Prayer Wheel

In the beginning, God . . .”  Genesis 1:1a  NASB

God – How do you read those first words of the Tanakh?  In Hebrew, berēʾšît bārāʾ ʾĕlōhîm.  Most modern Westerners imagine that this is the opening statement of a cosmology, that is, a pre-scientific story of origins.  Creationism proceeds from this assumption to propose an apologetic against any form of human evolution.  But perhaps we’re reading something into the text that isn’t really there—and isn’t necessary.  What if this text isn’t about creation as much as it is about dependence?  What if it’s not about God’s non-temporal, non-spatial existence or His role as the Prime Mover (a lá Aquinas)?  Would those issues have been theological conundrums to a slave population removed from Egypt?  Or did the Israelites need something else; not a naïve account of the beginning but rather a bold statement of the sovereignty of their God?  Modern believers seem overly concerned to prove creation ex nihilo rather than notice that ancient Hebrew thought is about kings and kingdoms, not cosmic origins.  If this amazing declaration is true, if it is the foundation of all relations in the cosmos, then it teaches us something about prayer.  Prayer is the spoke on a wheel.

“The self is not the hub, but the spoke of the revolving wheel.  In prayer we shift the center of living from self-consciousness to self-surrender.  God is the center toward which all forces tend.  He is the source, and we are the flowing of His force, the ebb and flow of His tides.  Prayer takes the mind out of the narrowness of self-interest, and enables us to see the world in the mirror of the holy.”[1]

As Heschel points out, God is the center, not simply the initiator.  He is also the One Who brought about the creation, but I’m not sure that is the primary concern of Scripture.  He is the source of all that is.  As Paul put it, “in Him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).  Prayer is the way we connect with our dependence by acknowledging His sovereignty.  But notice that Heschel calls this viewing the world “in the mirror of the holy.”  Why that analogy?  Once again, we are thrown back to Genesis.

The only divinely-authorized image of God in all creation is Man.  But Man is not a direct copy.  He’s a functional copy of the divine.  He isn’t a physical shell surrounding a spiritual center (soul).  He is intended to be a reflection of the divine in the way he acts.  Pythagoras invented the idea that an eternal “soul” is implanted in a physical body, but that’s not Hebraic thinking.  Hebrew thought views Man as the animated extension of God’s character defined by the list provided in Exodus 34:6-7.  Being human means reflecting those characteristics.  Prayer is the vehicle that allows us the see God’s handiwork from His perspective.  Yes, we ask for things in our prayers, but even our asking should reflect His view. Prayer isn’t a “to do” list for God.  It’s a “who is” reminder that we aren’t in charge.

Topical Index: prayer, wheel, spoke, perspective, dependence, Genesis 1:1

[1] Abraham Heschel, Between God and Man: An Interpretation of Judaism (Free Press Paperbacks, 1959), p. 198.