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The Wrong Question

Saturday, February 06th, 2010 | Author: Skip Moen

What is man that You take thought of him, and the son of man that You care for him? Psalm 8:4

What – The Hebrew word mah is an indefinite interrogative pronoun that means “what?”  But “what” isn’t right in this verse.  The Hebrew translation is correct, but the cultural transposition isn’t.  “What is man?” is the wrong question.  You see, asking what man is can be answered by a list of reductions common to our way of thinking.  Man is an upright, walking animal that is self-aware.  Really?  Man is a biological machine that processes food into thought.  Really?  Man is the end of the evolutionary chain.  Really?  You see, when I ask “what,” I miss the point of David’s question.  David isn’t asking for a biology lesson or a social-political theory.  He is asking who we are from God’s perspective.  How is it possible that the God of all creation pays any attention to us?  Who are we that this God should even notice?  The difference between our understanding of “what” and David’s understanding of mah is enormous – and critically important.

Abraham Heschel says, “It is indeed conceivable that man may continue to be without being human.  . . . One of the most frightening prospects we must face is that this earth may be populated by a race of beings which though belonging to the race Homo sapiens according to biology will be devoid of the qualities by which man is spiritually distinguished from the rest of organic creatures.”[1]

You may want to read that again.  Three thousand years ago, David recognized that the truth about who I am is defined by my relationship to the Creator.  It is not a matter of biology or politics or mechanics or any other factor.  I am human because I am related to God and only in my relation to God can I become human.  Soren Kierkegaard said it well:  “Now with the help of God I can become myself.”

Being human means being tied to God’s path to life.  It means standing against chaos and the forces that destroy life.  It means sharing in a covenant guarantee.  It means knowing what is permitted and what is not, and acting accordingly.  Any behavior that denies, negates or rejects these images is not human behavior and the creatures who exhibit non-human behavior are not creatures that exhibit God’s image.  Before sin entered the world, God made human beings as perfect representatives of His image and likeness.  Now we discover that this is an active and dynamic condition.  In the perfect creation, nothing prevented male and female from taking on the image and likeness of God.  They are human because they act humanly.  In the process, they continue to become human.  But when sin entered the picture, something tragic occurred.  Now it became possible to move in another direction.  Over time, those who have been designed to become human can reject walking this path.  Many do.  They eventually arrive at a destination not intended for human beings.  Human beings are intended to arrive at the full expression of “our image and likeness.”  But it is also possible to arrive at another destination.[2]

The image of God is not a static element in being human.   It is not something that we possess like flesh and blood.  It is a dynamic activity.  I carry God’s image as the order-maker when I act as the order-taker.  It is action within the relationship that constitutes the image.  This is exactly what we expect from a Hebrew perspective.  We are human because of and through our actions.  We are manifest as human beings when we act humanly, when we act in ways that manifest the image and likeness of God. Just like God is a verb, the image of God is a verb.  We truly are “works in progress,” and the reason we are works at all is because God notices us.

Topical Index:  what, mah, image of God, human, Psalm 8:4

[1] Abraham Heschel, Who Is Man? (Stanford University Press, 1965) p. 29.

[2] From The Perfect Enemy (forthcoming)

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Man As Metaphor

Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 | Author: Skip Moen

And God said, “Let us make man in our image; according to our likeness.” Genesis 1:26

According To Our Likeness – De’mut is the Hebrew word translated “likeness.” It is a feminine noun. Tselem, the word for “image,” is a masculine noun. The text makes it quite clear that both words apply to the God-carrying, earth-creatures. But what’s the difference? Why not just say Man is created in God’s image and leave it at that? Why add this word?

A quick pass shows us God apparently combines masculine (image) and feminine (likeness) characteristics. Gender words don’t seem to be a problem here. Before sex is any kind of issue at all, the Hebrew text recognizes equality in its very choice of words.

Next we discover that de’mut (likeness) is often used in comparison of two dissimilar things.  Wicked people are like snake venom (Psalm 58:4).  The approaching wrath of God is like the thunder of an army on the move (Isaiah 13:4).  We see these similes but where is the comparison in the Genesis text?  What simile or metaphor is involved here?

We could suggest that the metaphor is the comparison of human beings with God.  These truly dissimilar beings are brought together by comparing something similar in each.  What is the similarity?  For that, we need a picture.

The full phrase (“according to our likeness”) is kidmoo-tenoo.  In the middle is de’mut.  This word presents the picture:  path-chaos-nail-seal (Daleth-Mem-Vav-Tau).  We suggest “the path securing a covenant over chaos.”  To be in God’s likeness is to be on the pathway that guarantees life over destruction.  God’s image is about transferred authority and order over what destroys.  God’s likeness is about the seal or guarantee that this pathway means life.  Both are active, dynamic relationships, not static elements.  Both require a prior and continuing connection to the Creator.  And both endorse life over chaos.

What happens when we add the consonant prefix and suffix?  Ki is the Hebrew word for “according to.”  But the consonant Kaf is the picture of an open hand.  It means “to allow, to open, to cover.”  Noo adds two consonants to the word, one which acts as a vowel.  They are Nun-Vav.  The picture is life secured or added.  What does the whole phrase look like?  “Allow the path that secures a covenant over chaos of guaranteed life” might be one possibility.  You might determine another, but the imagery seems obvious.  Being human means being tied to God’s path to life.  It means standing against chaos and the forces that destroy life.  It means sharing in a covenant guarantee.  It means knowing what is permitted and what is not, and acting accordingly.  Any behavior that denies, negates or rejects these images is not human behavior and the creatures who exhibit non-human behavior are not the creatures God made.  Perhaps more accurately, God intends His earth-creatures to become human.  It is a process of dynamic interaction with roles, responsibilities and a relationship with Him.  Over time, those who have been designed to become human can reject this path.  Many do.  They eventually arrive at a destination not intended for human beings.  Human beings are intended to arrive at “our image and likeness.”

It might be useful for followers of the Way to recognize just what is at stake here.  It’s not simply salvation, is it?

Topical Index: likeness, de’mut, kidmoo-tenoo, human, Genesis 1:26

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Inclined Plane

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 | Author: Skip Moen

And the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that all the impulse of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Genesis 6:5

Impulse – So, is there a little devil on one shoulder and a little angel on the other battling for your attention and decision? No, I’m afraid not. All that cartoon fantasy is pagan mythology. The truth is about the yetzer ha’ra, not about diminutive spiritual beings. And it’s not about sinful nature either. It’s about the moral inclined plane that affects all human beings.

Genesis does not teach us that we are sinful at birth. It doesn’t teach us that we have no choice but to sin unless we are redeemed by Christ. It doesn’t teach us that our capacity for good is rendered null and void until we say the sinner’s prayer. What it does teach is that we have to become human by our decisions to harness the power of the will. In other words, we have to resist the yetzer ha’ra, the evil inclination, that has become part of the human society and affects every human decision.

Remember Havvah (Eve)? What happened when she listened to the naked snake instead of the Word of God? She gave expression to her own determination of what is good. She listened to her inner voice instead of submitting to the external words of God voice. When she did that, she allowed the moral equation to be changed. She introduced my evaluation of what is good and what isn’t good. Before she sinned, Havvah knew only what was true according to God’s words and what was not true according to God’s words. But after she allowed her own desire to get in the way, suddenly what God said was filtered by what she wanted. True and false became good and evil, only now it was “good for me” and “bad for me.” This is the essence of the yetzer ha’ra.

Now let’s consider, for just a moment, the teaching of Rabbi Soloveitchik on this matter. It reveals something that has probably been obscured in all our Christian theology about sinful nature. God created Man with the potential for good or evil. The very fact that the Tree is within the preview of Man means that Man must decide the path of his own life. There is a choice to be made. One direction leads toward deeper harmony with God and creation. The other direction leads toward self-will and chaos. But there is a real and legitimate choice here. It is a choice that every person must make. While the weight of evil inclination increases with each succeeding generation and the incline of the plane gets steeper, the choice still remains. Listen to yourself or listen to Him.

In one respect, the yetzer ha’ra is the distinguishing feature of what it means to be human. Animals do not struggle with the choice to listen to God. They just do by God’s inherent instinct what they do. Human beings are the ones who must decide. And that decision propels them either in the direction of animal-like existence or in the direction of becoming more and more human, that is, becoming more submissive to the word of the Creator. In this respect, the yetzer ha’ra is what makes us human. It is not something we can escape (unless we want to be nothing but animals) and it is not something we can deny. It is our destiny as human beings to have the power to say “No” to the one who made us. That power makes us human. And that power can also take away our humanity. To become human is to domesticate the power for God’s purposes.

When God saw that all the thoughts of men had become nothing but decisions for the path of animal behavior, He saw that His creation was no longer human. So, He scrubbed the earth of them. Their sin was crossing the boundary between human and animal, preferring to be animals rather than the human beings God intended them to be. As such, they were an abomination to creation and had to be removed.

We face the same consequences if we determine that animalia is the way to go. We may do whatever comes naturally, but in the end we will have denied who we were created to be. And God will have to clean up the mess.

Today, you don’t have to listen to some fictitious devil or angel. Today you can choose to be human by listening to the Word of the Lord and submitting your way to it. You can domesticate that inner power and give it back to Him. And you will be human one more day.

Topical Index: human, domesticate, yetzer ha’ra, animal, choice, Genesis 6:5

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Decision-Making

Sunday, April 05th, 2009 | Author: Skip Moen

Do not become wise with yourselves.  Romans 12:16

Wise – If your biblical orientation is Greek, you will have quite a struggle with this verse.  Does it mean that you need to stop thinking, learning, questioning and reflecting?  Does it mean that you must strive for the “simple” faith, accepting uncritically whatever is taught?  Most people reject this interpretation, but they don’t stop thinking like Greeks.  They decide that the verse is about pride.  They proclaim that Paul warns us about arrogance and an attitude of self-sufficiency.  But the verse doesn’t say, “Do not become proud.”  If Paul wished to say that, there was a very nice Greek word available, hubris.  No, this verse uses the word phronimos, a word that focuses on how we think.  In Greek, it’s about practical sensibility.  Negatively, it means self-complacency.  In other words, you think you have all the answers.

But Paul isn’t Greek.  What do we discover when we think of his statement from a Hebrew perspective? We end up in the Garden.

“And the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and the tree was desirable to make one wise.”  Wisdom has very little to do with intelligence.  From a biblical perspective, from the Hebrew point of view, wisdom is about decision-making.  Wisdom (sakal in Hebrew) is a word from moral vocabulary, not intellectual extension.  It is about alignment with God’s point of view.  It is about what is right, righteous, good and holy.  It has nothing to do with IQ, grades or degrees.  One can be the world’s greatest scholar, even in the Bible, and still be an utter fool.  Wisdom is about who decides what is good and what is evil in your life.  What Paul tells us is really pretty simple.  Don’t become your own standard of right behavior.

Every man did what was right in his own eyes.  This is the biblical equivalent of being a fool.  Only God knows what is right.  I can listen and obey, or I can decide that the fruit will make me wise and I will be like a god, determining what is good by myself.  The world is full of those who have become wise in themselves.  They have stopped listening to the outside voice of reason and righteousness.  They have turned God off.  Now they are following the pathway of the serpent.  They will eventually become animals, guided only by their own inner voices.  When the metamorphosis is complete, God gives them up.  They are no longer human by any biblical standard.  In case you didn’t realize it, you should know that the world is de-volving, not evolving.  It is slipping inevitably toward animal consciousness and away from being human.  Why?  Because from a biblical perspective, I am human only insofar as I am in alignment and in conversation with my Creator.  I am born to become human.  But becoming human is a choice.  It is the same choice that the woman faced long ago.  It takes wisdom, not intelligence, to make the right choice.  It is the choice to be dependent, insufficient and submissive.  Wisdom is the choice not to be wise in your own eyes.  How are you doing today?  Feeling wise?

Topical Index:  Do not become wise with yourselves. Romans 12:16

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