Our heavenly missionary

In chapter six of Greg Boyd's book 'Cross Vision: How the Crucifixion of Jesus Makes Sense of OT Violence,' he reviews some of what he calls God's "divine accommodations" in regard to marriage, Israel's monarchy, animals sacrifices, and OT law. And he says this is just the tip of the iceberg!

He begins the chapter with an insightful story that informs his referring to God as our "heavenly missionary." It is this missionary status which gives credence to the whole divine accommodation theory in the first place. Here is the story (from p. 83ff)...

A number of years ago an acquaintance told me about an American missionary couple he knew who, in the early 1980's, felt called to evangelize an isolated tribe in central Africa. This tribe practiced female genital mutilation (once known as "female circumcision"). In this horrific ritual, the genitalia of young women are cut and partly removed in a misguided effort to preserve their virginity and purity. In the case of this tribe, girls were typically subjected to this excruciating ordeal around the age of five.

Although this missionary couple knew ahead of time that the tribe engaged in this barbaric rite, it was emotionally devastating for them to allow young girls with whom they had bonded to be subject to it. But they also knew they had no other choice. This ritual had been deeply imbedded in the tribe's culture for hundreds of years. The couple knew that, as new guests, they were in no position to demand that it be stopped.

So initially, they did whatever they could to make the best of a terrible situation. Among other things, they acquired anesthesia and pain medication for the girls and better surgical knives for those who performed the cutting. Beyond this, however, this couple had to remain silent as young girls suffered, and they did so for three emotionally wrenching years! Only by remaining silent as they taught and ministered to this tribe could they hope to eventually help them understand for themselves why girls should never be subjected to such cruelty.

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In Psalms, the Lord told the Israelites that when he remained silent as they engaged in wicked behavior, "You thought I was exactly like you" (Ps 50:21). Is this not similar to the way this tribe would have interpreted the silence of these missionaries? As we saw with Gregory of Nazianzus argue about the Lord's strategy in dealing with the ancient Israelites, out of their love for this tribe, this couple had to beguile the tribe by accommodating their barbaric practice. In other words, the missionaries had to be willing to appear guilty of condoning, and even assisting in, a sinful practice they actually despised if they hoped to eventually free these people from this practice.

The correct interpretation of this couple's silence and assistance became clear only after the tribe embraced the gospel and were eventually able to see for themselves that their ancient practice was contrary to God's will. Only then could they understand that this couple had been heroically accommodating their sinful practice out of love, and only then could they appreciate the depth of grief the missionaries had quietly endured for these three years.

We can think of God as a heavenly missionary to our fallen and all-too-barbaric planet. And we can think of the biblical narrative as the inspired written witness to God's missionary activity. Like the missionaries to that African tribe, God couldn't simply barge in and force people to stop practices he found offensive. Given that God created people free and thus with the potential for love, he must work by means of a loving influence rather than coercion. God has therefore always worked to reveal as much of his true character and will AS WAS POSSIBLE while accommodating the fallen state of his people AS MUCH AS WAS NECESSARY - though, like the missionaries in the above story, it certainly grieved God deeply to do so.

Now that we know the true character and will of God in the crucified Christ, we can look back in the inspired record of his missionary activity and discern the many ways God had to stoop to accommodate the fallen and culturally conditioned beliefs and practices of his people. So too, we can now discern the many ways in which God's ancient people mistakenly assumed he was like them. We can also understand that, every time the heavenly missionary allowed his people to view him in fallen and culturally conditioned ways, he was in a sense beguiling them.

Man, this is such a good example of such an important concept. To me, this is crucial to understanding the difference between the loving God I see in the Bible, and the "mean" God so many believe the Old Testament depicts. Good, good stuff!