The Wooing of the Holy Spirit: Rebecca and Isaac

We have so many beautiful pictures in the Old Testament of God's love in Christ. Consider only one: the story of Rebecca being wooed to be Isaac's bride, surely a picture of the Holy Spirit wooing a bride for Christ. The servant asks Abraham what he should do if "the woman will not be willing" to come back with him (Genesis 24:5). Our hearts are thrilled when in response to the question, "Wilt thou go with this man?" she replies, "I will go" (24:58). This story loses its drama and meaning if she really has no will and if God causes it all to happen apart from any heart response from her.

Zane Hodges points out that "if God cannot control a universe in which there is genuine free will...then such a God is of truly limited power indeed."