Call to us through your Word this day, Sovereign Lord. Transform us by your Holy Presence. Grant unto us the grace necessary to become the bearers of your holy will into the world. In Christ's name we beg. Amen.
This is a great passage in Exodus if we want to find out more about who God is. Last week, we saw what happened when the people of God fell into idolatrous worship. They wanted to look like all of the other worshiping religions around them with their idols and bloodletting and temple prostitutes. They wanted to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the same way that all of the other religions worshiped. And it looks like they're having a great time at it.
But they are about to find out that this is exactly what God doesn't want. You see, God has noticed what is going on down at the base of the mountain. And God is not pleased. In this passage, God makes it clear to Moses that this people is about to end. After God is done, there will be no one left to tell the story from this group. Rather, God is going to put an end to them and raise up a new group through Moses. God is about to clean the slate and start over.
It's at this point that Moses steps in and basically says, "Now wait a second. Let's think this over a bit. You called this people out of Egypt to worship you. If you destroy them now, do you realize what a joke you're going to look like in the eyes of the Egyptians. They're going to laugh. How can you take a God seriously who say, 'follow me,' and then decimates them out in the middle of nowhere. And not only that, didn't you make a promise to Abraham, you know that whole covenant thing? Doesn't that mean anything? How are people supposed to trust you if you go around smiting them because your angry?" It appears as though the point is well taken, because God decides not to smite this people.
But what's really interesting about this scenario is the terminology it uses for God's action. It reads, "And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people." God…repents? Can that be right? Isn't God supposed to be absolute good? How is it that God can repent of evil?
This passage reminded me of my first semester in seminary. We were all sitting in Hebrew class presenting our studies on certain words in the Old Testament. It was on that day that I had one of the more significant moments during my whole time in seminary.
A friend of mine had done a study on the word for "repent." Now, in many places it is also translated as "to be sorry for something" or "to relent." But in his research, he had noted that not only do people repent, but so too does God…quite often actually. And he struggled with reconciling this new discovery with his own previous understanding. And what he came up with was another way of explaining the idea of what repentance is portrayed in the Old Testament. Now, typically we think of repentance as a "don't do that anymore" sort of thing. But when he looked at the overall story and the images that the word for repentance evoked, he came to describe the word in this way: to repent is to extend the boundaries of the relationship.
To repent is to extend the boundaries of the relationship.
Yes, God does continually extend the boundaries of our relationship with God, through abundant forgiveness, through Grace. Yes, God does repent.
Perhaps part of the confusion is that today we have a tendency to think of "good" as being of God and "evil" as being of Satan. But in the Old Testament their worldview sees things differently; good and evil are more of ways of relating to others than they are traits that flow from a supernatural source. In the Old Testament, to act in a good manner is to act mercifully, forgivingly, peacefully. On the other hand, to act evilly is to be wrathful, destructive, or violent. In the Old Testament, yes, God is capable of doing evil as well as doing good.
When we think of good and evil in the Old Testament as more of a way of relating to others, something that is done in a relationship, then God's repentance from evil can make more sense.
In the Exodus story right now, the people have betrayed God. The people deserve to be visited by the evil of destruction. God knows this. God wants to do this. But the Covenant that God established with this people's faithful ancestor, Abraham (that one that Moses conveniently brings up in the conversation, "by the way, remember that Covenant…"), that covenant binds God's wrath…if God wants to be faithful to it.
And it turns out that God does want to be faithful to the Covenant with Abraham, despite this people's infidelities. And so, God mercifully extends the boundaries of the Covenant relationship so that this people can continue. God is effectively accepting responsibility for the well-being of this people who have stepped out of bounds. Yes, God repents of the evil that God was about to do, the evil of wiping this people from the face of the earth for their sin, by extending the boundaries of the covenant relationship.
Of course, this merciful extension of the Covenant does not give the people a blank check to do whatever they want. In fact, we are about to see them get seriously spanked once Moses returns to the foot of the mountain.
All in all, by reading these stories and reflecting on them through the ages, the Covenant peoples are able learn more and more about who God is. "Hey look, God repents. Go figure!" Insights like this are of paramount importance for us, because we are called to do nothing less than reflect the image of that God here on earth.
In the Gospel of Mark, we hear Jesus calling to all people, "This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, (extend the boundaries of your relationships) and believe in (give expression to) the gospel." Jesus' call to repentance was nothing less than the call for us to open our hearts to others, to accept responsibility for those who need us, to reflect the image of the God who extends the boundaries of the Covenant relationship to include even us.
As a people, we do not repent because we are told to, or because we feel we have to in order to get into a relationship with God. Rather, we repent because the God whom we worship repents. We willfully accept responsibility for others, because the God whom we worship has accepted responsibility for us. And it is into the image of this God, the God of Abraham, the God revealed most fully in Jesus of Nazareth, it is into in the image of this God that we are continually being transformed.
And of the Son,
And of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.