So much of Scripture revolves around relationships: families, friendships, mentorships, communities, discipleship, reconciliation, betrayal, forgiveness.
Why do you think God so often chooses to work through people and relationships instead of only through direct intervention?
I think perhaps the simple answer to this complex question is this.
"Then the LORD God said, 'It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Genesis 2:18
I really believe that we are meant to be together. Look here in Ecclesiastic 4:9-12
“Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him–a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”
This is also why we have the church. The Family of God. Can and does God call us in His Word, or work through direct intervention? However, I think God usually works through multiple people for this reason. United, we are stronger. Together we can stand better. Divided we fall.
Some may disagree, just my opinion.
Peter
we were created for relationships.
Relationships with God, with spouses, family, children, friends, enemies and God has also given us a role in salvation.
That of sharing the ’ good news ’
I think this is a representation of how God desires to interact with us—in an intimate way, through a personal relationship. I think it makes perfect sense that he also works this way among humans. We bear his image—the imago dei—and part of who he is is to be in relationship with his people, so we are wired the same way.
1 John 4:21 tells us:
“And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.”
It’s in our relationships with other people that our love for God is demonstrated. If you can’t love the person in front of you, then how is it possible to love God whom you can’t see? The Bible is full of verse that describe relationship and what it should look like in a born again Christian. That relationship originates first with our position in God and flows out to others. Our relationship with people is important to God and He uses our relationships to bless, teach us, and show our heart to ourselves. Sometimes it’s impossible to truly know your own heart until you are faced with something you’ve done.
The body of Christ is made up of people and we are called to unity in the Spirit. Unity is seen in our relationships. He loves us singularly and He loves us collectively. I’ve learned more about myself through friends and enemies alike than I care to know. Even so, I’m grateful for the window to my own soul.
Palmer Robertson: The Christ of the Covenants.
Unity and Diversity of the Covenant
The Covenant of Grace is but one covenant, yet it is administered in various ways. The Westminster Confession calls these administrations “dispensations” of the covenant (WCF 7:5-6).
There is a unity of the Covenant in all ages. There were different men used as covenant mediators between God and his people, and there were expanding degrees of revelation and symbolisms of that one covenant. The continuity of the promises show the oneness of its sovereign administration.
There is the unifying idea of the Immanuel Principle. God assures his people that he will be present with them in a special way, to be their God and to declare them as his people. One of the names given to God in Hebrew is “Immanu El” (עמּנוּ אל). It’s two separate words in Hebrew. It combines the prepositional form “with us” (Immanu – עמּנוּ), and the word for “God” (El – אל). Together they mean, “With-us God”. It’s a designation for God as he stands in covenantal presence among his people.
Isaiah 7:14, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.” This verse was quoted by the Angel to Joseph when he learned that Mary would give birth to the promised Messiah (Matthew 1:20-23).
This Immanuel principle is one of the clear unifying ideas which seems to be always present when God marks out a people for himself in all ages. Fundamental to the “covenant concept” is the idea of subjugating undeserving people under a sovereign King’s care and protection, and expecting allegiance from them showing loyalty and obedience to the King.
The primary work of salvation is God restoring fallen people to a state of holiness by atonement and redemption securing reconciliation. All this is through the merits of Messiah’s substitutionary death so that the recipients of grace are restored to fellowship with God. He becomes their God and they his people in a way unique from the remainder of the lost human race. This fundamental covenantal union has not changed in the course of human history.
God revealed this basic redemptive promise to Abraham in this covenantal form. Genesis 17:7 “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.”
The Lord spoke to Moses and to the nation of Israel in his time showing that same unique relationship. He used the covenant name Yahveh ( יהוה “YHVH”, often translated as “Jehovah”, and represented in Scripture as “LORD” following the example of Jesus and the other New Testament writers when quoting the Hebrew Scriptures).
Exodus 6:7, “Then I will take you for My people, and I will be your God; and you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.”
Deuteronomy 4:20, “The LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, from Egypt, to be a people for His own possession, as today.”
In the period of the kings God spoke similarly by the prophets he raised up to deliver his message to his people. 2 Kings 11:17, “Then Jehoiada made a covenant between the LORD and the king and the people, that they should be the LORD’s people…”
Ezekiel 34:24, “And I, The LORD, will be their God, and My servant David will be prince among them; I the LORD, have spoken.”
Zechariah 8:8, “and I will bring them back, and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem, and they will be My people and I will be their God in truth and righteousness.”
Foreshadowing the age of Messianic deliverance God said, Zechariah 2:11, “many nations will join themselves to the LORD in that day and will become My people. Then will I dwell in your midst, and you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you.”
The Immanuel principle is most clearly applied to the union of God with his church after the greatest revealing of God being with us in the person of Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 8:10, “this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them upon their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”
2 Corinthians 6:16, “… just as God said, ‘I will be their God, and they shall be My people.'”
The basic promise and benefit of God’s Covenant of Grace has always been the same in each era of its revelation since the fall of mankind.
J.
@ellenvera, God is the perfect Model of personal relationships, since he is three Persons in one God, the ultimate God of harmony, who does everything from the Father through Jesus by the Spirit. The amazing thing is that he adopts us as his children, who remain human but who experience his loving relationship too and thus are called to live in harmony with each other!!