Old Testament - Mountain 07/09/09
Exodus 19-20 is a key passage in the Torah. While Genesis gives the pre-history of the world and stories of the ancestors, Exodus begins the historical account of the oppression and liberation of the Hebrews. This is the foundational event of the Bible. It is a story of liberation and Law – the people set free to live a different way; led from slavery into the service of God. The theophany on Mount Sinai in chapters 19-20 is the first clear articulation of this.
The passage describes a fearful, primitive, sacred mystery. It is a classic account of an encounter with the holy. The holy both fascinates us and fills us with dread. In order to approach the holy we must first be pure, or risk destruction. The blood of menstruation and childbirth make women impure (hence the shock of Jesus’ interaction with the hemorrhaging woman who touched his cloak). Impurity –for example blood or dirt –is associated with violence and lack of order and is therefore dangerous. It is an anthropological phenomenon. Unlike other animals, humans are no longer restrained by instinct. We have become highly volatile with the potential for excessive violence. Religion is all about controlling this volatility. Priests, sacrifice and purity laws are ways to bring control, to harness and order the sacred power of violence. The anthropological dimension is illustrated in the Sinai story: if any person touches the mountain then they must be killed by the people. The Exodus account here uses these primitive themes to underscore the transcendence of God and the importance of the event. What is vital is what is happening: the mountain is the place where God reveals his law and desire for justice.
Later, in Exodus 24:9-11, a select group of elders are permitted on to the mountain to eat and drink with God. This account has pre-echoes of the transfiguration stories in the Gospels. It is a communion with God, but the depiction is of an extremely powerful and awe-inspiring divinity. This “classic Old Testament God” is also illustrated at Habbukuk 3:2-16. This is considered an early hymn describing YHWH who dwelled in Sinai (his fortress). He leads his people into the land and battle against their enemies with the same strength he manifests on his mountain top. This is a storm-God – a poetic description of a pre-scientific God imagined as a violent thunderstorm.
Daniel 2:31-45 (written in the 2nd century BCE) gives a different understanding of God’s action in history. The God of violence no longer works – the situation of the Jewish people cannot be changed through military might. Instead God becomes more mysterious and new. The story of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream illustrates how God can intervene in history in a new way. God is going to deal with the nations but not as storm-god. He chooses the small stone to strike the statue and this small stone then becomes a mountain that fills the whole earth. The mode of communication has changed from a hymn of power to something more mysterious, less tangible, a dream. It is less clear and needs interpretation. The Bible is reaching out to find something new. It is seeking the extra ordinary. Established human logic (of violence) has not solved the problem of oppressive nations, so it looks elsewhere.
In verse 34 the stone, not shaped by human hands (unlike the statue) becomes a mountain. It takes the space previously occupied by the statue –and more. The dream describes an action by God that brings down oppressive empires and builds a new kingdom. God’s power is not represented by the storm, but by the small single element, the exception. The mountain of Sinai is reduced to a single stone.
Jesus understands that he is the stone. In LK 20:17 he says that “the stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; and it will crush anyone on whom it falls” This references Psalm 118:22 and also the passage from Daniel. The mountain as the symbol of power has been abandoned – the shift is to the stone – to Jesus who has come to destroy the old oppressive systems of the world. He does this not through the violence of the storm-god – rather through the power of something new, the single element, the exception that changes everything to itself.
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In study, Thursday,July 30, I was reminded of a recent story of an unexpected experience of God in my life. A few weeks ago, I was having a very rough night at work. As a waitress, I'm used to pressure and stress, but this night was unusual in that we were training a new cook. Furthermore, we were training a new cook WITH a new cook. On a busy Friday night, this led to running of forty minute ticket times, and of course, furious customers. My section, with six tables, was red hot. After forty five minutes, a particular party of two men had their meals wrapped to go, leaving no tip and a number of complaints. For this reason, and similar sentiment among all of my tables, I had been ignoring a couple in the corner who were just having the buffet. I bussed the burly to-go gentlemen's table, and aimed hurriedly toward the dish room, only to be stopped by the couple I'd been ignoring for about a half hour. They said, "Now, Rachel. We've been trying to get a hold of you all night. We want to talk to you." Assuming they had more complaints, I burst out in tears. The woman handed me napkins as her husband tried to joke me into laughter. They told me to go to the bathroom and collect myself and come back and talk to them. When I returned, they asked me a series of very personal questions, that led us to realize that we are neighbors, living less than two blocks away from each other. The woman said, "I am a Palestinian Arab and my husband is a jew. We're proof that peace is possible in the world." These were two of the nicest people I've ever encountered and transformed a night I thought could not turn for the better. They invited me to synogogue on Saturday mornings, as messianic jews, in a church I used to attend and left with a God Bless and a big tip. And there He was.
-Rachel Cary
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