And Whose Side is God On Anyway?

Have you ever been caught in the middle between two opposing friends, or maybe between two family members in a feud?  “Take sides,” you’re told.  “Whose side are you on?” you’re asked.  And trying to stop them is like trying to stop a fight between two dogs, neither will appreciate your interference and you’re bound to get attacked and bit by both.

Everyone with a cause, a passionate purpose with goals and agenda, stakes their claim, draws their lines, defines their limits and rallies their supporters.  Their approach is quite simple: “If you’re not with me, you’re against me”; “Support my cause or get out of my way.”

If you are familiar with the Biblical records, you will know that Joshua was Moses’ right-hand-man.  Joshua took-over where Moses left-off.  After the death of Moses, Joshua was the one that led the people of Israel into the Promised Land.  [Joshua 1:1-9]

One day, when Joshua was near the city of Jericho, a city which Joshua needed to take, he had a vision.  He looked up and there, standing before him, was a great warrior with drawn sword in hand.  Being a warrior himself, Joshua demanded he state his cause: “Are you friend or foe, one of us or one of our adversaries?”  Interestingly enough, the answer was “I am neither.”  [See Joshua 5:13-15]

This was no ordinary soldier, this great warrior identified himself as “The Commander of the Lord’s Army.”  In response, Joshua bowed down in reverence and asked what he might be commanded to do, in effect saying, “Your will is my command.”  The first thing the Commander of the Lord’s Army said was, “Remove your sandals, for the place where you stand is Holy.”

It’s easily overlooked, hardly noticed, seemingly insignificant, but the Commander of the Lord’s Army did not claim to be on Joshua’s side—even though he was clearly the Lord’s agent come to give support to Joshua’s cause—to overtake Jericho, which was part of the process of claiming the Promised Land for the people of Israel.

Are you friend or foe, with us or against us, Joshua asked.  I am neither, was the answer.  I am neither friend nor foe, neither with you nor against you.  What does that mean?  It means that God’s pursuits and purposes are so far and above human concerns that God cannot and does not stoop to totally identify His Self with conditional and temporal human causes.

We on the other hand presume otherwise.  Claiming a righteous cause, a holy pursuit, a divine calling, we presume God’s backing.  We assume that God takes sides, and of course the side that he takes is ours, believing God will guarantee our triumph.  It’s as if God owes us one—for championing a good cause: “God and I make a majority; if God is for me, who can be against me?”  So is our thinking.  And then we set out to accomplish our pursuits in God’s name, justifying any means to our righteous cause.

There is no opponent fiercer than one driven by righteous indignation while seeking holy retribution, believing him or herself to be God’s specially chosen agent to accomplish His will.

I recently came across a quote: “Republicans are death on sexual sins and any limitation of personal freedom but really don’t care about inequity, while Democrats will fight to the death against inequity while jumping from bed to bed.  But both of them are in favor of greed.”  So, whose side is God on?  Answer: neither!

When it comes to God, what we fail to see is that God’s purposes are so far above-and-beyond our own agenda that He is neither for us nor against us in human terms.  So, for example, God is neither for the Democrat platform nor the Republican platform.  He is above it.  What’s the lesson here?  It’s this: when our agenda or our causes become more important to us than God Himself, we are committing idolatry.  When we presume that God must and will “back us” because of the presumed goodness and rightness of our cause, we presume too much, and are in danger of attempting to manipulate and/or use God for our own purposes.

God holds all peoples and all individuals, all groups of individuals and all associations of individuals, accountable for their attitudes and their actions performed in pursuit of their causes.  And the truth is this: when both “ends” and “means to those ends” are carefully scrutinized and closely examined, no one will be found innocent.  “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”  [Romans 3:23]

Jesus tells us that we will be judged with the same judgment we used to condemn others: “For with the judgment you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get.”  [Matthew 7:2]

Jesus also tells us that our own words will be held against us: “I tell you, on the Day of Judgment you will have to give an account for every careless word you utter; for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”  [Matthew 13:36-37]

And Jesus warns that in the latter times there will be those who will kill in God’s name, thinking that by doing so they are showing reverence for God, doing God a favor as it were (John 16:2).  How wrong their attitude and their actions will prove to be, come Judgment Day, according to Jesus.

So what should our response be?  First we need more humility.  We need to get off our high-horses and quit presuming God’s approval upon us while harboring mean-spirited, hard-hearted, and harshly condemning attitudes toward others—no matter how right we think we may be or how wrong we know that others are.  Secondly, we need to nurture a spirit of mercy, kindness, compassion, and grace as the operative principle within our hearts, remembering that God’s agenda and purposes for humanity are far above-and-beyond our own.  And thirdly, we need to seek grace and forgiveness for ourselves, for the wrongs we have committed in pursuit of our own agendas, and seek to be gracious to others in the same way we want God’s grace and mercy for ourselves.