it boils down to for me is this: reading Numbers, it is clear that God changes His mind on a couple of occasions. How exactly that works is a mystery to me. How it plays into our understanding of God, predestination and free-will, I don't know. I just know that God is love and that I am not meant to completely understand God.