God is real. Operate under God being real to understand this theology because it is a real thing between us mere mortals, and the awesome loving father dude we have who loves us. Jesus opens the ability to establish a relationship with God, and you should respect it as a huge honor. Trying to force God’s hand is a thing though, and it is a sin, so lets cover what we should and should not do in these regards.
First, lets look at the classical example from the Israelites:
1 Samuel 8:8 When Samuel grew old, he made his sons judges in Israel. 2 The older son was named Joel and the younger one Abijah; they were judges in Beersheba. 3 But they did not follow their father’s example; they were interested only in making money, so they accepted bribes and did not decide cases honestly.4 Then all the leaders of Israel met together, went to Samuel in Ramah, 5 and said to him, “Look, you are getting old and your sons don’t follow your example. So then, appoint a king to rule over us, so that we will have a king, as other countries have.” 6 Samuel was displeased with their request for a king; so he prayed to the Lord, 7 and the Lord said, “Listen to everything the people say to you. You are not the one they have rejected; I am the one they have rejected as their king. 8 Ever since I brought them out of Egypt, they have turned away from me and worshiped other gods; and now they are doing to you what they have always done to me. 9 So then, listen to them, but give them strict warnings and explain how their kings will treat them.”10 Samuel told the people who were asking him for a king everything that the Lord had said to him. 11 “This is how your king will treat you,” Samuel explained. “He will make soldiers of your sons; some of them will serve in his war chariots, others in his cavalry, and others will run before his chariots. 12 He will make some of them officers in charge of a thousand men, and others in charge of fifty men. Your sons will have to plow his fields, harvest his crops, and make his weapons and the equipment for his chariots. 13 Your daughters will have to make perfumes for him and work as his cooks and his bakers. 14 He will take your best fields, vineyards, and olive groves, and give them to his officials. 15 He will take a tenth of your grain and of your grapes for his court officers and other officials. 16 He will take your servants and your best cattle[a] and donkeys, and make them work for him. 17 He will take a tenth of your flocks. And you yourselves will become his slaves. 18 When that time comes, you will complain bitterly because of your king, whom you yourselves chose, but the Lord will not listen to your complaints.”19 The people paid no attention to Samuel, but said, “No! We want a king, 20 so that we will be like other nations, with our own king to rule us and to lead us out to war and to fight our battles.” 21 Samuel listened to everything they said and then went and told it to the Lord. 22 The Lord answered, “Do what they want and give them a king.” Then Samuel told all the men of Israel to go back home.
You can just feel the annoying childish whine,”Noooo, we want a king. This is what I want. I don’t care if you think it isn’t good for me. Give me what I want, nyaaaaah.”
Dude, that shivers me, because of how immature it is. They’re talking with a prophet who’s relaying God. They’re basically telling God that while he knows better at what they need and will be satisfying, the people are exercising want over logic. Look, God is never wrong. If we’re lucky to get any advice personally with God, go with it.
God knows everything, more than we can know or our brains can even hold. Try recording a movie on an old computer. It doesn’t have enough hard drive space to hold it. Our brain can’t hold all of what God knows even if we had the best education possible. Yet, this all knowing God, the Israelites were telling him they don’t want to hear any of his warnings, “boo on warnings, we’re acting like spoiled children, give us what we want!”
What do you do as a parent when your kids are misbehaving really bad, but a teachable moment happens? You don’t want your kids hurt or anything, but if there is something to let them get their way when you told them it is super dumb that will just warn them against future failures… you want to whiz on the electric fence like the Ren and Stimpy show said not to? Yo, just walk up and touch it first before doing something even more dumb. “Ow! Whoa, glad I didn’t pee on that!” Believe it or not this was an actual moment in my life teaching of my friend’s younger brother.
Well God gave em a beautiful, tall, well spoken and intimidating guy in Saul. We pick leaders today still based on looks and stature, right? Its lame, but part of our fallen humanity. We associate height with blessings and favor from God, or someone who really has it together… and it is a blessing sometimes… but we really should look for a king by their heart, as God did in David after Saul’s demise. Saul’s demise was even humiliating. Instead of giving God a chance at a miracle, Saul took his own life. Always give God a chance at a miracle. Killing yourself is also a form of sin because you don’t even give God a chance to do miracles.
Another example of trying to force God’s hand is when the devil told Jesus to jump off the temple to force God to help you by twisting scripture. The devil does twist scripture to justify basically anything. But the scripture is very clear. Always be good and loving. Be selfless and help others. Follow Jesus. God is the God of love. Always be good and loving.
Another form of sin is scientifically trying to force God’s Hand. We won’t ever get a science experiment to ever prove God’s existence. By definition, we are trying to find a certain situation where God will always act and is infinitely repeatable. The silliness of this endeavor is beyond words. There is an infinite of silliness that could happen if you imagine God acting 100% the same way to the scientists. Because then the engineers would package it for military or civilian use. Why would we think we could be able to use science to force the Hand of God? God is not the play thing of kings. God does what is right every time for the perfect cause of Love. You can’t force him to repeat things at your beck and call.
Proverbs 25:2 We honor God for what he conceals; we honor kings for what they explain.
We find that God grants honor to scientists as if they were kings for revealing knowledge to help their fellow man. Scientists have a huge role in God’s kingdom, but they are not to tame and harness him.
There is more I wanted to cover. But this became very long. We’ve seen enough to see how forcing the Hand of God is weak and is a sin. Be strong. Pray selflessly mostly. God will bless you in his good time. The opposite of demanding God more than he wishes for us is to wish for his will to be done. This is actually in the prayer that Jesus taught us. Our Father who art in Heaven, thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. So I say amen to Jesus. Our Father who art in Heaven, may thy will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Have full reign over my life as you see fit. I know you want what is best for us, and you know better than us. Glory to God.