For I solemnly warned your ancestors to obey me. I warned them again and again, ever since I delivered them out of Egypt until this very day. But they did not listen to me or pay any attention to me! Each one of them followed the stubborn inclinations of his own wicked heart. So I brought on them all the punishments threatened in the covenant because they did not carry out its terms as I commanded them to do.’”
Jeremiah 11:7-8 NET
At Mt. Sinai, after delivering them from their Egyptian bondage, God entered a covenant relationship with the Israelites. In this covenant, God promised Israel that if they obeyed him fully, they would be his treasured possession (Ex. 19:5-6). The Ten Commandments, given at Sinai, formed the heart of the covenant law they were to obey.
While the terms “God’s will” and “human will” are not used in this passage from Jeremiah, they are clearly implied. God reminded Judah that he had warned their ancestors to obey him. And that there would be consequences for failure to do so. It was God’s will, or desire, that Israel live up to the terms of the covenant he had offered, and they had agreed to obey.
But Israel, even after agreeing to obey, refused to do so. Rather than obediently responding to God’s sovereign will, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their own hearts. They did what they wanted to do rather than what God wanted them to do. And they suffered the consequences.
The intersection between God’s sovereignty and human free will is challenging. It is clear from the Scripture that God is sovereign; he is in charge, and his purpose in creation will be accomplished. But, as this passage points out, we are free to respond in ways that are contrary to God’s sovereign will—to do what we want rather than what he wants us to do.
But, as the story of Israel so vividly demonstrates, there is always a price to pay for choosing my will over God’s. How much better to align my will with God’s and experience the blessings that come with obedience.
