We are fearfully and wonderfully made

 

 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

-- Psalm 139:14 

Nor will I again destroy every living thing, and day and night shall not cease

Just as the promise of a coming prophet like unto Moses is set aside by the Torah itself, so also is the expectation of an apocalyptic final judgment ruled out by its testimony.

Hope dashed, but fear allayed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Winter and summer,
And day and night
Shall not cease. 

-- Genesis 8:20ff.

Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.

And God said: This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:  ...

the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.

-- Genesis 9:11ff.

The Lord raises up evil

Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house ... 

τάδε λέγει κύριος ἰδοὺ ἐγὼ ἐξεγείρω ἐπὶ σὲ κακὰ ἐκ τοῦ οἴκου σου ...

-- II Samuel 12:11

The author of κακά

I am the one who once fashioned the light and made the darkness

the one who presently makes peace and creates calamity

I the Lord God am the one who does all these things

ἐγὼ ὁ κατασκευάσας φῶς καὶ ποιήσας σκότος

ὁ ποιῶν εἰρήνην καὶ κτίζων κακά

ἐγὼ κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ ποιῶν ταῦτα πάντα

-- Isaiah 45:7 (LXX)

 

but he that doeth evil hath not seen God

 

ὁ δὲ κακοποιῶν οὐχ ἑώρακεν τὸν θεόν

-- III John 1:11

Scrutinous, like The Ancient of Days

 

  Age is froward, uneasy, scrutinous,
Hard to be pleas'd, and parsimonious.

-- John Denham

A fiery stream issued and came forth from before him . . . the judgment was set, and the books were opened.

-- Daniel 7:10

Thou wilt taste no pleasure solitary?

What think'st thou then of me, and this my state?

Seem I to thee sufficiently possessed

Of happiness, or not? who am alone

From all eternity, for none I know

Second to me, or like, equal much less.

-- John Milton, Paradise Lost

A God like this makes theology (rational talk about God) impossible

The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up.

-- I Samuel 2:6f.

The Son of Man

Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you.

-- John 6:27

This line from today's Gospel lesson about Jesus the Bread of Life is noteworthy for its use of the title "Son of man."

In the Synoptic tradition the use of this title bristles with notions of the imminent end of the world, but that conception is wholly lacking in John's gospel. In the former it is thought to refer to a figure spoken of in the Book of Daniel:

And, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.

-- Daniel 7:13-14

Consider Mark's gospel in particular.

In it Jesus introduces his ministry, saying, "The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel" (1:15). In chapter 2, Jesus identifies himself as this Son of man, who has the power to forgive sins (vs. 10), and is Lord even of the Sabbath (vs. 28). Later in Mark 8:38 and 9:1 Jesus explicitly uses the Son of man imagery from Daniel of himself:

Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation; of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy angels. . . Verily I say unto you, That there be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the kingdom of God come with power.

The consummation of all things is so close in the imagination of Jesus in Mark that even at his trial he can say to the high priest, an unbeliever, that the high priest himself "shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" (14:62).

In John, by contrast, what is imminent is the Son of man's return to heaven.

In future believers such as Nathanael "shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man" (1:51). This same Son of man says, "I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world" (6:51). The prospect of it is a point of contention even among Jesus' closest followers: "Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?" (6:61 f.). It is from this heavenly vantage point, he says, that "I will draw all men unto me" (12:32).

Some believe the latter conception is a rationalization in the wake of the failure of the former, and the doctrine of the Sacrament of the Altar a rationalization of that.

At least I do.