Since this is an examination of how God views human liberty, it is useful to examine what might be called ‘spiritual regimes’ in His relationships with Israel first and the nations subsequently.

Note that this is not dispensationalism as conceived by some Christian denominations. In a nutshell, dispensationalism asserts that God applies different standards both between groups of people and during different historical periods. That is not correct, God’s standards do not vary.

In that case, what does change? Distance and time are what change; not standards.

Type 1 Regime: The Wilderness

The first spiritual regime is the wilderness; characterized by open miracles. God is visibly present in the camp as a pillar of fire by night or a cloud by day. Manna falls from heaven each day; water flows from rocks; when Israel craves meat, quail descend on the camp to be gathered (Apparently by hand). In other words, there is absolutely no doubt about who God is and whether He is involved with Israel.

From a liberty perspective, the wilderness is less than ideal. When Israel sins, God’s response is immediate and dramatic. Fire falls from heaven, plagues sweep the camp, fiery serpents descend on the camp, etc.

The military has a term, ‘flash to bang time,’ which would apply here. When a weapon fires or there is an explosion, there is a flash of light. Since light travels much faster than sound, the ‘bang’ is heard some time after the flash is seen. The shorter that interval, the closer the weapon or explosion. When flash to bang time decreases to zero, you are in deep trouble. In the wilderness the flash to bang time between Israel’s sin and God’s reaction was very short. In the case of the Golden Calf, God’s reaction was only delayed by Moses’ intervention. (Ex 32:7-14)

To give an illustration why the wilderness is less than ideal for teaching liberty, consider that you are driving down the highway and that there is a state trooper sitting in the back seat of your car. If that were the case, theoretically you could speed, but realistically you would not. So in the wilderness, Israel was free from Egyptian slavery, but their free will was somewhat curtailed. In a sense, liberty was being imposed upon them; it was not something that they chose. When given an actual choice, the generation that had left Egypt during the Exodus was not able to face the responsibility of choosing liberty. When they sent spies ahead into Canaan, those spies spread fear and panic throughout the camp and Israel refused to proceed. In that case, flash to bang time was very quick. Ten of the twelve spies died the next day and Israel was defeated by her enemies.

Type 2 Regime: Israel in the Land

After forty years in the wilderness, the Exodus generation had passed and their descendants did enter the Promised Land under the leadership of Joshua. There, the spiritual regime can be characterized by God giving Israel more space and time. (The flash to bang interval increased substantially.) God was still very much involved, but that involvement was through ‘natural’ processes. When Israel drifted into idol worship, there might be a prolonged drought, or the natural hostility of her neighbors might be encouraged. In other words, things would not go well, but it would be possible to miss the hand of God in that process. During the period of the Judges before the monarchy, God’s method of getting things back on track was to anoint a leader to judge the nation. Typically, that judge would organize a military expedition to subdue whichever of the surrounding nations was oppressing Israel and would lead a spiritual revival. Things would go well during the lifetime of the judge and then quickly deteriorate.

The situation was similar under the monarchy. When there was a good king who led a spiritual revival, things went well both economically and diplomatically. When there were wicked and apostate kings things deteriorated. During the monarchy God’s mechanism for correction was to anoint and send prophets.

How Israel was to behave in the Type 2 regime is the subject of the entire book of Deuteronomy. The audience for that book had grown up in the wilderness and had no practical experience living outside of the camp, that is, among the rest of the nations. In addition to a different spiritual regime, they were also going to acquire new neighbors and were going to be responsible for their own economy. Their guides in that new endeavor would be Joshua, Caleb and the written words of Moses.

Deuteronomy, then, is a roadmap on how to set up the nation in what was to be a newly conquered land. In addition to a restatement of the governmental, interpersonal and liturgical direction that had been given in Exodus and Leviticus, Deuteronomy has a very concise description of the new spiritual regime. God was going to back away and give them space to grow and develop in liberty, but it was vital that Israel understand that He had not taken His eyes or His hand off of them. Deuteronomy 28 especially details the consequences should they use their liberty to follow other gods and so fall into every sort of wickedness. Should that happen, God assures them that His patience will finally be exhausted and He will expel them from the land and deliver them into the hands of their enemies.

Type 3 Regime: Exile

When God finally gets fed up with Israel’s descent into idol worship, injustice. and violence, He sends them into exile:

And the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers. Then this people will rise and whore after the foreign gods among them in the land that they are entering, and they will forsake me and break my covenant that I have made with them. 17 Then my anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide my face from them, and they will be devoured. And many evils and troubles will come upon them, so that they will say in that day, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’ 18 And I will surely hide my face in that day because of all the evil that they have done, because they have turned to other gods. (Dt 31:16-19)

The spiritual regime of exile is called ‘the hidden face.’ In that spiritual regime, God seems very distant indeed. That can be seen by Israel’s complaint in verse 17 above, ‘Have not these evils come upon us because our God is not among us?’ They feel completely abandoned and bereft. They continue to refer to, ‘our God’ but without much expectation of His aid. Nevertheless, their continued survival as a people attests to His faithfulness to the covenant.

In addition to Exodus, there are two biblical books of exile, Daniel and Esther. In Daniel, God is seen working through the righteous Daniel to shape the direction of the Babylonian Empire. The stories are well known; he interprets dreams, records visions, is visited by the angel Gabriel, survives being thrown to the lions, etc. Since he rose to power in the government, one may presume that he also watched over the condition of the rest of the exiles.

In the book of Esther, God is more subtle, not even being mentioned in the book. Nevertheless, Esther becomes the queen and her uncle, Mordecai, engineers the salvation of the exiles, deposes the viceroy. and rises to that position himself.

Type 4 Regime: Holy Spirit

Within 40 years after the Crucifixion, Israel went back into exile where they have remained almost 2000 years. One might call this a type 3 spiritual regime. Indeed, normative Judaism does so regard it. (Within observant Judaism, there is controversy about the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948. Some believe that, since the Messiah has not come, Modern Israel is a false start and not a move of God.)

The New Testament in the Gospels and the book of Acts describe something different; a regime where God is active and somewhat less subtle than He is in Regime 3 - Exile.

In this regime, God has moved to the next phase of His eternal plan: to bring the gentiles into His kingdom.[1]

When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. 6 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (Eph 3:4-6)

This bringing in of the nations is not just a New Testament concept. God has always intended to redeem the entirety of His creation.

6 And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,

  to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants,

 everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,

  and holds fast my covenant—

7 these I will bring to my holy mountain,

  and make them joyful in my house of prayer;

 their burnt offerings and their sacrifices

  will be accepted on my altar;

 for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

8 The Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares,

 “I will gather yet others to him

 besides those already gathered.” (Is 56:6-8)

In a sense, God began to reintroduce Himself to the world after Christ’s Resurrection and the giving of the Holy Spirit at Shavuot (Pentecost).  That was necessary because prior to that event, He was known to most of the world as the “God of the Jews.” In that capacity He destroyed Egypt, destroyed the Canaanite nations and empowered Assyria and Babylon to defeat His own people because of their sins. Hence, it is understandable that the gentile nations might consider His character to be pretty much like any other pagan god – certainly very powerful, but otherwise unremarkable. The Book of Acts is the chronical of that introduction.

With the exception of a couple of angelic visits to get things jump started, the type 4 regime looks a lot like type 3. God is very subtle and works first through apostles, giving them spiritual gifts allowing them to heal, cast out demons and preach in previously unknown languages. Most of the other spiritual gifts such as hospitality, encouragement, teaching, etc. could be attributed to simple human talent by those not wishing to acknowledge God. In fact, the church has spread throughout the world and the gifts are still very much active.

In the context of human liberty, God has intervened in the world clearly and dramatically at various times in the past, but the vast bulk of the time since the creation, He seems to be much more subtle. In this, He has given humanity the opportunity freely to choose whether or not to seek a relationship with Him.

 

[1] Note that we are not talking Replacement Theology in which God abandons Israel and all of His promises transfer to the church. Israel continues to be His chosen people and He continues to watch over them. In His timing, He will bring them all back to their land. As mentioned above they are in a type 3 regime. Type 4 is available to all humanity, both Jew and gentile.