God of Process, God of Systems

I had a professor in college who was very quotable. Actually, I had a few professors in college who were very quotable. But especially this one. I still have many of his proverbs and truisms etched on the walls of my memory. One in particular came to my mind as I was reading God's promises regarding the conquest of Canaan in Ex. 23. My professor would say, "God brought about the Bible the same way he brought about the nation of Israel: through a historical process." Isn't that how God works! Our God is a God of Process. See in Ex. 23:29, "I will not drive [the "Ites" (Canaanites, etc.)] out of the land in one year, or the land would become desolate and the wild animals would multiply against you." God was preparing the Israelites for a long and trying campaign against the Ites. He anticipated that the people would grow weary (which they always seem to do) and was explaining why he didn't step in with one definite and dramatic miraculous action, the way he had with the red sea. If he merely wiped out the people of Canaan, the animals would overrun the land since the top of the food chain was removed.

Doesn't that remind you of Environmental Science class?

Anyway, I think this is where William P. Young is onto something in his book, The Shack. When Mack, the protagonist, confronts God about why his daughter was allowed to die, God talks about the consequences of interfering in the natural order (which God created). In the case of Israel, if God had merely wiped out the people of Canaan to make way for Israel, God would have had to interfere continually to keep animal populations down, and to keep the farmland from growing over with weeds.

This is a message we need to hear today: God works in process. We might want things to happen quicker, but God knows the best way. God is a systems theorist, understanding that within the created universe every point of intervention will result in a push back from some other part of the system. We humans are always seeking radical change. Maybe we need to step back and conquer one step at a time.