God's Reputation--April 9, 2025

God's Reputation--April 9, 2025

"Thus says the LORD,
   who makes a way in the sea,
  a path in the mighty waters,
 who brings out chariot and horse,
  army and warrior;
 they lie down, they cannot rise,
  they are extinguished, quenched like a wick..." (Isaiah 43:16-17)

In the Bible, God has a curious reputation.  Of all the things you can say about YHWH, the God of Israel, it appears that this God chooses to be known for stopping armies in their tracks, defeating military superpowers, thwarting empires, freeing slaves, and keeping promises.  The God of Israel, in other words, doesn't merely maintain the status quo or keep the powerful in their places, and neither does YHWH stand off at a distance merely watching human events unfold with a policy of non-intervention like some kind of celestial Switzerland.  The God revealed in the Hebrew Scriptures (what we sometimes call in the Old Testament) crosses the boundary lines to take a side against the powers of the day in order to keep ancient promises and show faithful love to the covenant people.  The God we meet in these Scriptures refuses to stay neutral, but rather steps into action to thwart empires who oppressed and enslaved God's people.

You get that sense here in these few verses from the larger reading in Isaiah 43 that many of us heard in worship this past Sunday.  The thing God is known for--the thing God has a reputation for--is defeating Pharaoh's armies and advanced (for the time) military technology in the epic story of the Parting of the Sea.  That's what the prophet is referring to here in these two verses; it's a callback to the Exodus story. And the more you read through the Hebrew Scriptures, the more you notice that memory woven into ancient Israel's memory. The recollection of the Exodus from slavery in Egypt and the journey to the Promised Land stands in the background of Israel's laws and commandments (like when God tells them to care for foreigners and immigrants because they knew what it was like to be mistreated as foreigners in Egypt), and it comes back in ancient Israel's prayers, songs, and poems like a refrain.  It was a story they told every year at big festivals like Passover, and it was the core memory of their national identity, as central as Americans think of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776.

Now, to be sure, plenty of cultures talked about their gods and goddesses in terms of their famous actions or epic shows of strength. The Babylonians told stories about their god, Marduk, fighting the chaos monster Tiamat, and fashioning human beings from the carcass of defeated deities.  The Egyptians talked about their God Ra who rode through the underworld to bring the sun to the people.  Even Disney fans will recognize that the demigod Maui is introduced in the movie Moana with a song about all of Maui's fabled exploited (pulling up the islands from the sea and lassoing the sun, and such).  In other words, it's pretty standard that any given culture will sing songs, tells stories, and write epic poems about their gods and goddesses to lay the foundation for their deities' reputations.

What stands out here from Isaiah 43 and the wider memory of ancient Israel about their God, YHWH, is that this God is known for defeating the ancient military superpower of Egypt and its tyrant, Pharaoh.  This God takes a stand to lift up the threatened and enslaved covenant people, not against mythical monsters, but against an actual empire.  This God crosses into the realm of the physical world of international politics and real suffering.  This God stands up for the ones regarded as nobodies and is willing to thwart the military might and awesome arsenal at Pharaoh's command, in order to set the children of Israel free from enslavement and to keep a promise made to their ancestors.  This is what God's love looks like--it takes the shape of God's reputation for saying NO to the bullies, the tyrants, and the empires in order to say YES to the enslaved, the harassed, and the troubled covenant people.  God's love is never merely a sentimental feeling or intangible emotion confined to the heavenly mind of God.  It takes a clear stand and real action to lift up those who are bowed down, and it thwarts the attempts of Pharaohs, kings, and emperors who want to keep them down.

As we near the central stories of the Christian faith next week in Holy Week, it is worth remembering that we believe this same God is the One who acts in Christ Jesus.  That is to say, we believe that the living God actually breaks into history, into the real lives of actual people and the real forces of evil and brutality in the world, and acts to save, rescue, and redeem.  The same God who would not stay as a neutral observer while cruel Pharaoh mistreated, exploited, and murdered enslaved Israelites does not keep a disinterested posture in the face of evil, sin, and death, either, but takes the side of us pitiable sinners and goes to a cross on our behalf. God chooses to be known for taking our side--the whole lot of humanity--against all the powers of death and evil, in order to make us free.

Remember, then, that the God on whom we call is no mere fable or cosmic referee watching the world at a distance, but has a reputation for getting involved to save and set free.  Remember it, too, as we go on the Holy Week journey, to know that these are the lengths God is willing to go to for our sake.

Ours is the God who crosses into our real lives and real world. Ours is the God of the Exodus and the cross.

Lord God, come into our lives and into our world to save, to set free, and to defeat the powers of death and sin.