Is God Always for Us?

When I was a little boy, there were times I found it hard to believe that my parents loved me. This usually happened when they disciplined me or withheld something I desired. In those moments, I was convinced that they were against me. My feelings told me so, and it was easy to agree.

Of course, nearly every time this occurred they had reasons beyond my then level of comprehension. They did their best. Sadly, instead of trusting them, I took those opportunities to paint them in a negative light. I couldn’t eat rocks because they loved me, not because they didn’t. I couldn’t jump in the water without inflatable arm rings—not because they wanted me to be miserable, but because I would drown if I did.

This is a fairly common dynamic for most children. They shout or mumble, “You don’t love me!” when they’re refused something they want.

At times I wonder if we ever fully leave this behavior behind us as we become older. Perhaps it shifts upward and now affects how we interpret God’s love when His ways don’t bend to our desires.

Is God Really for Us?

In Joshua 10:42 we learn that God fought for Israel. This was already promised in Deuteronomy: “The Lord your God, who goes before you, He will fight for you” (Deut. 1:30; see also Deut. 20:4). In other parts of the Bible we read similarly: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31).

But this makes me wonder: How does God decide whom to fight for and whom to fight against? And how do I know that God is for me and not for someone fighting against me?

We find some answers in the book of Joshua. Prior to the miracle of the destruction of Jericho, we see Joshua taking in the sight of Jericho. Suddenly a Man stands before him with His sword drawn. Joshua must have been surprised, but he is brave enough to approach Him and ask, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” (Joshua 5:13, NIV). The answer is entirely unexpected. “ ‘Neither,’ he replied, ‘but as commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.’ Then Joshua fell facedown to the ground in reverence” (verse 14, NIV).

The answer is as surprising as it is profound. To Joshua, there were only two options: This Mighty Warrior was either for Israel or for their enemies. The Angel immediately refuses Joshua’s categories, however. He appears to say that the Lord is not categorically for us—that is, for our will—at all. He represents His own government and laws. Yet here He comes, in full armor, with an invitation to aid him in the mission. God wants to recruit Joshua and the Israelites for the war against Jericho, not because He’s for the Israelites, but because He has judged Jericho and set aside Canaan for the Israelites. He is for His plan, not ours. In this sense God is not for us.

Essentially God doesn’t uncritically support everything we do, no matter what it is, just because we’ve claimed Him as our God. He won’t strengthen our arms to do evil. He strengthens our arms if we’re willing to join His mission and follow His orders. He is “merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin,” but at the same time, “by no means clearing the guilty” (Ex. 34:6, 7). With God, good will always be good, and evil will always be evil.

We see this no-nonsense approach even more clearly after the fall of Jericho. The Israelites are hyped from the mighty display of God’s power, and Joshua sends them to another battle against the city of Ai. The spies who went beforehand told Joshua it would be an easy win, but they ended up defeated and utterly humiliated: “The hearts of the people melted and became like water” (Joshua 7:5). Joshua tore his clothes and lay in shock with his face against the ground, dust on his head, and turned toward the ark of the covenant, praying, “Why, Lord? We thought You were for us, but now . . . ? Should we never have come?” (see verses 6-9).

God doesn’t uncritically support everything we do, no matter what it is, just because we’ve claimed Him as our God.

The cause of this humiliating display and apparent abandonment of their Great Strength was that someone did something at Jericho, and God refused to make it appear as if He endorsed it. God made it crystal clear that He was not for Israel simply because they were Israel. He was not playing favorites. He was for them when they were eager to be aligned with Him and His will. Otherwise, they simply did not represent Him.

“For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe” (Deut. 10:17).

Achan had stolen “a beautiful Babylonian garment, two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold weighing fifty shekels” (Joshua 7:21). When it was revealed that he had caused God to turn away from them, Achan stated the facts but showed no remorse for what he had done. God knew that if this idolatry were left unchecked, it would have fatal consequences for Israel, even before they were established in the land He was giving them. Jesus’ warning many centuries later was no joke: “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matt. 6:24). The idolatry would spread like a disease and open up the floodgates for destruction.

It’s both appealing and extremely challenging for us that God is so impartial (see Rom. 2:10; Acts 10:34; Eph. 6:9). If we’re honest, sometimes we don’t like it. When we sin, we’d prefer for Him to make excuses for us, while we’d want to see others severely punished for their mistakes. This is very immature. But true help is available.

At the Same Time, God Is for Everyone

In the beginning of Joshua 7 the story about the failure at Ai is prefaced with these words: “But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things” (verse 1, NIV). Their lack of faith (or “broken faith” in the ESV) reveals more about who God is for and against—both in the ultimate and in the immediate sense.

God was with Israel because of the promise given to Abraham (Abram at the time) in Genesis 12:1-3. This was a faith covenant, not one based on ethnicity, abilities, accomplishments, or anything else. It was given by God because He wanted everyone to be blessed: “In you [Abram] all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Gen. 12:3). Paul makes this point further in Romans 4. The goal was for everyone to be a child of Abraham through having the same faith in the same promise, which would find fulfillment in the coming (and for Paul and us, already come) Messiah.

God declared Abraham righteous simply because he believed what God said and wanted to be put to good use. The circumcision (the “works”) was only a “sign . . . a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while still uncircumcised” (Rom. 4:11). Abraham receiving mercy all hinged on his belief in God’s promise to do for him what he couldn’t do for himself. God wanted to take him on a journey and bless him so he could become a blessing. Abraham said, “Yes, please,” and God declared him saved.

The far-reaching intent of this faith was that Abraham should share it with the entire world (Gen. 12:4), which shows that God is for everyone’s salvation. Therefore, when Abraham’s descendants believed in the blessed promise, they were also counted as righteous and aligned with God, just as he had been. And beyond his immediate family and the believing Israelites who descended from him, there were also Gentiles who found their way into the fold of God’s mercy: Egyptians who joined the Exodus; Rahab, who hid the spies and saved her family from Jericho’s destruction; Ruth, who left behind Moab to follow Naomi’s God; and many more.

In the exact same way, when you and I believe in that promise, we are counted as righteous and are brought into alignment with God.

“Therefore it is of faith [not works] that it might be according to grace [because if according to works, grace is rendered useless], so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law [the Jews, the lineal heirs of Abraham], but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all” (Rom. 4:16).

So, truly, God is for all of us in the salvific sense. His intention is for all of us to believe in His promise so that one day we could all, as rightful citizens, enter “the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:10).

His unfailing love for everyone is most clearly evidenced in His sacrifice on the cross, where He kept the promise given to Abraham, securing its future fulfillment for everyone who is “longing for a better country—a heavenly one” (Heb. 11:16, NIV). Until we get there, we are promised all the help we need. For what purpose? To be “more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Rom. 8:37). “If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?” (verses 31, 32).

This helps us see that even though God must judge and be against sin, He hates it when we choose death over life. On the cross He took the greatest punishment on our behalf in the hope that we would all see that He is for us in the deepest sense and would never want anyone to die when they could live. And we can all live life “to the full” (John 10:10, NIV) because of what He’s done for us.

“ ‘For I have no pleasure in the death of one who dies,’ says the Lord God. ‘Therefore turn and live!’ ” (Eze. 18:32).