Understanding God (6 of a series)

Here is a genuinely quick and easy to understand continuation in my series that hopes to help you better understand God, his will and his ways. Before continuing discussion of his attributes, for lack of a better word, of all-knowing-ness, love, mercy and perfect judgment, I want to explain more about how God has appeared to humans.

In the recent blog posts I have cited where God has appeared "in person," that is to say, in a manifestation of his core being, to Adam and Eve, to Moses, and also to Ezekiel and Isaiah, although in the latter two examples they were viewing God "up" within his realm, rather than in a more personal presentation on earth as God did with Adam and Eve and Moses. I want to make sure that you understand the difference between God and the visitations that are the "Angel of God" as described in the Bible.

Often God will speak directly to a human through an angel. That is an example of the "Angel of God." The angel is a real angel, an individual, but the angel is not there in "his" own identity, but is entirely given over to God's speaking through the angel. One obvious example is that one of the three angels that visited Abraham was the "Angel of God." In other words, Abraham was conversing with God, but to the face of one of God's angels.

To understand the difference, think about the Annunciation of the archangel Gabriel to the Virgin Mary. Gabriel brought a message from God, but Gabriel was speaking on behalf of God, not speaking as God through his angelic presence. In other words, Mary was not hearing God's voice and words directly spoken through Gabriel. Gabriel was the messenger, the angel, who accurately and faithfully delivers God's message. An "Angel of God" is an actual angel but one who is given over to having God himself personally speak through the angel. Thus Abraham was having an actual conversation with God, when he spoke to the one angel of the three who was the Angel of God, but God spoke through the manifestation of the angel, rather than appearing as He.

Genesis 18
1. The Lord appeared to Abraham by the terebinth of Mamre, as he sat in the entrance of his tent, while the day was growing hot. 2. Looking up, he saw three men standing nearby.

Abraham hastens to have Sarah prepare food for the visitors, as he does not recognize them as being angels, and he certainly does not recognize that one is Yahweh. It is only when "one of them" prophesies that the aged Sarah will become pregnant and bear a son that Abraham realizes that the speaker is the Lord God.

10. One of them said, "I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah will then have a son."

Sarah overhears and laughs in disbelief. With this reply Abraham fully realizes that the "one of them" who is the leader is in actuality God.

13. But the Lord said to Abraham, "Why did Sarah laugh and say, 'Shall I really bear a child, old as I am?' 14. Is anything too marvelous for the Lord to do? At the appointed time, about this time next year, I will return to you, and Sarah will have a son."

Because Sarah had laughed in secret and was embarrassed, she tried to deny doing so, but the Lord gently calls her out on that.

15. Because she was afraid, Sarah dissembled, saying, "I didn't laugh." But he said, "Yes, you did."

You can now understand why it is rare that God appears in even a partial fullness of his divine being, and why instead God more often appears through one of his angels. Sarah's denial is one the one hand a chill reminder of Eve's denial to God's face, but because God appears here as an angel garbed as a traveler, it is possible to have gentle and "family" discourse, including Sarah even fibbing as she is flustered, without finding one's self in the pickle of lying to God's face in his majesty. God wants to communicate lovingly and if you examine the Bible thoroughly you never see him appearing in "thunder and awe" in order to scare the very humans he loves.

And so even after Abraham, and eventually Sarah, realizes who one of the travelers "is," they maintain the low key appearance of all three.

16. The men set out from there and looked down toward Sodom; Abraham was walking with them, to see them on their way. [The Lord and Abraham have an extended conversation while the other two travelers wait silently.] 33. The Lord departed as soon as he had finished speaking with Abraham, and Abraham returned home. Genesis 19:1. The two angels reached Sodom in the evening, as Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom.

So you see that the scripture confirms that the two travelers with the Lord were angels, who went onward on their main mission, which was to destroy the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah.

While the Lord and Abraham converse as recorded in Genesis 18:17-32, the first two lines of this passage records what God was thinking silently to himself. How is that known, so that it can be recorded in scripture? Remember that the first five books of the Bible, the Torah, the Pentateuch, contains information that was given by God to Moses. Thus God told Moses what he was thinking when he recalled for Moses the conversation that he had with Abraham. Just because different hands have written different parts of the surviving copies of the Pentateuch does not mean that the revelatory and historical information did not come from God to Moses except, of course, for the portions about the death of Moses, which would have been known to Aaron and the other priests, and thus recorded by them. But all of the historical and divine insights recorded in the Pentateuch was given to Moses, and thus I thought you'd be interested in making that connection by being stepped through understanding this process.

17. The Lord reflected: "Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18. now that he is to become a great and populous nation, and all the nations of the earth are to find blessing him him? 19. Indeed, I have singled him out that he may direct his sons and do his posterity to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just, so that the Lord may carry into effect for Abraham the promises he made about him." [The Lord then goes on to speak aloud to Abraham and tell him his intentions.]

As you understand, especially through our discussion of God's all-knowing-ness, you realize that it's not like God actually has to pause and think through and ponder what he is going to do. Obviously God's will is always engaged as God continually manifests all-awareness and all of his will and intentions both present and "future." God, however, explained to Moses in human terms, as if God was "thinking it through" what God's will was regarding both his relationship with Abraham and his intentions toward Sodom and Gomorrah. This is why God expressed his will to Moses using the analogy of human thought, so that humans can understand the nature of his intentions and the 'why' of his subsequent actions. Here, God is making the point that he decided to "confide" in Abraham the shocking and hard news regarding God's intention to smite Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham is then given the chance to argue the case for saving Sodom and Gomorrah if enough innocent people are found to be among the sinners. This is another way that God was able to communicate to Moses so people could understand the very special relationship of trust that God bestowed on Abraham. You, of course, can read this conversation in the scripture, but now you understand better two things: 1) how God appeared to Abraham and 2) how to interpret the nature of the dialogue, both with Sarah and Abraham, as God's willingness to allow companionable dialogue even with his divine self, and what a gift that is in truth that humans must understand.

Now, when you read about the visit of the travelers, including the Lord, to Abraham as it is related in the Qur'an, you can detect how the emphasis in the same story differs according to the teller. In the Qur'an it is Gabriel assisting the Prophet (PBUH) in understanding the message of the Qur'an and the events that are related by God.

Surah 15
49. Inform My servants that I am the Forgiving, the Merciful.
50. And that My punishment-that is the painful punishment.
51. And inform them of the guests of Ibrahim [Abraham]:
52. When they entered upon him, they said, Peace. He said: Surely we are afraid of you.
53. They said: Be not afraid, surely we give you the good news of a boy, possessing knowledge.
54. He said: Do you give me good news (of a son) when old age has come upon me?-Of what then do you give me good news!
55. They said: We give you good news with truth, therefore be not of the despairing.
56. He said: And who despairs of the mercy of his Lord but the erring ones?
57. He said: What is your business then, O messengers?
58. They said: Surely we are sent towards a guilty people.
59. Except Lut's [Lot's] followers: We most surely deliver them all,
60. Except his wife; We ordained that she shall surely be of those who remain behind.

Remember that Gabriel relates to the Prophet (PBUH) what happened in the meeting between the three angels, including the Lord God, with Abraham thousands of years after God related to Moses what had happened. God provided Moses with great detail because that was the foundation of the faith, the placing of the Torah, the cornerstone of revelation by God of himself to those who would father and mother the divine faiths. Thus the true detail of all that transpired in those times is found in the Bible, specifically as we are discussing here, Genesis.

Thus you cannot help but notice that the Torah and the Qur'an discuss the same event with the same points of theology and sacred history. But this is a vivid example of the difference in tone due to the difference in God's intention in sharing and repeating the relating of the events. If you are either a technical manager, an executive or someone in the communications industry, I bet you recognize now that while the Book of Genesis provides the detailed " technical reference manual that contains everything you can possibly know of what happened," the Qur'an provides the "highly summarized outline of action steps, almost like a user quick reference card." In the Book of Genesis God wants humans to understand and to comprehend. In the Qur'an God is establishing connectivity with the people who will become the believers, the Muslims, back to their faith history from Adam on downward, especially the fathers of the three divine faiths, notably Abraham.

So the Book of Genesis provides a step by step accounting of the relevant details of the action and dialogue, including insight into God's "thought process," in order to understand his will in human terms. The Qur'an gets right to the point by essentially validating that this event did indeed occur, but focusing on "what is to be done, believed or learned" from this. The Qur'an in a poetic and punchy way replicates conversation, but as action points of faith. Gabriel, speaking for the Lord, gets right down to the essential messages of faith rather than repeat the detailed information that formed the foundation of the Jewish and later the Christian faiths. Thus the same event forms the foundation of the Muslim faith too, but in the term of "action steps" of belief to be derived from the shared faith history events and revelation. Rather than repeat the detail of the events, they are summarized as a lesson that God is Forgiving and Merciful, and when there is going to be hard news of truth and chastisement, there is also joyous news of faith and reward. Both discuss the same event, but one with the tone of companion, in order to fully understand all that happened, while the other with the tone of messenger, so that the hearer comprehends the promise and expectations by God of the faithful.

A few more points before wrapping up this post of the series. The Qur'an was given by God to the Muslims to reconnect them to their faith heritage, and to reveal God's expectations of them. Thus, for example, Ismail (Ishmael) is explained as an ancestral linkage, being the son of Abraham who becomes the father of the Muslim people, yet Ishmael's mother, Hagar, who receives a personal visitation of the Lord God to her great honor, is not mentioned. If one wants to read about how Hagar conceived Ishmael, was persecuted by the jealous Sarah, and was comforted in person by God himself appearing to her, one must read Genesis 16. It is a beautiful chapter that explains the origin of the naming of Ishmael and God's prophecy regarding him, and also some interesting facts, such as Abraham being eighty six years of age when Ishmael was born. The Qur'an was never meant to repeat the truth of the events of the shared history, and the omission of details such as the comforting of Hagar by God does not call those events into question at all. Rather, it goes without saying that what was documented in the Torah, in the Bible in the shared faith history happened as related, and God does not have to repeat himself what he has told once. Rather, God was reconnecting the people who would become the Muslims back to their authentic history, and giving them their own "action steps" of faith in order to know and to serve God.

I hope that you have found this interesting and helpful.