This Is Why We Pray

As I look in the Old Covenant more and more for Papa, who himself has not changed, only the covenant has changed, I less and less see and angry “Sovereign God” always wanting to wreck havoc on his people but a loving Father who truly is responsive to the cries of His beloved.  Again, as a young college age believer described in the post below, I attended a summer Bible study at Third Presbyterian in Richmond hearing a great Scot-preacher teaching on God’s sovereignty from Exodus 32. Here Moses begs God to not destroy Israel for their idolatrous Golden Calf. It says in vs 14 “And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do to his people,” RSV- the only translation I had at the time, no NIV yet. 

"Wow, what power Moses had," I thought, to make God repent! 

But I also had memorized Numbers 23:19 in the RSV

“God is not man, that he should lie,

or a son of man, that he should repent.

Has he said, and will he not do it?

Or has he spoken, and will he not fulfil it?”

So later I asked a resident scholar at the Christian Study Center in Charlottesville about this seeming contradiction in Scripture. As a holder to inerrancy I believed (and still do) Scripture cannot contradict itself. He replied “it's a hermeneutical issue.” I had to look that word up. I was premed at the time. So I never got an answer until I could read Hebrew and change the translation to “relent” (NIV) from “repent” (RSV).

But today, 40 years later, I see something so different in the heart of God. Back then I knew God as good, sovereign, and in control. His goodness would preclude Him from doing evil or needing to repent. So we can legitimately change the translation of the Hebrew words to brunt the impact of the RSV. But today I don't need to soften these words. I am discovering the God of the Old Covenant to be the same as the God of the New, He is not an angry ogre. He is a loving Dad who wants nothing more than His kids’ hearts, to live in perfect love and devotion with them.

When Moses cried out in Exodus 32 or Amos in 7.3, God did repent of the calamity he was about to bring. Repentance means to change your mind, your direction, your intention. Hearing Moses’ cries, seeing his tears, feeling Moses’ heart all made God’s heart arise and say “NO, I will not destroy the ones I love.” Though they truly deserved it. Though to some degree we all deserve it. 

God responds to our hearts. He’s a good Dad. Perfect in his righteousness, perfect in his justice, perfect in his love. These do not war against each other, one is not greater than the other. Love does not win over righteousness or justice. His righteousness is not exceeded by his love as the old Honeytree song said that I listened to in college. Perfection is completeness and wholeness, intricate and profound, totally and particularly satisfying.

Sovereign God responds! Adonai Yahweh is Spirit. Yahweh Elohim is Love. El Shaddai is Father. Love responds to the object of His love- you and me!

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This is why we pray.