The Immutable God: God blesses even after he judges
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I have no personal ambition for my children. I just want what is good for my daughters, and I don’t care what it costs me. Even — or perhaps especially — when they fail, I want to help them succeed. When they do what is bad for their own well-being, I want to help them do what is good. When they reject my love and my help, I want to bless them all the more. More than any seminary class, nothing has taught me more about what God is like than having children. God’s desires for you are the same. When you fail, God works for your success. When you fall into sin, God works for your goodness. When you reject him, he desires even more to accept you. This is true of God throughout the whole Bible.
Contrary to popular perception, God is the same in both the Old and New Testaments; He is the eternal, triune creator whose character is perfectly holy, righteous, just, merciful, gracious and above all loving. In both testaments, he acts to judge, bless and redeem all of creation.
Throughout the whole Bible, God refers to himself in parental terms. Most often he is a father, but he also applies maternal terms to himself throughout the Old and New Testaments (see Isaiah 66:13 and Matthew 23:37 for just two examples). Outside of this parental paradigm, it is impossible to understand how God could both judge and bless creation, especially humans. But in parental terms, the apparent contradiction begins to resolve. I don’t want my children to hurt each other because I love both the offender and the offended. I judge their actions as wrong, and I act to correct them in order to accomplish the best good for each child. But I want my response to my children, no matter what they do, to always be a blessing whether they see it or not. Consider how God blesses people through the whole Bible especially when people are rebellious and evil.
After Adam and Eve sinned, despite the consequences, God promised they would indeed have children of their own even if they caused their parents as much pain as Adam and Eve caused God. He promised their work would yield results even if they stopped trusting in the result of God’s work. God even promised a final solution to their problem, promising that one would come who would finally crush Satan’s head (see Genesis 3).
Then, Cain killed his brother Abel. Despite the consequences, God promised to protect Cain’s life even when Cain took Abel’s life (see Genesis 4).
Then, the whole human race tried to compete with God for glory by building a tower out of mud in Babel. Despite the consequences, God chose a man he would use to bless the whole world. They thought a sandcastle was more glorious that the creator of the world. In response, God told Abraham, “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3, see also Genesis 11 and 12).
When the nation that descended from Abraham also rejected its creator and protector, God repeatedly pledged his faithfulness. Despite the consequences of their rebellion, God promised, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33). Even when their rebellion was at its worst, God refused to abandon Israel.
When he began to fulfill all his promises through Jesus, Israel became more interested in the stuff Jesus could give than the relationship with God he offered. In John 6:26, Jesus accused the crowds that followed him of being interested, “not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.” Despite only gathering around him for food and temporary healing, Jesus taught how to be truly blessed (see Matthew 5).
When Jesus’ political opponent had sincere questions, Jesus gave answers. Right after his first confrontation with the Pharisees in John’s gospel, one of the Pharisees came to find out who he really was, and Jesus gave the Pharisee his most famous answer, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16, see also John 2:13-22 and John 3).
When a woman — who was just as prejudiced against Jesus as his disciples were against her — acknowledged her brokenness and need of a savior, Jesus responded with himself. As she admitted the mess that was her life and her need for a savior, Jesus said, “I who speak to you am he” (John 4:26).
Through the whole Bible, God blesses people who turn away from him because he loves them, “For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). But when people turn towards Him? He blesses people who turn to him with rights to his own kingdom, comfort, the earth itself, satisfaction, mercy, knowledge of himself, and the closeness that every parent wants with their children.