A Brief Book Summary from Books At a Glance
by Steve West
About the Author
Bruce Waltke is an esteemed scholar, professor, and author. He has taught Old Testament and Hebrew at several major evangelical schools, and has a worldwide reputation as a leader in his field.
Table of Contents
1 Is Finding God’s Will a Biblical Idea?
2 How Pagans Divine the Will of God
3 God’s Will in the Old Testament
4 Read Your Bible
5 Develop a Heart for God
6 Seek Wise Counsel
7 Look for God’s Providence
8 Does This Make Sense?
9 Divine Intervention
Afterword
Summary
Chapter 1: Is Finding God’s Will a Biblical Idea?
Our relationship with God is based on our obedience, rather than on finding out his secret plans for our lives. Many Christians act as if God is a con-man, trying to hide his will from us, making it as hard as possible for us to know what he wants us to do. Would our loving Father send his son to die for us, and then make it hard for us to know his will? Would he try to trick us, unless we can sleuth it out of him?
The Bible speaks of the will of God in different ways. It can refer to his eternal plan, his desire, his providence, guidance into specific choices, and his moral standards. Nowhere does the Bible tell us that we need to go and somehow uncover and find the will of God. This notion is actually more akin to paganism: it is like divination, diving into the hidden truth. We are to submit ourselves to God’s revealed authority, working on our relationship with him rather than on discovering some hidden plan of his. Relationship, rather than special signs, is what we should be concerned about. Even if God has a hidden plan, there would be no reason to think that we would be able to figure it out somehow. “Having a gut-feeling” is not a biblical way of determining God’s will. We need to have faith and trust the Spirit to lead us through the Scriptures when they are properly interpreted. . . .
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