I really enjoyed this commentary on how the women resisted and would not participate in the idolatry of the Golden Calf, maintaining their faith and purity to God while the men lost theirs. This really is a very insightful analysis of both that event in the Old Testament and also a reminder that women used to protect, rather than threaten, piety. Unfortunately today many women are the "temptresses" of being false prophets, carried away with desire for power and "mystery" through new age and occult beliefs, and so they are often eager to destroy, rather than preserve, a family's faith, whether Jewish or Christian. (I admit I almost did not read this commentary because it's very "moon calf" new age sounding introduction. Puhleeze.) But this is a very worthy read for its analysis of a time when women were truly praiseworthy as leaders of the faith. I wish they set the example of orthodox humility and devotion more nowadays as they did then, in the example of the Golden Calf.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1225199607644&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Oct 30, 2008 11:51
Kol Isha: When the women refused to strip off their finery
By RACHEL ADELMAN
The writer lectures in Hebrew Bible and midrash at Matan, the Sadie Rennert Institute for Women's Torah Studies, in Jerusalem, as well as internationally.
snip
In the context of the Golden Calf, the women refrained from contributing their finery (edyan) Later, in response to consequences of the sin, the people stripped off their finery [edyam] (Ex. 33:6) as a symbol of mourning. According to the Talmud, these were the crowns that the Israelites had gained with their declaration of faith at Sinai: "We shall do and then we shall hear/understand" [na'aseh venishma] (BT Shabbat 88a). Because the women did not contribute their jewels to the making of the molten calf, they maintained a loyalty to the original experience at Sinai; they never lost those precious crowns as a consequence of participating in idolatry. The jewels of their words bound them. They were thus rewarded with the Rosh Hodesh festival as the ultimate symbol of integrity, despite the vicissitudes of time.
Showing posts with label Book of Exodus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Book of Exodus. Show all posts
Friday, October 31, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Muslim view of Adam and Eve origins
I enjoy reading the Islamic commentaries and answers to questions at arabnews.com and have posted links to interesting articles previously on this blog. It is also one of the places that I glean ideas of questions that my readers may have about God and his ways, and how to interpret differences in perception among the Abrahamic faiths in the one God. So here is an answer to a question that is nicely explained, and then my commentary.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=5§ion=0&article=115531&d=23&m=10&y=2008&pix=islam.jpg&category=Islam
snip
Q. As children we learn that Adam and Eve were sent down to earth, after they had been living in heaven, as punishment when Eve committed the great sin of disobeying God’s express orders. However, it was God’s will and design that man should live on earth. It is He who created the universe and made the earth suitable for human life. Please comment.
Emran
A. Let us clear first the myth that it was Eve, or Hawwa as her name is pronounced in Arabic, that was responsible for that sin and the fall from heaven. The Qur’an does not distinguish between the fault of Adam and that of Eve. On the contrary, in surahs 2 and 7, the Qur’an attributes the sin of eating from the forbidden tree to both of them together. In one instance, the Qur’an puts more blame on Adam: “They both ate of its fruit; and thereupon their shameful parts became visible to them, and they began to cover themselves with pieced-together leaves from the Garden. Thus did Adam disobey his Lord, and thus did he stray into error.” (20: 121)
It is true that it was always God’s design to place man on earth. This is clear in His announcement to the angels about the forthcoming event: “Your Lord said to the angels, ‘I am appointing a vicegerent on earth.’ They said, ‘Will You appoint on it someone who would spread corruption and shed blood, whereas we celebrate Your praises and extol Your holiness?’ He said, ‘I surely know that of which you have no knowledge.’” (2: 30)
So, why were Adam and Eve placed in heaven first? We understand that this was all to give them the experience of what may happen when they disobey God and listen to the temptation presented by the Evil One. They were thus equipped to fight temptation. Their endeavors to steer the right way would thus be more successful. This was all by God’s grace who did not wish man to start life on earth without thorough knowledge of right and wrong, and how to do more of the first and less of the second.
***
First, one must understand that the Bible in the Old Testament contains much more information about the exact same events than is contained in the Qur'an or was revealed to the Prophet (PBUH) simply because the Bible contains details of the shared history as explained to Moses many hundreds of years before either the Christian Gospels (which chronicle Jesus) or the Qur'an were gifted. The Qur'an, everyone agrees, is a book that was given to the descendants of Abraham who became the Muslim people, and that was its purpose. Thus the Qur'an did not attempt to provide more detail of ancient Biblical events in faith history, but rather less material, in order to stay true to its purpose. The purpose of the Qur'an and the Prophet's mission was to gift the people who would believe with understanding that they belong to the heritage of Abraham and to "reintroduce them" back to God, in a matter of speaking, since they lived among pagans and idolaters. Think of Muslims as being descended from a child who was separated from knowing about his or her birth parents and ancestors. The Qur'an was given to the Prophet (PBUH) so that he could understand that the Muslims are part of salvation history, are direct descendants of Abraham, and have a "personal relationship with God." So much of the ancient times are given to the Muslims as kind of "quick recaps" of their shared origins, and not an attempt to either replicate in length what is in the Bible or to provide as much or more detail.
Understanding that, and if you read the Qur'an you recognize its very lyrical and poetic structure, God tends to explain things in simple ways that people can easily understand. Thus Muslim children are taught that Adam and Eve were "with God in heaven before being on earth." This is both true but also a simplification. Adam and Eve were "with God" but that is because God brought what you can think of as a "corner of heaven" or a "piece of heaven" to earth, simply because heaven "travels along with God" where God resides. Eden was Eden precisely because God was "there" on earth with Adam and Eve. (That does not mean, obviously, that he was there in his entirety, because God is constantly throughout all of creation and constantly present in the heavenly realm, even when he is an apparition on earth).
The reason that this is misunderstood is that not being Bible readers, obviously, Muslims do not have access to other examples of what it is like when God is present on earth and "brings heaven with him." People who have read the Bible are able to cite a number of examples, and thus better understand that while Adam and Eve were "in heaven," they were also physically on earth, but living within heaven's grace in its tangible form on earth due to the presence of God. Here is the scripture that explains that God is physically present with them on earth.
Genesis 3:6-11 The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. When they heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the garden at the breezy time of the day, the man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. The Lord God then called to the man and asked him, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself." Then he asked, "Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!"
So you will notice that it is not a matter of Adam and Eve literally being floating up in heaven, and that makes no sense because they were made from the clay and dust of the ground by God in the first place. However, they were in "heaven" in the sense that unlike any humans who ever existed, they actually lived within God's physical presence on earth. God made himself present to the miraculous extent that he even walked as any human would during the cool and breezy time of the day, he used a voice to speak to them, and they could hear the sound of his footsteps. Heaven is God's realm and it "travels with him," so to speak. And thus Eden, being graced by God's actual presence on earth, was a "corner" of heaven that Adam and Eve occupied. They fell from heaven, in the sense of being "sent to earth" as Muslim children understand it, when God withdrew his presence and thus heaven away from the corner of earth that was the Garden of Eden. It's more like the carpet of God's grace was pulled out from under them and removed, and thus they had their feet "on earth" and had to face the hardships of life on earth without being protected and glorified in God's presence as they were originally.
When is the next time that we can describe heaven as being "on earth" in the accompaniment of God? When God appears to Moses and consents to travel with the Israelites. Here is a portion of the scripture that describes how Moses erected a tent that became filled with God in his presence, and thus was also a corner of heaven.
Exodus 33:7-11 The tent, which was called the meeting tent, Moses used to pitch at some distance away, outside the camp. Anyone who wished to consult the Lord would go to this meeting tent outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, the people would all rise and stand at the entrance of their own tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. As Moses entered the tent, the column of cloud would come down and stand at its entrance while the Lord spoke with Moses. On seeing the column of cloud stand at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise and worship at the entrance of their own tents. The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one man speaks to another. Moses would then return to the camp, but his young assistant, Joshua, son of Nun, would not move out of the tent.
Here you can see that it is like the tent that is pitched each time the migrating Israelites stopped to rest during their exodus becomes a "corner of heaven" that God chooses to occupy when Moses needed to consult with him. That is the meaning of the column of cloud, demarking that the realm of God is within. Thus the meeting tent is like Eden in the sense that it is a small earthly portion of God's realm by virtue of his presence, but it is not like Eden because it is not designed to sustain humans in grace and glory, since they had forfeited that right. However, Moses was the first and only prophet or patriarch who was able to meet face to face with God and God treated him as his friend. Here are two more examples of how Moses interacted with God, not in a sense of having a dream or vision, but God being physically present and thus bringing along with him a portion of what heaven "is like."
Exodus 33:17-23 The Lord said to Moses, "This request too, which you have just made, I will carry out, because you have found favor with me and you are my intimate friend." Then Moses said, "Do let me see your glory!" He answered, "I will make all my beauty pass before you, and in your presence I will pronounce my name, 'Lord''; I who grant mercy to whom I will. But my face you cannot see, for no man sees me and still lives. Here," continued the Lord, "is a place near me where you shall station yourself on the rock. When my glory passes I will set you in the hollow of the rock and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand, so that you may see my back; but my face is not to be seen."
Exodus 34:5-9 Having come down in a cloud, the Lord stood with him there and proclaimed his name, "Lord." Thus the Lord passed before him and cried out, "The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity, continuing his kindness for a thousand generations, and forgiving wickedness and crime and sin; yet not declaring the guilty guiltless, but punishing children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for their fathers' wickedness!" Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship. Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company. This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own."
Exodus 34:27-35 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance with them I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." So Moses stayed there with the Lord for forty days and forty nights, without eating any food or drinking any water, and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. [Notice that Moses, like Adam and Eve, is totally sustained from any need for food or water when he is in the presence of God. Again, that is accurate to say he is in "heaven" in the sense of being in God's glorified presence and having no earthly needs]. As Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands, he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant while he conversed with the Lord. When Aaron, then, and the other Israelites saw Moses and noticed how radiant the skin of his face had become, they were afraid to come near him. Only after Moses called to them did Aaron and all the rulers of the community come back to him. Moses then spoke to them. Later on, all the Israelites came up to him, and he enjoined on them all that the Lord had told him on Mount Sinai. When he finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moses entered the presence of the Lord to converse with him, he removed the veil until he came out again. On coming out, he would tell the Israelites all that had been commanded. Then the Israelites would see that the skin of Moses' face was radiant; so he would again put the veil over his face until he went in to converse with the Lord.
No human has ever had such a personal friendship and relationship that spanned many years on the physical reality of earth as did Moses with God. Moses in a very important way restored the bond and trust that Adam and Eve had broken with God. Yes, Abraham was the cornerstone of restoring the relationship with God that would provide humans with the beginning of their salvation history with God, which is ongoing to this very day. But Moses was privileged to see a physical manifestation of God, and to experience and absorb some of the glory of heaven, as no other has or will. Future appearances of God would be in the form of an angel of God being sent, with two notable exceptions. These are the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah, both of whom witnessed a physical presence of God on earth and with, what we are discussing here, the bringing of a "portion" of heaven along with God to earth.
Isaiah 6:1-8 In the year king Uzziah died, [that is known to be 742 BC by the way], I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two their veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet, and with two they hovered aloft. "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!" they cried one to the other. "All of earth is filled with his glory!" [These words are repeated, by the way, each time a Catholic Mass is celebrated, in imitation of the angels glorifying God in their own words]. At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke. Then I said, "Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with it. "See," he said, "now that this had touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged." [It is from this event, by the way, that Catholics learned to understand that no one can be in the presence of God without being purified using fire from his altar, and that therefore this will happen to all who merit entering heaven, the process of which we call purgatory, from the word "purged."] Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" "Here I am," I said, "send me!"
You can discern reading that passage, which describes the calling of Isaiah to God's service, that God in his power and glory entered into the room of the temple, bringing with him his seat of power in heaven, the throne, the seraphim and "the train of his garment," which is, just as we saw when he appeared to Moses, smoke and clouds. Thus this is another example of God bringing a part of heaven wrapped around his holy presence down to earth. The shouting of the seraphim, heavenly beings, was enough to make the temple shake.
There is a very lengthy description of the prophet Ezekiel's viewing of the glory of God and components of heaven that accompanied him. I have selected here passages that provide the total picture for you.
Ezekiel 1:1-4 In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month [Jewish scholars know this to be July 31, 593 BC], while I was among the exiles by the river Chebar, the heavens opened, and I saw divine visions. On the fifth day of the month, the fifth year, that is, of King Jehoiachin's exile, the word of the Lord came to the priest Ezekiel, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar. There the hand of the Lord came upon me. As I looked a stormwind came from the North, a huge cloud with flashing fire [enveloped in brightness], from the midst of which [the midst of fire] something gleaned like electrum. 13. In among the living creatures something like burning coals of fire could be seen; they seemed like torches, moving to and fro among the living creatures. The fire gleamed, and from it came forth flashes of lightning. 22. Over the heads of the living creatures, something like a firmament could be seen, seeming like glittering crystal, stretched straight out above their heads. 23. Beneath the firmament their wings were stretched out, one toward the other. [Each of them had two covering his body.] 24. Then I heard the sound of their wings, like the roaring of mighty waters, like the voice of the Almighty. When they moved, the sound of the tumult was like the din of an army. [And when they stood still they lowered their wings.] Above the firmament over their heads something like a throne could be seen, looking like sapphire. Upon it was seated, up above, one who had the appearance of a man. 27. Upward from what resembled his waist I saw what gleamed like electrum; downward from what resembled his waist I saw what looked like fire; he was surrounded with splendor. 28. Like the bow which appears in the clouds on a rainy day was the splendor that surrounded him. Such was the vision of the likeness of the Lord.
Ezekiel 2:1 When I had seen it, I fell upon my face and heard a voice that said to me: Son of man, stand up! I wish to speak to you. 22. The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he said to me: Get up and go out into the plain, where I will speak with you. 23. So I got up and went out into the plain, and I saw that the glory of the Lord was in that place, like the glory I had seen b the river Chebar. I fell prone, but then spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and he spoke with me.
This is not only a detailed description of this appearance of the Lord God, but notice that the appearance of God and the accompanying part of his glory of heaven that he brings with him is actually moved from one place to the other. God first appears to Ezekiel by the river, and then when God instructs him to get up and go to the plain, Ezekiel witnesses that the entire tableau of God's presence is now there. Further, a year later, in Ezekiel 10, God with his angels, whom Ezekiel now recognizes as cherubim, appear again in glory again, this time near where Ezekiel lives at the Temple. This has been dated as being on September 17, 592 BC. Again God appears with his throne in the firmament, and is thus another example of God "bringing" a part of heaven "with him" in a sense when he makes these visitations of his glory to earth, rather than when elsewhere in the Bible he sends an angel, such as an Angel of the Lord (an angel through which God directly speaks) or a representative who speaks for God, such as Gabriel.
There is another example of God opening up the boundary between earth and heaven and that is described during the martyrdom of the first Christian, St. Stephen.
Acts 7:54-59 When they heard this, they were infuriated, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, filled with the holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." But they cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him together. They threw him out of the city, and began to stone him. The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them"; and when he said this, he fell asleep [died].
To wrap up, let me point out a few things. Notice that it is only during the time of the ancient Israelites, and the time of Adam and Eve of course, that God actually appeared on earth in his glorified form, bring with him the actual "firmament" of heaven. God did not do the same thing during the time of the Christians, having sent Jesus Christ to represent him, and making his voice and his will known as described on several occasions in the Gospel, and God did not do the same thing when he gave the Qur'an to the Prophet (PBUH). We only have in those "modern" times the example of St. Stephen peering upward and seeing into heaven to view God as Stephen is dying. This is why it is important to read all of sacred scripture and not select out passages, looking for a quick "description" or "answer." There is a huge amount of insight to ponder by looking at all of these four examples (Adam and Eve, Moses, Isaiah and Ezekiel) of how God chooses to present himself and in what form. For example, I've been dismayed and in fact angered when I realized that some "new age" unbelievers like to extract the Ezekiel visitation by God and use that to "justify" that "aliens visited earth in flying saucers." When one reads the entire Bible and comprehends what one is reading, rather than trying to have a dark agenda, it is obvious that God is the only one who is electing to visit humans on those occasions and specifically his original chosen people. It is impossible to read the entirety of God's relationship with Moses and then jump around the Bible "looking for evidence of flying saucers." That is, of course, what cultists seek to do even with the Muslim faith, where I know that some try to twist the story we started this discussion with, how Adam and Eve started their existence in heaven, as making that a warped case for "Adam and Eve were aliens who flew down to earth on flying saucers." The souls of innocent children who have had to listen to "elders" who are unbelieving idolators and pagans have been damaged, and I cannot describe to you how many and how serious a crisis this has been, and remains. That is another reason, other than my usual reason of wanting to enlighten and spread the glory of God, and witness to him, and praise him, that I spent so much time on this subject this night. I am constantly having to purify and purge the garbage that many have fallen into by providing proper instruction in divine matters. I only pray that this does some good and that I see the fruits of the labor someday soon.
Many Christians are fascinated with the last chapter of our New Testament, called Revelation or Apocalypse. The only reason I do not mention it in this posting is because it does not fit our criterion of discussion, which is instances where God appears as himself, in the fullness of his glory, bringing some part of heaven's firmament with him. In Revelation St. John is taken to heaven; God does not come to earth to reveal to John, it is as simple as that. Revelation 1:10 I was caught up in spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a voice as loud as a trumpet. 4:1 After this I had a vision of an open door to heaven, and I heard the trumpetlike voice that had spoken to me before, saying, "Come up here and I will show you what must happen afterwards." 2. At once I was caught up in spirit. A throne was there in heaven, and on the throne sat one whose appearance sparkled like jasper and carnelian.
I hope that you have found this helpful.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=5§ion=0&article=115531&d=23&m=10&y=2008&pix=islam.jpg&category=Islam
snip
Q. As children we learn that Adam and Eve were sent down to earth, after they had been living in heaven, as punishment when Eve committed the great sin of disobeying God’s express orders. However, it was God’s will and design that man should live on earth. It is He who created the universe and made the earth suitable for human life. Please comment.
Emran
A. Let us clear first the myth that it was Eve, or Hawwa as her name is pronounced in Arabic, that was responsible for that sin and the fall from heaven. The Qur’an does not distinguish between the fault of Adam and that of Eve. On the contrary, in surahs 2 and 7, the Qur’an attributes the sin of eating from the forbidden tree to both of them together. In one instance, the Qur’an puts more blame on Adam: “They both ate of its fruit; and thereupon their shameful parts became visible to them, and they began to cover themselves with pieced-together leaves from the Garden. Thus did Adam disobey his Lord, and thus did he stray into error.” (20: 121)
It is true that it was always God’s design to place man on earth. This is clear in His announcement to the angels about the forthcoming event: “Your Lord said to the angels, ‘I am appointing a vicegerent on earth.’ They said, ‘Will You appoint on it someone who would spread corruption and shed blood, whereas we celebrate Your praises and extol Your holiness?’ He said, ‘I surely know that of which you have no knowledge.’” (2: 30)
So, why were Adam and Eve placed in heaven first? We understand that this was all to give them the experience of what may happen when they disobey God and listen to the temptation presented by the Evil One. They were thus equipped to fight temptation. Their endeavors to steer the right way would thus be more successful. This was all by God’s grace who did not wish man to start life on earth without thorough knowledge of right and wrong, and how to do more of the first and less of the second.
***
First, one must understand that the Bible in the Old Testament contains much more information about the exact same events than is contained in the Qur'an or was revealed to the Prophet (PBUH) simply because the Bible contains details of the shared history as explained to Moses many hundreds of years before either the Christian Gospels (which chronicle Jesus) or the Qur'an were gifted. The Qur'an, everyone agrees, is a book that was given to the descendants of Abraham who became the Muslim people, and that was its purpose. Thus the Qur'an did not attempt to provide more detail of ancient Biblical events in faith history, but rather less material, in order to stay true to its purpose. The purpose of the Qur'an and the Prophet's mission was to gift the people who would believe with understanding that they belong to the heritage of Abraham and to "reintroduce them" back to God, in a matter of speaking, since they lived among pagans and idolaters. Think of Muslims as being descended from a child who was separated from knowing about his or her birth parents and ancestors. The Qur'an was given to the Prophet (PBUH) so that he could understand that the Muslims are part of salvation history, are direct descendants of Abraham, and have a "personal relationship with God." So much of the ancient times are given to the Muslims as kind of "quick recaps" of their shared origins, and not an attempt to either replicate in length what is in the Bible or to provide as much or more detail.
Understanding that, and if you read the Qur'an you recognize its very lyrical and poetic structure, God tends to explain things in simple ways that people can easily understand. Thus Muslim children are taught that Adam and Eve were "with God in heaven before being on earth." This is both true but also a simplification. Adam and Eve were "with God" but that is because God brought what you can think of as a "corner of heaven" or a "piece of heaven" to earth, simply because heaven "travels along with God" where God resides. Eden was Eden precisely because God was "there" on earth with Adam and Eve. (That does not mean, obviously, that he was there in his entirety, because God is constantly throughout all of creation and constantly present in the heavenly realm, even when he is an apparition on earth).
The reason that this is misunderstood is that not being Bible readers, obviously, Muslims do not have access to other examples of what it is like when God is present on earth and "brings heaven with him." People who have read the Bible are able to cite a number of examples, and thus better understand that while Adam and Eve were "in heaven," they were also physically on earth, but living within heaven's grace in its tangible form on earth due to the presence of God. Here is the scripture that explains that God is physically present with them on earth.
Genesis 3:6-11 The woman saw that the tree was good for food, pleasing to the eyes, and desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves. When they heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the garden at the breezy time of the day, the man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. The Lord God then called to the man and asked him, "Where are you?" He answered, "I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid myself." Then he asked, "Who told you that you were naked? You have eaten, then, from the tree of which I had forbidden you to eat!"
So you will notice that it is not a matter of Adam and Eve literally being floating up in heaven, and that makes no sense because they were made from the clay and dust of the ground by God in the first place. However, they were in "heaven" in the sense that unlike any humans who ever existed, they actually lived within God's physical presence on earth. God made himself present to the miraculous extent that he even walked as any human would during the cool and breezy time of the day, he used a voice to speak to them, and they could hear the sound of his footsteps. Heaven is God's realm and it "travels with him," so to speak. And thus Eden, being graced by God's actual presence on earth, was a "corner" of heaven that Adam and Eve occupied. They fell from heaven, in the sense of being "sent to earth" as Muslim children understand it, when God withdrew his presence and thus heaven away from the corner of earth that was the Garden of Eden. It's more like the carpet of God's grace was pulled out from under them and removed, and thus they had their feet "on earth" and had to face the hardships of life on earth without being protected and glorified in God's presence as they were originally.
When is the next time that we can describe heaven as being "on earth" in the accompaniment of God? When God appears to Moses and consents to travel with the Israelites. Here is a portion of the scripture that describes how Moses erected a tent that became filled with God in his presence, and thus was also a corner of heaven.
Exodus 33:7-11 The tent, which was called the meeting tent, Moses used to pitch at some distance away, outside the camp. Anyone who wished to consult the Lord would go to this meeting tent outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, the people would all rise and stand at the entrance of their own tents, watching Moses until he entered the tent. As Moses entered the tent, the column of cloud would come down and stand at its entrance while the Lord spoke with Moses. On seeing the column of cloud stand at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise and worship at the entrance of their own tents. The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one man speaks to another. Moses would then return to the camp, but his young assistant, Joshua, son of Nun, would not move out of the tent.
Here you can see that it is like the tent that is pitched each time the migrating Israelites stopped to rest during their exodus becomes a "corner of heaven" that God chooses to occupy when Moses needed to consult with him. That is the meaning of the column of cloud, demarking that the realm of God is within. Thus the meeting tent is like Eden in the sense that it is a small earthly portion of God's realm by virtue of his presence, but it is not like Eden because it is not designed to sustain humans in grace and glory, since they had forfeited that right. However, Moses was the first and only prophet or patriarch who was able to meet face to face with God and God treated him as his friend. Here are two more examples of how Moses interacted with God, not in a sense of having a dream or vision, but God being physically present and thus bringing along with him a portion of what heaven "is like."
Exodus 33:17-23 The Lord said to Moses, "This request too, which you have just made, I will carry out, because you have found favor with me and you are my intimate friend." Then Moses said, "Do let me see your glory!" He answered, "I will make all my beauty pass before you, and in your presence I will pronounce my name, 'Lord''; I who grant mercy to whom I will. But my face you cannot see, for no man sees me and still lives. Here," continued the Lord, "is a place near me where you shall station yourself on the rock. When my glory passes I will set you in the hollow of the rock and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand, so that you may see my back; but my face is not to be seen."
Exodus 34:5-9 Having come down in a cloud, the Lord stood with him there and proclaimed his name, "Lord." Thus the Lord passed before him and cried out, "The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity, continuing his kindness for a thousand generations, and forgiving wickedness and crime and sin; yet not declaring the guilty guiltless, but punishing children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for their fathers' wickedness!" Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship. Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company. This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own."
Exodus 34:27-35 Then the Lord said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance with them I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." So Moses stayed there with the Lord for forty days and forty nights, without eating any food or drinking any water, and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments. [Notice that Moses, like Adam and Eve, is totally sustained from any need for food or water when he is in the presence of God. Again, that is accurate to say he is in "heaven" in the sense of being in God's glorified presence and having no earthly needs]. As Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands, he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant while he conversed with the Lord. When Aaron, then, and the other Israelites saw Moses and noticed how radiant the skin of his face had become, they were afraid to come near him. Only after Moses called to them did Aaron and all the rulers of the community come back to him. Moses then spoke to them. Later on, all the Israelites came up to him, and he enjoined on them all that the Lord had told him on Mount Sinai. When he finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moses entered the presence of the Lord to converse with him, he removed the veil until he came out again. On coming out, he would tell the Israelites all that had been commanded. Then the Israelites would see that the skin of Moses' face was radiant; so he would again put the veil over his face until he went in to converse with the Lord.
No human has ever had such a personal friendship and relationship that spanned many years on the physical reality of earth as did Moses with God. Moses in a very important way restored the bond and trust that Adam and Eve had broken with God. Yes, Abraham was the cornerstone of restoring the relationship with God that would provide humans with the beginning of their salvation history with God, which is ongoing to this very day. But Moses was privileged to see a physical manifestation of God, and to experience and absorb some of the glory of heaven, as no other has or will. Future appearances of God would be in the form of an angel of God being sent, with two notable exceptions. These are the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah, both of whom witnessed a physical presence of God on earth and with, what we are discussing here, the bringing of a "portion" of heaven along with God to earth.
Isaiah 6:1-8 In the year king Uzziah died, [that is known to be 742 BC by the way], I saw the Lord seated on a high and lofty throne, with the train of his garment filling the temple. Seraphim were stationed above; each of them had six wings: with two their veiled their faces, with two they veiled their feet, and with two they hovered aloft. "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts!" they cried one to the other. "All of earth is filled with his glory!" [These words are repeated, by the way, each time a Catholic Mass is celebrated, in imitation of the angels glorifying God in their own words]. At the sound of that cry, the frame of the door shook and the house was filled with smoke. Then I said, "Woe is me, I am doomed! For I am a man of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!" Then one of the seraphim flew to me, holding an ember which he had taken with tongs from the altar. He touched my mouth with it. "See," he said, "now that this had touched your lips, your wickedness is removed, your sin purged." [It is from this event, by the way, that Catholics learned to understand that no one can be in the presence of God without being purified using fire from his altar, and that therefore this will happen to all who merit entering heaven, the process of which we call purgatory, from the word "purged."] Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying "Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?" "Here I am," I said, "send me!"
You can discern reading that passage, which describes the calling of Isaiah to God's service, that God in his power and glory entered into the room of the temple, bringing with him his seat of power in heaven, the throne, the seraphim and "the train of his garment," which is, just as we saw when he appeared to Moses, smoke and clouds. Thus this is another example of God bringing a part of heaven wrapped around his holy presence down to earth. The shouting of the seraphim, heavenly beings, was enough to make the temple shake.
There is a very lengthy description of the prophet Ezekiel's viewing of the glory of God and components of heaven that accompanied him. I have selected here passages that provide the total picture for you.
Ezekiel 1:1-4 In the thirtieth year, on the fifth day of the fourth month [Jewish scholars know this to be July 31, 593 BC], while I was among the exiles by the river Chebar, the heavens opened, and I saw divine visions. On the fifth day of the month, the fifth year, that is, of King Jehoiachin's exile, the word of the Lord came to the priest Ezekiel, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar. There the hand of the Lord came upon me. As I looked a stormwind came from the North, a huge cloud with flashing fire [enveloped in brightness], from the midst of which [the midst of fire] something gleaned like electrum. 13. In among the living creatures something like burning coals of fire could be seen; they seemed like torches, moving to and fro among the living creatures. The fire gleamed, and from it came forth flashes of lightning. 22. Over the heads of the living creatures, something like a firmament could be seen, seeming like glittering crystal, stretched straight out above their heads. 23. Beneath the firmament their wings were stretched out, one toward the other. [Each of them had two covering his body.] 24. Then I heard the sound of their wings, like the roaring of mighty waters, like the voice of the Almighty. When they moved, the sound of the tumult was like the din of an army. [And when they stood still they lowered their wings.] Above the firmament over their heads something like a throne could be seen, looking like sapphire. Upon it was seated, up above, one who had the appearance of a man. 27. Upward from what resembled his waist I saw what gleamed like electrum; downward from what resembled his waist I saw what looked like fire; he was surrounded with splendor. 28. Like the bow which appears in the clouds on a rainy day was the splendor that surrounded him. Such was the vision of the likeness of the Lord.
Ezekiel 2:1 When I had seen it, I fell upon my face and heard a voice that said to me: Son of man, stand up! I wish to speak to you. 22. The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he said to me: Get up and go out into the plain, where I will speak with you. 23. So I got up and went out into the plain, and I saw that the glory of the Lord was in that place, like the glory I had seen b the river Chebar. I fell prone, but then spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and he spoke with me.
This is not only a detailed description of this appearance of the Lord God, but notice that the appearance of God and the accompanying part of his glory of heaven that he brings with him is actually moved from one place to the other. God first appears to Ezekiel by the river, and then when God instructs him to get up and go to the plain, Ezekiel witnesses that the entire tableau of God's presence is now there. Further, a year later, in Ezekiel 10, God with his angels, whom Ezekiel now recognizes as cherubim, appear again in glory again, this time near where Ezekiel lives at the Temple. This has been dated as being on September 17, 592 BC. Again God appears with his throne in the firmament, and is thus another example of God "bringing" a part of heaven "with him" in a sense when he makes these visitations of his glory to earth, rather than when elsewhere in the Bible he sends an angel, such as an Angel of the Lord (an angel through which God directly speaks) or a representative who speaks for God, such as Gabriel.
There is another example of God opening up the boundary between earth and heaven and that is described during the martyrdom of the first Christian, St. Stephen.
Acts 7:54-59 When they heard this, they were infuriated, and they ground their teeth at him. But he, filled with the holy Spirit, looked up intently to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said, "Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." But they cried out in a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed upon him together. They threw him out of the city, and began to stone him. The witnesses laid down their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul. As they were stoning Stephen, he called out, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit." Then he fell to his knees and cried out in a loud voice, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them"; and when he said this, he fell asleep [died].
To wrap up, let me point out a few things. Notice that it is only during the time of the ancient Israelites, and the time of Adam and Eve of course, that God actually appeared on earth in his glorified form, bring with him the actual "firmament" of heaven. God did not do the same thing during the time of the Christians, having sent Jesus Christ to represent him, and making his voice and his will known as described on several occasions in the Gospel, and God did not do the same thing when he gave the Qur'an to the Prophet (PBUH). We only have in those "modern" times the example of St. Stephen peering upward and seeing into heaven to view God as Stephen is dying. This is why it is important to read all of sacred scripture and not select out passages, looking for a quick "description" or "answer." There is a huge amount of insight to ponder by looking at all of these four examples (Adam and Eve, Moses, Isaiah and Ezekiel) of how God chooses to present himself and in what form. For example, I've been dismayed and in fact angered when I realized that some "new age" unbelievers like to extract the Ezekiel visitation by God and use that to "justify" that "aliens visited earth in flying saucers." When one reads the entire Bible and comprehends what one is reading, rather than trying to have a dark agenda, it is obvious that God is the only one who is electing to visit humans on those occasions and specifically his original chosen people. It is impossible to read the entirety of God's relationship with Moses and then jump around the Bible "looking for evidence of flying saucers." That is, of course, what cultists seek to do even with the Muslim faith, where I know that some try to twist the story we started this discussion with, how Adam and Eve started their existence in heaven, as making that a warped case for "Adam and Eve were aliens who flew down to earth on flying saucers." The souls of innocent children who have had to listen to "elders" who are unbelieving idolators and pagans have been damaged, and I cannot describe to you how many and how serious a crisis this has been, and remains. That is another reason, other than my usual reason of wanting to enlighten and spread the glory of God, and witness to him, and praise him, that I spent so much time on this subject this night. I am constantly having to purify and purge the garbage that many have fallen into by providing proper instruction in divine matters. I only pray that this does some good and that I see the fruits of the labor someday soon.
Many Christians are fascinated with the last chapter of our New Testament, called Revelation or Apocalypse. The only reason I do not mention it in this posting is because it does not fit our criterion of discussion, which is instances where God appears as himself, in the fullness of his glory, bringing some part of heaven's firmament with him. In Revelation St. John is taken to heaven; God does not come to earth to reveal to John, it is as simple as that. Revelation 1:10 I was caught up in spirit on the Lord's day and heard behind me a voice as loud as a trumpet. 4:1 After this I had a vision of an open door to heaven, and I heard the trumpetlike voice that had spoken to me before, saying, "Come up here and I will show you what must happen afterwards." 2. At once I was caught up in spirit. A throne was there in heaven, and on the throne sat one whose appearance sparkled like jasper and carnelian.
I hope that you have found this helpful.
Friday, October 3, 2008
Bible Reading: Exodus 34:27-35
Then the Lord said to Moses, "Write down these words, for in accordance with them I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." So Moses stayed there with the Lord for forty days and forty nights, without eating any food or drinking any water, and he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
As Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands, he did not known that the skin of his face had become radiant while he conversed with the Lord. When Aaron, then, and the other Israelites saw Moses and noticed how radiant the skin of his face had become, they were afraid to come near him. Only after Moses called to them did Aaron and all the rulers of the community come back to him. Moses then spoke to them. Later on, all the Israelites came up to him, and he enjoined on them all that the Lord had told him on Mount Sinai. When he finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moses entered the presence of the Lord to converse with him, he removed the veil until he came out again. On coming out, he would tell the Israelites all that had been commanded. Then the Israelites would see that the skin of Moses' face was radiant; so he would again put the veil over his face until he went in to converse with the Lord.
As Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two tablets of the commandments in his hands, he did not known that the skin of his face had become radiant while he conversed with the Lord. When Aaron, then, and the other Israelites saw Moses and noticed how radiant the skin of his face had become, they were afraid to come near him. Only after Moses called to them did Aaron and all the rulers of the community come back to him. Moses then spoke to them. Later on, all the Israelites came up to him, and he enjoined on them all that the Lord had told him on Mount Sinai. When he finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face. Whenever Moses entered the presence of the Lord to converse with him, he removed the veil until he came out again. On coming out, he would tell the Israelites all that had been commanded. Then the Israelites would see that the skin of Moses' face was radiant; so he would again put the veil over his face until he went in to converse with the Lord.
Bible Reading: Exodus 34:1-11
The Lord said to Moses, "Cut two stone tablets like the former, that I may write on them the commandments which were on the former tablets that you broke. Get ready for tomorrow morning, when you are to go up Mount Sinai and there present yourself to me on top of the mountain. No one shall come up with you, and no one is even to be seen on any part of the mountain; even the flocks and the herds are not to go grazing toward this mountain." Moses then cut two stone tablets like the former, and early the next morning he went up Mount Sinai as the Lord had commanded him, taking along the two stone tablets.
Having come down in a cloud, the Lord stood with him there and proclaimed his name, "Lord." Thus the Lord passed before him and cried out, "The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity, continuing his kindness for a thousand generations, and forgiving wickedness and crime and sin; yet not declaring the guilty guiltless, but punishing children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for their fathers' wickedness!" Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship. Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company. This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own."
"Here, then," said the Lord, "is the covenant I will make. Before the eyes of all your people I will work such marvels as have never been wrought in any nation anywhere on earth, so that this people among whom you live may see how awe-inspiring are the deeds which I, the Lord, will do at your side. But you, on your part, must keep the commandments I am giving you today."
Having come down in a cloud, the Lord stood with him there and proclaimed his name, "Lord." Thus the Lord passed before him and cried out, "The Lord, the Lord, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger and rich in kindness and fidelity, continuing his kindness for a thousand generations, and forgiving wickedness and crime and sin; yet not declaring the guilty guiltless, but punishing children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation for their fathers' wickedness!" Moses at once bowed down to the ground in worship. Then he said, "If I find favor with you, O Lord, do come along in our company. This is indeed a stiff-necked people; yet pardon our wickedness and sins, and receive us as your own."
"Here, then," said the Lord, "is the covenant I will make. Before the eyes of all your people I will work such marvels as have never been wrought in any nation anywhere on earth, so that this people among whom you live may see how awe-inspiring are the deeds which I, the Lord, will do at your side. But you, on your part, must keep the commandments I am giving you today."
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Another quick mention of Bible math example
I wanted to add something about the significance of forty days. Forty is a number that people notice in the Bible in some powerful scenarios, such as Jesus' fast in the desert. Scholars point out that forty is one of the numbers that Israelites find significant (forty years in desert exile, and so forth).
Again, it's not the number "40" that is significant, but each unique context of being "not enough," "just right," and "too much" (or "more than enough.") Look at the Biblical wandering in exile for forty years first.
Despite the few patriarchs who lived incredibly long lives, in Biblical times humans tended to view achieving old age as in their fifties. I don't have the biological figures in front of me, but the average life span of most people was fifty years or well under, throughout the world at that time. So it is not so much the number "40" as it was the measure of what was the sufficient amount of time for an entire generation to pass out of slavery and a new generation be born. So forty years is "just right" for 1) most people with slave mentality to have lived out their remaining years "free," but passing away so that the new and free generation takes over, and 2) they have several decades of learning and obeying God's teaching. As you know that was a hard thing for them to do even with God actually THERE. So it is not the "40" that is significant as much as it is the number of years where a generation passed and a new generation painfully learned to be both free people and knowing their God and codifying his worship.
So, let's be real. How long one fasts is not something you measure in years, so it's not like Jesus was going to fast for forty years! I'm being silly a bit here only because numerologists and many so called "scholars" are hugely silly. So Jesus is going to go and fast "the right amount of time." How much is the right amount of time? We know that humans can live without food for somewhere between two and three weeks. So that would be an extreme but "average" fast. Jesus was not your average person, obviously, being the Savior and the Messiah. He sets a higher example, and he also had the sustenance of being from the Holy Spirit through Mary. So Jesus was not "aiming to make the 40" in order to impress anyone with a magic number. He was a straight forward guy; he would have told the disciples if they were supposed to do things "by the forties." Jesus told them he didn't keep secrets from them; that would have defeated the whole purpose of him patiently explaining over and over what God wants. So Jesus fasted until it was "just the right amount." He fasted to demonstrate that it was not your average yet still impressive extreme fast of two to three weeks. He essentially doubled the time that someone could be expected to fast. Instead of 21 days (3 weeks) he fasted 40 days (just about double, and therefore almost 6 weeks).
So Jesus "made a point" but not that "40" is a whoop ti do magic number. And it was not a "hat tip" to the time of exile by referencing 40 because, um, well, Jesus made meaningful hat tips such as quoting Moses and appearing with Moses in person in front of three Apostles during the Transfiguration. I mean, people, you have to think a little bigger than looking for a number mentioned twice (measuring wildly different things) and say it is a holy or significant number. In both separate cases it was "just enough" of a quantity that was necessary for humanity in their emerging faith history to accomplish something good. So the point that Jesus made is that he truly emptied himself out of food sustenance beyond what the average human would expect in order to demonstrate that he was filling himself with space for the Holy Spirit to operate. Just as the ancient Israelites "emptied themselves" of the slave generation, Jesus emptied himself out of human food support, in order to demonstrate that he will show people how to survive on the Spirit. It's meaningful coincidence that both events can be measured by using the human construct of mathematics to result in a measure in both cases of "40."
By meaningful coincidence I mean that there are fruitful and valid parallels to be drawn, so it is entirely OK and even desirable to go, "Hmm, 40, I've heard that number before. Let me read the scriptures where it appeared. Oh yes!" And then one can conclude that there is a parallel of "emptying out," so that one can be filled with freedom, piety and Spirit. But the "40" itself has no meaning, but lends itself to the way human minds work, which is to be referential and curious, seeking linkages.
It's the message that is significant, not the number. Notice that the first Beatitude is "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:2). It's not that the Beatitude is in the position of the number one in the list. It can be linked to the fasting of Jesus because Jesus spends 40 days in order to empty himself the right amount to demonstrate how he fills instead with the Spirit, rather than human bread. He demonstrates with his body in the fast in order to teach others later with words that they too, empty and poor in spirit, will be filled with Spirit in heaven. The actions of Jesus and his words of teaching are significant, not the mathematics of counting that is used to help humans share the information and measure what had happened for how long and in what order. Jesus starts with that Beatitude because it sets the tone and is of fundamental importance, rather than because there is something special about "1."
I really hope this helps. People are really missing the point of the spirituality and theology as they do an idolatry of numbers.
Again, it's not the number "40" that is significant, but each unique context of being "not enough," "just right," and "too much" (or "more than enough.") Look at the Biblical wandering in exile for forty years first.
Despite the few patriarchs who lived incredibly long lives, in Biblical times humans tended to view achieving old age as in their fifties. I don't have the biological figures in front of me, but the average life span of most people was fifty years or well under, throughout the world at that time. So it is not so much the number "40" as it was the measure of what was the sufficient amount of time for an entire generation to pass out of slavery and a new generation be born. So forty years is "just right" for 1) most people with slave mentality to have lived out their remaining years "free," but passing away so that the new and free generation takes over, and 2) they have several decades of learning and obeying God's teaching. As you know that was a hard thing for them to do even with God actually THERE. So it is not the "40" that is significant as much as it is the number of years where a generation passed and a new generation painfully learned to be both free people and knowing their God and codifying his worship.
So, let's be real. How long one fasts is not something you measure in years, so it's not like Jesus was going to fast for forty years! I'm being silly a bit here only because numerologists and many so called "scholars" are hugely silly. So Jesus is going to go and fast "the right amount of time." How much is the right amount of time? We know that humans can live without food for somewhere between two and three weeks. So that would be an extreme but "average" fast. Jesus was not your average person, obviously, being the Savior and the Messiah. He sets a higher example, and he also had the sustenance of being from the Holy Spirit through Mary. So Jesus was not "aiming to make the 40" in order to impress anyone with a magic number. He was a straight forward guy; he would have told the disciples if they were supposed to do things "by the forties." Jesus told them he didn't keep secrets from them; that would have defeated the whole purpose of him patiently explaining over and over what God wants. So Jesus fasted until it was "just the right amount." He fasted to demonstrate that it was not your average yet still impressive extreme fast of two to three weeks. He essentially doubled the time that someone could be expected to fast. Instead of 21 days (3 weeks) he fasted 40 days (just about double, and therefore almost 6 weeks).
So Jesus "made a point" but not that "40" is a whoop ti do magic number. And it was not a "hat tip" to the time of exile by referencing 40 because, um, well, Jesus made meaningful hat tips such as quoting Moses and appearing with Moses in person in front of three Apostles during the Transfiguration. I mean, people, you have to think a little bigger than looking for a number mentioned twice (measuring wildly different things) and say it is a holy or significant number. In both separate cases it was "just enough" of a quantity that was necessary for humanity in their emerging faith history to accomplish something good. So the point that Jesus made is that he truly emptied himself out of food sustenance beyond what the average human would expect in order to demonstrate that he was filling himself with space for the Holy Spirit to operate. Just as the ancient Israelites "emptied themselves" of the slave generation, Jesus emptied himself out of human food support, in order to demonstrate that he will show people how to survive on the Spirit. It's meaningful coincidence that both events can be measured by using the human construct of mathematics to result in a measure in both cases of "40."
By meaningful coincidence I mean that there are fruitful and valid parallels to be drawn, so it is entirely OK and even desirable to go, "Hmm, 40, I've heard that number before. Let me read the scriptures where it appeared. Oh yes!" And then one can conclude that there is a parallel of "emptying out," so that one can be filled with freedom, piety and Spirit. But the "40" itself has no meaning, but lends itself to the way human minds work, which is to be referential and curious, seeking linkages.
It's the message that is significant, not the number. Notice that the first Beatitude is "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 5:2). It's not that the Beatitude is in the position of the number one in the list. It can be linked to the fasting of Jesus because Jesus spends 40 days in order to empty himself the right amount to demonstrate how he fills instead with the Spirit, rather than human bread. He demonstrates with his body in the fast in order to teach others later with words that they too, empty and poor in spirit, will be filled with Spirit in heaven. The actions of Jesus and his words of teaching are significant, not the mathematics of counting that is used to help humans share the information and measure what had happened for how long and in what order. Jesus starts with that Beatitude because it sets the tone and is of fundamental importance, rather than because there is something special about "1."
I really hope this helps. People are really missing the point of the spirituality and theology as they do an idolatry of numbers.
Thursday, June 7, 2007
What Does God Look Like? (Part 2 of 3)
What Does God Look Like? - Read the Bible and See
When God Appeared to Moses
The relationship between God and Moses is remarkable in every aspect, but here we focus on how God physically appeared to Moses and what insights can be gleaned from it. As I mentioned in Part 1 of this series of posts, it is understandable that people are curious about God's physical appearance, and often do not realize there is a significant amount of insight about this question in the Bible. In Part 1 I cite how God appeared in human form to Adam and Eve, and to Abraham. Here, let us look at how God appeared to Moses.
Exodus 3:2-6 There an angel of the Lord appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed. So Moses decided, "I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned." When the Lord saw him coming over to look at it more closely, God called out to him from the bush, "Moses! Moses!" He answered, "Here I am." God said, "Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. I am the God of your father," he continued, "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
In Part 1 I pointed out that when God appears as a human to Abraham, they already had a history of conversations through visions. So when God appeared in human form to Abraham, Abraham was not struck with awe and fear as was Moses. And there is significance to this difference. When God appeared to Abraham, it was to give him information and to allow for an interaction, a conversational give-and-take. That is difficult to do if one is interacting with God in his natural form of unlimited power. So God is fully capable of having a human form and enjoying interaction with the people he loves. However, with the burning bush, God is "introducing" himself to Moses, who he will raise up to lead Israel out of slavery, and who will codify the law and the Commandments. God knew that they will have many decades of relationship during Moses' life, and this was chosen way to appear. Remember that Moses himself is the author of this book of the Bible, so even though he is writing in third person, he is describing what actually happened to him. Moses starts by writing "an angel of the Lord appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush." Even though Moses uses the word angel, he does not mean a physical manifestation of an angel personage, because if he meant that, he would have no curiosity of this "remarkable sight" and "why the bush is not burned" because he'd know why, if he was gazing upon an angel. Rather, what Moses means in writing this is that "light" emanating from God was in the bush, though at first he does not realize what it is that is happening. So when Moses wrote he described in hindsight as best as he could what he was seeing, which was the divine light of God. Of course modern day authors wish he wrote, "I saw a bush magically illuminated by full spectrum light that God sent in order to get my attention." But thank God, the Bible authors were very precise as to what they saw and to what they were thinking or perceiving, so that later readers could share with them with confidence in its authenticity. Because it was important that Moses know who and how God truly "is", God therefore chose to appear to Moses as a portion of his infinite light. That is why although it appeared as a "fire flaming" it "was not consumed." Much has been written about the significance of fire, especially as in the form of the Holy Spirit, so I won't go into detail here except to point out that fire is a process that is transformational. Suppose God just used a big spot light like on a billboard instead of a flame. That would simply indicate the emphasis, illumination, and underscoring of a message. When God uses the image of a flame, though, God is indicating that a process is underway. Here he is initiating the process of communication with Moses and the establishment of a freed Israel. That is why the "fire" is "flaming" but the bush is not "burned." It is transformed but not destroyed. How do we know that? Because God tells Moses the ground he now stands upon is holy. Before God appeared to Moses, that was just some ordinary ground for grazing the sheep. Once God appears, by virtue of his presence "the place where you stand is holy ground." This marks the transformation of Moses and his followers to "holy ground", that is, Israel. Pagans would have assumed that the ground remains holy, because of God's appearance there. But the holiness is transferred and "travels along with" God in his presence among the people.
Notice that God identifies himself by voice, even though he is not in a human form as he was with Adam and Eve, and with Abraham. This again is a foreknowledge of God's teaching role with Moses, where the precision of voice is needed, even if God is not at that time in a more sociable human body form. After all, from this point on Moses heard God's voice, instructing him in each step of the exodus. So the burning bush was an authentic view of some of God's form of glorious light, and his voice was the introduction to the means by which they would communicate during the exodus. So subsequent passages state, "On the day the Lord spoke to Moses in Egypt," and "The Lord answered him" and "The Lord then told Moses" and "Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron" and "Now this is what the Lord commanded." These are all expositions of speech of the Lord, not his physical appearance.
Exodus 19:9: The Lord also told him, "I am coming to you in a dense cloud, so that when the people hear me speaking with you, they may always have faith in you also."
The Lord God decides to take upon himself a physical form "in the third month after their departure from the land of Egypt, on its first day, the Israelites came to the desert of Sinai." (Exodus 19:1.) God explains that it will be necessary for people to have total faith in Moses (and God anticipates how weak the people's faith will be) because this is the time of the Covenant at Mount Sinai. So God, who knows human nature better than anyone, realizes that it will strengthen the people's faith in Moses and what he commands on behalf of God if the people can actually see a manifestation of God in their midst. God then appears in the form of fire and cloud, with the sound of thunder, over Mount Sinai and "Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God" (Exodus 19: 17.) God chose the form of the cloud, fire, thunder, and lightening upon the mountain for several reasons. One is to show the people his authentic form and power, so that they recognize him as the creator and ruler of heaven and earth, but also so that they have the proper respect. Exodus 20: 18-20: When the people witnessed the thunder and lightening, the trumpet blast and the mountain smoking, they all feared and trembled. So they took up a position much farther away and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we shall die." Moses answered to the people, "Do not be afraid, for God has come to you only to test you and put his fear upon you, lest you should sin."
This is very important to understand. God had then and has now every ability to "showboat" if that would ever be his intention, which it is not. Notice that the first two physical appearances in the Bible are in gentle human form, walking in the cool of the garden, and enjoying the hospitality of Abraham, while imparting important information. It is only when humankind becomes so intertwined in their chosen sins that God has to take on a more formidable appearance - not to impress, but to save. How do we know that? Because God shows the people how Moses can walk right up that mountain and into God's presence without fear, and to emerge with the Covenant. If God was only trying to scare people, a view of hell would do the trick. But God, in anticipation of Jesus Christ His Son breaking the bounds of death and resurrecting with total confidence in God, allows Moses to be the ultimate example of faith, obedience, and goodness. The people could see how God allowed Moses into his presence, although they would be struck down if they tried to do so (not that anyone was inclined to do so, as they were in great fear.) The passage Exodus 19:20 describes this very simply: When the Lord came down to the top of Mount Sinai, he summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up to him.
When the Israelites had received the Ten Commandments and the laws of God, God came down from the form on the mountain into a gentler form of cloud that could be among the people in what was called "The Meeting Tent." The cloud was actually a column that stood outside the tent to indicate that God was inside speaking with Moses: As Moses entered the Tent, the column of cloud would come down and stand at its entrance while the Lord spoke with Moses (Exodus 33: 10.) Moses wrote: The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one man speaks to another (11.) So from this the reader can tell that Moses spoke with God within the confines of a tent "as one man speaks to another" while the column of cloud indicated the presence of God within the tent to those who observed outside. We can tell that God is not appearing to Moses in a human or burning bush form though because one day, when Moses asks God to accompany them in a physical tangible way as they resume their travels, he also asks to see God as he truly is: "Then Moses said, "Do let me see your glory!"" (Exodus 33:18.)
God understands that Moses wants to see God as he truly exists in his authentic form. This is what we call the "glorified form" because it is how God appears beyond the bounds of earthly physics. Again, this is in anticipation of how Jesus Christ will appear transfigured in glorified form, and then later, resurrected in his glorified body. Here is how Moses describes seeing God (Exodus 33: 18-23): Then Moses said, "Do let me see your glory!" He answered, "I will make all my beauty pass before you, and in your presence I will pronounce my name, 'Lord'; I who show favors to whom I will. But my face you cannot see, for no man sees me and still lives. Here, "continued the Lord, "is a place near me where you shall station yourself on the rock. When my glory passes I will set you in the hollow of the rock and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand, so that you may see my back; but my face is not to be seen."
Moses does not record his reaction because immediately thereupon God and Moses went to work on the renewal of the tablets (which had been broken by Moses when the people sinned.) But when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, after forty days with the Lord, "he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant while he conversed with the Lord. When Aaron, then, and the other Israelites saw Moses and noticed how radiant the skin of his face had become, they were afraid to come near him." (Exodus 34: 29-30.) Because of his radiant skin from conversation with God, Moses started wearing a veil, which he removed only in the presence of God. St Paul, years later, would ponder this veiling and conclude that this was symbolic of the failure of the Jews to recognize Jesus as the promised Messiah (2 Cor. 3: 7-18.) However, while the parallel and analogy is totally valid, there's a more fundamental message. Moses did not want the people to start to view him as God, by being distracted by Moses' increasingly radiant skin. Moses knew (think gold calf) all too well how easy it was for people to place God falsely within people and idols. So Moses decided to veil himself so that people would not focus on his radiance and confuse him with the literal presence of God within him.
Let's look closer now at how God's "walk by" of Moses took place. Notice that this does not take place in the tent, but up on the mountain among rocks. God wishes to grant his friend Moses' request, but has to protect him from seeing the full energy and glory of God. So God does the most that he can do to provide a portion of his authentic presence yet still protect Moses. He places him between rocks "in the hollow" and "cover(s)" Moses with his "hand" so that Moses cannot see God's approach or passing by, but only God's "back." Why is this? In the next section I will cite other examples where God's face must be concealed from even the holy because they would die. Do not confuse this with literally a human's "face" and a human's "back" because we have already shown how God can appear in a human form with a front and a back, no problem. In his glorified form, however, God is the totality of the Word of God, which is intention. The face of God is representative of all of God's focus and all of God's energy, and no living thing can endure the total focus of God in his authentic glorified form. How do we know this? Because to make the experience complete, God speaks his name as he passes by Moses. God is the summation of the light and word of life, because all exists because he intends it to exist, and by saying his name, that is like Moses seeing "God at work." So the immense amount of energy and the intentionality of the Word of God in God's full physical form is too much for anyone to bear directly, thus God shields Moses from his direct intentionality. In part 3 of this I'll show another example of this by discussing the angels who do stand directly in front of God and how that, like the radiance of God to Moses' face, reflects in how the angels appear.
When God Appeared to Moses
The relationship between God and Moses is remarkable in every aspect, but here we focus on how God physically appeared to Moses and what insights can be gleaned from it. As I mentioned in Part 1 of this series of posts, it is understandable that people are curious about God's physical appearance, and often do not realize there is a significant amount of insight about this question in the Bible. In Part 1 I cite how God appeared in human form to Adam and Eve, and to Abraham. Here, let us look at how God appeared to Moses.
Exodus 3:2-6 There an angel of the Lord appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush. As he looked on, he was surprised to see that the bush, though on fire, was not consumed. So Moses decided, "I must go over to look at this remarkable sight, and see why the bush is not burned." When the Lord saw him coming over to look at it more closely, God called out to him from the bush, "Moses! Moses!" He answered, "Here I am." God said, "Come no nearer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground. I am the God of your father," he continued, "the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob." Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
In Part 1 I pointed out that when God appears as a human to Abraham, they already had a history of conversations through visions. So when God appeared in human form to Abraham, Abraham was not struck with awe and fear as was Moses. And there is significance to this difference. When God appeared to Abraham, it was to give him information and to allow for an interaction, a conversational give-and-take. That is difficult to do if one is interacting with God in his natural form of unlimited power. So God is fully capable of having a human form and enjoying interaction with the people he loves. However, with the burning bush, God is "introducing" himself to Moses, who he will raise up to lead Israel out of slavery, and who will codify the law and the Commandments. God knew that they will have many decades of relationship during Moses' life, and this was chosen way to appear. Remember that Moses himself is the author of this book of the Bible, so even though he is writing in third person, he is describing what actually happened to him. Moses starts by writing "an angel of the Lord appeared to him in fire flaming out of a bush." Even though Moses uses the word angel, he does not mean a physical manifestation of an angel personage, because if he meant that, he would have no curiosity of this "remarkable sight" and "why the bush is not burned" because he'd know why, if he was gazing upon an angel. Rather, what Moses means in writing this is that "light" emanating from God was in the bush, though at first he does not realize what it is that is happening. So when Moses wrote he described in hindsight as best as he could what he was seeing, which was the divine light of God. Of course modern day authors wish he wrote, "I saw a bush magically illuminated by full spectrum light that God sent in order to get my attention." But thank God, the Bible authors were very precise as to what they saw and to what they were thinking or perceiving, so that later readers could share with them with confidence in its authenticity. Because it was important that Moses know who and how God truly "is", God therefore chose to appear to Moses as a portion of his infinite light. That is why although it appeared as a "fire flaming" it "was not consumed." Much has been written about the significance of fire, especially as in the form of the Holy Spirit, so I won't go into detail here except to point out that fire is a process that is transformational. Suppose God just used a big spot light like on a billboard instead of a flame. That would simply indicate the emphasis, illumination, and underscoring of a message. When God uses the image of a flame, though, God is indicating that a process is underway. Here he is initiating the process of communication with Moses and the establishment of a freed Israel. That is why the "fire" is "flaming" but the bush is not "burned." It is transformed but not destroyed. How do we know that? Because God tells Moses the ground he now stands upon is holy. Before God appeared to Moses, that was just some ordinary ground for grazing the sheep. Once God appears, by virtue of his presence "the place where you stand is holy ground." This marks the transformation of Moses and his followers to "holy ground", that is, Israel. Pagans would have assumed that the ground remains holy, because of God's appearance there. But the holiness is transferred and "travels along with" God in his presence among the people.
Notice that God identifies himself by voice, even though he is not in a human form as he was with Adam and Eve, and with Abraham. This again is a foreknowledge of God's teaching role with Moses, where the precision of voice is needed, even if God is not at that time in a more sociable human body form. After all, from this point on Moses heard God's voice, instructing him in each step of the exodus. So the burning bush was an authentic view of some of God's form of glorious light, and his voice was the introduction to the means by which they would communicate during the exodus. So subsequent passages state, "On the day the Lord spoke to Moses in Egypt," and "The Lord answered him" and "The Lord then told Moses" and "Then the Lord said to Moses and Aaron" and "Now this is what the Lord commanded." These are all expositions of speech of the Lord, not his physical appearance.
Exodus 19:9: The Lord also told him, "I am coming to you in a dense cloud, so that when the people hear me speaking with you, they may always have faith in you also."
The Lord God decides to take upon himself a physical form "in the third month after their departure from the land of Egypt, on its first day, the Israelites came to the desert of Sinai." (Exodus 19:1.) God explains that it will be necessary for people to have total faith in Moses (and God anticipates how weak the people's faith will be) because this is the time of the Covenant at Mount Sinai. So God, who knows human nature better than anyone, realizes that it will strengthen the people's faith in Moses and what he commands on behalf of God if the people can actually see a manifestation of God in their midst. God then appears in the form of fire and cloud, with the sound of thunder, over Mount Sinai and "Moses led the people out of the camp to meet God" (Exodus 19: 17.) God chose the form of the cloud, fire, thunder, and lightening upon the mountain for several reasons. One is to show the people his authentic form and power, so that they recognize him as the creator and ruler of heaven and earth, but also so that they have the proper respect. Exodus 20: 18-20: When the people witnessed the thunder and lightening, the trumpet blast and the mountain smoking, they all feared and trembled. So they took up a position much farther away and said to Moses, "You speak to us, and we will listen; but let not God speak to us, or we shall die." Moses answered to the people, "Do not be afraid, for God has come to you only to test you and put his fear upon you, lest you should sin."
This is very important to understand. God had then and has now every ability to "showboat" if that would ever be his intention, which it is not. Notice that the first two physical appearances in the Bible are in gentle human form, walking in the cool of the garden, and enjoying the hospitality of Abraham, while imparting important information. It is only when humankind becomes so intertwined in their chosen sins that God has to take on a more formidable appearance - not to impress, but to save. How do we know that? Because God shows the people how Moses can walk right up that mountain and into God's presence without fear, and to emerge with the Covenant. If God was only trying to scare people, a view of hell would do the trick. But God, in anticipation of Jesus Christ His Son breaking the bounds of death and resurrecting with total confidence in God, allows Moses to be the ultimate example of faith, obedience, and goodness. The people could see how God allowed Moses into his presence, although they would be struck down if they tried to do so (not that anyone was inclined to do so, as they were in great fear.) The passage Exodus 19:20 describes this very simply: When the Lord came down to the top of Mount Sinai, he summoned Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up to him.
When the Israelites had received the Ten Commandments and the laws of God, God came down from the form on the mountain into a gentler form of cloud that could be among the people in what was called "The Meeting Tent." The cloud was actually a column that stood outside the tent to indicate that God was inside speaking with Moses: As Moses entered the Tent, the column of cloud would come down and stand at its entrance while the Lord spoke with Moses (Exodus 33: 10.) Moses wrote: The Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as one man speaks to another (11.) So from this the reader can tell that Moses spoke with God within the confines of a tent "as one man speaks to another" while the column of cloud indicated the presence of God within the tent to those who observed outside. We can tell that God is not appearing to Moses in a human or burning bush form though because one day, when Moses asks God to accompany them in a physical tangible way as they resume their travels, he also asks to see God as he truly is: "Then Moses said, "Do let me see your glory!"" (Exodus 33:18.)
God understands that Moses wants to see God as he truly exists in his authentic form. This is what we call the "glorified form" because it is how God appears beyond the bounds of earthly physics. Again, this is in anticipation of how Jesus Christ will appear transfigured in glorified form, and then later, resurrected in his glorified body. Here is how Moses describes seeing God (Exodus 33: 18-23): Then Moses said, "Do let me see your glory!" He answered, "I will make all my beauty pass before you, and in your presence I will pronounce my name, 'Lord'; I who show favors to whom I will. But my face you cannot see, for no man sees me and still lives. Here, "continued the Lord, "is a place near me where you shall station yourself on the rock. When my glory passes I will set you in the hollow of the rock and will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will remove my hand, so that you may see my back; but my face is not to be seen."
Moses does not record his reaction because immediately thereupon God and Moses went to work on the renewal of the tablets (which had been broken by Moses when the people sinned.) But when Moses came down from Mount Sinai, after forty days with the Lord, "he did not know that the skin of his face had become radiant while he conversed with the Lord. When Aaron, then, and the other Israelites saw Moses and noticed how radiant the skin of his face had become, they were afraid to come near him." (Exodus 34: 29-30.) Because of his radiant skin from conversation with God, Moses started wearing a veil, which he removed only in the presence of God. St Paul, years later, would ponder this veiling and conclude that this was symbolic of the failure of the Jews to recognize Jesus as the promised Messiah (2 Cor. 3: 7-18.) However, while the parallel and analogy is totally valid, there's a more fundamental message. Moses did not want the people to start to view him as God, by being distracted by Moses' increasingly radiant skin. Moses knew (think gold calf) all too well how easy it was for people to place God falsely within people and idols. So Moses decided to veil himself so that people would not focus on his radiance and confuse him with the literal presence of God within him.
Let's look closer now at how God's "walk by" of Moses took place. Notice that this does not take place in the tent, but up on the mountain among rocks. God wishes to grant his friend Moses' request, but has to protect him from seeing the full energy and glory of God. So God does the most that he can do to provide a portion of his authentic presence yet still protect Moses. He places him between rocks "in the hollow" and "cover(s)" Moses with his "hand" so that Moses cannot see God's approach or passing by, but only God's "back." Why is this? In the next section I will cite other examples where God's face must be concealed from even the holy because they would die. Do not confuse this with literally a human's "face" and a human's "back" because we have already shown how God can appear in a human form with a front and a back, no problem. In his glorified form, however, God is the totality of the Word of God, which is intention. The face of God is representative of all of God's focus and all of God's energy, and no living thing can endure the total focus of God in his authentic glorified form. How do we know this? Because to make the experience complete, God speaks his name as he passes by Moses. God is the summation of the light and word of life, because all exists because he intends it to exist, and by saying his name, that is like Moses seeing "God at work." So the immense amount of energy and the intentionality of the Word of God in God's full physical form is too much for anyone to bear directly, thus God shields Moses from his direct intentionality. In part 3 of this I'll show another example of this by discussing the angels who do stand directly in front of God and how that, like the radiance of God to Moses' face, reflects in how the angels appear.
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