God’s Revealed Will and His Hidden Intention

Last revised: July 28, 2022

No one has ever withstood GOD’S intention. Correctly rendered, Romans 9:19 reads as follows (see the interlinear):

You will be protesting to me, then, “Why, then, is He still blaming? for who has withstood His intention?”

—Romans 9:19

In this passage, Paul argues that God intended to demonstrate His power through Pharaoh. A willing Pharaoh would not have served that purpose. Therefore, when Pharaoh was on the verge of giving in under the tremendous pressure of the plagues, God hardened – or strengthened – his heart (Exodus 9:12). In fact, God acted in a similar way not only on Pharaoh’s heart but also on the hearts of the other Egyptians.

HE changed their hearts, so that they hated His people and dealt craftily with His servants.

—Psalm 105:25

Intention & Will

Behind the drama of Pharaoh’s and the Egyptians’ rebellion and antisemitism, God proves to be the great Director. That is Paul’s point. It also explains the predictable criticism he then has his opponents voice: Why, then, does God still find fault? After all, Pharaoh – or anyone else – has never withstood God’s INTENTION.

Pharaoh and his people withstood God’s WILL. Through Moses, God had repeatedly told Pharaoh: “Let My people go.” Pharaoh and his people were also held accountable for refusing. Nevertheless, behind God’s will lay a hidden INTENTION – an intention Pharaoh did not know about and presumably was not permitted to know about. This intention was that Pharaoh would not let the people go.

And so, without intending to, the disobedient Pharaoh fulfilled God’s intention one hundred percent. It could not be otherwise, since GOD…

… operating all in accord with the *counsel of His will, …

—Ephesians 1:11;

* The word translated “counsel” here is the same word Paul uses in Romans 9:19: boule, boulema > intention. This sentence also shows that “will” and “intention” (counsel) are two expressly distinct concepts.

A godless Pharaoh, a hostile people of Egypt, the brothers who sold Joseph into slavery, and so on – they all fulfilled, each in their own way, God’s counsel (= intention). This applies even to the greatest crime ever committed: the crucifixion of the Messiah. This act, too, took place expressly…

… in the specific counsel and foreknowledge of God…

—Acts 2:23

No creature can conceive of or undertake a single thing unless it corresponds exactly with the Creator’s “script.” So no creature should ever imagine itself to be original. Man is a little clay figure whose destiny is and continues to be completely determined by the great Potter.

Protest?

To those who protest against this, Paul has the following to say:

You will be protesting to me, then, “Why, then, is He still blaming? for who has withstood His intention?” O man! who are you, to be sure, who are answering again to GOD? That which is molded will not protest to the molder, “Why do you make me thus?”

—Romans 9:19–21

God is GOD. He emphatically declares that He has an intention behind everything. He owes no one an account. We are His creation! He does not apologize. One day, He could rightly say: I did it My way.

And dear reader, you can count on it: the ultimate outcome of all God’s ways will be breathtakingly magnificent and glorious! Not one creature will be missing – not even Pharaoh.

For God locks up ALL TOGETHER in stubbornness, that He should be merciful to ALL.
(…)
seeing that OUT OF HIM and THROUGH HIM and FOR HIM is ALL.
To Him be the glory for the eons! Amen.

—Romans 11:32, 36

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