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Isaiah 59:2 "But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear." It's always sin that causes the hiding, not an exercise of compelling force from God's side.
If force could have been used to compel people to serve God, it would have been done right at the beginning…
Isaiah 59:2 "But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face from you, that He will not hear." It's always sin that causes the hiding, not an exercise of compelling force from God's side.
If force could have been used to compel people to serve God, it would have been done right at the beginning, and the whole experiment of sin would have been over.
But the exercise of compelling power is contrary to the principles of God's government. His is a government based on truth and love, and the presentation of these principles is the means by which Satan's kingdom is overcome.
Romans 12:21 - "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good."
Proverbs 5
21 "If your enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink:
22 "For you shall heap coals of fire upon his head, and the Lord shall reward you."
God asks us to "be holy, for I am holy" Lev 11:44, 1 Pet 1:16.
Jesus was "holy, harmless, and undefiled." Heb 7:26
Rom 13:10 "Love works no ill to his neighbor: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law."
Therefore, God, who is Love, "works no ill to His neighbor."
If God manipulated people to do evil, then His kingdom would not be a righteous kingdom. Instead, it would establish the principle that "the end justifies the means." But that is a principle of Satan's kingdom. God never breaks His law, in order to establish it. Jesus showed that, once and for all, by His life, and by His death on the cross. At the cross, Satan was revealed as a liar and murderer, and God was revealed as a Saviour and a Saviour only.
We must be exceedingly careful how we interpret the Bible when it speaks about God's actions, that we do not inadvertently make Him to be like a sinful man, or a tyrant.