Gods Army
Here is a little parable from the book I am currently working on (Dis-courses),
Many centuries ago a small island was attacked by the dictator of a neighboring country, a country with vast resources and a mighty army. Upon landing on the island this army moved with little resistance toward the islands only city. With less than day to decide what action to take the leaders of the island desperately discussed what could be done. They were hugely outnumbered, out resourced and out skilled, so defeat looked inevitable.
The leaders never took a decision without first consulting with their religious Oracle so they approached her small dwelling on the edge of the city, informing her of what was taking place. In response the Oracle spent an entire day in deep mediation before finally coming to the leaders with a heavy heart saying, “I am so very sorry but I have been told that God Himself has joined our enemies and has put all of His power at their disposal”.
This message, as one might expect, sent deep fear and trembling through the heart of the leaders. In response one proclaimed, “We must surrender now and pray that they will have mercy”. Then another responded, “No, let us make ready our fastest ships and set sail with as many people as we can, perhaps we can sneak past their navy while it is dark”. But the chief remained calm through the discussions and finally said, “please trust me, I know what to do, I will bring us through this dark hour”. The chief was well respected by all and so they reluctantly agreed to do what he ordered.
That day he called together all the men of the city who could fight. He then sent those with young children home followed by those who had been married for less than a year. Then he asked that only those who wanted to fight stay. By the end of this process the remaining men numbered less than 1000, a tiny group in comparison to the army they would soon face.
These brave men were then armed and told to march behind their chief toward the encroaching army. That day there was a bloody battle and many lost their lives. But, to everyone’s utter surprise, by the end of the day the dictator’s seemingly impenetrable army had been dealt a devastating blow and turned in retreat.
The entire island was dumbstruck as they heard of how the army had run in fear back to their own land. The Oracle however was more confused than most for she knew what had been kept secret from the people: that God had joined the side of the enemy and fought with them. So the Oracle approached the Chief and said, “how did you know to fight when the odds where impossibly high and God Himself was pitted against you”.
But the chief merely smiled and replied, “your message was the very thing that persuaded me to fight rather than flee. For surely you know that it does not matter in the slightest where God is located in a fight… when God gets involved in a battle the weak and oppressed will always win”.
Tags: Parable, Peter Rollins, Universal exception, weakness of God
March 18th, 2008 at 8:59 am
Hey, enjoyed the story, although I it didn’t seem to all make sense.
Like why did the chief choose to believe the oracle was right about God being involved yet choose not to believe that he was pitted against them?
Also, the maxim declared by the chief doesn’t hold true within the Bible. I mean there were plenty of fights in the OT particularly where the weak, oppressed and even those who feared God lost.
March 18th, 2008 at 10:51 am
This is an interesting anecdote .
I have taken the following out of this story for myself:
The obvious meaning of the “prophecy” of the Oracle verses the intuition of the Chief. This speaks to me of intimately knowing God.
God could choose to be on the loosing side.
March 18th, 2008 at 11:58 am
In terms of your concerns Selkie thought I would note down a couple of thoughts,
“why did the chief choose to believe the oracle was right about God being involved yet choose not to believe that he was pitted against them?”
In terms of the Chief believing only part of the prophecy the parable was written in such a way as to suggest that he believed the whole prophecy. One of the points of a parable (like the mythology of ancient Greece) is that through this mode of writing one is able to create a type of abstract thought experiment in which one can pit two seemingly inseparable ideas together in order to imagine what would happen and thus provide some insight. Here I was interested in mixing the idea of Christianity as structurally privileging the poor and weak with the idea of God being defeated by Jacob. And then playing these against the idea of God as power and being.
“the maxim declared by the chief doesn’t hold true within the Bible. I mean there were plenty of fights in the OT particularly where the weak, oppressed and even those who feared God lost”
The role of such parables is to attempt to uncover an essential core of spiritual and religious insight rather than deal with certain historical battles etc. within the bible. Here the idea is simply to point out that in life we should imagine God as (strategically) privileging the poor, the oppressed, the voiceless, the tortured and the starving (regardless of what religious or political authorities tell us).
I would eschew any attempt to somehow fit a parable into the biblical whole as I don’t think that one can maintain the idea of a biblical whole (parts of the text themselves play up against other parts as they are written at different times, in different voices, with different intents), but rather I seek to explore aspects of the biblical text which seem key to the message of Christ.
Hope that’s useful
March 18th, 2008 at 11:31 pm
I enjoyed the twist in the end, and think the chief is a rather clever guy. I initially started wondering whether the Oracle was out to get the chief, and was using his faithfulness to destroy him, but alas – I shouldn’t read a parable like a mystery novel. Thanks for sharing it.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:39 am
This parable fits well into the understanding of God the bible can give if we don’t ignore it. Thanks!
March 20th, 2008 at 7:56 am
>Here I was interested in mixing the idea of Christianity as structurally privileging the
>poor and weak with the idea of God being defeated by Jacob. And then playing these
>against the idea of God as power and being.
I see that I’ve missed the point of parable entirely, sorry
OK I got the first idea on a surface level but how does God privilege the poor?
Is this a “Less to lose” type of thing? Or is there more to it?
I remember Jacob wrestling an angel but not defeating God, or are you saying that by defeating the angel he defeated God by proxy?
March 20th, 2008 at 8:12 am
Hey selkie… please don’t think that I think you have missed the point of parables! I wrote about the point of a parable as if there is one point when of course parables have many points. Although I think it helpful to think of them as abstract thought experiments like what you find in introductory philosophy classes.
In terms of privileging the poor I am thinking of a structural emphais Jesus gave to those who were poor, oppressed, persecuted etc. Elsewhere I have argued that Christianity operates with the idea of always seeking the one who is excluded. The place to find God being in service to the poor – in churches spires point upward toward heaven (pointing toward God) when really they should be pointing to the nearest homeless shelter (although that would be much harder to build)
In terms of Jacob the text is ambiguous. However, if I remember correctly it says, “you shall be called Israel because you have wrestled with God and overcome”. The text also suggests that Jacob wrestled with God as also hinted at in the asking of the divine name.
Cheers
March 21st, 2008 at 5:44 am
>In terms of privileging the poor I am thinking of a structural emphais Jesus gave to
>those who were poor, oppressed, persecuted etc. Elsewhere I have argued that
>Christianity operates with the idea of always seeking the one who is excluded. The
>place to find God being in service to the poor – in churches spires point upward
>toward heaven (pointing toward God) when really they should be pointing to the
>nearest homeless shelter (although that would be much harder to build)
Whats the purpose of helping the poor? How does that bring you closer to God? I mean surely it should be the middle class you would want to hang around with to find out about God? Better educated, lower crime rate and most of the Christians I’ve come across have been middle class, then maybe I’ve been going to the wrong churches?
>In terms of Jacob the text is ambiguous. However, if I remember correctly it says, “you
>shall be called Israel because you have wrestled with God and overcome”. The text
>also suggests that Jacob wrestled with God as also hinted at in the asking of the
>divine name.
I really wish I could read hebrew at this moment. I do know however that there are two versions of the word ‘with’ and many names for God, so I’ll be researching that next chance I get. If one could achieve greatness in the eyes of God through fighting him that would change things somewhat in a very practical way.
>The text also suggests that Jacob wrestled with God as also hinted at in the asking of
>the divine name.
Asking of the divine name?
March 21st, 2008 at 6:51 am
Hey there
You are right about the education etc. of the middle classes, however I am thinking about the idea of knowing God as a mode of being rather than as a assembly of ideas. I would argue that the way of “knowing” in the bible refers to a way of relating – that God is known through relating in love. “Love”, I would argue (though not here for the sake of time) is a word that houses a radical event which calls us to lift up the down trodden. By loving we know God and to love means to seek out the other (enemy, stranger, downtrodden) rather than just the same (family, friends, partners).
I think that there is an important place for theology, but it is not knowing God. It is like the idea that physics is important for helping one understand the structure of the world but it does not necessarily relate to the way one lives in the world, i.e. one need not know the atomic composition of a table to use it (this is of course only a flawed analogy).
In terms of wrestling with God, this is a recurrent theme in the bible. But Jacob is a good example. The idea of Jacob asking for the divine name comes from the idea that after the stranger says, ‘you having wrestled with God” Jacob asks for name of the stranger. In the mythology of the time God is thought of to have a secret name which, if known, bestows power. When someone asks for the name of God after they know it is God they speak to it hints at an asking of the secret name (for example as found in Exodus when Moses asks for Gods name knowing already that he speaks with God).
March 24th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Good stuff Pete. Love the story.
Cheers
April 8th, 2008 at 1:08 am
Nice parable Pete (and sorry I’m late to it). Only one objection: is a military analogy a good one for God’s work in the world?
April 8th, 2008 at 3:39 am
Hey Justin. I think that you are right to question the types of analogies we use to describe the kingdom as they influence how we understand it. Military analogies are often used in church and give the impression that we should run like a modern army (without questioning our authorities, celebrating power, victory etc.). The only thing I would say about this parable is that it is actually attempting to subvert those analogies in a variety of ways.
Now even with that taken into consideration one could still say that the tribal leader choose to fight the army rather than not (e.g. I could have written it in such a way that by not fighting the strong army still lost). This would have made the same point without the ‘good guys’ spilling blood.
I think that is an interesting comment and brings up issues such as, just war, defending the innocent etc. Personally I am not an advocate of Just War theory in that I don’t think a war can ever be ‘just’. However that does not mean that I think that some battles are necessary. Having said this the parable is not about that, rather it is about the kingdom being among the poor… so in short you have got me thinking!