As a professor aka teacher of college students, I find that my students are vastly more successful when I am transparent about my expectations and policies. They know what is expected. They see the rubrics I used to grade their assignments. I keep their grades updated every week. The more my students have access to my will for the class, the better they can do.
This is exactly what God did for us. He revealed the mystery of His will and mind as well as His expectations for us. The decision was rooted in wisdom and insight. Like my students, God knew we would be far more likely to obey His will if A. We knew it and B. Were provided some insight into His “whys.”
But just like my students, many do not take advantage od God’s transparency. Some ignore it completely. Others gloss over it and miss important details. Some start out focused but then think they know it all and lose their focus. And none of those decisions or attitudes are God’s fault – they are ours. We chose to ignore, skim, or arrogantly proceed through God’s will.
And just like with my students, one day those attitudes and decisions will come home to roost. God will assess our use of His transparency and will. He will tell us you could have known but ignored me OR you did know and still ignored me or you did know and thought you knew BETTER than me. In all instances, we will not pass God’s final assessment. And in all instances, it will not be because God did not provide us access to His will and expectations but instead we will fail because of how approached God’s transparent expectations.
When I have who students have ignored my expectations and not completed their assignments come to me the last few days of a course and ask, is there anything extra I can do to help me pass? I tell them – the only they can do at this point is to build a Time Machine and go back to the first weeks of class where I told them all what I expected and how to do well and emphasized their success was directly linked to their approach to the class and my expectations and actually listen to me and care. These students often just sit and stare in disbelief and dark realization. They grade is set. It reflects their effort and incorporation of my expectations. Their grade is final.
One day – God will call us to stand before Him in judgment. He will lay open the book of our deeds and the book of His will. He will grade our performance. If we’ve consistently tried to incorporate and use His will in our life and obeyed His expectations, He will be merciful to us and we will pass. If we have not and we’ve arrogantly gone through life, we will fail. Our assessment it will reflect how we’ve approached God’s expectations for us and how we listened to His will for us. And God’s assessment will be final.
Adonai's Appeal 