When we ask ‘why’, what we are really asking is “does man have a ‘free will'”. “Does man make ‘free choices’?” No one denies that we make choices every day; “Will I take this job or that job?”; “What time will I get up?”; “Will I take time for breakfast?”; “Which food will I choose?”; “Which route will I take to work?”, etc. We make hundreds of decisions every day. No one denies that we make decisions. Those who declined their invitation to the great supper and the wedding chose not to attend. We are told what they chose. It’s not debatable.

But we are also told why they failed to accept their invitation to be in the marriage supper of the Lamb. All know that Israel has rejected her Messiah. “When the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them” (Mat 21:45). These are the leaders of God’s people.

It wasn’t just the leaders though: “…The chief priests and elders persuaded the multitude that they should…destroy Jesus” (Mat 27:20). The multitude…? What multitude? It was the same multitude which the day before had said “blessed be the king that cometh in the name of the Lord” (Luk 19:38). Verse 37 says: “The whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen.” This is called the triumphal entry into Jerusalem the day before Christ’s betrayal.

One day the multitudes are calling him “the king that comes in the name of the Lord”, and the next day the same multitude is “persuaded [ by the chief priests and elders]…that they should…destroy Jesus.”

How is it possible to be so fickle? Outwardly it was “…because he was nigh Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear. But overnight Christ had been taken prisoner and was standing before them in shackles before Pilate. “All the mighty works they had seen that had inspired the multitudes to say “blessed is the king that cometh in the name of the Lord” all of a sudden didn’t seem so mighty. No matter how many times we may think scripture says otherwise “he that taketh a city” will always be considered “mightier than he that ruleth his spirit” while God considers the opposite to be true.

Pro 16:32 [ He that is] slow to anger [ is] better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.

This is only the apparent reason for the multitudes and their leaders rejecting Christ. The scriptures give us the true reason. Here is the true reason:

Luk 19:41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
Luk 19:42 Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things [ which belong] unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.

This of course is in complete accord with Mat 13:11: “…To them it is not given…to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God.” This ‘blindness of Israel’ referred to by Christ here in Mat 13 is quoted from Isa 6:9-10 and is repeated again and again in the other gospels (Mat 4:11 and Luk 8:10 and Joh 12:40) and throughout Paul’s epistles (Rom 11:8, etc.).

Why does Israel reject their Messiah? “Because…to them it is not given…to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven.” Who blinds them to this vital knowledge? What are we told? Are we told anywhere in the pages of scripture that because of the free will of the chief priests and elders and because of the free will of the multitudes, Israel ends up refusing their invitation to the marriage supper of the Lamb? No, we are not told such a thing.

Here is what we are told.

Act 4:27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
Act 4:28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done. That is the “of a TRUTH” of the whole matter.

Just how far does this “thy counsel determined before to be done” go? Does it go no further than man’s free will permits? Could Judas, the chief priests and elders, Pilate or the multitude possibly have of their own free will chosen not to destroy Christ?

Will we believe what a minister tells us or will the word of God have pre- eminence for us? Here is what the scriptures teach from Genesis to Revelation:

Eph 1:9 Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Is it unfair at this point to ask, did the nation of Israel reject Christ after the counsel of their own ‘free will’? Is there anything that is not after the counsel of His will? Is anything too evil to be included in all things? Only if you believe that the lives of ‘X’ number of men are more valuable than the life of Christ whom God according to Act 4:28 “determined before” to be slain. All the lives and suffering of all the men and women, boys and girls from Adam to the consummation are not to be compared to that which was sacrificed for their sins. That sacrifice was by the counsel of God and Him alone. Men’s choices were simply used to accomplish that end.

Yes, we ‘choose’ in all the decisions we make every day, but is this really the result of our free will? What happens when our free will conflicts with “the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of HIS OWN WILL”?

The answer is obvious. There can only be one truly free will to which all others are subordinate. Only One will can work “all things after the counsel of His own will.” All other decisions are ‘worked’, caused by that One will and may appear to be free, but we will demonstrate they are always in “all things” caused decisions.

Too often we read these parables of Christ and apply them to the religious leaders of Christ’s day instead of applying them to Christianity today and to ourselves as well. What do the scriptures say of this “pass the buck” attitude?

1Co 10:12 Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
Rom 11:22 … continue in [ his] goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

The point made repeatedly in Christ’s parables was two- fold: 1) the first shall be last and the last, first, and 2) many are called but few are chosen (Mat 20:16).

Nowhere in scripture are we told “many decide to come to God, but few decide to endure to the end”. There are many admonitions given to us in scripture; ‘don’t eat of the tree’, ‘choose therefore life’ (Deu 30:19), ‘come to the marriage… dinner’ and ‘come to the great supper’, etc., etc.

This God, who gives us so many admonitions, wants us to “know… that… I form the light AND… darkness… good AND evil” (Isa 45:7). He informs us that the trials of Job were HIS idea (Job 1:8); that “all the evil that the Lord had brought upon” Job was indeed from the Lord himself (Job 42:11).

Yes, Adam was told ‘don’t eat’. Did an all- knowing God choose not to know what Adam’s choice would be? Has He chosen not to know what our choices will be? After all, we are all “in Adam”. What do the scriptures teach ultimately happen to “all” who are in Adam?

1Co 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

We are told that we were called in Christ “before the world began” (2Ti 1:9). So God must have known in advance what Adam and each of us and those who refused to come to the wedding would choose.

Israel has been broken off for rejecting her Messiah, and yet Peter and John and the entire church in Jerusalem prayed “with one accord” (Act 4:24).

Act 4:27 For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus whom you hast anointed, both Herod, and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together,
Act 4:28 for to do WHATSOEVER THY HAND AND THY COUNSEL DETERMINED BEFORE TO BE DONE.

Why did the Jews refuse to come to the wedding feast? Was it because they chose to put other things ahead of their Messiah? Of course that is the obvious, outward, carnal, fleshly explanation. Yet we are plainly told that while we appear to make choices, good or bad, of our own “free will”, the spiritual, scriptural fact is: “We wrestle [ in our apparent ‘free will’] not against flesh and blood, but against [ spiritual] principalities, against [ spiritual] powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places [ the celestials – Strong’s’ #2032 – epouranious]” (Eph 6:12).

Yet it appears from our perspective that the chief priests and Pharisees and “the people of Israel” chose “of their own free will” to refuse their Messiah.

The “first Adam” in the temple of God, “the beast” is loath to leave that temple. He of his own ‘free will’ will never admit that while yes, he makes choices every day, those choices have nothing to do with ‘free will’. Every choice we make, from casually scratching our head to choosing Christ as our savior is a caused choice.

Why did “the people of Israel… gather together… against thy holy Child Jesus”?: “… to do whatsoever [ God’s] counsel determined before to be done” (Act 4:28).

Was this a unique situation that was of such importance that God had to personally step in to see for sure that Satan would enter Judas, and Judas would betray Christ to the chief priests and they would send him to Pilate to be crucified? Is this what “thy counsel determined before to be done” means?; that God steps into the affairs of men only occasionally for Esau, Pharoah, maybe even Jeremiah, certainly in the case of Christ’s crucifixion, yet only occasionally? Is that what scripture teaches us about the counsel of God?

Eph 1:5 Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

If “the very hairs of our heads are numbered”, why would we believe that the all- knowing God who hardens hearts, blinds eyes and stops ears is not also, through the “principalities and powers” at His disposal, causing every trial and test, every chastening and scourging, and yes, causing ALL things especially our very hearts and thoughts and choices “according to the counsel of HIS WILL?”

These are the scriptural truths concerning the extent of the counsel of His will. Nowhere do the scriptures teach otherwise. The fact that God insists that we give an accounting for and confess our sins has nothing whatsoever to do with our being responsible for our wretched actions and condition.

It was God’s free will that created us of dust instead of spirit. It is from His hand that every person born comes into this world naked, testifying of our sinful, dying, of the dust composition.

God Himself takes the responsibility for every evil act ever committed (Isa 45:7), even the most evil act of all time, the death of our sinless, perfect, spotless Savior. (Act 4:28).

This all being made so clear in scripture, one would expect a just God who hardens hearts, blinds eyes and stops ears to make provision for the salvation of all of his creatures. Is that indeed the case? Here is what the Savior Himself has to say: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw (Strong’s #1670 – helkuo – drag) ALL MEN unto me” (Joh 12:32).

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