Why won’t God get the United States out of the mess it’s in?
Creating versus Controlling
Poor God. I feel so sorry for God much of the time! Talk about being misunderstood!
That established, though, why wouldn’t God routinely, as a matter of course, deliver human beings in a serious pinch?
The earliest biblical answer, I suppose, would’ve been addressed foundationally at the beginning of each of the first two books in Hebrew scripture as the “books” and their order were eventually established.
First, in the mythology reflected in the story of Noah’s Ark. (Please be sure that you understand the difference between “mythology” and “fairytale”; they’re substantially different literary forms although they do have some characteristics in common.) myths are not intended to be taken literally, but neither are they intended to be thrown out as nonsense, unworthy of consideration. Perhaps mythology invites us to wrestle with the same questions it wrestles with rather than tossing definitive answers our way.
So, for starters, each of the stories in the first 11 chapters of the book of Genesis sought to answer a profound aetiological/existential question. The Noah’s Ark story offered an answer the question, Why does the God who created a world intended for such goodness and harmony put up with those human beings who so very quickly made it clear they were not going to live by God‘s standards? These standards had to do with the care and protection of human beings, creatures of the sea and the ground and the sky, and then the habitat for all.
As the mythological plot unfolds, God does become disgusted with evil people who vastly outnumbered the few good folks. Turns out the good folks were all in one family—Noah, Mrs Noah, their three sons and daughters in law. Only they, no others, were given the message that they needed to build a huge ship on which they and only two of each animal species that had evolved by that time would survive the coming devastating flood.
The flood came, sent by God according to the story, and all the evil people and innocent animals, extra sad for the animals, drowned. God immediately regretted having sent the flood and pledged never to destroy human beings again. God’s seal on that promise was the rainbow after every cloudburst thereafter.
Flipping over a few pages (originally, unrolling a different scroll) to Exodus, we find God delivering the Hebrew people out of Egyptian slavery after slamming many of the evil Egyptians with plagues that either made their lives miserable or, in some cases, took their lives. Why the change of mind on God’s part?
One answer could be leadership among the slaves. We have another family themed dynamic here. Moses and his sister, Miriam, and their brother, Aaron, were extraordinarily effective leaders in whom God believed God could trust, according to the story, to get the slaves to freedom. (God is seriously anthropomorphized in these accounts. Caution!)
Truth is, from the get go God never punished or killed anyone. Laying those at God’s thronestep was never correct.
Even if you don’t want to buy fully into all perceptions of Deism, which was the overwhelming theological influence on the founders and framers of our constitution (tossing everything supernatural except for God, for example) there is still the merit of the idea that God put humans in charge fully of what goes on in the world.
If God could stop genocides, God would’ve stopped all genocides.
If God could stop child abuse, there would never have been a single child abused in all of human history.
If God could stop war, there would never have been a the first skirmish.
Although the Noah story didn’t answer all questions satisfactorily, it was right about God not destroying human beings after the flood, and the Exodus story also has something to teach us even if we don’t buy into every detail—namely, that God who is, in fact, luring humanity or attempting to, toward what is good and wholesome, Gets a lot more accomplished when there are leaders sold out to the liberating vision of God the Creator.
So as a matter of fact, there’s a huge difference between creating and controlling. Looks like the onus is on us, folks. God will lure us toward the highest moral high ground, but God will not cause it or require it.
