VI. DIVINE REVELATION
50. MAN IN THR COMMUNITY,
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There are still other beings who are not borrowed and tolerated but inherited and suppressed. Such are the demons in the form of he-goats, a’?‘yp, which appear dancing in fallen cities, Isa. 13: 21; 34: 12-14 where also the female demon Lilith and others are found, for whom priests are sometimes appointed, 2 Chron. II: 15, and to whom sacrifices are offered, Lev. 17: 7. From these cult arrangements it is clear that origin- ally and also later where fixed forms of worship appear, these were gods (of the field, of fertility, of the underworld, of death) supplanted by Jahweh. Another sort, aypf, called “the black ones’J12g received sacrifices although they are not gods, Deut.
32: 17; even sacrifices of children, Ps. 106: 37.
All these belong to a realm of uncertainty. We do not know what part angels, spirits and demons played in the life and faith of Old Testament man. We see only that they have a much greater proximity, a firmer reality and a more precise form for the New Testament man and that there they are therefore of much greater theological importance. In the Old Testament Jahweh stands alone save for the angels (concerning Satan see $ 51) who draw near to serve Him. All other gods have yielded to Him. We can barely imagine the feeling of distinc- tiveness and freedom this must have aroused when the Jew compared h,imself with Egyptian or other contemporaries.
There are no gods around Jahweh. Therefore there are also no spirits around Him, for all spirits, demons and intermediate beings are originally part of the band and retinue of the great individual gods. When they go the others go also. They are banished and lead only a forbidden shadow-existence in the twilight of superstition.
According to the revelation of the Old Testament, man deals with God and only with God.
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ways. In earlier Old Testament times man lives completely in family and group solidarity. Achan dies for his theft and his whole house with him, Josh. 7: 10-26. In this case we are clearly told that the bond of community extends to the guilty man’s sons, daughters, oxen, asses, sheep, his tent and all that he had. We are also told (v. 15) that it is an elaboration of a divine ordinance that the man should be burnt with fire, he and all that he hath. Korah and all that pertained to him, with their families, their households and all their goods were swallowed up by the earth, Num. 16: 32; and the whole com- munity was bidden depart from the two hundred and fifty wicked men, 16: 26, 35.
The bond between the individual and his group has a distinct direction and a clear limitation. The direction can be seen in the fact that the sinner does not drag the righteous to destmc- tion, Num. 16: 18-35, but the righteous rescue the sinners from destruction. “I will not destroy it (the population of Sodom and Gomorrah) for the ten’s sake” (the ten righteous that I find there), Gen. 18: 32. The bond is set in a context of grace. The sinner does not involve the righteous in destruction, but the righteous involves the sinner in salvation. The clear limitation is this: that the bond does not work in terms of proportion. God visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations of them that hate Him, but He shews mercy unto the thousandth generation to the children of them that love Him, Ex. 20: 5 ff. The visitation of punishment lasts for only a fraction of the time of His loving grace. God is much more a God of grace than a God of judgment.131
Later the bond is still further relaxed.132 Amaziah slays his father’s murderers but not their children, 2 Kings 14: 5 ff. The law is now in operation which says that every man shall be put to death for his own sin, Deut. 24: 16. That will be the situation under the new covenant, Jer. 31: 30. Thus Ezekiel is com- missioned to proclaim the word of God that the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son. “The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked upon him”, Ezek. 18: 1-20. One should not overlook the historical situation referred to here. This word is spoken in a time in which a whole generation-the good Jews in exile-takes it very ill that they are encumbered with the sins of the %thers. This is therefore absolution by the sheer grace of God.
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There is, however, no attempt in the Old Testament to reconcile systematically the fact of the bond uniting those who as family, people or community belong together, and the fact of the detachment of those who have received a divine com- mand. The whole affair is rather indefinite and can afford to be, as the bonds are too strong for the individual to drift too far from the unit. It is only the man whom God leads in the ways of an individual, the man who is directed to a particular task, only those special people who are alone. And they count it suffering to be so. “I sat alone because of thy hand”, Jer 15: 17.
3. In a people and religious community whose characteristic is really an absence of differences in matters mental and spiritual we have to recognize nevertheless the fact of the specialist, the d&nctive person. One cannot hope rightly to understand the anthropology of the Old Testament without taking note of these contrasting and complementary persons.
For the power in virtue of which these men stand out from the others is not natural endowment and still less human effort; it is God’s free choice. And because it is God’s free choice it is a possibility for every man in one form or another. The distinctive ones are always God’s people. They are not, however, an aristocracy. They are and remain closely bound up with all others.
It will be sufficient to survey quickly these distinctive callings, for we are not concerned with the spiritual condition of the men involved, nor with their personal experience, but only with the fact that God has set them apart from the others and again for the others.
There are first the seers or prophets, I Sam. g: g. Separated from the rest of mankind, they stand between God and man.
But the eye that was opened, Num. 24: 3 ff., and the ear to which he communicates his secret, Amos 3: 7-such eyes and ears are intended by God for all men. “God hath spoken-who can but prophesy?” Amos 3: 8. “Your sons and your daughters will prophesy. . . your young men shall see visions”, Joel 2: 28.
Prophet and seer are not merely media of God’s word, they are also the prototype and foreshadowing of that which really ought to be. Man’s remoteness from God is thrown into relief by the directness of their relation to Him.
The position of the priest among the people is different. His station is early and strictly regulated133 and designated as a calling that passes from generation to generation in certain
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families. The priests’ duties were variously interpreted in the course of time. Originally any man with a knowledge of the cult could sacrifice, Gen. 4: 3 ff.; 8: 20; Judg. 13: 19-23, etc.;
the priest has to watch over the propriety and due observance of rites, to decide in all questions of rites and cult, Hagg. 2:
11-13, and to maintain the difference between the holy and the profane and the observance of the Sabbath, Ezek. 22: 26; he is the keeper and mediator of the Torah, and of counsel, Jer. 18:
18, Ezek. 7: 26; 22: 26, how one should live and how in one’s life one should treat this one and that one. The priest’s lips keep knowledge and one seeks counsel at his mouth, for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts, Mal. 2: 7. The ever-increas- ing and burdensome preoccupation of the priest with sacrifice, however, caused the emergence of another distinctive group alongside him: the wise, the Scribes. Yet, in spite of this historical development, the priest is to those in whose midst he lives a reminder of God’s holiness expressed in quite definite habits of life, and demanding a constantly renewed effort to reach that condition in which one may draw near to God. The priest is what all one day will be, for all together shall be a kingdom of priests, Ex. rg: 6. The priesthood of the Old Testament is the prototype of the priesthood of all believers.
For a certain time, indeed until the time of the kings, there are distinctive persons usually called judges, though this term is false and should be replaced by the true name ckam~ions.
Their function is not to make legal pronouncements in Israel but rather to champion the just cause of a tribe or group of tribes against its enemies. They are therefore called saviours and helpers, Judg. 3: g, 15; 12: 3; I Sam. II: 3; 2 Kings 13: 5;
Isa. rg: 20; Obad. 21; Neh. g: 27; an honorary title given also to God, I Sam. IO: rg; 14: 39; Isa. 43: 3, II (He is the only saviour), Jer. 14: 8; Hos. 13: 4. The significant thing about the human saviour is, however, that his office is a charismatic office. The saviour does not offer himself of his own free will;
God raises him up, Judg. 3: g, 15; God gives him, 2 Kings 13: 5;
God sends him, Isa. rg: 20. God causes His spirit to come upon Saul, I Sam. II: 6, and he becomes a saviour. Anyone can be a saviour: but only he is a saviour whom God appoints and invests.
Saul the saviour becomes Saul t/ze K&g. The kingship in Israel, so long as it has God’s sanction, is a charismatic and not a political office. 134 When men set up kings but not by God,
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Hos. 8: 4, then it is to no purpose. Because the king is what he is by the grace of God he is called the Lord’s anointed, I Sam.
24: 6, IO; 26: g, II, 23, on whom even in bitterest strife David will not lay a hand. The anointing is the sign of the charismatic separation that falls to the king, to the high priest (only Lev.
4: 3, 5, 16; 16: 15); to the priesthood as a whole, Num. 3: 3, Ex. 28: 41, etc.; to the prince, VG, over “my people Israel,‘,
I Sam. g: 16; to the patriarch, Ps. 105: 15=1 Chron. 16: 22.
It is explicitly the sign of the appointment to the r6le of saviour,
“and he shall save my people out of the hand of the Philistines”,
I Sam. g: 16. Thus even the heathen king Cyrus can be called the anointed of God or Messiah, Isa. 45: I, since God uses him as a saviour for His people. When the kingship becomes hereditary its charismatic character recedes into the back- ground; David’s successor is still the anointed of God, Ps.
132: IO and Dan. g: 25 ff.
When at the Exile the ancient scriptures become holy scriptures with the meaning of which one wresties, Dan. g: 2, 2 Chron. 36: 22, and when the attention of priests is claimed more and more for sacrifice in Judah in the Temple, and when outside Judah, since one cannot sacrifice, the study of the scripture is becoming a substitute for sacrificial worship of ever- increasing importance-there appear again in a new form individuals separated off from the mass of men: the ScriBes, who murmur the law day and night, Ps. I: 2. There is nothing more to say about them here.
We may summarize all this in the following five points. I.
The life of man in the Old Testament both outward and inward is bound up with the lives of others, and the community is therefore much more important than the individual. 2. As time goes by, the individual does become to some extent independent of this bond, so that a sort of equilibrium comes about. 3.
Always at will, God in His grace calls individuals out of this bond into a charismatic existence. 4. This charismatic existence never leads to mystical enjoyment of God’s presence, rather its purpose is always the service of God for the salvation of His people. 5. This setting apart serves constantly as an indication to the whole people of a future order that God intends, in which all shall prophesy, Num. II: 29, and see visions, Joel 2: 28, and be priests, yea a kingdom of priests, Ex. rg: 6;135 and no man teaches his brother any more, “for they shall all know
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me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them”, Jer.
31: 34.
Thus the doctrine of man in the Old Testament becomes an announcement of God’s salvation. This gains even greater validity when we turn to what the Old Testament has to say about good and evil and about the expedient by which men seek to create their salvation.