What is God afraid of?

Deuteronomy 32:22-28

In the street the sword shall bereave,

    and in the chambers terror,

for young man and woman alike,

    nursing child and old grey head.

I thought to scatter them

    and blot out the memory of them from humankind;

but I feared provocation by the enemy,

    for their adversaries might misunderstand

and say, ‘Our hand is triumphant;

    it was not the Lord Who did all this.’ (Deut. 32:25-27, NRSVA)

Bezrukov, V. (27 JAN 2007). Scared Girl. (CC BY 2.0).

The most arresting portion of today’s reading is Yahweh’s statement in verse 27, “I feared provocation by the enemy…”  What could this mean?  Surely the Creator of All is not afraid of anything!  

Lest anyone be tempted to think we’re dealing with Moses’ voice, rather than Yahweh’s, look back at the introduction to this passage:

The Lord saw it, and was jealous;

    He spurned His sons and daughters.

He said: I will hide My face from them… [emphasis added] (Deut. 32:19-20)

Therefore, it’s pretty clear that God is talking in verse 27.  The question remains, “What is He saying?”  

It seems highly unlikely that the text is telling us Yahweh is actually fearful of either the Babylonians or their gods.  Such a claim would fly in the face of everything else said by and about Yahweh throughout the Bible.  There’s no way this could’ve been a “scribal slip” that no one caught.  The statement means something…and it must mean something congruent with the rest of Scripture.

Taken within the larger context of the Song of Moses, it seems that what God fears is not the enemy…but what the enemy might come to assume (i.e., that “our hand is triumphant, it was not Yahweh who [handed over the land of Israel to us]”).

But why would God care about this?  So what if the pagans become conceited?  That would only give God all the more reason to smite them in turn, right?

And that is the key to understanding why Yahweh would “fear” their misunderstanding.  God does not enjoy destroying His creation – any part of it.  The message Ezekiel will later give to the chastened exiles applies equally to all of God’s handiwork:

As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die[?]... (Ezek. 33:11)