prophets

Prophetic Leadership in Old Testament Worship

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A careful survey of scriptural evidence discloses that the worship of the Lord is most significantly influenced, and often expressly led, by persons functioning in a prophetic role (as opposed to a priestly role). Prophets served as mediators of the covenant; they were closely associated with the sanctuary and vitally concerned with the integrity of worship; they functioned as directors and musicians.

Prophets As Covenant Mediators

The prophets of Israel, as God’s spokesmen (the probable meaning of the Hebrew term navi’), were mediators of the covenant and advocates of the covenant tradition. They called on the people to return to their loyalty to Yahweh, and they proclaimed the judgment of the Lord on an unfaithful people when the provisions of the covenant had been violated through idolatry and injustice. Since the enactment, renewal, and celebration of the covenant were a worship form, the prophets fulfilled a function as leaders in worship.

Moses, Israel’s prophet par excellence, mediated the Sinai covenant (Exod. 19:1–24:8), which had a worship structure incorporating the appearance of the Lord, the review of his historic act of deliverance of his people, the proclamation of his Word or covenant stipulations, the people’s pledge to obey the terms of the covenant, the giving of offerings to the Lord, and the eating of a covenant meal. Moses also presided at a renewal of the covenant, which had a similar structure, just prior to Israel’s entrance into Canaan. The entire book of Deuteronomy is devoted to a description of this ceremony in the form of a farewell address by Moses. Of special note here is the liturgical pronouncement of the covenant sanctions: blessing if the covenant is kept, curse if it is violated (Deut. 27–29). The people were summoned to choose the way of obedience that leads to life (Deut. 30:15–20), and witnesses to the agreement were invoked (Deut. 4:26; 30:19). The ceremony concluded with two songs, the first of which returned to the theme of the judgment inherent in the curse of the covenant (Deut. 32:1–43).

Joshua, though not called a prophet, inherited the mantle of Moses as the spokesman of the Lord’s covenant and presided over the curse liturgy for which Moses had given directions in his farewell address (Josh. 8:30–35). After the conquest of the land of Canaan, he officiated at another ceremony of renewal of the covenant at Shechem (Josh. 24:1–28). This ceremony recapitulated the same treaty-covenant structure familiar from earlier examples: the recitation of the relationship between God and people, the summons to choose between the Lord and other gods, the pledge of the people to serve Yahweh, the invocation of witnesses, and the presentation of the terms of the covenant, its “words,” or statutes.

Prophets and the Sanctuary

Samuel, who was to become Israel’s prophetic leader, was brought up in the sanctuary and “was ministering before the Lord” (1 Sam. 2:18); later his presence was required to “bless the sacrifice” of the feasts of the people (1 Sam. 9:12–13). Bands of prophets were apparently attached to the high places or local sanctuaries; Saul, after being anointed king by Samuel, also encountered such a group and prophesied with them (1 Sam. 10:1–13).

The prophetic association with the sanctuary continued into the period of the Israelite kingdoms; evidently, the festal gatherings of the people provided an audience for the prophet’s utterances, which were usually in the form of poetic compositions. Amos prophesied at the “sanctuary of the king” at Bethel and was ordered by the officiating priest, Amaziah, to return to his own country, Judah, and prophesy there instead (Amos 7:10–17). Isaiah received his prophetic vocation while attending a festival at the temple in Jerusalem (Isa. 6). He apparently was close to the king, a respected adviser to the royal house (Isa. 7:1–17; 37:1–38:22). It has been suggested that Isaiah served as the nation’s “poet laureate,” composing liturgical materials for public worship; the famous prophecy of the “child” who is to take the government upon his shoulder, reigning “on David’s throne and over his kingdom” (Isa. 9:1–7), may have been an oracle for the coronation of a Judean king such as Hezekiah. Jeremiah delivered his indictment of the people’s violation of the covenant while standing “at the gate of the Lord’s house,” addressing the Judeans who came there to worship (Jer. 7:1–2).

The integrity of the worship of the Lord was itself a major concern of the prophets of Israel, all the way from Samuel, who insisted that “to obey is better than sacrifice” (1 Sam. 15:22), to Malachi, who proclaimed that the “messenger of the covenant” would come to his temple, refining the priesthood so they might “bring offerings in righteousness” (Mal. 3:1–4). Elijah officiated at a sacrifice that demonstrated to the people, who had been enticed to worship the Canaanite god Ba‘al, that Yahweh, “he is God” (1 Kings 18:36–39 RSV). The prophet Amaziah encouraged Asa, king of Judah, to undertake a restoration of the sanctuary, accompanied by the renewal of the covenant oath (2 Chron. 15:1–15). During the reign of Josiah, king of Judah, the prophetess Huldah was consulted in connection with the rediscovery of the Book of the Law by the priests; she declared the Lord’s judgment against the temple as a consequence of the violation of the covenant (2 Kings 22:12–20).

Amos declared, in the Lord’s name, “I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies” (Amos 5:21) because they mask injustice and the violation of the Lord’s covenant with his people. similarly, Isaiah declared that the appointed feasts had become a burden to the Lord (Isa. 1:14) because of the dissolution of the wealthy and their indifference to the plight of the poor, their fellow members of the covenant community.

Jeremiah and Ezekiel, prophets of the early exilic period, were both of priestly families (Jer. 1:1; Ezek. 1:3), and each in his own way was concerned with the integrity of worship. Jeremiah believed that trust in religious institutions, without an inward bond to the Lord, was deceptive (Jer. 7:3–11). Instead, he proclaimed the coming of a “new covenant” written on the heart (Jer. 31:31–34). Ezekiel was more institutionally oriented; his passion was the restoration of the ruined temple, filled once again with the glory of the Lord (Ezek. 40–43), a source of life and healing (Ezek. 47:1–12). In the postexilic period, the prophet Haggai urged Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest to rebuild the house of the Lord (Hag. 1:1–11).

Prophetic Musicians in Worship

In ancient Israel, prophecy and music were closely associated. (A hint of this association, found in other cultures as well, appears in our English word music, which betrays its derivation from the ancient Greek concept of the muse, the spirit that inspires poets and musicians.) During the Exodus, Miriam the prophetess, sister of Moses and Aaron, took tambourine in hand and led the women in song and dance, celebrating the Lord’s triumph over the Egyptian pursuers (Exod. 15:20–21). As we have seen, Moses concluded his farewell address, an extended reenactment of the covenant ceremony, with a song of judgment and warning. The prophetess Deborah (Judg. 4:4) composed a song celebrating Israel’s victory over a Canaanite army (Judg. 5:1–31). The prophets that Saul encountered coming down from the high place were prophesying to the accompaniment of musical instruments (1 Sam. 10:5).

The prophets of the period of the Israelite kingdoms continued the same alignment between spoken word and music. Second Kings 3:15 records that Elisha called for a “minstrel” (mƒnaggen, a player on a stringed instrument) in order to prophesy to the kings of Israel, Judah, and Edom, assembled for battle against Moab. The prophets who produced the prophetic books of the Hebrew Bible composed lyric oracles, which they probably sang to their hearers—at least to their disciples, if not always to the public. Isaiah’s “song of the vineyard” (Isa. 5:1–7) expresses the Lord’s disappointment with his unfaithful people. Another song in Isaiah 26:1–6, celebrating the Lord’s deliverance of those who trust in him, perhaps was composed as part of a liturgy of entrance into the sanctuary (Isa. 26:2). Jeremiah composed a chant of lament upon the death of King Josiah (2 Chron. 35:25), and his book of Lamentations is a song. Most of the material in the prophetic books is, in fact, poetic song, and some material in the later Prophets, now preserved in prose form, was probably originally written as song. Indeed, prophecy was so closely associated with music that Ezekiel complained that to the public he was simply a musical entertainer (Ezek. 33:32).

It is David the king, however, whose name is most closely linked with prophetic song and musical leadership in the liturgy of the sanctuary. In connection with his bringing the ark of the covenant up to Zion, David instructed the Levites to provide singers and musicians to celebrate the event (1 Chron. 15:16–24). Once the ark had been placed in its tent, he appointed Asaph as chief musician in charge of continual thanksgiving and praise before the ark (1 Chron. 16:1–7). The Levites were priests, but later we learn that David had appointed them to “prophesy”—to give thanks and praise to the Lord (1 Chron. 25:1–7). The description of their activity suggests that these musicians led in a spontaneous and overwhelming outpouring of worship, especially on high occasions such as the dedication of the temple of Solomon (2 Chron. 5:11–14).

David is associated with about half the Psalms, for which he is called a “prophet” in the New Testament (Acts 2:29–31). Many of the Psalms must have originated in the prophetic worship he instituted before the ark on Zion during the period prior to the erection of the temple, when the Mosaic sanctuary with its priestly sacrifices remained at Gibeon (1 Chron. 21:29). This explains the prophetic voice in which God himself speaks in a number of the Psalms (e.g., Pss. 2; 46; 50; 81–82; 89; 91; 95; 105; 108; 110; 132), many of which are attributed to David or to the Levitical musicians.

Certain of the sanctuary musicians were appointed to direct the performance of the music (1 Chron. 15:21), and the superscriptions to fifty-five of the Psalms refer to the choirmaster, or “director” (mƒnatztze‡ḥ), often with instructions for performance (Pss. 4–6; 8–9; 12; 22; 45–46; 52–62; 67; 69; 75–77; 80–81; 84; 88). Of these Psalms, thirty-nine are associated with David, nine with the sons of Korah, and five with Asaph. (A similar designation appears in Hab. 3:19.) The director of music evidently played an important leadership role in the worship of the sanctuary from the time of David onward, as the vocal and instrumental praise of the Lord assumed greater importance. The book of Chronicles especially highlights the prominence of the prophetic sanctuary musicians as leaders of corporate worship. A well-known example of their activity occurs in the account of the invasion of Judah during the reign of Jehoshaphat, when Jahaziel, a Levitical musician, prophesied encouragement and victory to the beleaguered king and nation. The musicians then went before the army into battle, praising the Lord in full vesture, and led in celebration of the ensuing victory (2 Chron. 20:14–30). In the restoration of worship after the Exile, Ezra made a point of recruiting more than two hundred Levites for the service of the sanctuary (Ezra 8:18–20).

In Israelite worship, prophetic and musical activity offered virtually the only outlet for leadership in worship on the part of women. The prophetesses Miriam, Deborah, and Huldah have been mentioned. The enumeration of members of the assembly who returned to Jerusalem after the Exile includes 245 male and female singers (Neh. 7:67). Moses expressed the desire that all the Lord’s people might be prophets (Num. 11:29). Indeed, in Psalm 105 the Lord calls all the covenant descendants of Abraham “my prophets” (Ps. 105:8–15). The spirit of prophecy, then, is the rightful heritage of all who are bound to the Lord in covenant.

Holy Places, Holy People in Biblical Worship

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Although holiness belongs to God, it may be imparted to objects, or even to people, which become the bearers of the holy.

The Holy Place

The men and women who first received the biblical revelation were acutely conscious of the ways ordinary things could take on an extraordinary, numinous quality as bearers of the sacred. The concept of the sanctuary, or holy place, comes readily to mind. The Old Testament records many occasions when the fathers of Israel worshiped at holy places. Some of these places were already sacred sites for the Canaanites, but they became Israelite sanctuaries as the result of a theophany of Yahweh God. When he appeared to one of the fathers to give or reaffirm the promise of the land, the patriarch would mark the site by erecting some holy object such as an altar or a memorial stone.

Altars. At Shechem Abraham “built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him” (Gen. 12:7). This location continued to be a holy place where Joshua later led the people in the renewal of the covenant with the Lord, erecting a stone as a memorial to this event (Josh. 24:1–8). Thus, the Israelite sanctuary was “a token of the covenant and a guarantee of its blessing” (Johannes Pedersen, Israel: Its Life and Culture, 2nd ed. [1959], Vols. III–IV, p. 214). A classic expression of the significance of the holy place occurs in the account of Jacob’s dream at Bethel, in which he sees a ladder reaching to heaven on which messengers of God are descending and ascending; the Lord appears and pronounces his promise of blessing, land, and descendants. Awakening, Jacob exclaims, trembling, “Surely the Lord is in this place.… This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven” (Gen. 28:16–17). Before leaving, Jacob sets up a sacred pillar, the stone on which he had been sleeping, and anoints it as a bearer of the holy, “God’s house” (Gen. 28:10–22). The sanctuary is a place where earth and heaven meet, where “angels ascend and descend”; for this reason, ancient temples were usually erected on hills or, in flat country, on artificial elevations. Ascending Zion in pilgrimage, the later Israelite worshiper cries, “I lift up my eyes to you, to you whose throne is in heaven” (Ps. 123:1). The sanctuary is a place bearing a numinous aspect where the divine can break through into the ordinary, where man can sense the presence of the holy and communicate with him.

Mount Sinai. The archetype of the holy place in the biblical narrative is the desert sanctuary of Sinai. Here, the Lord appeared to his people in full and fearful theophany, in a presence of such intensity that only the specially consecrated could approach the mountain. After the Lord had set forth the stipulations of the Book of the Covenant (Exod. 20–23), Moses and the priests and elders of Israel went up the mountain to meet with Yahweh and to eat the covenant meal; there, in a further manifestation of the numinous, they “saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was something like a pavement made of sapphire, clear as the sky itself” (Exod. 24:10).

Ark and Tabernacle. These numinous aspects of the Sinai sanctuary were transferred to the ark of the covenant, where Yahweh was “enthroned between the cherubim” (Pss. 80:1; 99:1), and to the tent of meeting, as the place where Moses “entered the Lord’s presence to speak with him” (Exod. 34:34). Not only the sanctuary structure with its altar, but all its furnishings and utensils, as well as the offerings presented there, were consecrated as “holy,” set apart for the exclusive use and service of the Lord.

The Temple on Zion. Before Israel’s entrance into Canaan, Moses spoke of “the place the Lord your God will choose from among all your tribes to put his Name there for his dwelling” (Deut. 12:5). This unnamed place turned out to be Jerusalem and Mount Zion, which David captured as a center for Israel’s worship (2 Sam. 5:7). Zion had long been a Jebusite holy place, the “Salem” where Abraham had paid a tithe to Melchizedek, the king and “priest of God Most High” or ’El ‘elyon (Gen. 14:18–20). But when David transferred the ark to Zion and when Solomon’s temple assumed the role of the tabernacle, the sanctuary on Zion became, in effect, a continuation of Sinai, where the Lord “appeared” in theophanic majesty in the worship of Israel. Several of the psalms celebrate the numinous appearance of the Lord in his temple or in Zion with imagery that reminds us of the giving of the covenant on Mount Sinai (Ps. 50:1–6). Exactly how the Lord “appeared” in the worship of the temple is not clear, but there are indications in the Psalms that the liturgical recitation of the covenant Law, associated with a procession of the ark of the covenant, was a high moment when worshipers might experience the Lord’s presence in an especially compelling way.

“Holiness adorns your house,” sang the Israelite worshiper (Ps. 93:5). Israel’s theologians understood, of course, that the sanctuary was inadequate as a bearer of the sacred. “But will God really dwell on earth?” asked Solomon. “The heavens, even the highest heaven cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!” (1 Kings 8:27; cf. Isa. 66:1). In the New Testament we meet with the concept of the heavenly sanctuary, of which the earthly one is but a copy (Heb. 8–9; cf. 2 Cor. 5:1; Rev. 11:19). No human edifice can convey the fullness of the presence of the holy. As Jesus explained to the Samaritan woman, the deepest and most authentic worship of the Father could occur “neither on this mountain [Gerizim] nor in Jerusalem” (John 4:21). Although Christ spoke of Jerusalem as “the city of the Great King” (Matt. 5:35), he foretold the impending desecration and violent destruction of its sanctuary (Matt. 24:2), a judgment on a religious establishment that had violated the Lord’s covenant.

Jesus and the Holy Place. Nevertheless, Jesus understood and accepted the concept of the holy place in its deepest sense. He questioned the focus of the Pharisees, who swore by the gold of the temple or by the offering on the altar—in other words, by the products and symbols of man’s religious commitment. To the contrary, said Jesus, it is the temple that sanctifies the gold and the altar that sanctifies the offering (Matt. 23:16–19). Jesus’ language, incomprehensible as it may seem to us, was not incomprehensible to the early church, which continued to respect those places where God had manifested his presence in a numinous experience. Thus Peter speaks of that time when the apostles were with Christ “on the holy mountain,” by which he meant not Sinai or Zion but the Mount of Transfiguration (2 Pet. 1:16–18). The proliferation of holy shrines in the Orthodox and Catholic traditions, however fanciful it may seem in Protestant perspective, is a witness to the persistence of this biblical concept.

The Numinous Aspect of the Church

When we appreciate the importance of the sanctuary in biblical worship, we can understand why the New Testament authors draw upon the imagery of Jerusalem and its temple to convey the significance of the church. Addressing Christian believers as a body, the apostle Paul asks, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit lives in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him; for God’s temple is sacred, and you are that temple” (1 Cor. 3:16–17). Again he declares, “we are the temple of the living God” (2 Cor. 6:16). (In both these passages he uses the plural form, speaking not to individuals but to the church collectively.) As a temple, the church of Jesus Christ is “a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit” (Eph. 2:22). These are not simply moralistic expressions; they point to a reality that transcends the idea of the church as a mere human association.

John the Revelator most fully develops the picture of the church as “the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God” (Rev. 21:2). As the bride of the Lamb, the new sanctuary displaces the harlot “Babylon,” the old temple, and its religious establishment. The appearance of the new holy place brings a renewal of the covenant, in the declaration that “the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people” (Rev. 21:3), words that echo the covenant formula of the Israelite prophets. The sanctuary is a picture of the covenant God living among his own, enthroned on the praises of his people (Ps. 22:3). As John takes the concept further, we are brought face to face with the numinous brilliance of the Holy City (Rev. 21:10–11), “for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp” (Rev. 21:23). So overwhelmed is John by the vision that his description strains at the limitations of language. The Holy City is a temple yet not a temple: “I did not see a temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple” (Rev. 21:22). There is a numinous, awesome aspect to the church as a bearer of the holy, a vehicle through which we may encounter the fearful presence of the King of kings.

Holy People

The mortal who would trespass into the territory of the sacred runs the risk of wrathful outburst and sudden destruction. It is paradoxical, then, that human beings can serve as bearers of the holy, vehicles through whom the numinous makes its presence felt. Study of the history of religions brings to light many instances of “holy” men and women, people whose presence is “larger than life,” awesome, commanding, not to be trifled with. In such personages, the worshiper senses the workings of the divine. Biblical faith, too, is familiar with the concept of people as bearers of the holy.

Priests. The Pentateuch takes pains to spell out the procedures of vesture, sacrifice, anointing, and life-style by which a priest may become and remain consecrated, in order to enter the Lord’s presence (Exod. 28–29; Lev. 8; 21). Through his consecration, some of the holiness of the Lord is imparted to the priest, enough to “inoculate” him against an outbreak of the wrath of the numinous. A special aura of holiness rested upon the high priest. He alone could enter the Holy of Holies, the inner sanctuary containing the ark of the covenant, on the Day of Atonement (Lev. 16). A person accused of manslaughter was protected from the avenger of the deceased, provided he remained in a city of refuge until the death of the high priest then in office (Num. 35:25–28).

Prophets. The Scripture often calls the prophet a “man of God”; the term is applied to Moses (Deut. 33:1), Samuel (1 Sam. 9:6), Shemaiah (1 Kings 12:22), Elijah (1 Kings 17:18), Elisha (2 Kings 4:40), David (2 Chron. 8:14), and to a number of unnamed prophets or messengers of the Lord (Judg. 13:6; 1 Sam. 2:27; 1 Kings 13:1). In these instances the term man of God (or woman of God) does not mean a righteous person but one of special endowment, a bearer of the numinous, even one to be feared. The people’s reaction to Moses when he returned to them after speaking with the Lord was one of great fear because “his face was radiant” (Exod. 34:29); as a result, he had to wear a veil whenever he came out from before Yahweh. The biblical narrative ascribes miracles to prophets such as Elijah and Isaiah as the distinguishing mark of the “man of God” (1 Kings 17:24). Especially noteworthy is the numinous aura associated with the person of Elisha; he raises the dead son of the Shunammite woman by lying upon him, body member to member (2 Kings 4:32–37), and even after his death a corpse, thrown hastily into his grave, returns to life upon contact with Elisha’s bones (2 Kings 13:20–21). The earlier prophets seem to have been distinguished by special appearance, having a tonsured head in a manner similar to later Christian monks (1 Kings 20:35–42; 2 Kings 2:23). A man or woman of God can make mistakes, disobey the Lord, and pay the penalty but still be known as a man or woman of God (1 Kings 13:26; 2 Kings 23:17). Samson was consecrated to God by the Nazirite vow (Judg. 13:7) and was moved by the Spirit of the Lord (Judg. 13:25); even when he turned away from the Lord, he remained an awesome man, capable of exploits larger than life.

The Apostles. Although the New Testament uses the expression “man of God” more in the sense of a godly person equipped for the service of the Lord (1 Tim. 6:11; 2 Tim. 3:16–17), it also portrays the apostles, like the prophets, as bearers of the numinous. People laid their sick friends in the street in the hope that Peter’s shadow might fall on them (Acts 5:15); it was enough for Peter to confront Ananias and Sapphira with their duplicity, and they fell dead at his feet (Acts 5:1–11). The people of Lystra acclaimed Paul and Barnabas as gods and were prepared to sacrifice to them (Acts 14:11–13). Handkerchiefs or aprons from Paul’s body were carried to the sick, and they were healed (Acts 19:11–12). In recording such incidents, Luke is not simply chronicling the ignorant superstition of ancient peoples. The awe-inspiring aspect of the apostles, despite their lack of formal education, is a recognizable quality in their lives, the result of the fact “that these men had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13).

Jesus Christ. The powerful, wondrous impact of the holy is evident throughout the gospel portrait of Jesus Christ himself, from his birth to his resurrection and ascension, and requires no lengthy demonstration here. To those already mentioned, we would add only a few examples. As a woman, suffering from a persistent hemorrhage, touched the hem of Jesus’ garment, Jesus immediately sensed that “virtue,” or power (dunamis), had gone out from him (Mark 5:25–34). Led to the edge of a cliff at Nazareth by a mob angry at his indictment of their lack of response to the love of God, Jesus was able simply to pass through their midst and go on his way. When soldiers came asking for Jesus the Nazarene to arrest him, Jesus replied, “I am he,” and “they drew back and fell to the ground” (John 18:6). The first preachers of the Resurrection referred to the miracles of Jesus, familiar to their audience, as acts that attested him as specially endowed and set apart by God (Acts 2:22). In his own preaching, Jesus spoke of the kingdom of God, a realm breaking into present time and space in supernatural manifestation. We can understand much about the principles and operation of the kingdom of God when we view it as another expression for God’s covenant with his people. As to its inner dynamic, however, the kingdom is a mystery. It cannot be completely comprehended in rational argument and detail; its principles of growth can only be hinted at through picture and comparison, its power suggested through miracle and sign. Above all, it is present in the person of Jesus himself, as the bearer of the holy.

Like the prophets before him and the apostles afterward, Jesus was opposed, vilified, and persecuted by those who could not, or would not, look beyond the external to the reality of the unseen. Yet the final vindication of Jesus’ identity as the incarnate revelation of the holy is that most awesome of all events, the Resurrection, which not only displays the workings of the Creator in the person of his Son, but releases in his worshipers some measure of that same quality of sacred and mysterious power. Thus, the New Testament frequently refers to the body of believers collectively as “the saints” or “the holy ones” (Greek hagios, equivalent to Hebrew qadosh). Scripture makes it clear that the entire covenant community is “a kingdom of priests” (Exod. 19:6), “a royal priesthood” (1 Pet. 2:9), consecrated to approach the Presence in worship. The awesome encounter with the living God is not the preserve of a spiritual elite but the inheritance of all who call on him.

Conclusion

This survey has attempted to demonstrate that in biblical worship there is a numinous dimension of awe, dread, majesty, transcendence in the presence of the Holy One. The worship of God is not confined to the flatness of the rational, the sentimental, or the moral. The error of much of both orthodox and modernistic Christianity is that it has tried, by default or by design, to constrain worship within these limits. Religion has been reduced, in the words of the nineteenth-century theologian Friedrich Schleiermacher, to a “feeling of dependence,” or more crudely, to “morality tinged by emotion” (On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers [New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1958]). Or it has become a matter of words and statements, precise definitions, carefully crafted confessions. Or it has degenerated into a mere social ritual, an exercise in group identification. In such a domesticated form, it lacks the intensity, depth, mystery, and abandon of biblical worship and so fails to speak to the deepest instincts of the soul.

REVELATION CHILD

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We live in a universe the dimensions of which are difficult for our limited minds to comprehend. Traveling at the speed of light (186,000 mps) it would take 8-10 billion years to travel from one end of the known universe to the other — the known universe. Astronomers don’t yet know what or how much is beyond that! We can’t even make a scale model of our universe it’s so big!

For instance:

  • If the earth were represented by a ball only one inch in diameter, the nearest star, Alpha Centauri, would have to be placed 51,000 miles away!
  • The sun is so big that if it was hollow it could contain over 1 million planets the size of earth!
  • There are stars in space so large that they could easily hold 500 million suns the size of ours!

One of the neat things about living up here in Oregon is the sky at night! The next time you’re in the desert — or mountains, look up into space at night and ponder this thought: You’re seeing as much of the universe as a protozoan would see of the ocean in which it drifts! That’s how immense our universe is! The Bible says in Genesis 1:1 — “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

I’ve laid a foundation here so I could pose this question: Can you fathom, at all, a Being who could create a universe like we’ve been describing? He is so far beyond us He had to take the initiative to reveal Himself to man because our limited minds could never comprehend Him; and He had to do this in ways that we could understand.

Think with me for a minute about revelation — God’s revelation of Himself to finite man:

  • Creation: We know God exists and is powerful, first of all, by observing what He has made. David writes, in Psalm 19:1 — “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.”
  • History: God has revealed Himself through history, particularly in His dealings with Israel and the surrounding nations.
  • Prophets: God’s revelation also came through the prophets who interpreted those events.
  • The Bible: Since billions of people, ourselves included, would never hear a Biblical prophet; never have the opportunity to personally see and hear Jesus Christ, an accurate, written record was needed, a trustworthy record of God and how to know Him. God has given this to us in the Bible!
  • Jesus Christ: The most tangible revelation of Himself came in the person of Jesus the Christ. We celebrate the advent (birth) of Jesus at Christmas!

This post is presented in the hope each and every reader will receive God’s gift of Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved” (John 3:16-17).