In ancient biblical cultures, it was common for people to attribute human emotions to the gods. For example, if drought came, then people would attribute the human emotion of anger to the god that ruled over the harvest. If rains came, then the human emotion of compassion would be attributed to the same god.
But, this concept isn't so ancient as I'd like to think.
Just a couple years ago, the governor of Texas called all Texans to pray for rain due to a severe drought that was costing millions to the Texas economy.
The concept of the gods being angry isn't as archaic as we'd like it to be.
Throughout the Hebrew scriptures, we see examples of people attributing these emotions to the God of Israel:
1And you will say in that day, "I thank you, GOD. You were angry but your anger wasn't forever. You withdrew your anger and moved in and comforted me. 2"Yes, indeed--God is my salvation. I trust, I won't be afraid. GOD-yes GOD!-is my strength and song, best of all, my salvation!" 3Joyfully you'll pull up buckets of water from the wells of salvation. 4And as you do it, you'll say, "Give thanks to GOD. Call out his name. Ask him anything! Shout to the nations, tell them what he's done, spread the news of his great reputation! 5"Sing praise-songs to GOD. He's done it all! Let the whole earth know what he's done! 6Raise the roof! Sing your hearts out, O Zion! The Greatest lives among you: The Holy of Israel." Isaiah 12:1-6
But there's a difference between now and then, isn't there? Back then, people were trying to make sense of natural forces that they had no control over. And so, it was a very cultural thing to apply these emotions to a deity - a power that could comfort or oppress.
And I remember my darkest days. With the combination of alcohol and a concept of an angry God, my days were miserably painted with a black brush, every moment trying to invoke this God to stop being angry about the way I was living. The daily routine consisted of sacrificially waking up early in the morning, asking forgiveness for the previous days' sins, memorizing a passage of scripture, and praying for as many people I could think of. But, what was the motivation behind it all?
An attempt to provoke God to bring rain to my drought. Why? Because obviously my actions had caused this God to withhold nourishment from my dry spirit.
What I experienced though wasn't unique.
The more I talk to people about their conceptions of God, the more I find out that this archaic expression of attributing human emotions to this very non-human force is a very current practice. All the way from the atheist who's still being bothered by the ideas of his Catholic upbringing to the practicing Christian who still thinks that her prayers are the motivation of God's good graces.
Now, I'm mainly writing to those who find their instructions for living in the Bible. It seems that there's too many people who are clinging onto expressions that weren't meant to be clung on to - namely, that God is angry (or happy), for that matter.
For the earliest cultures that we've found evidence for, God was known to be a power - an underlying pattern or energy - that gave order to nature. Although the patterns could be seen (like, the relationship between the moon's position and the changing tides), there was always a question mark. That question mark was placed at the beginning. No one could explain why the changing tides resulted from the moon being in a different position.
So, the question mark was always readily supplanted with the idea of a divine force behind nature. And, as cultures progressed, they found they could make more sense of this divine force by applying human characteristics to it. It felt more relational.
Have you ever talked to someone about their dog, and you couldn't help but think, "Does this person think this dog is a human?" And this question raises in your mind because you know dogs don't talk in human voices. They may talk in doggy voices, but we don't know what they're saying (not yet at least).
Somehow, throughout the millennia, the concept that God is angry has crossed over cultures, religions, and societies. It's woven itself into the thinking of millions of people, religious or not. But, I'm writing to the religious.
How can one fully experience Christmas if one thinks God is angry at her?
How can one pray if one thinks God is angry at him?
How can one function if she thinks God is angry with her?
How can one see the beauty in life if he thinks God is angry with him?
With all the knowledge, history, science, biblical scholarship, and anthropological data we have from these ancient biblical cultures, there's no excuse to still be thinking that this God is on the level of human anger or human happiness.
Just like it was in the oldest of cultures, this God was linked to order, power, and the things we couldn't explain. In a way, this God was the mystery behind a black hole and/or the mystery behind gravity. This God was the answer to the age old riddle of "what created the first burst of energy to create what we like to call the Big Bang."
So, rather than applying a happiness or an anger to this God, I find comfort in having a deep sense of order and the sense that "if the lilies of the field are okay, along with the birds of the air, then I'm okay too."
There are good things that come out of applying human characteristics to God, as well as bad things.
The good things:
It feels relational.
It gives one a sense of purpose in trying to make this God happy (just like one would attempt to make a sick friend or a parent happy).
It gives one a sense of the need for repentance if they feel they aren't in line with what this God wants (just like one would do if they stepped on the toes of a neighbor, they might seek out a way to reconcile with that neighbor).
The bad things:
Concepts like "being out of relationship" start making their mark with this God.
The sense of purpose can be lost if one doesn't feel that they are pleasing this God enough.
One can possibly feel they are repenting and changing their ways, but still not find the relationship with God they were told was possible.
Once human emotions start being applied to the divine, God can become an exclusive deity, only for those who are "good people."
And so, for my Bible reading friends/Jesus followers, we have no excuse for taking what we read in the scriptures (the old testament through Jesus), and still holding onto this idea that God is angry or happy. We're supposed to believe that Jesus showed us a glimpse of what God is like, but most of what was written about Jesus were words that were strategically placed on the lips of Jesus by people who wanted Jesus to play a certain part.
My point of saying all this is, there is an order, a pattern, an energy that we're involved in every moment. And this order is what the ancients called God. The word used in extra-biblical sources to define this power was "wisdom," or, "In the beginning, wisdom created the heavens and the earth . . . " God was never supposed to be this divine, untouchable figure that only the select few could access.
God, or wisdom, represented the knowledge or the power behind the things that humans couldn't explain. And, everyone had access or the ability to seek out that knowledge. Once we put labels like happy or sad and saved or unsaved on this God, we take the original meaning and turn it into the God club where a paid membership is required.
This God, just like in the ancient cultures, has to be accessible to "any old dummy," as my friend Derek says. If not, then chances are that we've boxed this God in with certain religious/political/societal expectations aka "pray for rain."
This God is much bigger than the emotions we like to place on it. This God is much bigger than the sentimental mush we like to put in songs about it. This God is about creating life and energizing the deadness in this world. And when we seek out this God, what we're really seeking out is wisdom. We're seeking out the knowledge of how to both contribute the most to this world and to get the most out of it.
So, here's my advice to the non-religious. When you seek wisdom, you will find it. When you knock on the door of wisdom, it shall be opened.
For the Christian: we adhere to the teachings of Jesus, so that is our route to wisdom. When we do the things that Jesus laid out and did himself, we find what we're looking for - wisdom.
When both the religious and non-religious are seeking out wisdom, the two roads converge and we find that we're no longer trying to appease an angry God, but we feel a deeper sense that God is sustaining order and peace and harmony in all of creation, and we get to be a part of it. We get to participate in the creative energy of this God, and we find that "all these things are being added unto us."
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