The Father's Love: “whatever a sun will always sing is you”
The “God of the Old Testament” gets a bad wrap. It is as if Jesus came along and said “the Old Man is nuts, forget all of that- I am the Man now.” One is a God of wrath, the other is a God of mercy. Not so! We have no problem with the idea that Jesus is like God. Our challenge is to accept that “God is like Jesus (Eric Trueblood).”
As a father of four, there are times- as incredible as it seems- when our family experiences conflict. We interact with each other in harmful ways, ways that are hurtful and ruinous to the shalom we hope for in our home. The word for evil in Hebrew is ra and it suggests ruinous, disease-causing, hurtful, and destructive. It represents those things which lead away from life and shalom.
Reading scripture as a father, I experience it now as the heart of the Father for His children. The angry whip cracker is not the Father I find here. I know that when I have to discipline a child by taking something away, it hurts me. I do not want to relate to my children this way. I love them and want good things for them. When harmful habits form, I have a responsibility to lovingly guide them back to green pastures and still waters. There is no correction that is not clearly laced with a vision of hope and an emphasis on a restored relationship.
This is true of the “God of the Old Testament.” His children were mistreating one another and it was tearing the community apart. Injustice was thriving. They exalted themselves. They did not listen to- or shema, which is to “hear”- the Father anymore. The good world He created was crumbling in ruin. He called to them, but increasingly He had to act more definitively to get their attention. But never did His love and desire for mercy waiver.
“If you can break My Covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that there will not be day and night in their season, then My covenant may also be broken with David My servant…(Jeremiah 33:19-20).”
The sun and moon will sooner cease their activity than His commitment to His children. Looking to the sun and to the moon, we can find assurance that whatever poets see in these celestial bodies, God sees in His children.
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
ee cummings
Jeremiah offers some beautiful ideas as he peels backs the cloak over Israel’s heart. Their religious activities were no cover for a heart consumed with ra. Their idolatry led to injustice and Jeremiah reminds them of the warnings of Moses from Deuteronomy 30- you will turn, be scattered, taken captive, but God will gather you when you return with “all your heart and all your soul.” This refrain repeats.
Deuteronomy 6 gives us the shema. “Hear O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength (Deut 6:4-5).” The Father wants us to listen to Him and love Him completely, the way He listens to and loves us. This is the relationship He desires.
He doesn’t just ask, He models this relationship. He even commits His heart and soul and strength to us and promises to listen to us. And He doesn’t get easily irritated and abandon us. He grieves when we ignore Him and begin to hurt one another. Just as it is painful for a father to have his children rebuff him and fight with one another. This is not the good and beautiful world we are making.
Consider Jeremiah 32. The Father’s desire is to “give them one heart that they may revere God forever and for the good of them and their children”. Or later in this chapter, when God says “I will rejoice over them and do good. I will plant.. with all My heart and with all My soul.” Or Jeremiah 33, “Call to Me and I will answer you and show great and mighty things you do not know.” God will shema His children. Yes, He disciplined them but they would have destroyed one another had He not. His aim was always restoration. Always!
So what about Jesus? “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones God’s messengers! How often I have wanted to gather your children together as a hen protects her chicks beneath her wings, but you wouldn’t let me. (Matthew 23:3)” Like the Father, this was always His heart. From the time when Adam walked with God “in the cool of the day” to the relationship ceremony at Sinai, God’s heart was to be joined with His people.
But God’s children broke the relationship agreement. This is no small matter. In Jeremiah 34 we read about covenant making. A calf is split in two and the parties pass down the middle. The idea is “may it be done unto me as unto this animal if I go against my word.” Genesis 15 tells of this, “when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between those pieces.” God initiated the covenant with Abram. Just prior to this, God told him “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able and number them.” Again, whatever the sun, moon, and stars are- you are so much more!
In breaking the covenant, God had every right to put His children away, and allow the penalty of death. Justice required it. Death was inherent in the terms of the covenant because the union of two into one was to give life. Yet time and time again, God called to them. Listen to Me! I will plant, grow, build you… lead you to green pastures, still waters…pursue you with goodness. No shema was offered to Him. Only religious duty- sometimes. He sent messengers and warnings. They would not listen.
Hosea 11, God responds to this conflict:
“My people are determined to turn from me.
Even though they call me God Most High,
I will by no means exalt them…
“How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, Israel?”
I cannot put you away! What is to be done? Justice requires death. Yet God is like Jesus. He could not bear it. Jeremiah spoke of the pain of their injustice toward one another being addressed, but also of the hope that one day they will be restored. Jesus drank the cup that Jeremiah spoke of- the cup of wrath. It had to be poured out. But God was willing to be like the prodigal father, humiliating himself, breaking customs in order to restore the wayward son. Jesus did just this, and in overcoming death, it was dealt with! Justice and Mercy kissed. The relationship would continue.
When Jesus looked up at the full moon on the Night of Watching on Passover, He became suddenly aware of what must be done. To build us, to plant us, to rebuild us, to cleanse us, to bring health, to bring healing, and reveal peace and truth to His family once again, Jesus would answer- even the children that were not calling. He listened to what their hearts needed. He would rather suffer than see His children suffer. That moon, the same moon that appears every Passover, is only a moon. The sun is only the sun. But His love for us..
