The God Who Feels
Are the consolations of God too little for you, or the word spoken gently to you? Job 15:11 NASB
Consolations – You will recall Wilson’s comment about the use of the term nāḥam: “When nāḥam is used of God, however, the expression is anthropopathic and there is not ultimate tension. From man’s limited, earthly, finite perspective it only appears that God’s purposes have changed.”[1] I suggested that this explanation of what otherwise appears to be emotional response to circumstances finds its roots in Greek philosophy, particularly in the idea of a transcendent, wholly-other Being (God) who is immutable and impassible, not subject to the exigencies we experience as human beings. It is noteworthy that ancient religions were used to the idea of an immanent deity. As Otto writes:
With the name “god” we are accustomed to associate the idea of a sovereign lord who is, to be sure, sympathetic with the kingdom he rules but does not himself share its joys, sorrows, and experiences. This idea is foreign to ancient myth. To it, the god, though he appears as a powerful individual, is still, in the final analysis, identical with the spirit and form, that is to say, the essence of the realm in which he is the ruler. The primordial processes which are acted out in it must be consummated in the god himself.[2]
What are we to conclude about the biblical characterization of God, a God who repents, who agonizes, who celebrates, who regrets? Are all of these emotional descriptions simply fictions, useful only as accommodations to our inferior human frame? Western Greek-based theology claims so. In fact, though rarely articulated, Westen theology explicitly adopts a derivative on immutability (God cannot change) called “impassibility,” which means that feelings are logically impossible to ascribe to God. Wilson’s comment reflects this foundational view.
But the ancient world doesn’t. And the Bible is a product of the ancient world. It was not written by Greeks. It is not Western in its view of life. It is not subject to the assumptions of Greco-Roman theology. It is Semitic, Eastern, mythological [I do not mean fictional], pragmatic, and immanent. So, you and I are left with a choice; a choice not available to people like Abraham or David. We can follow the path of Aquinas whose Aristotelian thought altered the paradigm of the Bible, or we can recognize that the biblical material is much older and read it as it was understood by the original audiences prior to the Captivity. If we choose this latter way, we will have to rethink most of the descriptions of God’s interaction with men. The Bible will be much more empathetic, but also much less theological. The implications for articulation of your faith are profound. Most believers today don’t even realize that this transition occurred—but you do.
Topical Index: consolation, nāḥam, impassible, feelings, Job 15:11
[1] Wilson, M. R. (1999). 1344 נָחַם. In R. L. Harris, G. L. Archer Jr., & B. K. Waltke (Eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament(electronic ed., p. 571). Moody Press.
[2] Walter F. Otto, Dionysus: Myth and Cult (Spring Publications, 1965), p. 189.
Oh boy do I! I wondered if you were headed into a discussion of impassibility reading yesterday’s Today’s Word. It was probably an earlier article of yours that set me to Google the phrase “the pathos of God”. Heschel’s remarks were the first hit. Reading those comments were like experiencing a flash of light that illuminated an unforeseen landscape hidden by the dark. We take our identity from our fathers. Ultimately, if we believe that THE Father is impassible, an idea that was definitely part of the religious and cultural heritage of may family, and the entire geographic area grew up in, well then that’s what we take on as an identity. It was never directly communicated, just modeled. If a challenge rises up, you stoically knock it down, just like you would any other man who challenges you; you knock him in the dust. I could be casting the net to widely, but it seemed to me in that moment the whole of western civilization has been affected by this idea of what it means to be human, men mostly. I can be accused of having a keen sense for the obvious at times, but this really hit me, that it was me, ontologically. Hard to recount all the hard knocks it took, to get me to turn, to surrender. I have this memory of a picture of Dick Butkus, the All Pro Chicago Bears middle linebacker, standing over a running back he just drilled into the dirt, looking down on him and pointing his finger at him. His uniform was dirty and torn, his helmet cut with deep scratches from the vicious hits he would deal out. I can imagine he said something like, don’t come my way again!! That’s the way the game is played. But it doesn’t work well at all in the game of life. Desperado…
Thanks, Kent (and Skip) — we must be related, we apparently have the same family! Just get over it and get on with it! What a struggle it is to get into it!
Thanks Rick…technically we are related…🙂…but I get what you mean. I was born in the late 1950’s. I’m the third or fourth generation, depending on which side of my family we count down from. Perhaps you grew up with family that survived the Great Depression and WWII? Maybe even had memories of the loss and disaster of WWI? Empathetically, I can’t imagine how the catastrophe of those events, especially if they participated in or lived through those wars, affected them, and in many cases traumatized them. Both of my grandfathers and many of my great uncles were combatants in WWII. My father’s father, earned three bronze stars fighting across Europe. Bronze stars are awarded for having done very hard, violent, dangerous, but heroic things. Things that someone like me, who never had to do those things, can ever even imagine having to do. When my grandfather came home he was severely broken and traumatized. But those men simply went on with life. There was no therapy, no counseling. What he did when he came home affects our family still to this day, and my heart breaks for him and all the other men who never got to learn what I’ve learned about trauma, what I’ve been privileged to learn about God and how much He suffers with each of us and cares for us. In general, my loosely held theory is that WWII in particular, and the hardening of our culture that resulted, helped to cause the social revolution of the 1960’s. All of this, rolling down the generations. But as we know, under God’s management and care; piqqudim I think is the word from Exodus 34:7. To any veteran of combat who might read my comments I want to stress again that I know I don’t know anything about what it’s like to endure something like that, and it’s with no small amount of trepidation that I publicly speak about such things. I have the deepest respect and appreciation for all of you. But what I do know from personal experience is that traumatized people traumatize others until healing comes, if it does. My family on both sides exemplifies this. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
Thanks for the reply and clarification — it appears there is no same family. I come from generation after generation after generation, etc of Mennonite/Amish background. I tracked it back to at least the 15th century and it appears it was well beyond that via the Anabaptists. My grandfather was a Mennonite minister and his father was an Amish-Mennonite minister…..
This makes (apparently, as I didn’t experience it directly — but certainly generationally) for a very stoic, reserved affect. I think, as Skip mentions, serving an immutable/impassible God also becomes generational and impassibility is mimicked in us. This also is trauma in its own sense and is passed forward — until healing comes!
Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
Amen Ric I agree about generational impassibility.It does get passed down and mimicked, like so many things we learn it’s caught and not taught. I’ve been to Lancaster County, Pa quite a lot over the years, and I envy their life style in many ways. But the men don’t seem to smile often, and seem all bottled up. Except for the men I’ve met through the Mennonite/Brethren renewal community. One author I’ve read said regarding trauma that their are lacks and whacks. Whacks are the really serious types of trauma, but lacks, like not being raised by an emotionally available mother or father, over time can be as bad as serious trauma. Keeps us split as human beings he says, not whole. You have quite a heritage by the way! The stories of our families are different, but the brokenness and the solution are the same!
Amen!
🙂👍🏻
“The Bible will be much more empathetic, but also much less theological. The implications for articulation of your faith are profound. Most believers today don’t even realize that this transition occurred—but you do.”
Emet… indeed, I do! Realization comes by recognition that the articulation of your faith is met with puzzlement, blank expressions, ridicule, or outright opposition wherewith few are willing (or care) to engage. Only those whose search has left them continuing to seek or those whose conclusions are incontrovertible appear to have any interest in discussion at all.
“They spend their days in prosperity,
and in peace they go down to Sheol.
And they say to God, ‘Turn away from us,
for we do not desire to know your ways.
Who is Shaddai that we should serve him,
or what would we benefit when we plead with him?’” (Job 21:13-15)
Amen Richard…I realized recently…after a discussion with my brothers who’ve gone through this same process…that in a sense I’ve been lamenting, even complaining about how late in life this “paradigm shift” of my faith occurred. First, I realized at one point that it was always happening, and that I had nothing to do with starting the process. Secondly, upon reflection, it occurred to me that God seems to be in the paradigm shifting business. He did it at the beginning with Israel and the Exodus. They were steeped in fear from following a death cult religion. I think the prophets certainly paid the price from being point men for God’s effort in this way as the effort continued. And it seems to me that Yeshua certainly was about His Father’s business in that way, and paid the ultimate price for us all. I hold this conclusion loosly (sp?), there’s certainly a lot more going on than just that. But I realized I should not be surprised at the reactions I get. I also think though that more and more people are becoming open and inquisitive in this way. All of the institutions of western civilization are to say the least under a cloud of suspicion, and in many ways as we know earned the suspicion. People are seeking…and I’m encountering the type of perspective that Skip shares from more and more people. Tim Mackie from the BibleProject is very interesting if you’ve ever seen any of his YouTube videos. I appreciate your comments!
My… we DO share a lot of things in common! But I am most awed that we are actually and genuinely brothers in Christ by virtue of his sacrifice for us! Thank you for the recommendation of Tim Mackie. “Earned suspicion”… yes… Tragically, quite true. Nevertheless, we may indeed trust the ultimate arbitrator of truth to prevail on behalf of those who are his own… despite their suspicions. Thanks be to God!
Amen to that..trust in Him!