25. I Ask About God’s History With The People Of Israel | Dramatic Adaptation Of God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher [Part 25]

"I will be there for you, by your side, in the fight or in the love. I will be a participant and a partner. That is my essence for human beings."
 
Welcome to God: An Autobiography, The Podcast. A dramatic adaptation and continuing discussion of the book God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher by Jerry L. Martin.

He was a lifelong agnostic, but one day he had an occasion to pray. To his vast surprise, God answered- in words. Being a philosopher, he had a lot of questions, and God had a lot to tell him.

Read God: An Autobiography, As Told To A Philosopher.

Would You Like To Share Your Experience With God? We Want To Hear About Your Spiritual Journey!

Share Your Story | Site | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | YouTube |

Transcript

Season Two - Episode Twenty Four

 GOD: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY - THE PODCAST
 
JLM -       Narrator (Jerry L. Martin) - voiced by Scott Langdon
 Jerry -     Jerry Martin - voiced by Scott Langdon
 GOD -    The Voice of God - voiced by Jerry L. Martin, who heard the voice
   


JLM
Saturday mornings Abigail goes to Torah study at the temple nearby. Afterwards, she and I have brunch, and she reads the passage and tells me what everybody said. They were making their way through Exodus.

When the story begins, the people of Israel are in bondage in Egypt. The Pharoah "who knew not Joseph" is concerned about the threat posed by their growing numbers. He makes their lives "bitter with hard bondage" and orders their male infants drowned. To save her child, one mother hides him in the reeds, where he is found by Pharoah's daughter. She names him Moses, "for from the water I drew him out." She has him suckled by a nursemaid, who turns out to be Moses' real mother, and raises him as her own son.

We hear nothing else about Moses until he is a young man, who sees how his people are treated. "And he saw an Egyptian man striking a Hebrew man of his brothers . . . and he struck down the Egyptian and buried him there in the sand." But he had been seen. "And Pharoah heard of this thing and he sought to kill Moses, and Moses fled from Pharoah's presence and dwelled in the land of Midian . . ." There he agrees to herd sheep for a man who becomes his father-in-law.

Meanwhile, the Israelites "groaned from the bondage and cried out, and their plea from the bondage went up to God. And God heard their moaning, and God remembered” — literally, took to heart — “His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. And God saw the Israelites, and God knew.”

JERRY
Lord, do people have to cry out to You before You respond? Wouldn't You know they were in trouble and come to their aid whether or not they called for help?

GOD
People must cry out to Me, 
not because I have to be courted, 
but because I have to be communicated with.  
They must let me know how it is with them.  
So I heard and I responded. 

(Music)


JERRY
The next chapter is about Moses encountering the burning bush.

GOD
Yes, I had to get his attention.
Often I have to put something in people's paths
to get their attention.

JLM
And the Lord's messenger appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of the bush, and he saw, and look, the bush was burning with fire and the bush was not consumed. 
And Moses thought, "Let me turn aside that I may see this great sight, why the bush does not burn up." And the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, and God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am.”

JERRY
Like Abraham, he reports for duty, 'Here I am.'

GOD
Moses had the capacity to listen to Me -- and to obey.

JERRY. (Music underneath)
God gives Moses his mission.

"And now, go that I may send you to Pharaoh, and bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt." 

But Moses lacks standing.  He is a nobody. 

"Who am I that I should go to Pharoah and that I should bring out the Israelites from Egypt?" 

However, Moses will not be on his own: 

"For I will be with you."

Moses protests. "Look, when I come to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me, 'What is His name?', what shall I say to them?”
(Music fades)

JERRY 
You say, according to the Everett Fox translation, Moses should tell them 'I will be-there' sent me. There are other translations as well. What does this mean, Lord?

GOD
Several things are going on in that name.
Self-disclosure is part of it. 
Presence is part of it -- the fact that I am seen all the time, 
that I am ever-present to people, 
communicating with them sotto voce all the time. 
It is also reassurance -- because I am there to help. 
When you need Me, I will be there. 
It also has something to do with the quality of presence, 
that I am fully and authentically 
and immediately and intimately present, 
as when you say that one person is "more present" than another.

It means that My very presence is the heart of Me.

I will be there for you, by your side, 
in the fight or in the suffering or in the love. 
I will be a participant and a partner. 
That is My essence for human beings.

(Music)

(Chp.31)

(Music)
JLM
It is often said that the Old Testament gave the world, not only a law, which Hammurabi had done, but an ethical code, which was unique.

JERRY
Is that right, Lord?

GOD
Well, the ethical content was certainly there, 
but it was not unique. 
There is ethical content 
in virtually all My large-scale communications. 
It was more explicit and more dramatic in the case of the Jews, and that was valuable and helped to shape the world.


JERRY
Confucian thought is certainly ethical. 

GOD
But ethical in a different sense. 
For Israel, ethics was a set of divine commands—
commandments from a personal being, from God Himself. 
For the Chinese, ethics is the way to fit into Nature, 
into the natural harmony of things. 
That is a profound understanding, and it is right, 
but it is different.

JERRY
Is it more right than Israel?

GOD
No, of course not. The two are compatible. 
I am both Nature and a Person. 
What I command as a Person will also prepare you 
to fit in with the right order of things. 

There are advantages to each. 
Divine commandments come from a Person, 
compelling as a communication and as motivation. 
They are very precisely directive, and particularly good 
for things that are matters of right and wrong. 
They have the sense of ultimacy, of imperative necessity, 
that you absolutely must do this or 
you will be in disobedience -- and at odds with God.

The Confucian approach is sensitive, reasonable, contextual, 
not too much, not too little. It does promote harmony. 
It would also teach one to tell the truth, honor one's parents, 
be faithful to one's wife, and not to covet,
but that will be in the context of all life's adjustments. 
The ethical and the practical fade into one another seamlessly. 
So the ethical loses some of its edge, and that may be a loss, 
but in real life the two do fade into one another. 
One's duties include being practical. 

JERRY
You gave the people of Israel, not just an ethical code, but myriad rules and rituals for worshipping You.

GOD
Maintaining the clarity of monotheism 
and the faithfulness to Me was important. 
The expression of that faithfulness in rituals, temple life, 
and so forth, is totally appropriate, 
as it is, in other forms, for other religions. 
Do not discount "arbitrary" rituals as "mere" behavior. 
Outward observance -- when it reflects inner yieldin – 
is useful and appropriate. 
You may be grateful to a person and he or she may know it, 
but sending a thank-you card is still necessary.

JERRY
I still don't understand, Lord. Why do You need to be worshipped?

GOD
Because that is the appropriate response to Me. 
And because it helps move people and Me forward.

I am divine spirit who represents the telos of the universe. 
I am not perfect but people owe Me deference and obeisance, 
just as you would owe courtesy and deference 
to a president or judge or priest or lady. 
It is wrong for this proper relationship to be violated or ignored.

Worshipping Me is also a way of putting a person 
in alignment with Me and My purposes. 
It requires deference and recognition of divine authority. 
Why do you think you obey Me? 
It is because you are rightly attuned 
to the reality of Who I Am and what My role is.

JERRY
If we are just supposed to obey God, no matter what He asks of us, why does He need to be making promises, offering us a quid pro quo in return? He doesn't owe us anything, does He?

GOD
Yes, He does--I do. 
Remember that I need people, just as they need Me. 
It is a reciprocal relationship. 
I am not an Oriental potentate, puffing smoke, 
and demanding that My slaves cater to My every wish. 
I am a Person, and when people give to Me – 
including the gift of belief -- I give something back. 
It is not a quid pro quo.  It is an appropriate reciprocity. 
A relationship is established. 

Take the story told in the Old Testament seriously –
people relating to Me as a people, then falling away. 
It is, as you say, not a success story, but then again, it is. 
I have reached people, reached them in a very powerful way, opened up their souls, 
shaped their consciousness and their conscience, 
and taught them to be uncompromising in the worship of Me.


Jerry (added)

What did this mean for Your story, Lord?

GOD

Remember how I yearned for human contact, interaction, understanding, 
how My own nature could not grow and expand and develop without a significant other. 
And remember also that 
this is not just a "personal desire" of Mine, 
but this is what life, the universe is all about.
There is serious work to be done, 
the heart of which is the relation of nature (including people) 
to Me. 
We work together for the great telos which, in a sense, 
I embody and define. 
This is the heart-string, the axis of the universe.
[interlude]


JERRY
Lord, the historical books are mainly about Saul and David.
Why are they important?

GOD
I rely on human beings.
There is no spiritual story in the universe 
without this partnership between God and human beings.

The essence of Saul and David is that they were fighters. 
My truth does not survive without people willing to fight for it, both as individuals in their own lives 
and as peoples in the world at large. 
There are always evil impulses and evil forces and contingencies that can make all go wrong, all be lost.

David is all too human, but understands power, 
has ample personal skills, and is willing to fight. 
And he feels the pull of the Lord. 
That is his challenge, not to indulge himself 
and appropriate his talent and opportunities solely for himself, but to use them for Me. 
He does not always succeed.

JERRY
Lord, why is there a covenant?

GOD
Why a covenant? 
I demand commitment from people—
not just tune in, tune out at will, by whim. 
I demand that this relationship be put before all other things. 
If relation to a woman requires commitment, 
then how much more must relation to God?

(Music)

(Chp32)

JLM
I dreaded the assignment--all that ranting and raving about the scourge of God on a wanton people. I had been told to revisit the Prophets. 

Here is Jeremiah:
Behold, the storm of the Lord!
Wrath has gone forth . . .
It will burst upon the head of the wicked. . . .

JLM
And Isaiah:
I trod them in my anger
And trampled them in my wrath;
. . .  
For the day of vengeance was in my heart.

JLM
Such passages abound. But it seems I had missed the point.

GOD
Can't you see what Isaiah and Jeremiah are about?

JLM
Then it came to me, either by my thinking it or by God prompting the thought . . .

GOD
The latter . . .

JLM
. . . that these are love letters. They are love letters from God to the people of Israel.
Now my eye dwelt more on passages such as these in Jeremiah:
With everlasting love have I loved you,
Therefore I have continued My faithfulness to you.

JERRY
Lord, You even use the image of the bride and bridegroom.
I remember the devotion of your youth,
Your love as a bride.

GOD
That's right.
JERRY
Lord, You look in vain for an explanation: What have I done, or where have I failed, such that I am not pleasing to you? 

You are trying to get people to respond to Your love, to live right, as anyone who loves someone wants them to do. And so You punish and chastise them to get them to change. But You are willing to forgive them. You stand ready to do so. According to Isaiah, You report for duty -- to them: 
Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer;
you shall cry for help, and he will say, "Here I am.”

JERRY
And again:  

I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask,
To be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, "Here I am, here I am."

JERRY
And You take them back lovingly.  
. . . And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride,
So shall your God rejoice over you.
JERRY(cont…)
Yes, I see, Lord, these are like love letters.

GOD
Yes, that’s right. 
It is an earnest pledge of love
and invitation for them to love Me back.

Can't you see the trend? The theme? 
Love--not just from a distant God -- but from One who is arriving.

JERRY
Why, then, all the wrathful judgment and chastisement?

GOD
It is love, passionate concern for the state of people's souls. Obedience to My law is one side of that coin. 
My loving grace and salvation is the other. 
[brief interlude]

JERRY
Isn't this also about the sovereignty of God?

GOD
And, yes, the sovereignty of God, which is another way of saying the necessity of yielding to God. 
And that is the same as happiness.
[brief interlude]

God's covenant with Israel is not a covenant of commands only; 
it is a covenant of love. 
"These are the chosen people" is like 
"This is the girl of my dreams," the one I have fallen in love with.

The Jews are not My only people. 
In theory, everyone can be one of My people. JERRY
But commands and obedience are central. You have told me so Yourself.

GOD
Yes, of course, that too -- but that is not the be-all and end-all. 
There is a larger context--of love. 
Love is the basic force in the universe. 
I enter the world out of love. 
The world yearns for Me, and turns to Me, out of love. 
Love forms the bond between man and woman, 
one neighbor and another, and the orders of nature. 
It is love that pulls all of nature upward, 
and heals the soul and repairs the breaches in the world. 
Even on the level of physics, 
it is love that holds the world together -- and provides its energy.

(The End)