God's Preposterous Business Sense--July 14, 2021

 

God's Preposterous Business Sense--July 14, 2021

"God finds fault with them when he says: ‘The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will establish a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah; not like the covenant that I made with their ancestors, on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and so I had no concern for them, says the Lord. This is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach one another or say to each other, “Know the Lord”, for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. For I will be merciful towards their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.’ In speaking of ‘a new covenant’, he has made the first one obsolete. And what is obsolete and growing old will soon disappear." [Hebrews 8:8-13]

Let's get this much clear from the beginning:  God never renegotiates a deal to get more stuff or better terms for God's side of the ledger.  God will, however, create a new kind of covenant  in response to our breaking of the old one.  

That's huge.  It's astounding.  It is, to be quite honest, completely countercultural, too.

We live in a time and place where we are constantly taught to change the terms of the contracts in our lives for our own benefit.  We know how that game works.  We look to refinance a home-loan when the interest rates are more favorable... but the bank isn't looking to be a charity, so they will often only renegotiate your mortgage if they can get you to borrow more money or spread it out over a longer time period.  You're looking to renegotiate in your self-interest, while the bank does the same from their side of the table.  

We're taught to do the same with our employment--to try and push for more perks, fewer responsibilities, better benefits, and the like... and on the other side of the equation, the company tries to get as much as they can from you or to save as much money as possible in your compensation.  Everyone has an angle, and everyone is looking to reconfigure the deals, the contracts, and the partnerships they are in for the maximum benefit to themselves.  It is so pervasive that we probably just assume it's common sense, as if there's no way things could be any different.

It's the same with the public figures and celebrities of our time, as well.  The all-star who renegotiates for millions more dollars--or who cuts a new deal with a new team in a new town for more money--is celebrated as both a good athlete and a savvy business person, while the fans (and often a city) are left to pick up the pieces.  Politicians brag about bailing out on deals they don't like, or leverage their votes and influence to get what they want, all justified with the logic, "Everybody does this.  This is just the way of the world--you have to look out for your own interests and squeeze every opportunity to get more for you, regardless of what it does to the person on the other side of the table."

Well, here's the thing: that's not how God makes deals.  That's now how the God we meet in the Scriptures makes covenants or cuts contracts.  The writer of Hebrews quotes an extensive passage from an earlier prophet, Jeremiah, to point out that God doesn't have an "angle." God just wants to restore relationship with us.  Back in the days of Jeremiah, the people had broken the terms of their covenant relationship with God--running after idols, selling out to foreign empires, and putting their trust in their own power, wealth, and strength, rather than living according to God's ways of justice and mercy.  The covenant is as broken as a marriage ended by an affair, God says.  

This would have been a chance for God either to bail out and abandon these fickle people, or to press for more advantageous terms.  This could have been the time that God demanded more sacrifices, or required a bigger share of their harvests, or called for the construction of lavish temples and religious shrines.  That's what we would do, isn't it?  That's how the conventional wisdom of our time would think: while you've got leverage, use it to get more for yourself!  Squeeze 'em for all they've got!  Right?

But not God.  God instead sees that the problem with the old terms of the covenant was that it was breakable from our side.  So long as it depended on our remembering the rules well enough, or our goodness or badness, it would always be at risk, and we would always fall short.  But if God renegotiated the terms... not to make it harder or more painful for humans, but easier?  What if God said, "I'll forgive all the past" rather than, "You have added penalties for your previous failures"?  What if God said, "I'll write my word on your hearts rather than inscribing them on stone tablets or marble monuments"?  What if God said, "I will do for them what they could not do" rather than trying to push for more from us?

It would either be the worst move for business, or the best show of grace, the world has ever seen.  And that is precisely what God has done.  In Jesus, we have the creation of a whole new covenant--a new set of terms for how we relate to God.  The new comes, not because God has gotten us over a barrel and can force us to give up more for our part of the deal, but because God knows we have messed up too many times before and we need a new arrangement built on grace.

That's how this works.  No self-interested scheming on God's part.  No cutting a better deal that enriches God at the expense of humanity.  No... only grace, only the kind of covenant that does it all through Jesus when we could not do it for ourselves.  That's God's preposterous business sense for you.

This is our God, dear ones.  This is how you are loved.

Know it.  Own it.  Walk in it today.

Lord Jesus, thank you for your way of giving us more than we could imagine rather than squeezing more from us in our desperation.