Bible Notes: God the Preserver of Man
Originally appeared on spirituality.com
Hebrew: Exodus 33:19 And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.
To understand this saying, a clue may be derived from the idea that Hebrew verbs eitherattribute action to the actor, or see action emanating from the actor.McFall, L., The Enigma of the Hebrew Verbal System, Sheffield: The Almond Press, 1982. A Heber Igerendszer Rejtelmei, Megoldasi kiserletek Ewaldtol napjainkig, Debrecen: Debreceni Reformatus Theologioi Academia, 1989. Accordingly, ancient Israelites were concerned with whether we attribute grace and mercy to the LORD because of His gracious or merciful acts, or whether grace and mercy emanate from the LORD because he is inherently gracious and merciful. An acceptable translation is: I do gracious acts in that which I am gracious, and I do merciful acts in that which I am merciful. The Hebrew verbs switch from attributive to emanative forms. English does not have the same perspective, so this translation has to write out the difference. First a snapshot of the action attributes specific deeds of grace or mercy to the LORD; then the words in that which are like an equal sign in an equation; then grace continuallyemanates from the inherently gracious LORD. It is exactly the same for mercy. The LORD’s acts of grace and mercy on earth make manifest His inherent principle of grace and mercy as it is in heaven. This is not about capricious favoritism, but it does raise the important questions: Is the LORD gracious or merciful in that which does not accord with the divine character and nature, forgiving without requiring reformation? Would that preserve man? Can divine Love encourage crime to prosper without penalty and still be Love? This statement about God accounts for the Biblical theme of atonement.
Greek: Mark 1:40-42 (40) And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. (41) And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. (42) And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.
The healing of the leper turns on a single word, katharidzo (kath-ar-id’-zo), from which descends the English word, catharsis. It had a long history of use in Greek drama and philosophy where it referred to how tragedy, comedy and music can elicit beneficial resolution of emotions.Aristotle, Poetics In biblical literature, it was used for purification in many forms, especially transformative purification. It was used in John’s agricultural metaphor ofpruning a vine so that it would bear more fruit.John 15:2-4 It pertained to spiritual innocence,Lam. 4:7, John 13:10, Acts 15:9 refinement of character,II Sam. 22:25 = Psalm 18:24, James 4:8 the clearing of guilt and release of forgiveness,Psalm 19:12, II Cor. 7:1, Eph. 5:26 as well as cleansing of disease.Lev. 13 and Lev. 14 It described the unalloyed realm of God.Psalm 12:6, Ex. 24:10, Rev. 21:19 It was used to speak of the atonement of Jesus Christ.I John 1:7, 9; Hebrews 1:3, Titus 2:14, Hebrews 9:14 This scene has deep roots in Leviticus, which contains laborious instructions on how to handle skin disease over weeks of isolation, against which Mark contrasts the instant catharsis or cleansing produced by Jesus. Yet, Jesus immediately orders the man to act as if he had been cleansed in a perfectly lawful way by going to the priest to be pronounced clean. He only forbade the man to tell how he was healed, thus to avoid a confrontation about his authority to cleanse a leper. But naturally the man told his good news everywhere, bringing flocks of hopefuls to Jesus.