Scripture offers us a wide variety of images of God. God is the creating one who brings everything into being; the covenanting one who calls Abraham; the liberating one who frees God's people from captivity; the patient one who puts up with God's people in the wilderness; the seeking one who sent prophets to call God's people back to life and to faithfulness; the Promise keeping one who does whatever it takes to insure that the promise to bless the world will become a reality.
The book of Second Kings however shows us another image of God which is not quite as nice as those that had come before. This book tells the story of the Israel's relationship with Assyria. In 755BC Tiglath-Pileser III came to the Assyrian throne and began a dramatic expansion of the kingdom including sweeping into Israel and Judah. Those nations surrendered and agreed to pay tribute. Over the next 33 years Israel would have a series of kings who were at first obedient to Assyria and then would rebel. Most of the kings were ultimately assassinated either by those who wanted to rebel or those who wanted to give into Assyria. Ultimately Assyria had had enough of Israel and after a three year siege captured Israel's capital, burned it to the ground and either killed or deported 90% of its people. Those who were deported would never be heard from again.
While these events could be seen from a strictly geo-political point of view they offered a difficult theological conundrum for God's people. If Israel was part of the people of the Promise how could God allow them to be destroyed and diminish the Promise? The answer came from the writer of Second Kings who put it this way,
"Now this came about, because the sons of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and they
worshipped other gods and walked in the customs of the nations whom the Lord had driven out before the sons of Israel, and in the customs of the kings of Israel which they had introduced. (2 Kings 17:7-8).
In other words God had had enough of Israel and let them suffer the consequences of their greed, pride and idolatry. This new image showed that God's patience was not eternal; that ultimately God's promise did not insure the survival of all people of the Promise. If the people would not carry out their part of the mission they would be removed from the equation.
As we look to our own vision we need to keep this new image in mind. It is a constant reminder that we as a church have a mission…to work toward the releasing, renewing and restoring of God's world. We are not a spiritual country club but a missional agency. And if we are not faithful in our work we will fade away, and rightfully so. The good news though is that we know our calling and have the gifted, caring people to make it happen. So as we seek our vision for the future let us be mindful of our calling as God's covenant partners in God's amazing restorative work.
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