What does God do? It might sound a strange question to ask, after all God is simply God. The good theological answer is probably just to say that God simply is (we can think of the Lord's reply "I am who I am" to Moses at the burning bush!). But throughout the Hebrew Bible there is another very clear answer - God rules, i.e. God is king, ruling over the cosmos, the creation. And because heaven is God's home, heaven is imagined in the Hebrew Bible as a divine, cosmic throne room. In accounts of visions of God, God is almost always shown seated on a throne, surrounded by angelic beings who represent the powers and forces that govern the cosmos. Heaven is the kingdom of God, the place where God's rule is absolute and unquestioned. In contrast to the earth where so often sin and rebellion defy the purpose of God, in heaven God's will is done. That's why Jesus taught his disciples to pray"thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven." In this post I discuss these visions of God in the Hebrew Bible and try to show that rather than being the eternal destination of the righteous, heaven was seen as a real, functioning work space where the real (i.e. hidden) business of the cosmos was being conducted. "The throne was a reminder that God ruled, that God was ultimately sovereign that the universe did not behave in a random way nor that the heavenly forces (the 'powers and principalities') were allowed to run free. The idea of the heavenly court elaborated that, with the added benefit that the thought of all angelic beings belonging to the divine court/council (even such dubious characters as the Satan and the lying Spirit), meant that they too fell under God's authority and control. In other words nothing bad could happen in the cosmos without the authorization of God. Now that might not bring much comfort to Job when he is devastated by his sufferings or to the friends and family of king Ahab when he dies in battle, but for the faithful community, who were usually on the wrong side of the power dynamics in ancient Israel, the thought that God was a king like, but much bigger and more powerful than the kings and rulers they knew, could be a powerful, even revolutionary idea."
In the previous post I suggested that in the Hebrew Bible, heaven, the space above what we call the sky and what the bible calls the firmament (or dome or vault or raqia), is the dwelling place of God. God is pictured in the Hebrew Bible walking on the dome of heaven looking down onto the earth, watching the affairs of humankind, or as sitting, with his feet attached to the brilliant blue surface of the raqia, or sending the weather or other blessings (such as quail or manna) down to earth through the doors or windows of heaven. In other words the imagery of the Hebrew Bible (and consequently the Christian New Testament) is very concrete and spatial. Heaven is a real place, it is literally 'up there', up above the clouds and the blue dome we call the sky. God lives in heaven and 'looks down' on the world. The point of all this is of course that heaven is God's dwelling place, not ours. The earth is the home of mankind just as heaven is the home of God. The idea that we go to heaven when we die is completely alien to the notion of Heaven in the Hebrew Bible and to a large extent to the world-view of the New Testament as well. I want to explore in this post how the writers and readers of the Bible imagined God in heaven. The examples mentioned above of God walking over the dome watching his creatures could be taken to imply a solitary and largely passive role for God. But the visions of God in the Hebrew Bible picture God in an entirely different way, as profoundly active and surrounded by a myriad of other semi-divine beings. God is not lonely in heaven! And God is busy, as busy as can be, doing the very important work of God, namely ruling the cosmos He has created. Temple visions: Isaiah and the robe of GodThe best place to start is with Isaiah's vision of God in the temple. (Isaiah 6.1-8) In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said: What Isaiah sees in the Jerusalem Temple, is a vision of heaven. It is not that God has somehow come down to the Temple in Jerusalem to talk to Isaiah, but rather that Isaiah while working or worshiping in the Temple, is given a vision of God as God actually is, enthroned in heaven. That accounts for the enormous size of the vision of God. Isaiah doesn't actually see God in the temple at all. What he sees is the hem of Gods robe filling the Temple. The Temple was a vast space and the thought that just the edges of God's garment filled that vast space conveys the sense of how gigantic God really is. Isaiah hears the voice of God and the door posts of the Temple, in themselves vast and seemingly unmovable, shake at the sound of the voice. Isaiah's impression of God in heaven is of the hugeness of God, the vastness of God. So what is going on here? What is it that Isaiah is actually seeing? The Jerusalem Temple was regarded as the 'gate of heaven', a doorway or window into heaven, heaven of course not as we think of it, but as it was thought of in the Hebrew Bible, the place where God lived. Heaven was thought of as the model for the earthly Temple, the place in the cosmos where the true perfect worship of God took place. The Tabernacle in the wilderness and then the fixed Temple buildings in Jerusalem were regarded as mirrors of the heavenly sanctuary. Heaven, the home of God, was up above, and humanity dwelt here on earth (below). But there was one place where heaven and earth met - the Temple in Jerusalem. On occasion, as in this case, the servant of God might glimpse the heavenly reality itself. The point here is that the God that Isaiah sees is doing something. God is seated on a throne - in other words, God is the God who rules the universe. God is busy being the ruler of the cosmos. What Isaiah is shown is the throne-room of God where the unimaginably vast God sits enthroned doing the work that all kings and emperors did - ensuring that their kingdoms were run properly. God is a busy God, an active God. God is not an old man with a long beard wandering around on the other side of the sky looking down on us, watching and waiting. The God Isaiah sees is the God at the centre of things, the prime mover and (literally) shaker of things, the God of action and divine intervention. And God is not alone, he is surrounded by Seraphim, angelic beings whose job is to attend God and deliver his messages. Daniel: 'I saw thrones'The central image of God in heaven in the Hebrew bible is of God as king, seated enthroned, ruling the universe attended by a myriad of wonderful, scary, heavenly beings. According to Psalm 47 God is ruler over all and, as a sign of God's absolute authority, God is depicted as seated on a throne. Sing praises to God! Sing praises! It is no surprise then that the famous vision of the 'Ancient of Days' in Daniel, begins with thrones being put in place. As I was watching, So for Daniel too, God sits 'enthroned' in the heavens. First the thrones are set in place, (we are not told how) and then God 'takes his seat'. Here, God's throne is described as blazing fire and it has wheels! When God is seated, the 'court' is in session, the decision making and the revealing of the 'end things' begins. Again, God is not alone but we read ten thousand times ten thousands serve him. There is a vast multitidue of residents in heaven . . . heaven is full of life. I don't think we are meant to start calculating ten thousand times ten thousands. I think it's more like an ancient Hebrew way of trying to express an almost impossible number to grasp, as Professor Brian Cox does when he talks about 'billions and billions' of stars! Ezekiel: God on the moveThe idea of God's throne being a fiery one, with wheels, is probably influenced by Ezekiel's vision of God's throne-chariot.. Ezekiel was shown a remarkable vision of God seated on a chariot-throne. God is king and duly 'enthroned' but he is not stuck to one place. His chariot throne has wheels. As the Beach Boys might have put it 'He gets around! (Ezekiel 1.26-28) And above the dome over their heads there was something like a throne, in appearance like sapphire; and seated above the likeness of a throne was something that seemed like a human form. Upwards from what appeared like the loins I saw something like gleaming amber, something that looked like fire enclosed all round; and downwards from what looked like the loins I saw something that looked like fire, and there was a splendour all round. Like the bow in a cloud on a rainy day, such was the appearance of the splendour all round. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of someone speaking. Here too God is not alone, a solitary figure, but like the U.S. president God always travels around with an elite bodyguard unit, in this case 'four living creatures' each of whom has the appearance of a remarkable animal. In this case the creatures actually carry the throne chariot as they move. Divine thrones and heavenly courtsBut the God who is enthroned in heaven is not alone. Isaiah sees God attended by Seraphim. Ezekiel sees the throne of God supported by the Living Creatures. In Daniel's vision there are countless numbers of beings attending God. Every king has a council, a court, and so it is with the divine ruler in heaven. God too has a council, made up not of nobles barons and knights, but by the 'angelic', semi-divine beings who govern the affairs of the cosmos. It wasn't only God who dwelt in heaven. Heaven (the space up above the firmament) was where the powers that governed the world lived too. Sometimes they are conceived of as angelic beings, sometimes as heavenly bodies (stars and planets), probably as both. In the various visions of the heavenly throne room these angelic beings are pictured as the members of the divine royal council. The God who sits on a throne in heaven rules over all the 'powers and principalities' in the 'heavenly places'. Job: The royal court in sessionAnd so, like Daniel's vision, the visions of God in heaven sometimes reveal a working heavenly royal court where discussions take place and decisions are made. God has advisors and servants, just as a human king would. In Job 1.6-12 we read about the heavenly court meeting to discuss the one truly righteous human being, Job. One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the Lord, and the Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, ‘Where have you come from?’ The Satan answered the Lord, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.’ The Lord said to the Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns away from evil.’ Then the Satan answered the Lord, ‘Does Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a fence around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.’ The Lord said to the Satan, ‘Very well, all that he has is in your power; only do not stretch out your hand against him!’ So the Satan went out from the presence of the Lord So here the heavenly beings gather together including one character the Satan or the Adversary whose job seems to be finding fault (every church/heavenly gathering has at least one!). He is not the Devil, at least not in the sense Christian tradition has come to think of the Devil. What is interesting and important from the point of view of this blog is that the Satan, or Adversary, belongs in heaven! He too is part of the heavenly court presided over by God. He has a particular job to do and is very much under the authority of God. Micaiah: 'Secrets and Lies'The vision of the heavenly beings meeting in session with God as supreme ruler finds another echo in the vision of the prophet Micaiah, reported in 1 Kings. Then Micaiah said, ‘Therefore hear the word of the Lord: I saw the Lord sitting on his throne, with all the host of heaven standing beside him to the right and to the left of him. And the Lord said, “Who will entice Ahab, so that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-gilead?” Then one said one thing, and another said another, until a spirit came forward and stood before the Lord, saying, “I will entice him.” “How?” the Lord asked him. He replied, “I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouth of all his prophets.” Then the Lord said, “You are to entice him, and you shall succeed; go out and do it.” So you see, the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these your prophets; the Lord has decreed disaster for you.’ 1 Kings 22.19-23 NRSV One of the Spirits acts in a way very similar to the Satan in Job's vision. Clearly he has a particularly nasty mind, but acting under God's authority he is allowed to go and put his lying spirit in the mouths of the prophets. It might seem really strange to think of God with a court like this, asking for advice listening to the Accuser (Satan) bringing his suspicions, waiting for a lying spirit to come and propose an action (that most of us would think was immoral). But this is what kings do. And God in heaven is a King and rules over the heavens and, more importantly, the heavenly host. Paula Gooder explains Micaiah’s vision invites us to explore an uncomfortable but nevertheless important strand of biblical tradition. Not only is there the issue of God apparently setting up the scene to ensure Ahab’s death, there is also the question of who the host of heaven were and why God consulted with them in Micaiah’s hearing. . Just as thrones and palaces are a natural part of kingship, so too is the royal court. The court of God – here described as the host of heaven – are a natural part of kingship and are strikingly contrasted in this passage with the courts of Ahab and Jehoshaphat. 1 Kings 22.10 relates how Ahab and Jehoshaphat were sitting on their thrones, arrayed in their robes, with all the prophets prophesying before them. Micaiah’s vision reminds us that God too was seated on his throne with his court before him. The power of the heavenly and earthly kings is noticeably contrasted, and God’s power as king is demonstrated as being far superior to that of the earthly kings – one of whom is soon to die. On this level then, the idea of a heavenly court is unremarkable: all kings had courts, so God simply had one too. Heaven p 72 Thy kingdom comeThe point is that the imagery of God as king which was a fundamental image of God in the Hebrew bible, required both a throne and heavenly court. Both had their special importance. The throne was a reminder that God ruled, that God was ultimately sovereign, in control of the cosmos and that the universe did not behave in a random way. The idea of the heavenly court emphasised that this meant that all the potential forces that could affect human life were under God's royal authority. Even such 'dubious characters' as a Satan or a lying spirit fell under God's authority and control. In other words nothing bad could happen in the cosmos without the authorization of God. Now, that might not bring much comfort to Job when he is devastated by his sufferings or to the friends and family of king Ahab when he dies in battle but for the faithful community, who were usually on the wrong side of the power dynamics in ancient Israel, the thought that God was a king even greater and more powerful than any king or ruler they knew, could be a powerful even revolutionary idea. These images of God sitting enthroned, ruling over a heavenly council where Satans and lying Spirits gather to offer their advice and services may make us uncomfortable and it is important to realise that we are talking here about language and metaphor. These are pictures of God which convey important truths about God but are not the whole truth about God. Metaphors have their limits. We can't press them too far. God is like a king, but that is not all that God is nor can we ever really say that God lives anywhere or looks like anything. God is so totally beyond human imagining that human language can never really express what or who God is. The point of saying that God lives in heaven is to say that God the creator lives in closeness to the earth and the people who live on the earth. God is near. The point of saying that God is king, enthroned presiding over a heavenly court made up of all the powerful (and sometimes scary) angelic heavenly host is to say that nothing really bad can happen unless it fits the purpose of the God we know to be just and good. All pictures, all language all metaphors have their limits. Which is why as a Christian I rejoice in the supreme revelation of God in Jesus Christ. Here I see God as I need to see God, as a human being. He is the true Word. But here the metaphors and incarnational reality meet. Jesus comes precisely to establish the kingdom, the rule of God. That kingdom, that rule is seen everywhere he goes and in everything he does, in healing, in blessing, in casting out the forces of evil. The background to everything Jesus does is the host of images of God enthroned in heaven in the Hebrew bible. Jesus teaches us to pray "Our Father in heaven, blessed be your name, your kingdom come your will be done on the earth just as it is done in heaven". The God who lives and rules as king in heaven has extended that rule now into the whole creation through Jesus Christ. Now the kingdom of God has come on the earth! We will learn, as the story unfolds, that the rule of God comes to the creation not through the meeting of a heavenly council, nor through the sending out of lying spirits but through the sacrifice and death of the Son of God and his mighty and powerful victory over death in the resurrection. The manner in which the rule of God is established is very very surprising, even shocking, but only by grasping the background to that victory over sin and death in the imagery of God the heavenly king can we begin to understand what it was that the first followers of Jesus believed had really happened when their Lord died and rose again, and when he ascended to the right hand of the supreme being, the foremost place within the divine council. You might also be interested in . . .
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
April 2016
GalleryThis blog is as much about images as it is about text. Below is a slideshow of the pictures and images used in this blog. Click on any of the pictures to go to the post where that image is featured.
PostsLocating Paradise #1 In a Garden, Far, Far Away
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #5 'Stuck in the Middle With You'
The Resurrection According to Rahner
Today You Will Be With Me in Paradise
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #4 'And Who by Fire'
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #3: Held in the Balance
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #2: Once, Twice, Three Times a Sinner
The Testament of Abraham and the Threefold Judgement of God #1: The Broad and Narrow Gates
Daily Dante 7: Many Rivers to Cross
Daily Dante 6: 'You Gotta Serve Somebody'
In Hell Everyone Can Hear You Scream. The Vision of Tundale #3
Teeth, Spikes and Cleavers: At the Sharp end of Hell. The Vision of Tundale #2
'No Pain No Gain': The Vision of Tundale #1
'Hellzapoppin':
Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #2 'It's The End of the World as We Know It (and we feel fine)'. Illustrations from Le Livre de la Vigne nostre Seigneur, #1
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #2 Blinded by the Light
Visions of Heaven. Botticini's Assumption of the Virgin #1: Glorious and Immortal
Daily Dante 5: What the gates said.
Daily Dante 4: When I find myself in times of trouble
Daily Dante 3: I'll take you there
Daily Dante 2: Fierce creatures
Daily Dante 1: If you go down to the woods today
In Seventh Heaven or 'What Enoch Did Next'
A World of Fire and Ice: Heaven according to Enoch
The Power and the Glory: Visions of God as king in the Hebrew bible
The Beautiful Bestiary of Catherine Cleves: Monsters and Demons in detail.
Heaven is for Real: Heaven as a physical space up above the sky
Resurrecting the Dead or Reviving the Flowers? The loss of resurrection faith in Judaism.
The Defeat of Death #1: The promise of resurrection in the Isaiah Apocalypse.
The Defeat of Death #2: Death as a hostile power and promise of God's victory in Isaiah
Scary Monsters and Super Creeps: The 'Last Judgement' according to Stefan Lochner
Hell in the Hospital: The 'Last Judgement' of Rogier van der Weyden in the Beaune altarpiece.
'Hell' in the New Testament #2: The gates of Hades shall not prevail
The Hours of Catherine Cleves: Imagining hell and purgatory in Catherine's prayer book
'On Earth as in Heaven': The kingdom of God as a revelation of heaven
'Hell' in the New Testament #1: Gehenna
Lost in Translation #1: How the King James version got it so wrong about hell
Heaven is not our home
Domes, Depths and Demons: The cosmology of the Hebrew world
A Bigger God
"See you in Sheol" - Sheol, the common destination of all
Heaven, Hell and Christian Hope
BooksBelow are some of the books which have helped me the most in the research and writing for this blog. Click on any image to find out more about that book at its page on Amazon uk.
Categories
All
|