TL:DR: The Genesis Question part twenty

Hi, Everbody!

Sunday:

8 June 14

Dear Troy and Mia Thompson and David and Marie Birdsong:

It looks as if I was a little premature in saying that this week (and next week and the week after that) I would be discussing Job 38-41.  Should definitely have appended a "God willing" to that. 

In the interim, Friday, I got a letter from David Birdsong of Nashville, TN who wrote:

Speaking of the Word something happened when I was reading Ezekiel.  The entire book is full of "Lord" and "Lord God".  Then in chapter 28, the "Lord" is dropped, especially in verse 13 that begins "Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God;…"

It was almost a "something fell" moment.  I have been seeing the God versus Lord parts of the Old Testament more and more these days.  I attend a Christian church, but I'm not sure I want to openly discuss how my theology is taking shape to everyone I worship with.  I believe that every person should read and study and draw their own conclusions.  I wonder if you have considered writing more commentaries at some point.  They are very thought provoking.  Your commentaries and Robert Alter's have been very helpful as I slow my pace down and actually study the Scriptures instead of just reading them.  Pastor Yates from the Nashville Cowboy Church is another wonderful teacher because he has an uncanny ability to take even the most familiar sections of the Bible and look at them in a way that no one has ever thought of before.  Maybe I should ask him to write a Biblical commentary as well.  He is only 70, plenty of time.

All right you three, git busy edumacatin' me.

Of course, David had no way of knowing that I've been writing to you, Troy and Mia, since December of '12 as an extension of your kind sponsorship and hospitality of that year's American Thanksgiving week in wanting to get my religious opinions on videotape. 

So I burned all of these current letters on THE GENESIS QUESTION onto a disk and mailed them to him.  If you're interested, David, I'll be glad to send you the 337 pages of letters to Pastor John Burke -- Troy and Mia's pastor -- about his book SOUL REVOLUTION.  They're all just my opinions .  I never heard back from -- and never really expected to hear back from -- Pastor Burke.  Troy wanted the two of us to meet and to videotape our discussion, which he did.  That didn't seem quite enough of a response to Troy's generosity, so that was when I decided to write the letters as part of my Sabbath observance. 

I'm very aware of the "comfort level" involved in any good Christian -- or Jew or Muslim -- discussing or even reading my theories on God and YHWH, which is why -- apart from Troy and Mia's sponsorship and in private correspondence -- I haven't made a great point of it.  My basic assumption is that it is only something that will be discussed long after I'm dead -- unless God wills otherwise. 

I was going to leave it at that and just pick up with my commentaries on Job -- as promised -- when, as it turns out, this morning's reading from the Torah turned out to be the last chapter of Jeremiah and the first nine chapters of Ezekiel.  You could call it coincidence, but -- where God is involved -- I think it's better to err on the side of calling it synchronicity.

My overall  response to Ezekiel is that it is a very edifying book.  In many ways more edifying (for me) than Isaiah and Jeremiah which are more well-regarded.  I only noticed this a couple of readings ago. 

Prior to that time, the first chapter of Ezekiel tended to overwhelm the rest of the book, for me, primarily because of the first chapter's association with CHARIOTS OF THE GODS, Erik Van Danekin (sp?)'s series of 1970s bestsellers which suggested that much Scripture and much pagan literature appeared to actually document UFO visitations and the inadequacy of then-current language to find a way to describe advanced technologies. 

The first chapter is still pretty overwhelming in that sense. 

But I tend to think that what it describes is, not so much UFO visitations (although I can't rule that out), as future technologies which will incorporate living tissue into machinery particularly as regards the development of weaponry.  Revelation 9:17-19, I think, reflects the same reality (the point of which, to me, is that this will be the most advanced scientific destructive power ever created by men that will kill a third of the earth's population but -- when compared with the fullness of consequences of The Last Day -- really only warrants three verses substantially before the mid-point of events).

As I was reading Ezekiel aloud this morning, I came to a point where it was time to turn the page. Which point was in the middle of verse 6 of chapter 5 where Lord GOD is commenting on Jerusalem and saying "And she hath changed my judgements into wickedness more than the nations…" And as I tried to turn the page, that page and the next stuck together.  And I tried to unstick them and it was one of those times where it just wasn't happening.  They wouldn't come unstuck no matter whether I tried to slide or shift of peel off the next page.  Finally, the pages did separate…

…and in that exact instance a millipede about an inch long suddenly appeared scuttling away from me across the carpet.  I used to get one of those about every day or two in the summer but so far there have been very few this year.  I grabbed a post-it note and was "on it" in two steps.  But, weirdly, it took three or four "strikes" before I actually got the thing. 

That was, I think, when I decided that maybe I would leave Job 38-41 for another time and concentrate on Ezekiel this week instead. 

I'm enclosing the entry for The Book of Ezekiel from my NEW BIBLE DICTIONARY which condenses a lot of information and "best current theories" into two pages.  I won't try to paraphrase or condense the material, but leave it up to all of you to decide what you yourselves see there. 

My own assessment is that the treatment of the Book of Ezekiel is comparable to the treatment of the Gospel of John -- and Revelations -- when it came to both being established as canonical.

MY explanation of that is that it is the direct result of all three books -- which resemble each other distinctly -- being the unimpeded (or, perhaps, the less impeded) Word of God and, consequently, always "suspect" by religious authorities, steeped as those authorities tend to be in YHWHistic ideologies.  Not something that God can't work around, but worth, I think, calling attention to.  There are very few books in that category which, historically, bounced back and forth between canonical and non-canonical and are subject to such a myriad of interpretations before landing on their theological feet after a considerable length of time. And then still being more "suspect" than most Scripture even by the devout.  Very few Christian churches in our Feel Good era are going to preach a Sunday morning sermon from Revelations.

The first thing that I noticed in reading the first nine chapters this morning is what I think (I'd have to check) is an idiosyncratic-to-Ezekiel-only spelling of Lord God:  Lord GOD as opposed to LORD God.  Which makes sense to me.  As I tend to put it: God is your Lord, but the Lord is not your God.  This spelling seems to reinforce that. 

The first two verses of the first chapter Ezekiel says that the -- unnamed -- narrator saw "visions of God". 

Then in verse 3 it says "The word of the LORD came expressly unto Ezekiel the Priest…and the hand of the Lord was there upon him".  So, to me, this is the YHWH (LORD) and the hand of God (Lord) expressing the primary participants.

(God is often expressed in terms of a hand only.  The "finger of God" in the creation of the lice in Exodus, the emergence of Zarah as opposed to Pharez in Genesis 38:29-30, etc.) 

It isn't until verse 24, as Ezekiel (or the unnamed narrator, not necessarily the same being) labours to describe the extraordinarily loud and powerful "living creatures"    

that there is a reference to the "voice of the Almighty", the Name suggesting God but it doesn't specifically SAY God. 

Verse 26-8

And above the firmament that over their heads the likeness of a Throne, as the appearance of a Sapphire stone and upon the likeness of the Throne the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it. And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it: from the appearance of his loins even upward and from the appearance of his loins even downward I saw as it were the appearance of fire & it brightness round about.  As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so the appearance of the brightness round about . This the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD

A Throne that looks like a precious stone and fire and brightness and a rainbow.  To me? Three guesses who this is and the first two don't count.

Chapter 2 verse 4

For they hard of face children and stiff hearted: I do send thee unto them and thou shalt say unto them Thus saith the Lord GOD. 

First example of the new spelling.  I suspect what we're reading is the meeting place between YHWH and God.  God has "issues" with YHWH, but that doesn't mean that God doesn't, in the main, agree with YHWH about Israel "that backsliding heifer".  Israel and Jerusalem are enactments, incarnations of the Larger Context of God's relationship with His creation, the YHWH.  The more the YHWH indicts Israel and Judah and Jerusalem the more the YHWH indicts his/her/its self, as I read it.  Which, also as I read it, is the point of the process. 

We can see this, I think, in Chapter three verse 7:

But the house of Israel will not hearken unto thee; for they will not hearken unto me: for all the house of Israel are stiff of forehead and hard of heart.

For the YHWH, it's a specific problem of rebellion against he/she/it.  For God, it's a more general condition of rebellion -- at all levels -- against Him.  And this is the only way to work through it.  To get ALL of his creations to recognize their own nature and, by indicting others, to indict themselves.  "First you have to admit that you have a problem…"  YHWH, like man, unless you work on it VERY hard is "stiff of forehead and hard of heart".

God, as I read it, continues in verse 11:

And go, get thee to them of the captivity, unto thy people, and speak unto them and tell them, Thus saith the Lord GOD, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.

The YHWH, as I read it, chimes in in verse 12:

Then the spirit took me up and I heard behind me a voice of great rushing, Blessed the glory of the YHWH from his place.

Basically, "you tell 'em!"  from the YHWH deep within the earth.  And, at that point, as I read it, the YHWH is directing operations.  God actually moves Ezekiel, but at the YHWH's direction.  Which is why Ezekiel ends up "astonished among them seven days" in the captivity at Tel-abib.  The YHWH has missed the point.  This is the best you can do in terms of pointing out how wicked they've become?  These are just captives, mostly regular folks.  The YHWH finally "gets it" -- or stops pretending that he/she/it doesn't "get it" -- in verses 17-26.  But proposes to make Ezekiel mute --

I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb and shalt not be to them a reprover: for they a rebellious house.

Which doesn't make sense.  The whole point is "reproving" them BECAUSE "they a rebellious house".  But the YHWH has "smelled a rat" and realizes that any reproving of Israel or Jerusalem also involves the reproving -- and, much worse, from the YHWH's perspective -- the self-reproving of the YHWH by the YHWH.

Which is when God provides the correction in the last verse of chapter 3:

But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD, He that heareth, let him hear, and he that forbeareth, let him forbear, for they a rebellious house.

Basically, picking up from the previous Lord GOD thought in verse 11.  Verses 11 and 27 are God. The only qualification that God has added is "hearing" or "forbearing" which, presumably, includes the YHWH.  "If you don't want to hear the indictment and take it personally -- which you SHOULD do and which you KNOW you should do -- that's fine. Choose to 'forbear' for now. But don't try to silence Ezekiel from delivering the indictment itself. That's not an option."

The rest of the chapter are the YHWH and his/her/its various "brightness and fire round about a spiffy Throne" digressions and attempted evasions -- basically of the fact that the "rebellious house" has a single point of origin.  Not naming any names.

Chapter 4, I read as further attempted evasions on the part of the YHWH.  Basically setting what is an arduous set of tasks before Ezekiel, lying on his left side for more than a year to bear the iniquities of Israel and then lying on his right side for forty days to bear the iniquities of Judah, all with a a very sparse diet and very little water.  This through verse 11.  And you can almost see the YHWH's frustration that there is no resistance on Ezekiel's part.  So far as Ezekiel knows, God is telling him to do these things, so Ezekiel is just thinking, Okay, this is what I have to do.  So the YHWH attempts to dissuade Ezekiel -- basically incite Ezekiel into his own rebellion -- by adding

And thou shalt eat it barley cakes, & thou shalt bake it with dung that commeth out of man in their sight. 

And Ezekiel does voice an objection, but his objection is based in Judaic dietary law rooted in the Law of Moshe and his objection -- notably -- is addressed to Lord GOD,

Then said I, Ah Lord GOD, behold my soul hath not been polluted: for from my youth up even till now, have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces, neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth. 

And God answers:

Then he said unto me, Lo, I have given thee cow's dung for man's dung and thou shalt prepare thy bread therewith.

That is, as I read it, the YHWH is not going to get off on a technicality: painting Ezekiel as disobedient, and so, no different from the YHWH in being disobedient.  Damned if you do, damned if you don't.  You either eat the excrement of a man and are disobedient of dietary laws in doing so or you don't eat the excrement of a man and are disobedient of a direct order from God.  What the YHWH fails to see is that Ezekiel was chosen, specifically, for this purpose:  because there would be no way to dissuade him once embarked upon a course of reproving Israel, and the YHWH by direct implication. 

But IS it God who answers? 

Or is the "he" referred to still the YHWH? 

That's one of those multi-levelled "damned if you do, damned if you don't" questions, as I read it -- extending even to HOW one reads it. Was what was at stake important enough to God that He so needed Ezekiel's unquestioning -- and unquestioned -- obedience in the face of the YHWH's attempted "stumbling blocks" to the extent of allowing Ezekiel to be instructed to mix his bread with cow's dung?  Or is believing that a blasphemous idea?  Is even allowing for that construction blasphemous?  How can you believe that God would do that?  It's a theological hall of mirrors which reflects Ezekiel's own choice.  You could certainly argue that mixing cow's dung with your bread is "less abominable" than mixing man's dung with your bread.  But I have trouble believing that Ezekiel was untroubled by the instruction even as revised. As I'm troubled by even inferring from the text what the text appears to be implying.

Chapter 5:1-4, to me, is the YHWH.  This is basically "sympathetic magic" -- making Ezekiel's hair into a metaphorical construct for the Jewish people and for Jerusalem -- and instructing Ezekiel to accomplish the "sympathetic magic" involved and how to do it.  Which, it seems to me, is another YHWHistic stumbling block: Ezekiel can be compelled to commit an act of "sympathetic magic" so long as he thinks it's God telling him to do it. So, it isn't -- technically -- reproving.  Quite the contrary, it's compounding the backsliding by compelling one of God's prophets to backslide himself.  A great destruction is wrought against Israel, Judah and Jerusalem by Ezekiel's actions.  So they get punished for disobeying the YHWH and the YHWH basically gets off scott free. 

That's when God interrupts:

Thus saith the Lord GOD:  This Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries round about her. And she hath changed my judgements into wickedness more than the nations

(You can sort of see why the two pages stuck together here and why pulling them apart produced a little vile-looking insect this morning)

and my statutes more than the countries that round about her: for they have refused my judgements and my statutes, they have not walked in them.  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Because ye multiplied more than the nations that round about you, have not walked in my Statutes, neither have kept my judgements neither have done according to the judgements of the nations that round about you:  Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold I, even I, against thee, and will execute judgements in the midst of thee in the sight of the nations.  And I will do in thee that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish, neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity.  A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee: and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them. 

Basically, it's God confirming that this is His will and this will be done -- not as "sympathetic magic" which allows the YHWH to evade indictment, but as the meeting place of judgement between God and YHWH.  It's very matter of fact: God will bring it to pass because the cumulative actions and choices and decisions of Israel, Judah and Jerusalem have warranted it.  But, it's very dispassionate: it's a matter of "the punishment fits the crime".  The crime is large and abominable, so the punishment is large and abominable. 

But, for the YHWH, who then takes up the baton, it isn't dispassionate. 

Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and they shall now that I the YHWH have spoken in my zeal, when I have accomplished my fury in them. 

Etc. Etc.  It's an attempted indictment of God -- that God is angry and furious and that God derives comfort from suffering.  It's a self-indictment of the YHWH, to be sure.  But it's a very different thing from the dispassionate administration of justice by an omniscient being.  It IS a meeting place of sorts:  God agrees with and acquiesces in the need for punishment on a Grand Scale, but doesn't do so in anger and in fury, nor does He derive comfort from it.  Except in the sense that in terms of the long-term fulfillment of justice the end will, ultimately, justify the means because the ultimate end -- The Last Day -- will see the administration of justice served upon ALL of God's creations, INCLUDING (and in many ways, specifically) the YHWH which isn't the case with this interim judgement. 

Chapter 6 is almost a complete overlap, with "the word of the YHWH" coming to Ezekiel in verse 1, pronounced by the Lord GOD in verse 3, and continuing with "I, the YHWH" in verses 7 and 10.  The Lord GOD is attributed in verses 11 and 12 and then verse 13 (and presumably verse 14) are attributed to the YHWH.

Chapter 7 follows the same "overlap" pattern.  "The word of the YHWH" comes to Ezekiel in verse 1.  The verdict pronounced in verses 2-4 begins with the Lord GOD and concludes "ye shall know that I, the YHWH".  5-7 are Lord GOD.  I infer that 8-9 are the YHWH because of the references to "fury" and "anger" which I don't see as Godly attributes.  Verses 10-13, I infer, are God -- or Lord GOD -- speaking because again they're matter of fact: cause and consequence.  Verse 14 I infer is the YHWH because of the reference to "wrath".  Verses 15 to 18 are also very matter of fact.  Verse 19 I would attribute to the YHWH because of the reference to "the wrath of the YHWH". 

Verse 20, I think is YHWH commenting on God's interruption/observation/defence of Jerusalem stated in 5:5, "This Jerusalem: I have set it in the midst of the nations and countries round about her":

As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty: but they made the images of their abominations, of their detestable things therein: therefore have I set if far from them.

This comes to unhappy fruition in Chapter 8, which -- God willing -- I'll discuss next week.

Best,

  

Dave   

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Next Time: I dunno, I'm writing ahead. Sumthin'.