The Prophets by Abraham J. Heschel

Author:Abraham J. Heschel [Heschel, Abraham J.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781598561814
Amazon: 0060936991
Published: 2013-03-13T02:02:33+00:00

The Meaning and

Mystery ofWrath

THE EMBARRASSMENT OF ANGER

Expositors of the teachings of the prophets are prone to dwell upon passages which seem to conform to their views and predilections. The prophets, we are told, spoke of a God Who stands for all the virtues we should like to see in human beings. The harsh words, the grave threats, the relentless demands, the shrieks of doom, are usually disregarded. There are hurricanes in the world as well as lilies.

The prophets preached justice and celebrated God’s eternal love, but they also proclaimed the danger of man’s presumption, the scandal of idolatry and human ruthlessness, and above all the seriousness of divine wrath.

Who can stand before His indignation ?

Who can endure His anger?

His wrath is poured out like fire,

The rocks are broken asunder by Him.

Nahum 1:6

But the Lord is the true God;

He is the living God and the everlasting King.

T h e M e a n i n g a n d M y s t e ry o f W r a t h 6 359

At His wrath the earth quakes,

And the nations cannot endure His indignation.

Jeremiah 1 0:10

On the other hand, among those who remained open to the message of the anger of God, to which the Bible, and particularly the prophetic writing, refers again and again, some have recoiled; others have treated it allegorically; while still others have been repelled by it.

It is, indeed, impossible to close one’s eyes to the words of the wrath of God in Scripture. * To interpret it on allegorical lines or as a metonymy,t and to regard wrath as a synonym for punishment, is to misread the authentic meaning of the word and to misrepresent biblical thought. Are we to suppose that the ancient Hebrew excluded passions from the divine Being and yet pictured to himself divine indignation as a real fact-and felt that he was delivered over to it to the very roots of his existence? No. To experience divine anger “as if” God were provoked is a subterfuge alien to the biblical mind. Both in predictions of things to come and in descriptions of things that came to

• “Some people who hear these words suppose that the Existent feels wrath and anger, whereas He is not susceptible ro passion of any kind. For disturbance is a mark of human weakness. To God irrational passions of the soul can no more be attributed than bodily parts or limbs. [Moses uses such expressions to admonish those who could not otherwise be brought to their senses. ] Thus it is for training and admonition, not because God’s nature is such, that these words are used.” (Philo, Q;wd Deus bnmutabilis Est, XI, 52-54.) “We shun indeed in words the monstrosity of saying that God is of human form, but in actual fact we accept the impious thought that He is of human passions. And therefore we invent for Him hands and feet, incoming and outgoing, enmities, aversions, estrangements, anger, in fact, such parts and passions as can never belong to the Cause; … a mere crutch for our weakness.

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