In Israelite priestly theology, humans provide the “demonic” and/or corrupting activity that profanes God’s creation and alienates us from God.
General Background: Inspiration as Transformation
An “Ah ha!” moment comes to students of the Bible, when they
realize that divine inspiration may occur when God takes what is common and
transforms it to a divine perspective. A
simple analogy would be how, as Christianity has moved into different cultures,
Christians have adopted cultural elements and adapted them for theological purposes
– even down to such trivial examples as evergreen trees, butterflies, and
bunnies and eggs. The people of Israel
were “late-comers” in the cultural world of the ancient Near East. Israelites adopted the technology of building
walled cities, the graded-holiness design of temples, the symbol system behind
sacrificial systems, music and liturgy, even world-view explanatory stories
(mythology). Somewhat analogous to Christians
reinvesting common cultural symbols with new meaning, one aspect of divine inspiration
for Israel was that many of the cultural symbols of their day were transformed
to communicate divine reality and truth.
Specific Background: Israelite Transformation of Pagan Images
The ancient pagan world was filled with fickle, human-like,
nature gods and rampant demonic activity – ironically, not like the idealized “pagan
clubs” of college students or today’s covens of “good witches.” Magical practices manipulated gods and others
as well as provided self-protection. Having
built a temple dwelling for a god, various cultic rituals and sacrificial
practices were needed to appease the god and to protect the dwelling from
demonic “pollution” that would lead to the god’s loss of favor and departure.
Israelites adopted much of these pre-existing rituals and practices, but “demythologized” them from the polytheistic, the demonic, and the magical. In the transformation of temple, priestly matters, the notion of demonic activity polluting God’s symbolic place of dwelling was eliminated. What was taught symbolically in its place was the image of the “tangibility” of sin; that is, human disobedience to God broke intimacy with God by “polluting” God’s dwelling. Human sinfulness replaced demonic activity.
Illustration of the Flood Story
Human sinfulness putrefies God’s creation. One cannot overstate the seriousness of sin, of
disobedience toward and rejection of one’s Creator. Such, too, is the message of the divine “rewrite”
of the very ancient explanatory Mesopotamian Flood story. The cause of the flood is no longer about depopulating
a noisy humanity who were disturbing the chief god’s sleep (Atrahasis Epic). Rather, God desires humans who are righteous
(trusting) and whole (in intention), like Noah (Gen 6:8 – 9), but instead sees
that the hearts of all people were set on wickedness (ra = chaos; that is, the opposite of God’s tov -- orderly/good/life producing -- creational work) (Gen 6:5). God sees that the earth had been putrefied (shachat); it was filled with human
violence (chamas here probably includes
all forms of societal and personal, physical and psychological violence, injustice,
profanation toward others) (Gen 6:11-13).
And, God became sorrowful for making humans and was grieved to his heart
(Gen 6:6).
Application:
These Israelite portrayals of sin, are powerful, disturbing
images of the consequences of my sin. My
sin putrefies God’s good creation. My
sin is like demonic pollution of God’s home.
My sin, which is rooted in not embracing my Creator, is displayed in the
many ways I “violate” others who were created by my God.
Lord, may these powerful images penetrate to my heart so that I never take lightly the nature and consequences of my sin. And, in doing so may I all the more value the forgiveness and grace by which you “cleanse” my pollution and again restore me to fellowship with you. Amen.
Well presented! Amen.
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