The Civil War was as necessary and inevitable as the Ten Plagues. This is the deeper meaning of our midrash. Judaism's belief in the human capacity to change, to do teshuva , stands in marked contrast to the notion that surfaces often in the history of Christianity, that our fate is wholly predetermined by God, a function of God's free and sovereign grace. For all God's grandeur, Judaism never denied humanity its own space, in which its destiny, individually and collectively, is shaped exclusively by human hands. And yet, reality moderates our faith.
Experience testifies that human freedom is never absolute.
A person unloved as a child will have great difficulty loving as an adult. Behavior patterns are no less addictive than drugs. Judaism takes the middle ground. With enough faith, support and determination most habits can be broken, most paths rerouted, most relationship restored. The primary function of Judaism is to alert us before it is too late.