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.