God So Enters into Relationships That . . .

A Biblical View

Terence E. Fretheim

• Publisher: Fortress Press
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN:
  9781506448367
• eBook ISBN:
  9781506448374
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Biblical theologian Terence E. Fretheim weaves key insights from Scripture with theological reflections on the nature and activity of God, God's relationship to the world, and the natural order. Relational language and images fill the various forms of communication that ministry leaders must use to speak about God and God's presence and activity in the world. Fretheim shows the importance of using this kind of language to speak to the realities of life and faith. Each chapter of the book explores a unique aspect of God's relationship with humanity and the world, including God's faithfulness, concern for our entire selves, promise to be present in both good and bad times, willingness to listen, sharing of power, and desire to allow an open future for all. Filled with authentic reflections and helpful insights, this is a must-read for all want to know and experience more about the nature of God.

II

God So Enters into Relationships That . . .

4

An Everlasting Faithfulness

God so enters into relationships that God will be absolutely faithful to the commitments God has made.

God will keep promises that he has made to his people. For example, God makes promises to the chosen people in Egypt. The people of God can be certain that God will keep those promises: “I will free you from the burdens of the Egyptians and deliver you from slavery to them. . . . I will bring you into the land that I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; I will give it to you for a possession” (Exodus 6:6–8). God makes life-changing promises to the people of God, and they can count on God to keep promises.

These divine promises undergird Israel’s time in Egypt and are kept during Israel’s journey through the wilderness. Life for the people in the wilderness is grounded in a promise God has made. There are better days ahead, the people of God are assured; they can look forward to a life in a land of milk and honey.

Still, living with promises from God does not mean that the chosen people will necessarily live into what has been promised. God’s promises can be successfully challenged by the people and by what happens in the world. And this reality turns out to be the case for Israel; except for a small minority, the people wandering in the wilderness never live to see the fulfillment of the promise. That some promises seem not to be fulfilled is a characteristic of living in the wilderness. God’s word with respect to promises made can be resisted successfully by those who stand in opposition to the work and word of God in the world. God so enters into relationships that God’s will does not always get done in the world. Even so, through all of life’s journeys, the promises of God remain available for believers to cling to; those who have received the promises can be assured that God is always working toward the fulfillment of promises made.

Sometimes we entertain, perhaps even defend, the notion that God is absolutely free and could do anything at any time in any place for any reason—for example, over the course of a wilderness journey or in the midst of a tragedy or disaster. But to think of divine freedom in this “anything is possible for God” way is, actually, to cast doubt on God’s promises. Walter Brueggemann claims that “the completed tradition of Jeremiah makes in turn two quite different theological emphases which are impossible to coalesce”—namely, judgment and promise. He makes statements such as “God has withdrawn fidelity” and God “has ceased to care,” and points to a “complete absence of fidelity on God’s part.”^[1]

God so enters into relationships that God’s will does not always get done in the world.

Such challenges provoke important questions. If God is free to break God’s promises, does that mean God is no more faithful to relationships than human beings are? What do we teach people about divine faithfulness if we so stress God’s freedom that God can “trump” God’s own promises? To speak of God’s promises, as the biblical texts often do (e.g., God’s promises to Noah, Abraham, David; see also Jeremiah 31:35–37; 33:14–26; cf. 14:21), is to speak of a God who places a decisive self-­limitation on any talk about divine freedom. God will do what God promises God will do. God will be absolutely faithful to God’s own promises.

As we will see, it is precisely because of such divine commitments to promises made that God often grieves over what has happened to the divine relationship with this people. The prophets’ testimony to the immense agony and suffering that God experiences in, for example, the exercise of judgment is a demonstration that God is not ever truly free of God’s relationship with Israel. Yet, just judgment is not inconsistent with love. Even in the worst of times, God is caught up in this relationship and, therefore, will be positively or negatively affected by how this relationship “goes.” God has so entered into the relationship with God’s people that God cannot (and will not) cease to be affected by what happens in the divine story with these people. God is “stuck” with what happens to the relationship in view of these commitments.

If God had “radical freedom,” as is often claimed, and could do whatever God wanted to do, as has been suggested, then God would not agonize so, either over the breakdown in the relationship or over God’s own decisions regarding judgment. If God were truly free of God’s own promises, then God would just get up and leave the relationship, for God would be absolutely free to do anything God wanted to do. But according to God’s own word to Israel, God is not free from the promises given to this people. In the words of Jeremiah 31:3, God loves them with “an everlasting love” (no temporal or other limitations regarding the divine commitments), and God, even in the midst of the worst of judgments that the people of God may experience, has “continued [God’s] faithfulness.”

Because speaking of the freedom of God in such a qualified way, with such limitations, has ethical implications, I suspect the people of God will often attempt to bring such a claim into question. For if God is radically free with respect to relational commitments that God has made, then we who are God’s followers should seek to be comparably free! In that case, we can sit loose to our commitments and get on with our unfettered lives. We will act in the image of God (as we imagine God)!

God often grieves over what has happened to the divine relationship with this people.

To speak accurately of Israel’s God is to speak of a God who is absolutely committed to promises made. Indeed, to speak of God’s election of Israel and God’s promise to be their faithful God forever places a decisive limitation on any talk about divine freedom. God has exercised freedom in making such promises to Israel in the first place, but having freely made those promises, thereafter God’s freedom is truly limited by those promises. On what grounds can such a claim be made about God’s promises? God will do what God says God will do; God will be faithful to God’s own promises. (At the same time, as noted, God’s will in and for the world is not irresistible, so people can act in negative ways in view of which God’s promises cannot be kept.) Even more, God’s history with Israel through the years has been of such a nature that these people have been caught up into the divine life and have shaped the divine identity. God will forever be known as the God of Israel, and this God will be faithful to promises made to God’s people.

The extent to which negative developments in the relationship affect not only the (chosen) people, but also animals and vegetation is striking. I return to the language of Jeremiah 9:10–11 (ESV, similiarly NIV; see also Jeremiah 8:19c in context and Jeremiah 9:17–19 with 9:22):

I will take up weeping and wailing for the mountains, and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard; both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled and are gone.

(These references to nonhuman creatures make for an interesting connection to Israel’s wilderness wandering, reflecting God’s relationship with such nonhuman creatures.)

God holds tears and anger/judgment together, as people who have suffered the brokenness of intimate relationships commonly do. God mediates judgment in life so sin and evil do not go unchecked in the world, but God does so at great cost to the divine life. God exercises judgment not joyously or with satisfaction, but reluctantly and with great anguish. That divine anger and divine tears go together so often in these texts has considerable theological import. Without the intermittent references to divine tears, God would seem much more distant and removed. Anger accompanied by weeping, while still anger, is different—in motivation and in the understanding of the relationship at stake. God’s harsh words of judgment are not matched by an inner harshness. The circumstantial will of God expressed in judgment is always in the service of the ultimate and positive will of God to deliver.

It has been claimed that the time of Israel’s wandering in the wilderness is a time of “endangered promises” (as if God can do whatever God wants relative to commitments that God has made). Again and again, the people trust the seeming securities of the past and present more than God’s promised future. Hence, they experience disasters of various kinds, including plagues, abortive conquests, and snake infestation, that threaten progress toward the goal. But God will remain faithful. The promises of this God are a key theme for living in the wilderness or in the midst of any life journey.

God will remain faithful.

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1. See Walter Brueggemann, A Commentary on Jeremiah: Exile and Homecoming (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998), 121, 142, 152, 278. ↵
   

5

Full-Bodied Salvation

God so enters into relationships that God is concerned about our entire selves.

The salvific concern of God is for the salvation of our whole selves and the world of which we are a part; this divine conviction is true both in the present life and in the life to come. Unfortunately, the biblical understanding of “salvation” has often been narrowly conceived by religious people in spiritual terms. In the life of the church, salvation has probably been most associated with the forgiveness of sin. At times, salvation is limited to just that, unfortunately neglecting a great deal of biblical material regarding the all-encompassing nature of salvation. In such a restricted understanding, God’s most fundamental activity in the world would have to do with sin and guilt; only secondarily would God be concerned about, say, suffering. But the Bible claims that God’s saving work in the world has to do with not only deliverance from one’s own sin, but also deliverance from sin’s effects, both the effects of one’s own sin and the effects of the sins of others. And the language of suffering soon fills the room.

Salvation in the Old Testament is always salvation in a full-bodied sense (the New Testament continues this understanding). And so, to not extend that saving activity of God to those who were poor and oppressed was to violate Israel’s own history. Helping the poor is a saving act. Such activity is a means whereby God’s work of salvation is extended to the larger community. Helping the less fortunate can never be simply a social or political activity; it is also a religious activity in which God has chosen to become involved. Justice is not an end in itself. The exercise of justice stands in the service of salvation for everyone in the community.

The basis for treating others justly is found in the oft-repeated phrase in the Pentateuch “Remember that you were slaves in the land of Egypt.” Think of the two major pillars around which Old Testament texts are gathered: the exodus from Egypt and the exile to Babylon. In the first case, Israel’s suffering occurs because of the sins of others, the Egyptians; in the second case, Israel’s suffering occurs because of their own sins. Exodus 15:2 uses the language of salvation to speak of what God does on behalf of Israel in delivering them from the Egyptians. Salvation here does not simply have to do with the “spiritual” dimension of life; salvation has to do with any divine action that brings wholeness, life, and well-being, including deliverance from socioeconomic oppressions such as slavery in Egypt.

Salvation in the Old Testament is always salvation in a full-bodied sense.

If we want to draw parallels between Israel’s enslaved situation in Egypt and our own dilemmas, ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Table Of Contents
• God and Relationship
• God So Enters into Relationships That . . .
• Notes
• Word & World Books
• Back Cover