Using the Social Statement in Your Congregation
Images of God
Handout #1

We believe Scripture to be both the revelation of God to us, and the interpretation of this revelation by people of faith who were, like us, shaped by their world. For this reason, it is not surprising that in the biblical narrative, God is shown through numerous images. Some are closer to the heart of our faith than others, but all contribute to a fuller understanding of God and God’s ways with the world.

Biblical images of God in relation to peace and war are many and include:

• God is the deliverer, who frees Israel from oppression in Egypt (Ex 3:7-10);
• God is the law-giver, who provides for a just and peaceful order by establishing a covenant with the people of Israel (Ex 20);
• God is the orderer of the world in the face of chaos, who creates and acts against the threatening backdrop of water and sea (Gen 1:2, 6-8; Ps 89:9);
• God is the warrior, who commands the destruction of Israel’s enemies, including men, women, children and animals (Josh 6:21; 1 Sam 15:2-3; Ex 15);
• God is the hidden one, whose ways are not those of humans (Isa 55:8-10, 45:15; Job);
• God is the compassionate one, whose concern reaches out to all peoples without distinction (Jonah);
• God is the final judge, who determines the destines of all nations (Ps 2);
• God is the faithful one, who brings reconciliation and hope through suffering (Isa 53).

These images expressed ways in which Israel knew God in specific circumstances, and they provided patterns for living as faithful people. Of first importance for all these images is that God takes the initiative. At the heart of that initiative is God’s compassion and righteousness. For the most part these images complement one another. But can a fierce warrior God who causes violence and destruction be the same God whose heart churns with compassion?

Some images are more central than others. There are historical reasons for the use of this or that image. They often convey only a partial, but to that degree valid, picture of the ways of God with the world. Accordingly, the biblical image of God as warrior can at times depict a frightening and cruel deity; at the same time, the warrior God is also both protector and liberator, whose justice defends the weak and oppressed and contends with the forces of evil. Actually, the image of the warrior God gave rise to almost all the biblical language about freedom from oppression as God’s gift, about chaos transformed into order by God’s creative act, and about final judgment and final hope that God alone guarantees.

In view of this, who after all is this God who whom such rich and diverse, even shocking, witness is borne? In response, the biblical narrative directs us anew to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

• Not only did Jesus teach love to one’s enemies;
• Not only did he reach out to the oppressed, down-trodden, and rejected of the earth;
• Not only did he pray for his enemies while himself being rejected on the cross;
• But also by the unpeaceful reality of his death Jesus confirmed God’s identity as the ultimate peacemaker, "for . . . while we were enemies, we were reconciled through the death of his Son" (Rom 5:10).

The reconciling love of enemies discloses who God is. God suffers with and for a suffering world. Christ crucified reveals most fully the triune God, making the message about the cross the "saving power of God" (1 Cor 1: 18ff). Other images of God including the image of the warrior God need to be seen in the light of the cross. God’s self-giving love on the cross shows how deeply peace is rooted in who God is. The suffering and death of God’s Messiah are not passivity and defeat in the face of evil, but promise and hope: "The God of peace will shortly crush Satan under your feet."

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