Deuteronomy - Is God from Mars?

John Gray is famous (and RICH!) for making the observation that “Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus.” Men and women are different – men do some things well – women do others well. Men are good at hunting/killing/problem solving – women are generally more nurturing and can multi-task!

From the outset I am going to confess that the note in the margin of my Bible next to Deuteronomy 32:18 has a mental question mark next to it.

“You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth” (Deut 32:18 – NIV)

Clearly, God refers to Himself (Herself?) as having both male and female attributes. In fact the first hint of this is in Genesis…

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Gen 1:26 – NIV)

There are a lot of other references in Scripture attributing female attributes to God. (a selection….Hosea 11:3-4, Hosea 13:8, Deuteronomy 32:11-12, Isaiah 66:13, Isaiah 49:15, Isaiah 42:14, Jeremiah 44:25, Psalm131:2, Psalm 123:2, Matthew 23:37, Luke 13:34, Luke 15:8-10)

Jewish mystical traditions, including Kabala, have a belief that the Shekinah – the settling or dwelling presence of God in the tabernacle and temple – was an expression of the “femaleness” of God. It is possible that what we have translated as “God Almighty” – El Shaddai - could actually mean “God the multi-breasted one” – a very female description of God. (Strong’s H7736)

Another thought…If Jesus is the Head of the church – and the church is His bride – he has a male head and a female body!

So, is Scripture culturally conditioned? – is God referred to as predominately male because of the patriarchal societies in which Judaism and later, Christianity were formed in? It is easy in Polytheistic religions to have both male and female gods – not a problem! When it comes to mono-theism however, it gets a little trickier.

It is interesting to note as well that the main ‘deity’ of the New Age movement is the “goddess” or the “mother goddess.” This is not a new concept – the goddess existed in the religions of the Egyptians, Sumerians, Mesopotamians and Greeks. Maybe the writers of Scripture were inspired to refer to God in the masculine as a deliberate direct contrast to the other prevailing contemporary beliefs.

There are a couple of problems – to go to the extreme and adopt a feminist theology and refer to God in gender-neutral terms probably just waters Scripture down – and maybe we shouldn’t be fiddling around with the Bible too much anyway. (see Rev 22:18!)

By referring to God in the masculine are we tacitly implying that females are inferior to males? What do we make of the teachings of Paul about women in leadership? (not going here today – maybe another post!)

I for one am glad that God made women – I like women! I sincerely believe that God is my Father – but I also believe that he loves me so much that he looks after me like my mother looked after me – God has an intimate connection to me like the intimate connection mothers have to their children.

God relates to us entirely. He has a relationship with us that is all-encompassing – He loves us in a way that encompasses how mums and dads love their children.

Numbers - Water of Life

Anyone who has scratched the surface of ‘Psychology 101’ will probably be familiar with Abraham Maslow’s ‘Hierarchy of Needs.’ Maslow proposed that humans have needs that are arranged in a pyramid – the base of the pyramid is our physiological needs – air, water food, sleep – with the apex of the pyramid what Maslow termed ‘Self-Actualization need.’

It is common wisdom that you can live for 4 minutes without air, 4 days without water and 4 weeks without food.

In Numbers 20, the children of Israel begin to complain again to Moses and Aaron…they were in the desert and there was no water to drink. “If only we had died when our brothers fell dead before the LORD! Why did you bring the LORD’s community into this desert, that we and our livestock should die here? Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to this terrible place? It has no grain or figs, grapevines or pomegranates. And there is no water to drink!” (Numbers 20:3-5 NIV)

God commands Moses to strike a rock and water then came out of the rock. This presents us with one of the most curious theological issues in the whole Bible…In 1 Corinthians 10:4, Paul states the following about Israel…”They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.” (1 Cor 10:3-4 NIV)

This is where it gets tricky….Firstly water does not come out of rocks, secondly - rocks do not follow you around. The Israelites walked on dry land through the Red Sea, they followed a pillar of cloud during the day and camped around a pillar of fire at night – so I guess a rock following them through the desert was not so strange!

Commentators are divided – some say the rock followed the Israelites, others say that the water followed them…but you cannot get away from Paul’s insistence that the rock was in fact Christ…I think you can deduce from Scripture that there are a number of different pre-incarnate guises that Christ pops in and out of history with – ‘The angel of the LORD’, perhaps ‘The Commander of the army of the LORD’ – and as rock that sustained the nation of Israel for 40 years in the desert. (See also)

Consider this….

“When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, "Will you give me a drink?" (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, "You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water."

"Sir," the woman said, "you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his flocks and herds?"

Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life." (John 4:7-14 NIV)

Jesus sustained the Israelites for 40 years – He promises us now living water – a drink that sustains us eternally.

Leviticus - The day of Atonement

At the outset, I must confess to struggling with Leviticus. It seems to be a whole book of rules – which may or may not be superseded.

I have always wondered that if we can preach Malachi 3:16 – “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse” from our pulpits – do we need our priests to observe the edicts of Leviticus too…Is it OK for a Christian minister to shave the sides of his beard off? (Lev 21:5) Priests cannot be dwarves, blind or lame. By the way…you cannot be a priest if your testicles are damaged…would this be on the application form or would there be some sort of test? (Lev 21:20)

The not in my margin at Leviticus 23:26 is a simple one – it states ‘Yom Kippur’ and refers me to Romans 11:25-27.

The ‘Day of Atonement’ is possibly the most important day on the Jewish religious calendar. Even today, synagogues have up to three times more people than usual. Perhaps it is like Easter n the west!

The Day of Atonement was the one day of the year that the High Priest could enter the Holiest of Holies – right into the presence of God to atone – or cover – the sins of the entire nation of Israel.

The High Priest would ritually cleanse himself and his co-priests would tie a rope around his waist. If God struck him dead, the rope would be used to drag his body back out under the curtain. I wonder how you would put this in your job description when applying for life insurance?

When He died, Jesus tore the curtain separating the Holiest of Holies where God’ presence dwells from top to bottom. The curtain was 18 inches thick and too high to be ripped by man – God ripped it.

Forever more mankind has access to the atoning power of God to forgive sin – we are covered every day of the year!

Today is the acceptable day of salvation – not just Yom Kippur.

Exodus - What's in a name?

"...and Moses named him Gershom, saying, "I have beome an alien in a foreign land." (Exod 2:22 NIV)

The children of Israel had lived for over 200 years in Egypt...initially as guests of the Pharaoh after Joseph saved their bacon during an earlier famine. Now they found themselves slaves and captives - and Moses' new discontent at the situation is summed up in how he named his son.

In chapter 3 of Exodus, Moses meets God at the burning bush and is commissioned to return to Egypt to confront Pharaoh to let the Israelites go free....

"Moses said to God, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"

God said to Moses, "I am who I am . This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.' "

God also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'The LORD, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob—has sent me to you.' This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation." (Exod 3: 13-15 NIV)

Israel had lived for two centuries under the polytheistic Egyption system of gods. They had multiple gods - even Pharaoh was considered the earthly incarnation of a god. You could probably argue that ten ensuing plagues that occur from Exodus chapter 7 are all designed by God to discredit a large number of these gods. The plague of the Nile turning to blood disempowers Hapi - the god of fertility; the plague on livestock - Apis the bull god; darkness - Amon Ra - the sun god - and the final plague where the first born of Egypyt is killed would have proven that not even Pharaoh was immune to the great "I AM."

God reminds Moses that He was also known as Yahweh or Jehovah - maybe some memory of Jehovah had been passed down through the 10 or so generations that had lived in captivity in Egypt.

To have one God - simply "I AM" - one single all-powerful, pre-existent and individual God was in stark contrast to the collection of gods in Egypt.

The Septuagint - the original translation of Scripture into Latin - translated "I AM" as "Ego Eimi." - a phrase that also crops up in the Latin New Testament.

In John 8:58, Jesus was challenged by the Jews about His claims of who He was. His answer was simple..."ego eimi"..."I AM!" Jesus claims to be God - a claim that was clearly not lost on the Jews who tried to catch him and kill him. (he disappeared though!)

Jesus elaborates.."I tell you the truth...before Abraham was born I am!" Jesus, as a distinct one third of the Godhead was present at creation and has watched over and intervened throughout history.

In fact the Hebrew root of God's name Jehovah means literally "I am eternally present to help you."

Genesis - Nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them

"Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.

They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."

But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." [1]

I have note in the margin of my Bible on page 10….”Nothing is impossible for people in unity.” I am intrigued by God’s statement that “If they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.”

It speaks to me of the immense creative potential that God has endowed us with. John F Kennedy’s 1961 challenge to the USA – to put a man on the moon within the decade stands as an incredible example of what we can achieve when we work together. Unfortunately, often our collaborations have the aim of killing or repressing those who differ from us, amassing ridiculous fortunes and frequently damage our fragile planet. As a result of the free will that God created us with, our potential comes back to bite us – God does not protect us from ourselves.

My margin note also cites Psalm 133…”How good and pleasant it is when brothers live in unity!” [2] It then goes on further…” For there the LORD bestows his blessing, even life evermore.” [3]

Jesus understood what a potent force Unity is. In His final prayers for all believers – including us – he prays…”May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”[4]

God’s first words to mankind – before the whole Tower of Babel incident were…

”God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." [5]

By gathering in one place the people were in direct contradiction to God’s plans to spread out and fill the earth.

More recently Jesus said to His followers…

“Go and make disciples of all nations.” [6]

I wonder what would happen if we applied our God-given power of unity to the great commission?

"If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.” [7]


[1] Gen 11:1-7 New International Version
[2] Psalm 133:1 New International Version
[3] Psalm 133:3 New International Version
[4] John 17:23 New International Version
[5] Gen 1:28 New International Version
[6] Matt 28:19 New International Version
[7] Gen 11:6 New International Version