Jehovah's Foreknowledge and Our Trials (A Modified Talk)

Jehovah possesses flawless knowledge of the past, present, and future (Job 37:16); he is able to foreknow whatever he chooses to foreknow. In view of his perfect knowledge, wisdom, power and love, we might ask whether Jehovah assesses trials in advance by determining what we can bear, then choosing which particular trials we will face, especially since Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10:13 (NWT):

"No temptation has come upon you except what is common to men. But God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, but along with the temptation he will also make the way out so that you may be able to endure it."

1 Corinthians 10:13 states that Jehovah will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear; does this mean God uses his foreknowledge to guarantee that we only experience certain trials?

The Bible suggests four primary reasons why God does not assess what trials we endure in advance:

1. Jehovah has given us the capacity for free will. In Deuteronomy 30:19-20, Jehovah commanded the Israelites to choose life that they might continue to live. Joshua likewise called upon ancient Israel to choose whom they would serve, whether Jehovah or the false gods of their ancestors. Were Jehovah to choose which trials would come upon us, would he not, in effect, be diminishing the gift of free will?

2. No human is exempt from time and "unexpected events" (Eccl 9:11). As Jesus illustrated in Luke 13:1-5 with the fallen Tower of Siloam and the 18 people who died as a result, tragic events sometimes occur because a person is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Jesus insisted that the tragedy at Siloam said nothing about the spiritual standing of the people killed there. Is it not unreasonable to think that God would determine in advance who lives and who dies as a result of random events? For example, some car crashes are fatal but others are not. Why should God spare some of his servants from dying in car crashes, but not others? After all, car crashes are random events.

3. All of us are personally involved in the issue of integrity to God. Satan claims that we will not remain loyal to Jehovah in the face of trials. He made this claim in the days of Job (Job 1:9-11) and in Revelation 12:10, Satan is identified as the "accuser of our brothers, "who accuses them day and night before our God." If Jehovah prevented us from facing certain trials because he deemed them to be more than we could bear, would that not add weight to Satan’s charge that we serve God out of self-interest? Why did Jehovah not spare Job certain trials, if this is true?

4. Jehovah does not have to foreknow everything that happens to us. The Bible indicates that God exercises his foreknowledge selectively (Genesis 18:20, 21). After Abraham tried to offer Isaac as a sacrifice to Jehovah, he was told by God: “for now I do know that you are God-fearing because you have not withheld your son, your only one, from me.”

After that peerless example of faith, Jehovah now knew Abraham feared him. This account implies that Jehovah selectively exercises his foreknowledge. He thus balances his power of foreknowledge with his respect for our free will. Is that not what we would expect from the God who values our freedom and who always exercises his attributes in perfect balance?

However, if Jehovah does not predetermine the trials we'll face, how should we understand Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that God will not let us be tempted beyond what we can bear?

As the WT points out, "Paul here describes what Jehovah does, not before, but during trials." Psalm 55:22 assures us that if we throw our burden upon Jehovah, he will sustain us--never will he allow the righteous to suffer an unrecoverable [spiritual] fall. Two truths that may provide some comfort are any tribulation we face is common to human experience (1 Cor. 10:13). Any tests we face are capable of being endured by humans: no temptation concocted by Satan the Devil requires superhuman strength to resist. While 1 Cor. 10:6-11 reports that some ancient Israelites succumbed to temptation in the wilderness, many did not.

Secondly, recall the faithfulness of God (1 Cor. 10:13). We know that it is impossible for God to lie. As Joshua exclaimed, "that not one word out of all the good promises that Jehovah your God has spoken to you has failed. They have all come true for you. Not one word of them has failed."

So while Jehovah does not use his selective foreknowledge to assess in advance what kind of trials we can bear, he will uphold his loyal servants by making endurance of trials possible. He gives such power through his word, organization, the angels and the holy spirit.