As we have had the privilege of walking churches through their histories to hear what Jesus is saying to them, we have learned many things about the ways God deals with His people. Certainly one of the most common experiences for us is to hear about the painful things with which He will discipline a church. Sometimes we get asked as to why a God of love would permit such pain as splits or exoduses upon a church. It never ceases to be a good question.
In Israel’s history, there were lesser judgments and disciplines which God brought upon them, things He told them He would do if they started to depart from the covenant they had with Him. Marauding bands, locust swarms, drought, etc. were all a part of God’s “messaging system” to let Israel know of their unfaithfulness and particularly their idolatry (see Deuteronomy 28). They struggled with many sins, but especially the elevation of idols into the place of God in their lives. So God permitted these national disciplines corporate pain in the nation as they were forced to struggle with their dwindling resources and insecurities produced by them.
But there was one event which stands out in Israel’s history as far more dramatic than any other, and that is the Babylonian Exile. It was far more than just an exile: God used King Nebuchadnezzar to destroy everything in Judah—their economy, their Temple, the walls around the city, every vineyard and field. Moreover, he took every remaining able-bodied individual into exile in Babylon who survived the siege of Jerusalem, erasing the board so to speak of the Jewish people as a people.
To put this in terms we might understand, it would be like some foreign power devastating the United States military, our economy, every city, our government infrastructure, destroying everything! And then taking the people who are left to populate Outer Mongolia! It is hard for us to imagine what it must have been for the Jews as a people.
As a people who had endured this judgment because of their love of idols, they now entered a culture where idols were everywhere, where every brick paving the road was stamped with “To the Glory of Marduk”, the chief god of the Babylon. The Babylonian pyramids to their other gods, called ziggurats, dominated the skyline like mountains. For God’s people, who had struggled with idolatry, to be immersed in a culture where idolatry was everywhere they looked for seventy years, would seem to have ruined them forever.
But here is the wonder of God! It had the exact opposite effect! When the Jews returned from their exile 70 years later, their time in Babylon had driven idolatry far from their hearts permanently! They became committed to God in a way they had never been able to previously. Their pain accomplished this.
We see the same thing happen in churches, where God will use the ugliest and most awful conflicts, divisions, splits and losses to convince a church to listen to Him. When they do, they often commit never to return to the kinds of behaviors which caused their previous pain. The terrible pain they endure convinces them of this like no sermon could. It is just an amazing mercy of God.
How might painful events at your church be seen as God’s mercy?
Dr. Ken Quick serves as Director of Consulting for Blessing Point Ministries and is the author of Healing the Heart of Your Church(ChurchSmart 2003) and Body Aches (ChurchSmart 2009). Ken also serves as Chair of the Practical Theology Department at Capital Bible Seminary.
