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"The Moses incident..."

Yes, but let's remember that Moses and Jonah were both believers. We need to be clear that believers do make choices which our loving Father will reprove us for if we stray. It is the way we grow. (I'm sure Aaron was very hesitant about making any more golden calves.)

But I haven't seen a case of God asking a non-believer to do something and they refused. My case in point was Balaam who, given the choice, would have loved to have cursed Israel. He told King Balak that he simply couldn't do it because God wouldn't allow it. As it was, Balaam caused enough problems.

Thank you, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, for sharing your insights!

The change in subject back to time tempts me to start yet another sidebar on the physics of time and how badly it warps our impressions, i.e. the "observer problem."

Instead, I shall offer this passage on the sovereignty of God:

I [am] the LORD, and [there is] none else, [there is] no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me: That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that [there is] none beside me. I [am] the LORD, and [there is] none else.

I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these [things]. - Isaiah 45:5-7

By my understanding of that passage, God alone is the Creator ex nihilo (out of nothing) of "all that there is." Or to put it another way, there is nothing of which anything can be made but the will of God, including His permissive will.

And it is sensible to me for how can we children know light if we'd not seen darkness, good if we'd not seen evil?

Indeed, the forbidden tree in Eden (look but don't eat) was the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil not the Tree of the Knowledge of Good alone. Seems to me, its purpose could be no more than teaching the difference.

Jesus is gathering the family ...

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. - John 1:12-13

so it is sensible to me that He also wants us to understand the difference.

I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. - Rev 1:8