Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

GOD

A generic word for the deity, used to refer to the God of Israel (Heb. ēl/ʾĕlōhîm) and the Christian community (Gk. theós) as well as the gods of other peoples. The word also becomes a name for the deity of the believing community and is used in direct address (e.g., Ps. 22:1[MT 2]; Mark 15:34).

God is the central subject of the Bible and is always presented in relationship with the world, with that which is not God. God’s existence is assumed from the first verse of Genesis, God’s core character and most basic purposes are constant across the two testaments, and the divine speaking and acting are always in service of those purposes, whether in creation, judgment, or salvation. The person and work of Jesus Christ fill the testimony of the NT, but the Christ event is understood as a decisive act of the God witnessed to in the OT. Jesus Christ constitutes both a fuller revealing of the God of Israel and the culmination of God’s salvific purposes for the world.

Issues of Genre

God is a character in every biblical tradition (except Esther). God is presented as one who speaks, is spoken to, and is spoken about (though God’s direct speaking is rare in the NT), and one who acts and is affected by the actions of others (e.g., provoked to anger). Most commonly, God is presented as a character in narrative, whose presence may be depicted as both intense (Sinai, Jesus Christ) and unobtrusive (the Joseph story). Narratives provide depth to God’s character without bringing closure to the depiction of God; they present God as a living reality with all the attendant ambiguity and complexity.

At the same time, the biblical texts are not content with narratives in their portrayal of God. Interwoven with narratives are more generalized (“credal”) statements about God. Types of generalizing genres are those which gather claims about God in summations of divine acts (Deut. 26:5-9; cf. Acts 2:14-36; 7:1-53), in more abstract ways (Exod. 34:6-7; cf. 1 Cor. 8:4-6), and in hymns and doxologies (1 Tim. 6:15-16; Ps. 145). The integration of these types of statements within other genres suggests that they represent a centering amid the Bible’s theological pluralism. The regular appeal of the book of Psalms — which presents the faith in its leaner form — to these generalizations is noteworthy. In general, the historical recitals specified those events in history that were constitutive of the community of faith and the generalizations about God provided an ongoing interpretive clue for the kind of God believed to be active in those events.

These truth claims are not presented in final formulations, and remain open to new language and content. In addition, some narrative portrayals of God do not fit the predominant confession, witnessing to a theology in process by raising up reflections and challenges regarding God that the credal statements must take into account in the ongoing discussion regarding the divine identity (e.g., creation is added in Neh. 9:6; divine repentance in Jonah 4:2). The NT continues this process in its incipient trinitarianism (Matt. 28:19) and its claims regarding Jesus and God (John 1:1; 20:28).

Another genre issue is raised by the language to God and about God in the lament and protest literature. How does one “translate” the language of these genres into theological formulation (e.g., Ps. 44:23-24[24-25])? That these expressions occur predominantly in poetry is important. The reader must sort out the rhetorical function of this language and its metaphoric character before discerning how to use it in theological formulation.

The Knowledge of God

The sources for the biblical view of God are multivocal and complex (Heb. 1:1-2). A recent emphasis upon revelation in history has given way to a more comprehensive understanding that includes Israel’s history; natural events; everyday experience; personal verbal encounter; liturgical event; interaction with other ancient literature and religion, both ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman; the ministry, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus; the internal testimony of the Holy Spirit.

The NT presupposes the OT understanding of God and therein grounds its theological formulations, including its centering confession that Jesus is the Christ, the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). At the same time, the NT claims regarding Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit result in fresh perspectives that fill out the identity of Israel’s God.

Generally, language for God is drawn from at least three sources.

1. God’s revealing. God is not “named” by others (Gen. 16:13 is an exception), unlike people or other gods. Though not fully revealing of character, God’s names give insight into God, as does other self-identifying language (Exod. 34:6-7).

2. The ongoing experience with God, in major events, worship occasions, and everyday encounters. Language for God is almost always metaphorical, and is usually associated with the everyday, earthly, and concrete: home and family; social, commercial, and political spheres; interhuman relationships; nonhuman entities. Most fundamental to these metaphors is their relational character, revealing a God who is not aloof from the world, but has entered into genuine relationships with people, and works in and through the complexities and ambiguities of life.

3. The ancient context. The linguistic and imagistic dependence on the ancient Near Eastern and Greco-Roman cultures is not simply formal; truths about God were available to those outside the community of faith, and understandings were enriched by that contact (Acts 17:22-31). Far from diminishing the uniqueness of the biblical faith, they witness to the work of God the Creator.

Among the metaphors for God (some are also used for Jesus) are husband (Isa. 62:5), father (63:16; Heb. 12:9, most frequently by Jesus), king (Ps. 95:3; Matt. 5:35), judge (Gen. 18:25; Heb. 12:23), shepherd (Ps. 23:1; Matt. 18:10-14), redeemer-savior (Isa. 44:24; Luke 1:47), potter (Jer. 18:1-6), warrior (Exod. 15:3), rock (Ps. 18:2[3]), light (Ps. 4:6[7]; 1 John 1:5), and spirit (Isa. 63:10; John 4:24). Anthropomorphic metaphors are much more common in the OT than in the NT (Luke 11:20; Rom. 1:18); yet the NT view of God is not more spiritual, given the Incarnation. Female images are used which reflect the peculiar experiences of women, especially motherhood (Isa. 42:14; 66:13; Luke 15:8-10); the image of a child in its mother’s womb or at her breast conveys a unique sense of closeness with God. All metaphors have a “Yes” and a “No” with respect; they have continuity with the reality which is God, but no one-to-one correspondence, for no image or metaphor can capture God.

Basic Claims about God

The following claims are central regarding the biblical understanding of God; texts are cited from both OT and NT and are significantly represented across various genres and traditions.

Living and eternal

God’s existence is assumed in the Bible, from Gen. 1:1 on. God’s life is without beginning and ending (Ps. 90:1-2; 102:26-27[27-28]; Rom. 1:23; 16:26) and is dependent upon no other for existence. God has no family tree (theogony). God alone has the power to raise from the dead and grant eternal life (2 Kgs. 5:7; Dan. 12:2), centering in the NT in the resurrection of Jesus (1 Pet. 1:21). At the same time, God, having created the world, has chosen to be dependent upon the creatures for continuing life and the ongoing care of the world (Gen. 1:22, 28).

Unity

God is one. God is not divided up into divinities or powers (cf. Baal). There is a unity to the divine identity (Deut. 6:4-5; 1 Cor. 8:4-6; Eph. 4:6). God unites in the one self everything which is God. One can discern some development in Israel’s understandings in this regard, but the canonical portrayal of God is decisively monotheistic (Deut. 4:35; Isa. 45:7; 1 Tim. 1:17).

At the same time, several OT texts speak of God as acting within the divine realm (e.g., Ps. 103:20-21; Jer. 23:18-22). These passages testify to God as a social being, functioning within a divine community in a relationship of mutuality. The creation of human beings, e.g., is understood to be the result of an inter-divine dialogue (Gen. 1:26). These testimonies to the richness and complexity of the divine realm no doubt contribute to the NT reflections about God that move toward a trinitarian identity.

Unique, incomparable

Compared to any other powers, there is no God like Israel’s God. God is incomparable (Ps. 35:10; Isa. 40:18, 25). God’s holiness (Isa. 5:19, 24; John 17:11) expresses the “otherness” or transcendence of God; God is not a human being (Hos. 11:9). Yet, this Holy One dwells in Israel’s midst (Isa. 12:6), Jesus is the “Holy One of God” (Mark 1:24), and the Holy Spirit is related to divine presence (John 14:26). Hence, holiness does not mean aloofness or distance. God is revealed as the transcendent one precisely in his immanence, by the way in which God is present and active among the people.

Present

God is present and active in all the world. God “fills heaven and earth” (Jer. 23:24; Ps. 139), “is above all and through all and in all” (Eph. 4:6). God is part of the map of reality and is relational to all that is not God. The earth is also “full of the steadfast love of God” (Ps. 33:5; 36:5[6]; Rom. 8:38-39). God is not simply “here and there”; God is always lovingly present, in every divine act. Hence, God’s presence is not static or passive, but grounded in steadfast love and working for the good of all.

In developing a typology of divine presence one might speak of variations in intensification in comparing God’s general (or creational) presence, accompanying presence, tabernacling presence, and theophanic presence. The Bible never speaks of God’s actual absence, though that may be a perception (e.g., Ps. 22:1[2]; Mark 15:34). No full account of any event is possible without factoring God into the process.

According to Ps. 104:1-3 God has made the time and space of this world God’s very own dwelling place. To use the language of Isa. 66:1, heaven is God’s throne and earth is God’s footstool. Any movement of God from heaven to earth is a movement from one part of the created order to another. God — who is other than world — works from within the world, not on the world from without (Acts 17:28).

Active

God acts in the world. The Bible witnesses to a comprehensive divine working. God’s acting is focused in Israel, Jesus Christ, and the early Christian community, and God’s speaking is especially articulate there, but the divine activity is not limited to them or to historical events (Rom. 3:29). Gen. 1–11, in introducing the canon, provides a universal frame of reference, portraying God as Creator of all (as does the NT: Rom. 11:36; Heb. 2:10), and also witnesses to a God whose universal activity includes grieving, judging, saving, electing, promising, blessing, covenant-making, and law-giving. God’s actions in and for the community of faith thus occur within God’s more comprehensive actions in the larger world and are shaped by God’s overarching purposes for that world. Some texts (e.g., Amos 9:7) reinforce the understanding that even God’s salvific actions are not confined to the community of faith or effected only through its mediation.

Relational

God’s actions occur from within relationships established with the world. These actions are in turn grounded in the social reality of God. In other words, relationship is integral to the divine realm independent of God’s relationship to the world.

This relational God freely enters into relationships with that which has been created, and in such a way that creatures have something important to say and do. This is seen in the language most common for God — that drawn from interpersonal relationships. Even where the language is not personal, it is relational (Ps. 31:2[3]). This relational focus is evident also in the emphasis on God as one who not only communicates but is desirous of the creature’s voice in return (Isa. 65:1-2). Moreover, God gives God’s own name(s), thereby identifying the divine self as a distinctive member of the community of those who have names. The OT view of God is no less relational and intimate than that of the NT.

Israel’s God enters into committed relationships. Already in Gen. 1–11 God commits God’s self to a relationship which entails a divine constraint and restraint in the exercise of power in the world (1:28; 8:21-22). Even beyond sin, God is committed to share power with human beings (Ps. 8). Moreover, the covenants into which God enters — Noah, Abraham, Israel, David, the new covenant (Heb. 8:8-12) — are relational by their very nature. God therein makes commitments which God will honor come what may (cf. Gen. 15:7-21). So, in both creation and redemption, God’s actions occur from within committed relationships which God will honor come what may — because of who God is.

Intentional

God’s actions are an activation of the divine will. God’s actions are intentional, not idle or accidental. Every divine act is an act of will. God’s acts always serve God’s purposes in the world. God’s word seeks to clarify and direct God’s will within an already pervasive presence, and makes available a living experience (including knowledge) of the will of God. Every divine action is informed by God’s ultimate salvific will for the world, by God’s faithfulness to promises, and God’s steadfast love for all.

Distinctions within the will of God are important for thinking about salvation and judgment. God’s saving will is ultimate and absolute (Gen. 12:3; Rom. 11:32; 1 Tim. 2:4); God’s will in judgment is contingent and circumstantial. Unlike love, wrath is not an attribute of God. God is “provoked” to anger (Ps. 106:29; Rom. 2:1-8) by human sin in view of divine righteousness; if there were no sin there would be no wrath or judgment. Divine wrath and judgment, common to both the OT and NT, function both temporally and eschatologically (John 3:18-19; Rom. 5:9; 13:4), with effects upon both body and spirit, individuals and communities.

Interactive

God usually takes the initiative in acting in the world (e.g., creation, Incarnation). Yet, once relationships are established, God also acts in response to creaturely initiative. For example, God hears the cries of the Israelites in Egypt and “remembers” the covenant (Exod. 2:23-25). God interacts with Moses in an extended dialogue wherein Moses’ responses are taken seriously by God, and lead to new divine speech (Exod. 3–6). Moses’ persistence with God increases the revelatory possibilities, and several NT texts speak of such perseverance as occasioning new directions for divine action (Luke 11:5-13; 18:1-8). Indeed, in response to prayers God may change the divine mind (Exod. 32:14; Jer. 26:19), even in response to the non-chosen (Jonah 3:10). Yet, God’s core character is changeless, as is the divine purpose (Num. 23:19; 1 Sam. 15:28-29; Jas. 1:17-18; Heb. 6:13-20), and God will be steadfast in love. God’s way into the future is thus not dictated solely by the divine word and will; God’s word interacts with the human word and together they shape the future.

Situational

God’s acting is always situationally appropriate, fitting for specific times and places (Gal. 4:4). God’s seeing precedes the divine acting (Exod. 3:7-10). God is a master at discernment. In Exod. 1–15 God responds to oppression of a socio-political sort in the shape that God’s salvation takes. God acts to save Israel from the effects of others’ sins, not from its own. God’s saving acts at the return from exile, however, have different needs in view; Israel is forgiven its sin and saved from the effects of its own sinfulness (cf. Isa. 43:25). In Jesus’ life and death both senses of salvation are in view. Within those focused actions, God’s more comprehensive purposes are in view (Exod. 9:16).

Effective

God’s activity is effective in the world, not least in creation, Exodus, the fall of Jerusalem, Incarnation, Cross, and Pentecost. Among the effects, two more comprehensive outcomes might be noted. For one, God’s acts issue in new knowledge. Promises are stated which were not known before, responsibilities delineated, and matters clarified and judged. God’s acts also issue in a becoming. God’s actions effect a new relationship with God and a changed status for human beings and communities, e.g., deliverance from oppression and sin (2 Cor. 5:17-21). God’s actions are also effective in various forms of worship life. Israel’s dramatized festivals and Christian sacraments are vehicles whereby God’s salvation in historical event is made newly available to Israel. Israel’s sacrificial system has a sacramental structure in and through which God acts to forgive the penitent worshipper.

God’s actions may also issue in new knowledge and becoming for God, the Incarnation being the most fundamental. Human responses to God’s actions may also lead to a new level of divine knowing (cf. Gen. 22:12; Deut. 8:2), which can lead to new directions in divine action. New divine commitments made and new relationships established make for a changed situation for God. In some sense one must speak of a newness in God as well.

Vulnerable

God’s activity is not inevitably successful. God’s word once given is in the hands of those who can misuse it. God’s will may not always get done. Finitude and sin may lead to disloyalty and misunderstanding. However powerful God’s word may be (Jer. 23:29), it is resisted (Ezek. 2:7), questioned (Jer. 1:6-7), rejected (Zech. 7:11), ridiculed (Gen. 18:12-13), scorned (Jer. 6:10), despised (Jer. 23:17), doubted (Judg. 6:13-17), or disbelieved (Ps. 106:24). The NT intensifies the opposition to God with its emphasis upon demonic forces (Luke 8:12; 1 Thess. 2:18). The word of God is therefore not only powerful; it is vulnerable, as is God’s activity in nonverbal ways. This issues in divine suffering, evident most clearly in God’s laments in the Prophets (Hos. 11:1-9; Jer. 3:19-20). The God who suffers because of, with, and for Israel and the world is brought to supreme focus in Jesus, especially in the Cross.

God will keep promises made, though it is not possible to factor out just how such promises are fulfilled. One might speak of an open future, within which human response participates in shaping life in the world, but God works purposefully within the complex of events in such a way that a new heaven and a new earth will eventually be brought into being.

Use of agents

God works through human language and various human and nonhuman agents to get things done in the world. God acts directly, but always through means. The variety of means is impressive. God works through that which is created to bring about new creations (Gen. 1:2; 11); through human language to call Abraham as well as through the dynamics of his interrupted journey to Canaan (11:31–12:3); through nonhuman agents in the plagues, at Passover, and at the Red Sea (the nonhuman is the savior of the human); through sacrificial rituals to bring about reconciliation with God; through non-Israelite kings and armies to send Israel into exile and to bring them home; through prophets and preachers (Rom. 10:14-17) to speak God’s word of judgment and grace.

In such divine activity creaturely agency is not reduced to impotence; God’s activity is not all-determining. There is neither a “letting go” of the creation on God’s part, nor a divine retention of all such powers. God has chosen to be dependent upon creatures, and both God and creatures are effective agents. Because creatures are not perfect, God’s actions through them will always have mixed results. As an example, violence is associated with God’s acts for it is characteristic of those through whom the work is done.

Generally, this divine work in the world must not be viewed in either deistic or deterministic ways. God neither remains ensconced in heaven nor does God micromanage the world to control its every move so that creaturely agency counts for nothing. Between these ditches, the biblical texts do not always provide clear direction.

Mighty acts

Some divine actions are more significant than others. Israel understood this to be the case as shown by the vocabulary used (“mighty acts,” Ps. 145:4, 12) and the genres employed (some divine acts are drawn into creeds; Deut. 26:5-9). The Christian community made a comparable move with respect to the Christ event, especially Jesus’ death and resurrection, evident in the volume of the Passion story and Pauline emphases.

This greater level of significance is most fundamentally related to the kinds of effects produced. Regarding becoming, certain events are constitutive of the community, without which Israel or the Church would not be what it is. Regarding knowing, these events are more translucent regarding God’s purposes, bringing sharper coherence and clarity to the larger range of divine purpose and activity.

Extraordinary events

These greater levels of significance may be, but are not necessarily, related to the events being “extraordinary” or miraculous. Where these elements do occur in the texts, they are not easily sorted out. The extraordinariness is not understood in terms of divine intervention or intrusion, as if God were normally not present. God’s acts are not usually considered extraordinary. God is understood to act in and through the means provided by the causal continuum, but sufficient “play” exists in that continuum to allow for God to work and the unusual event to occur. For example, Job 38–41 speaks of the looseness of the causal weave with its interest in ambiguity and unexpectedness in the creation (cf. the role of chance in Eccl. 9:11; 1 Sam. 6:9; Luke 10:31).

Issues of genre and rhetoric are important. The language used for the Exodus events includes extraordinary features — plagues, passover, sea crossing. But the fall of Jerusalem and the return of the exiles are described in more mundane terms as the effects of Babylonian army movements and Persian royal policies. Isa. 40–55 uses extraordinary images to speak of a future return (including changes in nature) and links this to God’s new work. But the texts descriptive of the return itself do not use such rhetoric. This difference raises questions about the genre of the Exodus material and the extent to which its extraordinariness is reflective of actual events or constitutes a rhetorical strategy more in line with that used by Deutero-Isaiah.

Bibliography. S. E. Balentine, The Hidden God (Oxford, 1983); W. Brueggemann, Old Testament Theology (Minneapolis, 1992); T. E. Fretheim, The Suffering of God: An Old Testament Perspective. OBT 14 (Philadelphia, 1984); A. J. Heschel, The Prophets (New York, 1962); P. Trible, God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality. OBT 2 (Philadelphia, 1978); C. Westermann and G. W. Friedemann, What Does the Old Testament Say About God? (Atlanta, 1979).

Terence E. Fretheim

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

GOD

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)