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The Sex God

Sunday, December 06th, 2009 | Author: Skip Moen

And Elohim created the man in His image, in the image of Elohim He created him – male and female He created them. Genesis 1:27 (SRI)

Male and Female – Why do you suppose the Scriptures reiterate the fact that God created human beings male and female?  I mean, isn’t it obvious?  Wouldn’t it be sufficient to simply say that God created human beings (which is what it does say in the first half of the verse)?  You might answer, “Well, it’s about the cultural environment of the author.”  You would be partially correct.  Most of the cultures that surrounded Israel practiced some form of fertility cults.  These cults believed that the sex act was a spiritual replication of divine procreation.  In other words, they thought of their gods as male and female.  They believed that sexual activity among the gods produced the fundamental constituents of the world and therefore, human sexuality mimicked divine intercourse.  That’s why fertility cults engaged in temple prostitution and orgies.  Sex was a very big deal.  It was part of the magic of the gods, a little slice of creative power bequeathed to humans.

But notice the implications of the Hebrew view.  God creates sexuality.  Sexuality is not resident in the divine being.  Sex is something new on the scene.  Contrary to the fertility religions, God did not bring the world into existence through copulation with a female divinity.  Human beings are made male and female for other purposes.  Their sexuality does not imitate a divine original.

There’s something else about the Hebrew view that is too often obscured in an attempt to apply our cultural values to sexuality.  The Bible puts an enormous emphasis on sex.  Just think about it.  Creation of the entire universe occupies a few terse verses in the opening chapter, but creation of sexual distinction between human beings is a much bigger deal.  The story of the creation of woman, found only in the Hebrew ancient literature, stands at the pinnacle of the entire creative activity of God.  Furthermore, sexuality in both positive and negative demonstration is woven throughout the entire biblical text.  Marriage dominates the metaphorical landscape as a symbol of our relationship with God.  Sexual misbehavior is front and center in descriptions of idolatry and disobedience.  And the covenant mark for males is located on the instrument of sexual performance.  There is no doubt about it.  The God of the Bible is the God of sex.

Fertility cults continue to oppose God’s playing field.  We might not have temple prostitution or believe that we are reenacting divine orgasms, but the culture is saturated with the idea that sex is divine and we are demigods in its performance.  Nearly everything is laced with sexuality, but it is sexuality in the wilderness, outside of God’s fences.  The Bible is not prudish.  God is not Victorian.  He just knows a bit more about sex than we do, and He knows sexuality was created for Garden experiences.  Next time you see a commercial, magazine cover, television show or MTV video, ask yourself if you’re being persuaded to believe that sex is about your slice of divine power.  God’s view of sexuality is about Garden play.  There’s a very big difference.

Topical Index: sex, male, female, Genesis 1:27, fertility cult

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Victory Song

Thursday, July 02nd, 2009 | Author: Skip Moen

All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord; and all the families of the nations shall worship before You.  Psalm 22:28  (Hebrew text)

Remember – Do you know the beginning of the 22nd Psalm?  “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  That doesn’t sound like a victory song, does it?  If all you know about the 22nd Psalm is the second line (the first in our English translations), then you really don’t know what this psalm is about.  You see, it’s not a song about being abandoned.  It’s a song about vindication, domination and glory. 

Go read the song again.  It starts out looking pretty bad.  But remember that Hebrew is a phenomenological language.  It describes the way things appear to the eye of the beholder.  And if you were standing on Golgotha on that day, it would certainly appear as though everything was lost.  Your hoped-for dream of throwing off the oppressor was crushed.  Your rabbi was dying on the cross.  Everything looked as if it ended in disaster.  As far as you are concerned, God has abandoned His chosen one.  If you stop reading at the end of the first stanzas, you won’t see the victory and the power.  All you will see is the grave.

The psalm describes what it looks like when things seem to be failing.  Then it describes the jeering, mocking cat-calls of the crowd.  It paints a picture of apparent total rejection.  But things change when the reality behind the appearance is revealed.  Suddenly, the song becomes a cry of victory and vindication.  The one who appears to have been abandoned by God is no longer despised, no longer afflicted, no longer hidden from the face of YHWH (verse 25).  The rejected one begins to praise God in front of his detractors.  Suddenly we discover that the humble, the oppressed and the forgotten are near to the heart of God.  And then the victory cry, “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn.”  The victim is vindicated.  God’s real purpose is revealed.

Think about this verse for a minute.  Notice that it doesn’t say, “All the ends of the earth will be evangelized.”  It doesn’t say that the gospel will be preached to all nations.  It says that everyone will remember.  That implies that they already knew but had forgotten.  When God’s true purpose is revealed, their minds are opened and they remember.  What do they remember?  That God is God and that their plans and perceptions are not the real story.  God is in control.  And how it is possible for them to remember this if they have not been evangelized?  Ah, for that answer, we need to turn all the way back to Genesis.  We need to remember that the homophone for “male” (zakar as a noun) is the verb “to remember” (zakar as a verb).  The truth of God’s power and majesty is built into the DNA of being a man.  It only needs to be uncovered for men everywhere to remember that the Lord is King.  Isn’t this exactly what Paul says in the first chapter of Romans? The wicked are not held accountable because they denied that Yeshua was the Messiah.  They are held accountable because they refused to acknowledge who God is and they were not grateful.  They already knew.  And now, when the final curtain is pulled back, they will remember.

How about you?  Does your life reflect the whole psalm, or did you stop reading at verse 21?  Are you living on the basis of appearances, or do you see the victory ahead?  Are you remembering?

Topical Index:  remember, zakar, male, victory, Psalm 22:28

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A Special Kind Of Help

Saturday, May 30th, 2009 | Author: Skip Moen

And said YHWH Elohim, “It is not good for man to be alone; I will make for him a [‘ezer kenegdo].” Genesis 2:18

‘ezer kenegdo – The Bible was not written with chapter and verse numbers. Those were added thousands of years later. Unfortunately, their addition often breaks our thinking about the text so that we don’t see the continuation of one thought into another. Once these artificial stops are removed, the context of our interpretation often changes. Such is the case with the introduction of the ‘ezer kenegdo. Immediately preceding God’s statement about the need for the ‘ezer kenegdo is this command:

“Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” (Genesis 2:17).

What follows this warning? What follows the only prohibition that God gives Adam? The necessity of an ‘ezer kenegdo. The argument proceeds from the prohibition concerning the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to the requirement for an ‘ezer kenedgdo. Furthermore, the entire story of the Fall focuses on the role of the ‘ezer kenegdo and the tree. How can we ignore the obvious conclusion that the purpose of the ‘ezer kenegdo is somehow connected to the command for Adam to obey. Adam doesn’t need an assistant or a co-laborer. The assignment to care for the garden, be fruitful, multiply and take stewardship over the earth is given to both male and female. They equally receive God’s directive. It is not the case that Adam is given the assignment and then delegates some of that responsibility to his faithful companion, Havvah.

However, the command prohibiting eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil is given to Adam alone. It is not Adam’s productive energy that needs assistance. It is his faithfulness to God’s moral obligation. He needs a protector. He needs someone whose job is to keep him on the straight and narrow. He needs one who comes alongside for the express purpose of supporting his obedience. Havvah has a role to play, but it is not the role of domestic servant, sexual outlet, production assistant or Vice President for Public Works. It is the role of priest! She is to be the one who makes sure that Adam stays faithful to God. She is the one who stands between God’s command and Adam’s obedience, watching over him so that he will not go astray. The help she brings is the help of rescue and salvation. In this role, she parallels God’s ultimate relationship with Israel. God is the protector, provider and deliverer of Israel in the fallen world, but those are only roles God takes upon Himself after the Fall. In order to understand the role of the ‘ezer kenegdo, we must look at God’s relationship with human beings before the Fall.

For this exploration, we have only the barest of clues, but these will do. The Hebrew words for “male” and “female” contain double stories. Yes, they describe our sexuality, but they also imply something more. The Hebrew word for “male” is zakar. zakar has a homophone, another word that is spelled exactly the same way in Hebrew (Z-K-R) but which has an apparently different root and a different meaning. In this case, zakar as a verb suggests some very interesting nuances. The principle meaning of zakar as a verb is “to remember.” zakar describes a presence of mind that is taken to heart. In other words, it is thinking that becomes doing. There is no better connection between these two elements than what is described in Psalm 103:18. “To those who keep His covenant and remember His precepts to do them.” The purpose of zakar is not simply to bring something to mind. It is to bring something to mind in order to act upon it. “Thus remembrance of God and the obedience it implies are experienced as a vitally necessary relationship, from which a man cannot and must not escape” (Eising). zakar is an action that is “necessary for human existence” and “a fundamental bond of mutual remembrance that unites God and man.”

Do you see why the homophone of zakar is so intriguing? Is it possible that being in God’s image as male (zakar) could be related to a man’s necessity to remember who God is and how God is related to men? Man is called to remember – in particular to remember God and his obligation to God, the Creator. In this sense, Adam bears the image of God as the one who is called to remember what God said, who God is and to act accordingly.

What about “female?” The Hebrew nekavah also has another story. In combination with zakar (male), the two words demonstrate that the image of God is carried in the complement of these two. Both are necessary for human beings to be human. But nekavah also has its own enhancement. In this case, the Arabic cognate not only means “to pierce, to make a hole,” but also “single out” and “appoint as a leader.” These meanings are also found in Scripture. For example, a slave for life (voluntarily) is marked by a hole bored in the ear. When he is given a name, his identity is transferred from the hole in the ear to the name he bears. Furthermore, we find the word used to describe an appointment to a high office. Finally, Isaiah 62:2 describes being given a new name (nakav) as something of importance and value. Could it be that the nekavah as ‘ezer kenedgo is appointed to an office of distinction, a role in which she carries a new identity and bears the mark of that identity with her sexuality. After all, she is the “mother of all living”. Everyone born of woman must find a new identity through the breach or tunnel of her body and in the process acquire a name.

What do we discover about the ‘ezer kenegdo? The text suggests that she is designed for the specific purpose of maintaining obedience between her man and God. She is his intercessor. She is to guard his relationship with the Creator, support him when he embraces God’s direction and oppose him when he does not. She is the helper-opposite in the only arena where he needs additional attention. Not work, not world-changing assignments, not dominion, not stewarding – but spiritual awareness and obedience. Without her, the man is at great risk and particularly vulnerable.

Is this the role you imagined for the ‘ezer kenegdo? This makes it rather impossible to think of women as second-class citizens in the Body, doesn’t it?

(I’m sorry that this one is so long.  I just couldn’t say what had to be said with less.)

Topical Index: ‘ezer kenegdo, woman, priest, intercessor, obedience, Genesis 2:18, male, female

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Animalia

Sunday, February 15th, 2009 | Author: Skip Moen

male and female he created them  Genesis 1:27

Male and Female – The difference between human beings and animals is so important to our entire perspective that it cannot be overemphasized.  The world teaches that we are merely a higher evolution of animals, not distinctly different in origin or essence.   The Bible has a very different perspective.  The Bible doesn’t debate the proposed theory of evolution.  That simply isn’t important from a biblical point of view.  What is important is the deliberate connection between Man and God.  There is no doubt about our connection with the rest of creation.  We are made of the same stuff as the earth.  But notice that God forms Man from the ground, not from the animal chain.   God animates that earthly connection with His own breath.  Man is the only created being with a built-in bond between heaven and earth.  To be human is to recognize, nourish and exhibit this dual relationship.

The Bible says that Man was created male and female.  This too is important.  While it is obvious that gender is part of the other created orders, the Bible only makes this deliberate point about gender when it comes to human beings.  Why?  Why not just say (like the other creations) that Man was created after its kind?  The Bible specifies the gender of Man because sex is sacred.  It is not like the reproductive instinct of the animals.  Human sexuality has a spiritual component.  Of course, it is possible to ignore this component and act like animals, but that is not the way we were created.  Anyone who spends time reading about the careful and deliberate creation of the woman knows that her creation is not focused on reproduction.  Male and female together bring about something vital to God’s plan.  Nahum Sarna points out that human sexuality is on a completely different order than sexuality among the animals.  It is a gift from God.  Properly understood and properly enacted, it cannot be anything but spiritual and good.  God made it that way.  Sarna points out that this is the reason that sexual perversion is so offensive to God.  Perversion is corruption of the very nature of Man, a degradation of God’s breath in our human form.

The Hebrew words for male and female are zakar and neqevah.  The pictograph for male is the combination of weapon, open hand and person.  Perhaps the imagery tells us that a man is either friend or foe.  His nature is to provide and defend.  Neqevah paints the picture of beholding the final life in the house.  The woman is the final source of life in the house.  She continues the legacy.  These roles are part of the Hebrew design.  Man and woman bring about God’s redemptive plan together.  Together they are given the assignment to multiply, steward and oversee the earth.  Together they are to bring God’s image to bear on the rest of creation.  Together they are His regents.  None of these assignments, including procreation, are animal actions. 

God made us different.  Evolutionary theory attempts to make human beings the same.  God doesn’t see it that way.  We are connected, but we are not contiguous.  Our life has not evolved.  The real implication of Darwin’s thought is devolution, the transference and reduction of the divine breath to natural respiration.  Once we start sliding down that path, all of God’s intentions are reduced to survival necessity.  We can become animals if we try, but God intends us to become human – and He is anxious to help in that process.

Today you can rejoice in your humanity and your sexuality.  God made you.  Your breath is His sign of your significance to Him.  Today you can be more human than you were yesterday by breathing a little deeper.  Inhale His goodness. 

Topical Index:  sexuality, male, female, Genesis 1:27, zakar, neqevah, evolution

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