The Veiling and Future Revelation of God (Part 1)

   I. In the Beginning
  II. Before the Beginning, Formless and Void
 III. Let There Be Light
IV. The LORD Surrounds Himself in Darkness On the Earth
  V. The Self-Limiting of the LORD God in Creation
 VI. The Word Became Flesh
VII. The Future Revelation of the Creator to the Creation

The first chapter of Torah Club 5 inspired me to dwell on the following...

IN THE BEGINNING

Fundamental to the Christian faith is a belief that the power and presence of God are without limit. The words often used to express these attributes of God are “Omnipotent” and “Omnipresent” meaning that the infinite power of God exists in all places at all times. Therefore, God cannot be isolated or confined to a single location, as it is written, “‘Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?’ declares the LORD” (Jer 23:24). In the words of Solomon, “Who is able to build a house for Him, for the heavens and the highest heavens cannot contain Him?” (2 Chron 2:6).

 

Yet, we understand from scripture that God came into the tent of Abraham (Gen 18:1), the LORD appeared to Moses in the burning bush (Ex 3:2), and the LORD dwelled above the mercy seat in the Holy of Holies (Ex 25:22). The Creator also appeared in the Hebrew text as the “angel of the LORD”, the “presence of the LORD”, the “glory of the LORD”, the “cloud of the LORD”, “God”, “the LORD”, the “Spirit”, and “the Word”. Fundamental to the life of believers is the understanding that the LORD is capable of dwelling within the body of an individual person.

 

When scripture says, “the word of the LORD came to Abram” (Gen 15:1), or “the word of the LORD came to Isaiah” (Isa 38:4), the rabbis understood these passages to speak of some physical manifestation of the Creator to the prophet. Maybe the manifestation of the Creator was a “vision” like Peter received while on the roof of Simon’s house (Acts 10) or the manifestation may have been more tangible. When “the LORD appeared to him (Abraham) by the oaks of Mamre” (Gen 18:1), the LORD appeared in human form, which allowed Abraham to wash His feet (Gen 18:4) and set a meal before the LORD. Believers see this manifestation of God in the Hebrew text as the pre-incarnate form of the “the Word” (John 1:1), which we know from the Greek text as Jesus Christ (Yeshua Ha-Mashiach).

 

The question naturally follows, how does an all powerful ever present God still walk on the earth and indwell believers? Said another way, how is the infinite capable of dwelling in the finite, while at the same time, continuing to be all-powerful and dwell everywhere? Let us turn to the creation story to begin our search for the answer.

 

BEFORE THE BEGINNING, FORMLESS AND VOID

 

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” (Gen 1:1-3)

 

Have you ever wondered, if God is all powerful existing in all places at all times, how was there ever a time and place when “the earth was formless and void”? Although the first act of creation appears as “Let there be light”, Torah Club 5 postulates an implied action that occurred before the giving of light. Since the LORD God is infinite and limitless, a place did not exist before the beginning for a finite creation to dwell in the presence of an infinite God.

 

“To make something that isn’t God, God had to create a non-God space. Therefore, the first step of creation required formlessness and void that resulted from the concealment of His presence.”

 

In short, the original “formless and void” was the “non-God space” where the LORD God elected to limit Himself in order to bring the creation into existence. A person might say that the LORD God humbled Himself, limiting the glory of His infinite nature in order to bring creation into existence. Rabbi Yochanon once made a statement appropriate to the creation,

 

“Wherever you find the greatness of the Holy One, blessed be He, you will also find his humility.” (b. Megillah 31a)

LET THERE BE LIGHT

Into this void of creation, the LORD God introduced Himself, “Let there be light.” Since the sun and moon do not exist until the fourth day, the original light is understood as “the presence”, “the knowledge”, and “the glory” of the LORD God, as the apostle Paul expressed in his writing to the Corinthians,

 

“For God, who said, ‘Light shall shine out of darkness,’ is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ,” (2 Cor 4:6).

 

The original light of the Creator in creation is seen to diminish during the progression of the creation story. By the fourth day, the sun, moon, and stars become the predominant lights. The Hebrew sages saw this sequence and suggested that the light from the Creator diminished by one-seventh for each day of creation. By the time man is created, near the end of day six, the illumination of God in the creation has diminished to one-seventh of the strength at the beginning. This understanding is derived from the words of Isaiah who prophesied of a future time when...

 

“The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter, like the light of seven days, on the day the LORD binds up the fracture of His people and heals the bruise He has inflicted,” (Isa 30:26).

 

Whether the original light from the LORD was diminished down to one-seventh or some other fraction, scripture strongly indicates that the LORD God willingly “veiled” His original presence as the creation progressed. An understanding that the Creator has limited His light, and therefore His presence and revelation within the existing creation, is supported by the expectation of a future greater illumination from the Creator. In the Book of Revelations, John wrote,

 

“The city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb. The nations will walk by its light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it,” (Rev 21:22)(Rev 22:4-5)

 

In his vision, John sees a reversal of the original veiling from creation, a coming time of great illumination in the presence of the LORD. Until this future time, the “veiling” of the infinite LORD God is necessary for the Creator to interact within the boundary of a finite creation, as expressed by the authors of Torah Club 5,

 

“The LORD must conceal Himself to some extent in order to have any relationship with mankind and the rest of finite creation…creation can exist and God can interact with creation only because He has deliberately limited Himself through contraction of His infinite being.”

 

(to be continued - Scott)