• Liberation of Israel, the son of God, from dehumanizing captivity
• Establishment of a relationship of mutual privilege and responsibility, that is, a covenant, between God and his children
• Provision of guidance for living as God's people among God's people before the nations in God's world. These divine instructions are often translated as 'law'
• The gift of God's special accompanying presence
• The design of the tabernacle and the ceremony that attends it (chapters 25-31)
• The construction of the tabernacle (chapters 35-40)

How One Manages Programs Differs from How One Manages People.

 

Included in our team of researchers is a programmer. The programmer knows the electronic databases that our medical group houses and knows how to access these databases into order to get the information we need for our studies. The programmer designs a computer program that will accomplish our specific objectives.

 

Several of my research projects include also a research intern, an undergraduate "pre-med" student who is aspiring to be a physician. The intern contributes significantly to the research project, and often times serves as co-author on the paper we publish. See here for more on the internship.

 

The programmer tells her program to perform precise commands and it obeys without objection. It does not suggest ideas or alter the commands it is given. It is fully compliant. That's not how our intern works. I train him and then entrust him with various responsibilities. In many cases, he is free to accomplish the assignment in his own way and on his own schedule. He offers suggestions, designs the database as he sees fit, and then goes about abstracting data from the medical records. Ours in a collaborative relationship. We work together, give and take. We design things as we go and make changes along the way. He has much to say about how the data collection proceeds. It's a shared project in which we both participate. True, at time it would be more efficient for me to work alone, without having to explain things as I go, and without having to flex with someone else's ideas and contributions. I could save time and get things done my way from the get-go. But efficiency is not my objective. I want to train him and allow him to help shape the project. I want to serve as his mentor and help shape his career. There are much bigger things at stake than mere time-conservation and efficiency.

 

The programmer and I manage things differently. She manages her program one way and I manage the intern another way. People are not programs (and do not like being treated as such!). The program is robotic and fully compliant. Things with the intern are relational. We foster cooperation, not robotic compliance.

 

True, God could accomplish his plans for the world far more efficiently without taking on a bunch of interns-in-training, aka his people. But he doesn't mind sacrificing efficiency in order to cultivate a trusting, mentoring relationship, in order to solicit our contribution to the project, in order to shape our career along the way. God could have named the animals (Gen 2:19-20) in a micro-second, in whatever fashion he wanted. Instead, he delegated this task to his intern, his junior apprentice. The process took much longer and didn't turn out exactly the same as if God had done it himself without a middle-man. But that's not the point. God prefers to work in partnership, in collaboration, with interns who know far less than he does and who make mistakes along the way. But that's okay. There are much bigger things at stake than mere time-conservation and efficiency.

 

Does this mean God is not in perfect control? If by perfect control you mean programmed efficiency, micro-management, as in the way the programmer controls her program, then I'd say no. God is more like a manager who is in charge of a project, much of which he has delegated to his inferiors. Ultimately he will see to the completion of the project. But the steps that the team (God plus his interns) take along the way will not be tidy, efficient, and smooth. We interns are undergoing on-the-job-training. That can be messy. God knows this. He expected this. And even though we botch things up now and again he is more than capable of getting things back on track. He is, after all, omni-resourceful.

 

It's All a Partnership

 

In 1 John 1:3, John tells his audience, "We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ." The Greek word translated here "fellowship" is koinonia, which is better translated partnership, as in the partnerships of a family business. Remember, God has a project to restore harmony, justice, and peace in the world. This is his mission. But it is not a solo venture. He has taken on a people as interns to work with him on the project. He has blessed them and then, in turn, they are to share that blessing with others. This has not proven to be very efficient, I must admit. But, again, maybe efficiency wasn't his chief concern. God, as the Father of the family business, has partnered with his many children over the ages to accomplish this collaborative task. John and his friends have signed on to this project. John now is writing to others in order to invite them onto the team. "Hey, God has a group of partners who are working with him to restore blessing in the world. I'm writing you this letter in hopes of having you join us on this team." Or, to reword it a bit, "We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may be business partners with us. And our family business partnership is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ."

For more on our partnership with God, see one of our earlier discussions.

What Kind of God Would it Take to Manage People in a Collaborative Way?

 

If I'm taking on a junior apprentice to help with my research projects, there are some things required of me. If I'm going to walk with him, so to speak, I'll need to be patient. If I'm going to work in partnership with him then I'll need to be flexible.

 

The same goes with God. If God is going to walk with us, us who are prone to be stupid and not uncommonly stubborn, then God will have to be patient and forgiving, kind and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in faithfulness. If God is going to work with us, us whom he wants to contribute to the project, to help shape its direction, then he will have to be flexible, adaptable, willing to yield, willing to accommodate less-than-ideal directions, and willing to make frequent adjustments.

 

God is managing people, training junior apprentices for a collaborative role. He is not managing robots.

• If he wants to walk with us (and he does!) then he must be forgiving.
• If he wants to work with us (and he does!) then he must be flexible.

So if things appear out of control, maybe it's because God is more interested in managing people than programs. And don't worry, in time things will all work out. It's just not the most efficient route. He chose it that way. The sovereign God can exercise his governance any way he likes. And it seems as if he likes the collaborative approach rather than the controlling approach. For more on God's flexibility, see Philip Greenslade's comments on our section OT Starting Points

 

Keep these things in mind as we dive now into this fascinating passage from Exodus.

Our passage opens with the Golden Calf debacle (32:1-8), which was a violation of the first two words of the ten commandments: attributing ultimate worth to someone/something other than YHWH (you shall have no other gods before me) and fashioning an object that couldn't help but restrict and distort their conception of YHWH (you shall make no images of me--images that confused God with competing idols). God's response (vs. 9) includes an assessment of the offenders ("stubborn and rebellious"), an emotional reaction ("fierce anger"), and the fitting consequence for their offense ("destruction"). 

God's first intern on this grand, universal recovery project was Abraham (Gen 12-22). Abraham trusted God (that is he had faith) and was loyal to God (that is he was faithful to what God called him to do). These are the requirements for successful apprentices. God is looking for people like Abraham, people of faith and faithfulness, whom he can bless and with whom he can collaborate. (For more on Abraham in Gen 12-22, see our three discussions from January 2009 listed chronologically here).

 

God promised Abraham that he would find among his descendants people of faith and faithfulness through whom he could mediate his blessing to all the nations of the world. One of the driving questions of the Bible is "Where are the faithful? Will God have anyone to work with?" When God's people at large violate their commitment to loving loyalty, God tells Moses, who walks in Abraham's footsteps, that he will dispense with the faithless and move forward with Moses alone. It only takes one, only one to allow God to be faithful to his promises to the patriarchs. The same principle is operative in the days of Jesus. Jesus, like Abraham and Moses before him, is a trusting and faithful son of God. He will function as the loyal remnant of Israel that God can use to carry forward his promise and program into the world. Whoever gathers around Jesus, whoever clings to him, follows him, will be part of the collaborative partnership, the "true Israel" whom God will bless and will serve as agents of blessing to the Gentiles (as we see in Acts and the letters of the NT). Approximately ten percent of first-century Israel in Palestine partnered with Jesus' disciples. And we Gentiles have partnered with them, together in "fellowship" with God. (The 90% of ethnic Israel who failed to align themselves with God's program in the first century were "children of Abraham" only in a genetic sense, but not in a spiritual sense. There is a big difference. Cf. Matthew 3:7-10. Think of the implications for how we think of "Israel" today.)

Moses' appeal (vs. 11-13) is remarkable. If you were going to induce God to change his mind, what arguments would be more likely than others to succeed? Note what kind of case Moses builds in order to persuade God to adjust his direction.

• God's ownership. They are "your own people."
• God's investment. "You brought them from the land of Egypt with such great power and such a strong hand."
• God's reputation. "What would the Egyptians say?"
• God's anchoring promise. "Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. You bound yourself with an oath..."

Is this how we pray? Are these our concerns? Are we impassioned for the welfare of God's people and the reputation of God among the nations? Are we consumed with God's mission? Or are we more caught up with our immediate circumstantial inconveniences and troubles? The latter are important, no doubt, and are worthy of prayer. But why do our personal needs and concerns overshadow, if now swallow up altogether, God's needs and concerns? Does this not reveal that we are poor participants in the work of God in the world? Are his passions really our passions? His priorities really our priorities?

 

Have you observed how Jesus taught us to pray? See Matthew 6:9-15. The top issues are God-oriented (vv. 9-10) and the second tier of issues are community-oriented (vv. 11-15). The first three: God's name (that is, his reputation in the world; just like Moses' appeal), God's Kingdom's advance, and the accomplishment of his wishes and desires, that is, his will. These all relate to Project Restoration, the singular concern that has consumed God since the distrust and distortion of Adam and Eve. The next collection of prayer requests in Matthew 6 center around the welfare of God's people, so that that they can be fit participants in the program, so they can be faithful collaborators with God. Jesus tells us to pursue the physical needs of the community (daily bread), their renewed connectivity with God (forgiveness of sins), their guidance in their world along the path that leads to life ("Lead Us!"), and their protection from entanglement in sin and evil ("Deliver us!"). Are these our prayer concerns? Does our heart beat in response to God's agenda and the holistic welfare of his people? From the prayer requests I receive weekly via e-mail, 95% of our requests are for personal circumstantial needs, often "God, fix my problems, and do so by Tuesday." However petty some of these prayers may sound in light of Jesus' grander goals of the pattern prayer, God is our Father--He adores us and wants us to bring all of our needs to him, perhaps more for the relational benefits of "rolling our concerns onto his shoulders" than for the prospects that God, like a magic genie, will fix all of our problems at our every beck and call, according to our specifications and within our time demands. We should pray for these mundane things, for all things, but not at the expense of the items Jesus spells out for us in the pattern prayer. We would do well to let this pattern prayer in Matthew 6 provide a new framework that structures our prayer requests. What if we starting praying this every day? I wonder if it might change our perspective and our priorities to be more in keeping with the Father who runs the family business we've joined?

 

Jesus not only taught to us pray this way, he also prayed this way himself. Read his prayer in John 17. What consumes him here? God's reputation among the nations and the spiritual maturity and unity of God's people, things not too different from those of Matthew 6.

 

Did you see how the prayers of Moses and Jesus point in the same direction? Apparently, this is how God's faithful apprentices pray. In light of this, take a look at Paul's prayers. Given the biblical examples we've already reviewed, we should expect Paul to be singing the same tune, concerned with the same things, reflecting the image of the Lord he follows. As another stimulus to reshape our prayers in fresh and new and biblical directions, read through Paul's many prayers. Does it say something about our ambitions that this kind of praying is so infrequently on our lips?

 

For more on prayer as part of our privileged collaboration with God, see notes from an earlier discussion: Prayer: Learning from Scripture

See verse 14. God changes his mind. Wow! This shouldn't be a surprise if God is going to engage meaningfully with integrity in our lives, if he is going genuinely to walk with us and work with us. But for some, a flexible God violates what they think God should be like. Many of us hold cherished conceptions of God that are unwittingly imbued with Greek philosophy, in which God is thought to be immovable, unpersuadable, without feeling or emotion, unresponsive, unyielding, fully in meticulous control--something like Aristotle's Unmoved Mover. Fortunately, the portrait of God painted by the Old and New Testaments contradicts this Greek Ideal. What I love about the biblical portrait of God's ways is that it frequently challenges my preconceptions, urging me to continually rework my understanding of God. Isn't that how growing relationships develop--always learning more about the one you love? And since I think of myself as a second-grader when it comes to theology, I'm ready to make continued, life-time adjustments in my understanding of God. Remember, there can be a big difference between God himself and how our finite, fallen minds conceive of him. See our prior discussion: Distinguishing God and our Attempts to Understand God 

Read Exodus 32:30-35. See the community-mindedness of Moses: "Perhaps I will be able to obtain forgiveness for your sins." This desire was one Jesus placed in the middle of his prayer, as well. We are to pray for one another--"Forgive us our sins." Not just "my sins," but "our sins." We are part of one family, Christians of all stripes, all traditions, united in one community, dependent on the same grace, centered around the same Jesus, empower by the same Spirit, directed by the same mission. Moses took this prayer even further. He was so eager to see other reconciled to God that he was willing to shut himself out of blessing for their sake. Amazing. "If you will only forgive their sin--but if not, erase my name from the record you have written" (vs. 32). Moses was a prophet of God, who shared God's heart. You can hear it in his prayers. He said in essence "Shut me out of blessing if somehow that will recover my brothers and sisters to grace." Paul felt the same way. See Romans 9:1-3. Admirable. Isn't that the same spirit that Jesus embodied? Jesus too was a prophet of God, who shared God's heart. He took Moses' prayer to the extreme. Like Moses and Paul, he was willing to forfeit his own well-being for the sake of others. It was this commitment that took him to the cross.   

Read Exodus 33:15-17. Because our forefathers were "stubborn and rebellious" God was hesitant to get too close for their sakes. Sometimes the proximity of a pure God can be a dangerous thing for impure people (see 33:3). But Moses knows that without the accompanying presence of God, there would be nothing to distinguish us from others (34:15-16). We have nothing to offer the nations if we don't have God with us and for us, walking with us, working with us. Ultimately, God is the one to credit for any distinctive attributes we might possess. Those who bear his image are but reflectors. It's his image that we reflect.    

Read Exodus 33:18-23 and 34:5-7. Moses asks to see God's glory and what does God show him? A bright white light? A blinding radiance? No. He shows Moses his goodness. That relational goodness is God's greatest glory also differs from the Classical God of Greek philosophy. In their construct of God it was his immutable perfections that were front and center. In the Bible it's God's goodness, his mercy, compassion, flexibility, faithfulness. Among the Greeks it was God's detached essence that was celebrated. Among the ancient Hebrews it was God's relationality, his being deeply engaged with humanity, that was the hub of his character and the prime impetus to worship. God is knee-deep in the mess of his people's world. That shows his glory more than anything else. Perhaps here is another facet of God's nature that needs to adjust the way we think about him. 

 

Of what does God's glory consist?

• Compassion
• Mercy
• Slow to anger (note: not never angry, but very slow to reach that threshold)
• Unfailing love
• Faithfulness
• Lavishing unfailing love and forgiveness to 1,000 generations of those who respond rightly
• Yet without being morally indulgent. There is a loose moral fabric inherent in the world God created. He will not excuse the persistently rebellious; there are consequences for those who sin, even to several generations (contrast 4 generations with 1,000 generations above to see where the balance of justice and mercy lies in God's program)

Exodus 34:6-7 is considered by many OT scholars are the primary text for describing the heart of God. We know how central this description is by two means:

(1) God describes himself using these terms--he does not speak of himself using the omni-terms we borrowed from Greek philosophy, like omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. The controlling attributes of God are relational, all expressions of love for sinners. Some Christian traditions prefer to exalt God's power and control as the primary governing traits, such that other attributes, like love and forgiveness, are subordinated to God's powerful control. I think this Calvinistic tradition puts the wrong attributes in the driving seat. It seems to me that the attributes that are the headliners are the very ones God himself spells out when asked to show his glory. We should ask ourselves again about our conception of God: do we think his powerful control directs the way he exercises his love or that his love directs the way he exercises his powerful control?

 

(2) His people rehearse his attributes by repeating this creed, again and again throughout the OT. In fact, is is this very description of God that drives the theologically deep satire we call Jonah. It is because Jonah knows God to be this way, as a flexible, forgiving, compassionate, relationship-pursuing God, that he refuses to "fellowship" (to participate) with God's agenda toward the offensive inhabitants of Ninevah. Why? Because this kind of God is likely to restore the wicked Ninevites to himself, just as he had done with the "stubborn and rebellious Israelites" multiple times. Because Jonah doesn't share God's heart, he wants his enemies destroyed, not reconciled to God and to blessing. Read Jonah 4:1-3. When Jesus comes on the scene, as the most unsullied embodiment of God's character, we see these characteristics on full display. Jesus, like the Father he so well images, is compassionate, yet without being morally indulgent, expressing the very traits of Exodus 34:6-7 and Jonah 4:1-3.      

Read Exodus 34:10-14 and following. Here, after another of Moses' others-oriented appeals (34:8-9), God renews the broken covenant. Remember, a covenant here is a voluntary relationship of mutual privilege and responsibility. God has made promises whose outworking is contingent on the people's fitting response of love and trust. They had been disloyal and had violated the covenant. God now was under no self-imposed obligation to continue the collaboration. Yet, he renews the covenant. Grace again is at work. It's all grace. Then God reviews the obligations to which the people are re-subscribing. Perhaps when we ask for forgiveness we should consider our end of the covenant, too. Are we expecting God to take up his part of the arrangement without thought of our obligations? Shouldn't grace, free and undeserving, elicit a response that includes worship, gratitude, delight, and devotion? Paul knows this. In Romans 8 he marvels at grace: "There in now no condemnation for those who participate in Christ Jesus" (vs 1). It isn't long before our response comes into view: "So then, you are under obligation, not to the sinful flesh, but to the liberating Spirit..." (vs 12ff).