Remember my aborted conversation with the Rabbi. The dilemma that was put to him was that if God had done the great deeds recounted in the rest of Torah building up to the point in Deuteronomy when the people are about to enter the land of Canaan, then why do does it fall onto the Israelites themselves to struggle and suffer in their conquest of the land? Why do they have to do the work when God has already demonstrated his power beforehand. The Rabbi’s response was in effect that it was much worse even than that. The story of God’s people afterwards was not just of struggle but of intense suffering, there was the exile to come, then AD70 and the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple. Bring it right up to date and you have the horrors of the holocaust. Mike’s conclusion was that we cannot talk about God as being all powerful, all knowing and benevolent (or we might say “all loving”). He could be two out of the three but not all of them.
My response was to suggest that we might want to go back to Scripture, suggesting that we might want to go back to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1-3, to Joseph’s response to suffering when he meets his brothers again in Egypt, to the vert terms of the covenant with the people of Israel as the enter the land of Canaan and to the words penned by Isaiah in chapter 53, that “it was the Lord’s Will to crush him.”
Why did I propose those texts? Well, it would be helpful to summarise what they say. In Genesis 1-3, we are told that God made the world, speaking it into life, this points to his greatness and goodness. His creation is effortless and it is very good. He makes man and woman in his image, he places them in a paradise garden and he provides for them. He sets boundaries, telling them that they can eat from any tree except from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. He warns them that with disobedience, death will come. Adam and Eve disobey him and so the curse of death follows.
In Genesis 50, Joseph, one of the founding fathers of Israel finds himself face to face with his 11 brothers. Joseph had been sold as a slave by his jealous brothers. He had found himself in Egypt, falsely accused by his new owners and thrown into prison. In prison, God had used him to interpret dreams which had brought him into the sphere of Pharoah. This led to him being put in charge of a major famine relief project and this enabled him to be there to ensure his own family were provided for and protected through the famine.
The Israelites had been in Egypt for 400 years, growing into a nation when they found themselves as slaves under a different Pharoah. God raised up Moses as a deliverer, to lead the people out of Egypt to freedom in the promised land. This sets up the scene for when Moses addresses Israel before they go into the land. It is important to emphasise a few things here. First, that whilst they are involved in the battles, there is a strong theme, that God will go ahead of them and that they will be entering into a land with cities and fields already for them. They may see the enemy in the land as stronger than them but God will give the victory.
As they prepare to go in, Moses sets a choice before them. They can either follow God faithfully and remember the covenant, enjoying his blessing or they can forget God, turn to sin and idolatry and instead of life and blessing experience exile, death and curse. The rest of the story points to them choosing the latter. They end up exiled in Babylon and Persia.
The Prophet Isaiah warns about this coming judgement of exile, rebuking the people for their unfaithfulness to God. However, he also promises hope, the focus is on God bringing redemption, restoring the people to him and a lot of this hope focuses on a person referred to as “The Servant”. It’s this person who will be wounded and crushed for the transgressions of the people.
Now, that speedy summary of the key texts skates over a lot of detail. There would be a lot of differences between people reading those texts, including and particularly between a progressive rabbi and an Evangelical Pastor. In particular, Mike and I will differ in that I see those texts as inspired by God, accurately retelling historical accounts and clearly bringing God’s words to bear on situations. Furthermore, I believe that they are all pointing forward to Jesus as the one who fulfils the promise of blessing, forgiveness and salvation not just for Israel but for people from all nations who are included into the people of God.
People will have specific issues with each of the texts. For example, one person in the twitter discussion asked how Adam and Eve could be culpable if they were innocents, how could they even understand what rebellion was. They also asked “why is the snake even allowed into the garden?” Those are good questions to ask and we’ll return to them at a later date.
It’s also fair to say that you might disagree with the answer that these Scriptures give on the subject. However, if you are claiming that the Bible itself creates the problem of trying to choose between a good and loving God or a great and powerful one, then it is important to recognise how Scripture itself answers the dilemma.
The key things are this. First, that you cannot avoid the point that there is a unifying thread going through Scripture. These are not just a lose collection of disparate texts thrown together. They have been put together because they belong together. They tell a single story, the story of how God relates to his people and the offer theological interpretation of that story. With this too we can trace a unifying theme.
We can describe that theme as follows. First, that God is sovereign, he is great and powerful, he is also good. I would argue that Scripture affirms the three statements, God is all powerful, all knowing and benevolent. It is because of those things that he makes us in his image and sets before us the choice of life/blessing or death/curse. Our first parents chose the latter and the consequences were then seen in the history that followed.
How could a good, benevolent God allow this if he was all powerful and all knowing so that he could foresee and prevent it if he wanted? Well, that’s the answer that Joseph gives. God allows humans to work for evil because what they do for evil purposes, he intends and works for good. It may not be possible for us in the midst of the situation to see the good but it is there. Other books of the Bible such as Job highlight how in the midst of our suffering, we can only see what is going on here on earth in the immediate situation but there are things going on in heaven for eternal purposes that we cannot see.
God continues to act sovereignly and for good. We see this in the covenants and we see it in what happens when he brings the people out of Egypt but there is a constant theme of choosing to be in, under and enjoying blessing. Evil has consequences. What does God do about it? He judges, punishes and destroys it but the risk for God’s people is that they would, deservedly be punished and destroyed with it.
So, God steps in and says that there is another who will bear that punishment. He is the one crushed on behalf of God’s people because it is the Lord’s will. Christians believe that in Jesus, our sin was punished.
Now, you may not like that answer but the point is that Scripture does give an answer to the dilemma. If you disagree with it, then take time to think through why and how you would challenge it. That’s the basis for the conversation.
Faithroots 