The Experience of God in the Old and New Testaments - Part 1

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

 

Here starts the chapter from Bede Griffiths on " The Experience of God in the Old

and New Testaments " .

 

regards to all,

 

violet

 

 

The Experience of God in the Old and New Testaments - Part 1

 

(P.204) In chapter nine we were concerned with the Hindu experience of God, seen

as the ascent to the Godhead, as it is expressed in the Vedas, the Upanishads,

the Bhagavad Gita and the Tantra. We need now to compare with that the

Judaeo-Christian experience of God. It is important to be clear that when we

speak of experience of God, what is meant is the subjective aspect of that which

objectively we call revelation. Revelation and experience are always

interdependent. As the human soul opens to the divine mystery, so the divine

mystery reveals itself to the soul. Humanity has always been faced with the

divine mystery. From the very beginning human beings have been in the presence

of that mystery which is, in fact, nothing but the mystery of existence and they

have been exploring this mystery. All ancient religion, wherever it has arisen,

from the earliest times onwards, is an exploration of this mystery. The process

is that on the one hand the mystery is revealing itself as the human soul opens

to it and on the other hand the human person is striving to apprehend the

mystery.

 

When we come to the Hebrew experience, it is clear that the Hebrew religion also

springs from the encounter with the sacred mystery. The word in Hebrew for the

sacred mystery was 'elohim' which, as we saw in chapter four, is a plural form

which must originally have meant " the gods " . For the early Hebrew the word

'elohim' must have signified the whole world of the gods, that is the sacred

mystery itself. (P.205) The sacred mystery was apprehended first of all as a

god, an 'el', and there were many 'els' at one time, many gods. But a decisive

moment came, presumably with Abraham, the founder of the people of Israel, when

they broke through to the experience of a transcendent God, not at first as a

strict monotheism but as a kind of henotheism, where, 'mutatis mutandis' as in

Hinduism, a form of God was conceived as unique to Abraham and his descendants.

This experience of God as the transcendent One continues to develop from the

time of Abraham through Moses and the early prophets, until finally it attains

to a strict monotheism in the later prophets. What is characteristic of this

revelation is that, whereas in Hinduism this supreme Reality was always seen as

manifesting in the cosmos and in the human soul, in Israel the same supreme

Reality is experienced primarily as manifesting in history, in the history of a

particular people. That is the unique character of the revelation to Israel. As

we will see, whenever God the Supreme reveals himself in Israel it is always in

relation to the history of the people.

 

God reveals himself initially to Abraham, saying, " Go from your country and your

kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. And I will

make of you a great nation, and I will bless you... " [1] The revelation is

based on the promise of a people, and it is associated with an historic event

leading to the emergence of an historic nation. That context of the initial

revelation to Israel continues right through to the end. But on the other hand,

while the revelation is concerned with history, with the growth of a people who

are to bring a blessing to humanity, it comes in the form of a personal

experience. A later revelation to Abraham is very striking in this respect. The

text says, " As the sun was going down a deep sleep fell on Abram (as he was

called then); and lo a dread and great darkness fell upon him. " [2] That was

clearly a deep mystical experience. (P.205) Darkness is one of the aspects of

mystical experience as one goes beyond the created world and encounters the

divine Reality. Here Abraham is given an insight into the future of his people,

but at the same time he experiences the presence of God in a flame of fire, one

of the typical symbols of the sacred mystery. " When the sun had gone down and it

was dark, behold a smoking fire and a flaming torch passed between these

pieces. " [3] The story of the three angels who come to Abraham at Mamre is

another example of a mystical experience. Abraham entertains the three strangers

and then realises, as in so many ancient traditions, that in entertaining

strangers he has entertained the Lord. [4] These " strangers " are symbolic, of

course. In fact a great deal of the Hebrew revelation belongs to what the

Buddhist calls the 'sambhogakaya', which is the middle region of consciousness.

The 'nirmanakaya' is the manifestation in this world, the 'dharmakaya' is the

Absolute and the 'sambhogakaya' is the realm of spiritual manifestation, that

is, the sacred, or as the Hindu calls it, the 'mahat'. This latter is the cosmic

order, the level of cosmic consciousness, and it is in this level that the

angelic beings are encountered. So these men who appeared to Abraham in that way

were " angels " , or manifestations of the world of the sacred. Abraham's sacrifice

of Isaac, or rather non-sacrifice, was again a profound experience. He felt the

call to sacrifice his son, the urge to human sacrifice being a typical

archetypal symbol of the unconscious, but it was felt to be a call from God

which he obeyed and thus the meaning of the symbol was transformed and human

sacrifice was abolished. It is not the human body which has to be sacrificed,

but the human will. As a result of his faith and self-surrender he was justified

and the child was saved.

 

When we come to Jacob we find again a similar very profound experience of the

sacred. For instance, in one passage it says, " Jacob went on his way and the

angels of God met him; and when Jacob saw them he said, 'This is God's army.' So

he called the name of that place Mahanaim. " [5] (P.207) People at this stage

were generally living in that world of the sacred where one encounters the

angels, the gods or the demons, which is the realm of psychic manifestation. In

this Israel was no different from other contemporary people. A similar

experience is recorded in the story of Jacob's ladder, taking place in this

instance in a dream. [6]

 

A little later on there is the extremely significant passage which reads, " Jacob

was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When

the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched the hollow of his

thigh ... Then he said, 'Let me go, for the day is breaking.' But Jacob said, 'I

will not let you go, unless you bless me.' " This wrestling with an angel was

clearly a mystical experience, an encounter with a spiritual power in the

darkness. Jacob encounters this conflict within himself, which is the meaning of

the wrestling, and he overcomes. Because of this his name is changed. " He (the

angelic being) said, 'Your name shall no more be called Jacob, but Israel, for

you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.' " [7] This was a

genuine mystical experience, since Jacob declares, " I have seen God face to

face. " At the same time it marks him out as a father of the people of Israel,

which is given his name.

 

At this early stage the God of Israel is known as 'el Shaddai', which is

commonly translated as " God almighty " but it may mean " the God of the Mountain " .

In any case, there was not a clear monotheism at this point. In other words

Jacob encountered the Absolute in that 'el' but its relation to other gods had

not yet been clarified. It is when we come to the Exodus that we get the

breakthrough to a more explicit monotheism. Moses' encounter with God at the

burning bush is an excellent example of God's self-revelation, of which the

human counterpart is mystical experience in the psychic level of consciousness.

(P.208) " He (Moses) led his flock to the west side of the wilderness...And the

angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of the

bush; and he looked, and lo the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed ...

When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the

bush, 'Moses, Moses!' And he said, 'Here am I!' Then he said 'Do not come near;

put off your shoes from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is

holy ground.' " [8] This is a profound experience of the sacred mystery. The

sacred is experienced normally through phenomena such as these, which are

basically at the subtle, psychic level. All through the Exodus story such

psychic phenomena occur, the burning bush and the fire and the cloud on the

tabernacle, the manna and the water from the rock, not to mention the so-called

plagues of Egypt. The people at that time were living in the world of the

sacred, in this psychic realm which is between the spiritual and the physical,

of which Western people today have very little experience. And so the Lord

reveals himself to Moses in that way at the burning bush and immediately

commissions Moses to deliver his people. This is again a mystical experience but

related to a historic situation. The Lord had revealed himself to Abraham,

calling him to the new land, and now he says, " I have seen the affliction of my

people ... and have heard their cry ... " and he tells Moses that he is to take

them out of Egypt into the land of the promise. The revelation is directed

towards history: it is an historic event. But again it is also a genuine and

very deep encounter with the sacred mystery.

 

Moses and the people of Israel continue through the desert and come to Mount

Sinai, and there he has another profound mystical experience. " On the morning of

the third day there were thunders and lightnings, and a thick cloud upon the

mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the peoples who were in the

camp trembled. And Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord descended

upon it in fire ... and the whole mountain quaked greatly...And the Lord called

Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. " [9] (P.209) So again there

was a mystical experience related to cloud, darkness, and smoke, subtle

phenomena but signifying, as St. Gregory of Nyssa shows in his life of Moses, an

encounter with God in the darkness beyond phenomena.

 

The cloud mentioned in this narrative is one of the great symbols of the

Biblical revelation. It goes before the Israelites through the desert and comes

to rest on the tabernacle, a pillar of fire by night and a pillar of cloud by

day. That again is a phenomenon which belonged to the level of the

'sambhogakaya', the symbolic, psychic order, but in it the presence of the

person of Yahweh, the personal God, was recognised. The Lord Yahweh was present

in the cloud. This comes to a climax when he appears to Moses in the tabernacle

or " tent of meeting " . The " cloud of glory " ('shekinah') would descend on the

tabernacle and Moses would go to meet God in the tabernacle. The text says,

" When Moses entered the tent the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the

door of the tent, and the Lord would speak with Moses. And when all the people

saw the pillar of cloud standing at the door of the tent, all the people would

rise up and worship ... Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a

man speaks to his friend. " [10] The phrase " face to face " is the Biblical way of

speaking of the most intimate experience of God, so much so that the Church

Fathers, St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, for instance, questioned whether

Moses had the beatific vision, that he actually saw God. We would certainly say

that he did not, that at that stage God's self-revelation was still under a

veil. But it clearly signifies a profound intimacy with God, which was a genuine

mystical experience.

 

Moses' experience of encounter with God deepens as he says to the Lord, " Show me

now thy ways, that I may know thee " . He wants to know God. The Lord answers, " My

presence shall go with you, and I will give you rest. " (P.210) To live in the

presence of God was to know him, and at this time " the angel of the presence "

symbolised the presence of God. But Moses is still not satisfied and he says, " I

pray thee, show me thy glory. " The glory, the 'qabod', is really the essence of

God, or perhaps one should say, the manifestation of the essence of God. The

glory is like the radiance from the sun, the radiance of light. The Lord says to

Moses, " You cannot see my face. " The text has just used the expression " face to

face " but here this expression is qualified by saying, " man shall not see me and

live. " For the Hebrew it is a matter of the utter transcendence of God. Whereas

the Hindu is always concerned with the immanent presence and with a growing

awareness of it and experience of it, the Hebrew, by contrast, is always aware

of God's utter transcendence, totally beyond the self, and, of course, it

remains true that one cannot see God until one has died to oneself. The text

continues, " The Lord said, 'Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand

upon the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the

rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by; then I will take

away my hand and you shall see my back; but my face shall not be seen.' " [11]

These are anthropomorphic images, of course, but they can be seen to symbolise a

most profound experience. It is, in fact, very close to what we normally hold,

that in this life one never sees the face of God. One never sees the divine

being itself but rather one always sees it " under a cloud " , glimpsing only, as

it were, the back or the shadow of it. One does not see the reality in its

fullness.

 

A New Vision of Reality (Western Science, Eastern Mysticism and

Christian Faith), Pg.204-210

Bede Griffiths

Templegate Publishers - Springfield, Illinois

ISBN 0-87243-180-0

 

Notes:

 

[1] Genesis 12:1-2

 

[2] Genesis 15:12

 

[3] Genesis 15:17

 

[4] Genesis 18:1ff.

 

[5] Genesis 32:1-2

 

[6] Genesis 28:12

 

[7] Genesis 32:24-26,28

 

[8] Exodus 3:1-5

 

[9] Exodus 19:16-20

 

[10]Exodus 33:9-11

 

[11]Exodus 33:13-22