Voice of the Day: Walter Brueggemann
Clearly, if "no other god" has any real power and, therefore, any real, substantive existence, it is grossly inappropriate that Israel should invest such an object with ultimacy. The [Hebrew] word...however, need not be rendered "idol." It is more properly rendered "image," a visible representation of Yahweh. The temptation, then, is not the creation of a rival that detracts from Yahweh, but an attempt to locate and thereby domesticate Yahweh in a visible, controlled object. This latter reading, which is the more probably, is also more subtle. It does not fear a rival but a distortion of Yahweh's free character by an attempt to locate Yahweh and so diminish something of Yahweh's terrible freedom.
- Walter Brueggemann
"The Book of Exodus," The New Interpreter's Bible Volume I
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Comments
Wow and amen.
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Posted by: Payshun | June 9, 2008 10:17 PM
Israel was warned against making a visible representation of YHWY, thereby domesticating YHWY. I think we sometimes so identify God with our own agendas that we risk the same. I am reminded of a statement made by Shane Claiborne, speaking of his visit to Baghdad, Iraq. "Love for our own people is not a bad thing. It is a great gift to belong, to have an identity with a people. It is good. We [ christians] have an identity which transcends family and nation. Our love doesn’t stop at the border. Our love is ancient. I really learned that when I was in Bahgdad. I met with a [Christian] Bishop after a powerful worship. I said, 'I had no idea that there are so many Christians in Iraq.' And he looked at me, and he was very gentle, he said, 'Yes, this is where it all started- that is the Tigris River and the Euphrates. Have you heard of them?' And then he told me,'You didn’t invent Christianity in America. You only domesticated it. You go back to the church in America and tell them that we are praying for them to be the body of Christ.'
Posted by: Morton | June 10, 2008 12:15 PM
Acute observation on the use of images to substitute for the infinitude of YHWH. The mystics seemed to fear this so much so, that, at times, they abhorred even the mental imagery that would come to mind when meditating on God. To them, such an exercise of imagination was making a mental icon of the goodness of God, thereby limiting him to the activity of the imagination. Thus, for the mystics, the imagination was not a place for the image of God to dwell, for even it was a (subconscious) attempt at restraining the divine.
Posted by: Jordan | June 11, 2008 9:06 PM
Sounds like what religion did to Jesus.
In our minds they recrucify him every year and smear the people with the blame, till they think they are wretched. Whereas, Jesus said we are to be the children of God. He lifted the lowly and made a way. It was religious leadership that insisted the state execute him, and it's religion that tries to tell us we can't enter the kingdom till we leave these bodies.
Posted by: Barbara | June 12, 2008 6:05 AM
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