God's ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts (Isa 55:8-9). The specific context of this passage is that God's compassion and His willingness to pardon extends to people we would not expect. The Bible is full of examples where God acted in ways that orthodox believers, including me, would not have expected or allowed. I will share a few brief examples in this blog and then draw a conclusion regarding how we should relate to such a God.

In Genesis 22:2 God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, creating a major test of Abraham’s faithfulness. If I were God, I wouldn’t have done that. After all, according to Jeremiah (32:35), sacrificing one’s son or daughter is taken for granted to be a detestable and sinful act.

If I were God I would have chosen Joseph rather than Judah to father the line of the Messiah. Not only did Judah sleep with his daughter-in-law Tamar, but that action produced a son who would be an ancestor of the Messiah (Gen 38:13-30; cf. Matt 1:3). The messianic line also includes Rahab, the prostitute from Jericho, and Bathsheba, the adulterous wife of Uriah (Matt 1:5-6). God is more tolerant and forgiving than we are, and does not avoid guilt by association.

One of the many challenges of 2 Samuel is the way God related to David’s family. In one text (2 Sam 12:8) it is implied that polygamy was God's will for David. Rebuking David for seducing Bathsheba, God says, “I gave. . . your master's [Saul's] wives into your arms.” We would not expect to hear God asserting that he "gave" David more than one wife. After all, the grand biblical principle is clearly stated in Genesis 2:24. It is two that become one flesh, not three or four. Yet God did not rebuke David or even the patriarchs for their multiple wives, a practice with tragic consequences for family life in both instances. Whatever we make of 2 Sam 12, God proved Himself well able to work with people involved in a marital system contrary to his ideal. It took time for God’s original ideal in marriage to be restored.

Things get really bizarre at times in the prophets of the Old Testament. God told Isaiah to wander the streets of the city naked for three years proclaiming a message of doom for the allies of Judah (Isa 20:2-4). Would we want to work with a mission partner who claimed God had told him to preach naked for three years? This command was not calculated to enhance Isaiah’s reputation (or even God’s reputation) among the people, yet this extreme action served God’s revelatory purpose to get the people's attention. While Isaiah must have been embarrassed by this command, Micah became even more of a laughingstock. He not only walked around naked, he was howling like a jackal and moaning like an owl (Mic 1:8)!

The story of Daniel 2 is widely known and appreciated by believers everywhere, yet its implications for the character of God are often missed. Before God ever approaches the faithful Hebrew Daniel with a vision, he gave one to Nebuchadnezzar the pagan king, the enemy of God and his people. A careful look at the Aramaic of Daniel 2 and 7 makes clear how radical this action was. Most readers of Daniel think Nebuchadnezzar had a “dream” in chapter 2 and Daniel had a “vision” in chapter 7. But the Aramaic of Daniel 2:28 and 7:1 is essentially identical. Both men saw a “dream and visions of (their) head as (they) lay in bed.” Whatever it was that Daniel experienced, Nebuchadnezzar also experienced. In other words, God treated a pagan king, who did not believe in him and warred against his people, as an object of revelation on the same terms as a Hebrew prophet, and the mode of revelation in these two cases was the same. This is hardly the kind of behavior most of us would have expected from God. His ways are not our ways.

These Old Testament references help us to see that while God never contradicts himself, he is never totally predictable either. We can often fit his words and actions into our understanding only with a great deal of discomfort. This has led me to a much more open mind in regard to creative approaches in the area of mission. Just when I think I have God figured out, he does or says something that surprises me. The unpredictable God is likely to be at work in our world in the places where we would least expect it.

According to Isaiah 55:8-9, God reaches out in compassion to those who are "wicked" and "unrighteous." How much more will he be willing to pardon and include those who follow Him with all their hearts, even though their knowledge of Him is limited? We must keep this reality in mind as we seek to avoid the dangers of religious syncretism (intentionally or unintentionally mixing truth with error). While syncretism is a grave danger to mission, its equal and opposite danger is the tendency to bind up outreach work in ways that limit God's freedom of action in the name of doctrinal and lifestyle purity. To use the words of Joshua Massey, "His ways are not our orthodoxy.”