Is God Omnipotent?
‘The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah; ‘Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me?’ Jer.32:27
An omnipotent God is a God who is infinitely powerful, for whom nothing is too hard. It is often thought this means there is nothing God cannot do. That sometimes prompts the question, ’Can God make a rock so big he can’t lift it?’ Here we come across something God can’t do; God cannot do something that is self-contradictory. He can’t make something that limits his own power. He can only do things that are logically possible.
Jesus taught his disciples, ‘Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished, saying, ‘Who then can be saved?’ But Jesus looked at them and said, ‘With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.’ Mt.19:23-26
Another thing God cannot do is recorded in Hebrews, ‘It is impossible for God to lie.’ Heb.6:18
It is impossible for God to lie because it is impossible for God to act against his own character. It is not a contradiction for Jehovah to say that nothing is too hard for him, for Jesus to claim ‘with God all things are possible,’ while recognising God cannot act illogically, or act against his own character.
Nor does God accommodate himself to man’s disobedience. In Judges we read:
‘And the LORD was with Judah, and took possession of the hill country, but he could not drive out the inhabitants of the plain because they had chariots of iron.’ Judges 1:19
The ‘he’ in this verse is, of course, not the LORD, but the nearest textual antecedent, Judah. It was not the LORD who failed to drive out the inhabitants of the plain. The three cities mentioned in verse 18 – Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron – were in the plain, but the Israelites advances did not go beyond them. Indeed, they later reverted to Philistine control. Is the Bible contradicting itself when we compare the words of Jeremiah and Jesus with the events surrounding Israel's failure to completely drive out the Canaanites?
A pattern begins to emerge when we read on and find that The LORD was with Benjamin (v21), Manasseh (v27), Ephraim (v29), Zebulun(v30), Naphtali (v33), and Dan (v34), only for each one in turn to fail as Judah failed. Reading further, we find the root cause of their failure, as well as of their future forsaking of the LORD in worshipping false gods.
‘Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to 'Bochim. And he said I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, "I will never break my covenant with you, 'and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; 'you shall break down their altars.' But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? So now I say, "I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides,' and their gods shall be a snare to you.As soon as the angel of the LORD spoke these words to all the people of Israel the people lifted up their voices and wept.’
It is true that the Canaanites had superior arms, but it is also true that Israel was too readily disposed to making alliances with them instead of trusting and obeying Jehovah.
God is omnipotent, but as he enters into covenants with his people he has them face the consequences of their disobedience. It is the disobedience of the Israelites that needs to be highlighted as the cause of failure, not the LORD.
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