I was a child once. I waddled my way across short lengths of grass and trees and sawdust leaves. I marveled at the vast adventures, all waiting latent for my ‘strength’ to propel me up great tall trees lifting me closer to the impossibly distant blue roof beyond. But, to my dismay, my waddles didn’t get me very far. For that my Dad scooped me up in his firm arms and placed me in his blue striped pickup truck. Strapped into the back seat we flew down country roads past lakes and forests and deep dark mountains. In my Dad’s care I flew. I’m still flying today.
It’s in the bones of a Dad to grow his kids. To meet them where they are and take them higher. To stretch and strengthen their feet so they can stand firm and tall. Until they mature, kids misunderstand much about the world their parents inhabit. Complex issues are simplified when a Mom talks to her daughter. Gray and murky waters are laid out in clear black and white only to, later in life, give way to the full spectrum of color which reality inhabits. “Don’t pull out the daisies!” is replaced by “Trim and water the roses.” We can understand more, and we’re capable of doing more. So it is with our Heavenly Dad. And this is how I’ve come to see Him when history looks confusing.
There are so many times that God looks confusing and inconsistent in the Bible. He prohibits people from eating an array of items, but later says “all food is on the table." He tells Israel to go to war and yes, to kill, but then later says that if you hate anyone it’s as bad as murdering them. A little odd, don’t you think, God? All of this and so much more confused the pants off me until I heard one little phrase explained that helped me see God’s Dad-nature pop out amidst the confusion: Progressive Revelation.
This idea gives the best explanation of why God seems to be different at different times in Scripture, even though it says He doesn’t change. Progressive Revelation says that God works to meet people where they are in order to interact with and elevate them to a place where they can perceive Him and reality more fully. This stepping down to our level and meeting us where we are is beautifully exemplified in God’s sending of Jesus to earth as a human to teach, show, and bring us the abundant life He desires us to have. Jesus didn’t come in the fullness of His Godness (Phil. 2:5-11). If he did, we couldn’t comprehend Him or what He would want to convey to us. We simply wouldn’t be able to relate to or understand Him. There are countless ways He steps down to accommodate us. He spoke in Hebrew to Moses and Elijah. He gave Israel a religious and sacrificial system similar to other people groups around them. He allowed for divorce when society couldn’t comprehend the place God intended women and marriage to hold.
One of the most blatant ways we see this accommodation is when Jesus speaks to a crowd gathered around him on a mountain. He says that He has come to fill up the law, not to break it. He then goes on to give teachings that are much different than what was written in the Jewish Law. He says hating someone is equal to killing them; looking lustfully after a woman is as bad as sleeping with her; divorce is not His desire, and much much more. This can be confusing at first hearing because it seems like everything he says goes against what God originally said in the Old Testament. Wait God--you said an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth but now I’m supposed to turn my other cheek and pray good for them? These are very different statements. What’s happening here is God revealing more fully His character and desires. Jesus raises each of these earlier commands to its full stature.
He even goes on to say that God only allowed for divorce in the Law that Moses brought because the people were too blind and immature to hear God's true desire: that there would be no divorce (Matt 19:8-9).
Of course, this topic could (and does) take up entire books; the nature of God is not something that can be tidily explained away. But it is a comfort and a revelation to know that God is constantly fathering humanity toward life so full it spills over its edges. The larger our capacities grow to perceive Him and His ways, the more He pulls us up into new heights of life. He wants us to have more of Him, more of who we truly are, more of Life to the fullest.
We have this progressive revelation of God throughout Scripture which reaches its zenith in Jesus; He is the unveiled image of the invisible God (Col 1:15). In Him, the fullness of God dwells. When God looks confusing, think of this. Look at Jesus back then through Scripture and today through His Spirit and those whom He pours Himself through. And consider: how might you drink deeper of the life he continues to pour through His Word and Spirit today?
No comments:
Post a Comment