From a friend:

"I think that the scriptures (e.g. Ezekiel 14, 20, Jacob 4:14) point to a startling and disquieting concept: the Lord will lead you exactly one place—wherever it is you want to go.

"We all know the idea of "the prophet can't lead you astray" is a bunch of hooey. But we are still looking for someone who can't lead us astray. And we pin that idea on God. God operates according to eternal law, and it seems that this idea of him not leading us astray violates the law of agency.

"I suppose you could say that agency remains if God always points the correct direction: choose his way or be wrong. But what if agency is so very sacrosanct that you must first, in the deepest recesses of your heart, desire to be as perfected as God is in order to receive direction that is commensurate with eternal truth?

"Perhaps the choice is in our desires, not in accepting and rejecting answers.

"Does this make God tricky [which is what the followers in Ezekiel 20 say]? I believe, no. It makes him someone who respects us, and who we are, and what we want, and what we choose.

"If this is the case, maybe many of our ideas are wrongheaded, and we are asking all the wrong questions." (MM)