The pagan world and the world of the philosopher cannot really be said to know God because it was full of misconception or it was merely an intellectual God that could not be worshipped. And as we saw, even the Chinese Tao was the impersonal realization of that great reality we call God.

In the 2000 years of Hebrew history a unique encounter between God and Man took place. The God perceived dimly by reason and intuition now breaks upon human consciousness like the morning sun. We see this in a number of encounters in the Old Testament. But, you may say, how do we know that it was really God speaking to them?

Abraham was aware of self-deception so he asked God how he was to know that the promise of many descendants and the giving to them the land of Canaan would come to pass. So God gave him a sign by passing a burning torch between the half-animals he had killed. (Gn 15:17) Further, the promise of a child in his old age came to pass. (Gn 18:9-14) Moses also at the Burning Bush asked for proof of his encounter with God. God told him to throw his staff to the ground and it turned into a serpent. (Ex 4:3)

Likewise, Gideon asked, "If I find favor with you, give me a sign that you are speaking with me." (Jgs 6:17) The sign given him was the burning of Gideon food offering which he placed upon a stone. ( Jgs: 6:21-22) Gideon wanted another sign if God really intended to save Israel from the Medes through him. So he put a wool fleece to the ground and asked God that it be wet with dew by morning but not the ground. The next morning Gideon squeezed a bowl of water from the fleece. Still, he wanted to be sure, so he asked God that the ground be wet with dew the next morning while the fleece remained dry. And so it happened. (Digs 6:36-40)

 

This communication with the living God was for the Israelite people, a covenant of circumcision and law by which they became God's chosen people. "Harold Kushner, a Conservative rabbi, writes that 'God shows His love for us by reaching down to bridge the immense gap between Him and us. God shows His love for us by inviting us to enter into a Covenant (brit) with Him, and by sharing with us His Torah' ".

Yahweh became the personal God of Israel and in the book of Psalms we find deep expressions of this relationship with the living God. Here is part of Ps 139 which expresses Israel deep conviction of their encounter with God.

 

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O LORD, you have probed me, you know me: you know when I sit and stand; you understand my thoughts from afar. My travels and my rest you mark; with all my ways you are familiar. Even before a word is on my tongue, LORD, you know it all. Behind and before you encircle me and rest your hand upon me. Such knowledge is beyond me, far too lofty for me to reach. (Ps 139:1-6)

 

"Yahweh is preeminently the God of history. This conviction represented a radical break from the polytheism of the surrounding world. In the religions of the Fertile Crescent, the gods were primarily personifications of nature, and the purpose of these religions was to establish a proper relationship with nature gods through various forms of ritual and myth. Israel, however, believed that the depths of life's meaning was laid bare in the decisive event, the Exodus, and the series of events it initiated." (Bernhard W. Anderson, Understanding the old Testament, Prentice-Hall, EnglewooCliffs, NJ, 1966, p. 64)

10. Christ the Image of God