The Apparent Lack of Omnipotence in the Bible

Chariots of Iron. In the beginning chapter of Judges, God is with the people of Israel and wishes to give
them the Promised Land. God first helps Judah defeat the Canaanites, then the Perizzites, and finally the
hill country. But when Judah reaches the plains, he encounters cutting-edge military technology:

Jdg 1:19 And the LORD was with Judah, and he took possession of the hill country, but he could
not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had chariots of iron.

Judah is not able to defeat an army of chariots. Where was God? Did God suddenly withdraw
protection? Can God be defeated by chariots?

This is not an isolated instance. In 2 Kings 3 there is an interesting section in which God promises to give
Israel victory over the Moabites. In this case, God says it is no hard task to give Israel victory over Moab,
but things do not turn out that way:

2Ki 3:18 This is a light thing in the sight of the LORD. He will also give the Moabites into your
hand,

2Ki 3:26-27 When the king of Moab saw that the battle was going against him he took his
oldest son who was to reign in his place and offered him for a burnt offering on the wall. And
there came great wrath against Israel. And they withdrew from him and returned to their own
land.

What is going on in these passages? Could not God have been able to just instantly kill the attacking
army? Why does God promise to easily give Moab to Israel and have Israel fail so dramatically? Is not
God omnipotent?

God, it is said, has the ability to do anything possible. God has all power, omnipotence. Admittedly,
there are innumerable texts described Gods power. But Gods omnipotence has been in challenge by
critics of Christianity. They often point to these curious passages throughout the Bible describing Gods
defeats. The claim is then made that Yahweh was historically a local cult god, rather than the
omnipotent God of the entire world. But maybe there is an alternative way to understand this.

In his book The Uncontrolling Love of God, Thomas Oord proposes a system known as essential
kenosis. In such system, Gods power is limited by His goodness (which is non-coercive). While Mr Oord
might take issue with combat illustrations being used to discuss essential kenosis (a system rooted in
love), this article is merely interested in examining the non-coercive aspects of essential kenosis which
might offer a better way to understand existing Biblical narratives.

Oord asserts that God gives free will and does not revoke it:
 First, this model of providence says God necessarily gives freedom to all creatures complex
enough to receive and express it. Giving freedom is part of Gods steadfast love. This means God
cannot withdraw, override or fail to provide the freedom a perpetrator of evil expresses. God
must give freedom, even to those who use it wrongly.

Oord elsewhere describes that God works synergistically with human beings:

God can be the mightiest without controlling others. God can exert power upon all creation
without unilaterally determining any. God can be the ultimate source of powerempowering
and enabling otherswithout dominating any creature or situation entirely. Almighty is not
coercive.

To Oord, God neither forces all events to happen nor interferes to ensure they do happen. This certainly
would explain why God would promise one thing (an easy victory over Moab) but another thing entirely
occurs (a retreat of Israel). This would also explain other odd passages of the Bible.

In 1 Kings 22, the prophet Micaiah describes a scene in Gods courtroom. The angels gather around God.
God is wondering how to convince the evil king Ahab to go to war. He invites the angels to give
suggestions. Each angel presents before God their own plan, until God endorses one He prefers. It is not
God who will accomplish this plan, but God empowers the angel to take the lead: You are to entice
him, and you shall succeed; go out and do so (1Ki 22:22).

The courtroom scene has parallel in Job in which God engages in speculation with an angel (traditionally
identified as Satan). This angel likewise becomes the empowered creature in the text. This agent is
again seen in texts such as 1 Chronicles 21:1 (contrasted with 2 Samuel 24:1) and in Numbers 22:23 (the
incident of Baalam in which satan intervenes on Gods behalf). God is operating through an
intermediary. This seems to be standard practice in the Bible.

The question becomes: what happens when an intermediary fails? What happens when Israel decides to
retreat although God promised to empower them? What happens when God prophesies against Tyre
and Egypt, and then his intermediary fails in their mission (see Eze 26:7 and Eze 29:20)? God does not
seem to follow up and right the failures of others, at least not as recorded in the Biblical text. Perhaps a
better way to understand God, as posited by the Uncontrolling Love of God, is that God works through
people not in spite of them.

In the Biblical text, God invites dialogue, such as the case of Abimelech (Gen 20). God invites council and
often takes that council (see the Sodom discussion in Genesis 18). God then uses creaturely agents to
execute that council. Angels are a common feature throughout the Bible, although God also empowers
individuals such as Moses or King David. God sometimes even uses pagan nations to do His will (as in
Ezekiel 23:22-23).
In any case, it is readily apparent that the God of the Bible is not a micromanager. God does not hoard
power to Himself. Gods first act towards humans is described as seeing what they would name the
animals (a curious, hopeful, and loving action). God is then hurt as people choose to do what is wrong
(Gen 6:6). God works through free will creatures, and sometimes those people fail.