Shalom everyone,
The cleansing and healing power of YHVH’s Glory is even more wondrous when you really get into the mechanics of it all! There is a lot of stuff that the vast majority of Paullists don’t understand about ancient Israelite theology, and sadly most ordinary Jews don’t either (only a few rabbis know).
In Yahwist Israelite theology (that is, the theology of the actual writers of the Hebrew Bible), forgiveness comes immediately upon repentance. However, in Yahwist theology there is something called asham (‘incurred sin-guilt’), which has nothing to do with guilt, but is the damage and injury done to one’s soul by sin. The remedy to this damage is expiation, not atonement (kippur means expiation). ‘Expiation’ is the cleansing and healing of a damaged soul which has been blemished by sin (cf Lev 16:30). It is not blood that achieves expiation, but the powerful Glory of YHVH (‘Glory’ in this context, or kevod in Hebrew, does not mean ‘splendour’, but rather it is an active power of God – the cleansing power of YHVH’s Divine Radiance).
YHVH’s love for us is so great, that God protects us when we approach YHVH’s Presence for this cleansing. Otherwise, because YHVH’s Glory and Holiness is so powerful, it has the potential to hurt us. So YHVH protects us when we approach God, so that we will not be hurt! This is the amazing reason why YHVH had to shelter Moses when YHVH’s Glory passed by him on Mt Horeb; if YHVH had not, then Moses would have been destroyed and burnt to a crisp by the immense and unimaginable power of YHVH! The manifestation of YHVH’s Glory on Mt Horeb is the pinnacle of the entire Torah – it is the ‘salvation event’ of the Israelite faith. And yet most people do not understand what happened at Horeb. Something seminal for the human race and life-changing happened there, and yet it goes over most people’s heads.
When Moses came back down the mountain, his face was shining. Christian teachers don’t want you to know this, but the reason why his face was shining, was because the Glory of YHVH had so completely purified and cleansed his soul of sin, that Moses’s human soul glowed within him!!!!!!!! Even though YHVH had sheltered Moses from God’s Glory, there was still enough of God’s power in what did come through from heaven, that it was enough to mega-purify and mega-cleanse his soul!!!!!
Ex 34:29] Now it so happened when Mosheh was coming down from Mount Sīnai – the two tablets of the testimony being in Mosheh’s hands as he was coming down from the mountain – that Mosheh was unaware that the skin of his face appeared to shine [rays of light], because he had been speaking with [God].
On TV fantasy dramas, you often get the impression that there are battles in heaven, and that God cannot control the evil in the supernatural realm. However, YHVH the God of Israel is not like that. In Yahwist theology, there are no battles in heaven – heaven is eternal peace. There is nothing evil that can possibly approach YHVH, because it would automatically be burnt up and destroyed.
In Christianity, holiness is basically goodness, kindness and blessedness; in rabbinic Judaism, holiness is only about being separate. In Yahwist theology, these things are only a part of what holiness is; it is much more. To the ancient Israelites, ‘holiness’ was a special power of God: if anything evil or wicked were ever to approach the holiness of YHVH, that evil would be destroyed. That’s why you get verses where the Israelites are afraid to approach the Presence of God (e.g. Ex 20:19, Lev 10:7, Dt 5:25).
When a wicked person, who is completely unrepentant, tries to approach God, they are in danger of damaging their soul and making things worse. It is only when a person is in a penitent state, that such a repentant person is able to approach the Glory and Holiness of YHVH, without being harmed. YHVH protects the penitent sinner, and enables our frail human bodies and souls to approach God in spirit.
“I, and I alone, am the One who blots out your transgressions for My own sake, and will remember your sins no more.” (Isa 43:25)
The phrase, ‘for My own sake’ implies, ‘so that you can come closer to Me’. It is in these wonderful moments that YHVH can be found:
“Seek YHVH while [YHVH] may be found; call upon [YHVH] while [YHVH] is near.” (Isa 55:6)
Paullist Christians truly have no idea how powerful YHVH is – a God who is able to cleanse, heal and purify a damaged soul, without the needfor death or blood. If only the world knew this!!! That’s why the prophet Habakkuk (2:14) predicts that one day in the distant future, the whole world will indeed know this:
“But the [whole] earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Glory of YHVH, as the waters cover the sea.”
If you can learn to understand what ‘the Glory of God’ is, and what ‘the Holiness of God’ is (that they are not merely qualities of God, but rather they are special, active powers of YHVH), then you will be able to read stuff in the Hebrew Bible, some really mind-blowing stuff, that otherwise flies over most people’s heads, without having the effect that God intended us to have when we read them.
Part of the wonderful mission of Talmidaism, is to make the knowledge of the Glory of YHVH more widespread, and how YHVH loves all God’s children so much, that YHVH protects the penitent soul who approaches YHVH, embracing us and sheltering us, so that we will not be harmed when we come into YHVH’s loving Presence.
blessings
Shmuliq