The Beginning of Everything
“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.” Exodus 20:2 NASB
Who – For Israel, everything began with “who.” ʾăšer, used thousands of times in the Bible, is a particle of relationship. Interestingly, contemporary ancient cultures seem to have a different view. “Taking into consideration the prolific use of ʾăšer in biblical Hebrew, it is of interest to observe that the equivalent has turned up only once in the Ugaritic texts . . .”[1] This is instructive because the same could be said for Western Christianity’s view of God. Yes, we translate ʾăšer as “who” again and again, but Heschel notes a striking disconnect:
The bricks we collect in order to construct the biblical image of God are, as a rule, conceptual notions, such as goodness, justice, wisdom, unity. In terms of frequency of usage in biblical language, they are surpassed by statements referring to God’s pathos, which, however, for a variety of reasons, has never been accorded proper recognition in the history of biblical theology.[2]
Why is this the case? Could it be that our concept of God is really not relational? We have inherited a Greek orientation toward God, and God for the Greeks (as C. S. Lewis properly noted about the Trinity) is an idea, not a person. The Christian Greek God is the concatenation of a collection of superlative notions; ideas that are presented as the noblest of man’s concepts, a transcendental entity (a first cause) far removed from the transitory, pedestrian world of human beings (with considerable influence from Plato, we might add). Notice Heschel’s remark:
To the prophets, the attributes of God were drives, challenges, commandments, rather than timeless notions detached from His Being. They did not offer an exposition of the nature of God, but rather an exposition of God’s insight into man and His concern for man.[3]
This verse in Exodus is the introduction to the Ten Words (the Ten Commandments). It begins with an announcement of God’s relationship to the people. He is the God who saves. That’s why they are to listen. He acts on their behalf. That’s why they are to be devoted to Him. We do not listen to the God of ideas. We are not included to be devoted to a God of concepts. That God is too far removed from who we are. But the God of Israel is first of all a God who is—and He is in relationship to the people of His concern. As Heschel says, the result of a God who acts is “an increased sensitivity to the presence of God—not an impersonal knowledge. The culmination of prophetic fellowship with God is insight and unanimity—not union.”[4]
Have we stripped God of His personality in our penchant for Greek analysis? Have we reduced the God of awe and mystery to a first cause in order to justify our rationalism? The prophets were overwhelmed with God’s concern, with the God who agonized over His people. The prophets felt God’s pathos. We feel the vibration of the praise and worship team. There’s a big difference.
Topical Index:
[1] Hamilton, V. P. (1999). 184 אֲשֶׁר. R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament (electronic ed., p. 82). Chicago: Moody Press.
[2] Abraham Heschel, The Prophets (Hendrickson Publishers, 1962), Vol. 2, p. 3.
[3] Ibid., p. 1.
[4] Ibid., p. 3.
