Compatibilism: God Punishes Those Whose Sin He Ordained—Again

[John Bauer]

I have often referred to the Assyrian king, Sennacherib, as an example of people who do what God ordained them to do but are punished by God for doing it (Isa 10:5–19; 2 Kings 18–19; Isa 36–37).

But as I am reading the Bible, I discovered yet another one I hadn’t noticed before:

So I am ready to bring disaster on the dynasty of Jeroboam. I will cut off every last male belonging to Jeroboam in Israel, including even the weak and incapacitated. I will burn up the dynasty of Jeroboam, just as one burns manure until it is completely consumed. … The LORD will raise up a king over Israel who will cut off Jeroboam's dynasty. It is ready to happen! (1 Kings 14:10, 14)

And yet:

The prophet Jehu son of Hanani received from the LORD the message predicting the downfall of Baasha and his family because of all the evil Baasha had done in the sight of the LORD. His actions angered the LORD (including the way he had destroyed Jeroboam's dynasty), so that his family ended up like Jeroboam's. (1 Kings 16:7)

 

[makesends]

Haha! Yep! I don't know if this looks like the same sort of thing to you, but the story of Baalam and the donkey is the same principle, in effect. Baalam keeps asking the Lord, when God had already given him his answer, so God tells him to go with them, then 'gets angry' with him for doing so. Numbers 22. Actually, I think that whole story is hilarious, but revealing, and, along the lines of your OP, Numbers 24 does one after another, in a similar sequence: Ashur takes the Kenites captive; Cyprus will subdue Ashur; then Cyprus will come to ruin.

The story of Ahab, Obadiah, and Elijah comes next, after Balaam and Balak with a hilarious, "C'mon! Shout louder! But maybe Baal is on the toilet!". Then in a repeat performance of Balaam being only permitted to speak what the Lord told him, Ahab, Jehoshaphat, and Micaiah get into it. THAT part of the story is the best. "See? I told you he only ever prophesies bad things concerning me!" "You don't say!" The counter-intuitive things God does in that story, tough for the Arminian and Pelagian to handle, are precious.

Nebuchadnezzar (King of Babylon) is called God's servant! And the Assyrian king is referred to as an instrument (tool) in God's hand. Both were used against Israel BY GOD, and then punished for doing what God had in mind.