Part 6 (1/2)
Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?
He that walketh righteously, and speaketh uprightly; He that despiseth the gain of oppressions, that shaketh his hands from holding of bribes, That stoppeth his ears from hearing of blood, and shutteth his eyes from looking upon evil; He shall dwell on high; his place of defense shall be the munitions of rocks; His bread shall be given, his water shall be sure.
Thine eyes shall see the King in His beauty; they shall behold a land stretching afar.”(282)
Here we behold the fiery element of the divine holiness partly depicted as a reality and partly spiritualized. The last of the prophets compares the divine wrath to a melting furnace, which on the Day of Judgment is to consume evildoers as stubble, while to those who fear the Lord He shall appear as the sun of righteousness with healing on its wings.(283)
5. The idea as expressed by the prophets, then, was that G.o.d's anger will visit the wicked, and particularly the unG.o.dly nations of heathendom, and that He shall judge all creatures in fire.(284) This was significantly altered under Persian influence, when the Jew began to regard the world to come as promising to the righteous greater bliss than the present one.
Then the day of divine wrath meant doom eternal for evil-doers, who were to fall into the fiery depths of Gehenna, ”their worm is never to die and their fire never to be quenched.”(285) This became the prevailing view of the rabbis, of the Apocalyptics and also of the New Testament and the Church literature.(286) The Jewish propaganda in the h.e.l.lenistic literature, however, combined the fire of Gehenna with the Stoic, or pagan, view of a general world-conflagration, and announced a general doomsday for the heathen world, unless they be converted to the belief in Israel's one and holy G.o.d, and ceased violating the fundamental (Noachian) laws of humanity.(287)
6. A higher view of the punitive anger of G.o.d is taken by Beruriah, the n.o.ble wife of R. Meir,(288)-if, indeed, the wife of the saintly Abba Helkiah did not precede her(289)-in suggesting a different reading of the Biblical text, as to make it offer the lesson: ”not the sinners shall perish from the earth, but the sins.” From a more philosophical viewpoint both Juda ha Levi and Maimonides hold that the anger which we ascribe to G.o.d is only the transference of the anger which we actually feel at the sight of evildoing. Similarly, when we speak of the consuming fire of h.e.l.l, we depict the effect which the fear of G.o.d must have on our inner life, until the time shall come when we shun evil as unG.o.dly and love the good because it is both good and G.o.d-like.(290)
Chapter XVIII. G.o.d's Long-suffering and Mercy
1. In one of the little known apocryphal writings, the Testament of Abraham, a beautiful story is told of the patriarch. Shortly before his death, the archangel Michael drove him along the sky in the heavenly chariot. Looking down upon the earth, he saw companies of thieves and murderers, adulterers, and other evil-doers pursuing their nefarious practices, and in righteous indignation he cried out: ”Oh would to G.o.d that fire, destruction, and death should instantly befall these criminals!” No sooner had he spoken these words than the doom he p.r.o.nounced came upon those wicked men. But then spoke the Lord G.o.d to the heavenly charioteer Michael: ”Stop at once, lest My righteous servant Abraham in his just indignation bring death upon all My creatures, because they are not as righteous as he. He has not learned to restrain his anger.”(291) Thus, indeed, the wrath kindled at the sight of wrongdoing would consume the sinner at once, were it not for another quality in G.o.d, called in Scripture _long-suffering_. By this He restrains His anger and gives the sinner time to improve his ways. Though every wicked deed provokes Him to immediate punishment, yet He shows compa.s.sion upon the feeble mortal. ”Even in wrath He remembereth compa.s.sion.”(292) ”He hath no delight in the death of the sinner, but that he shall return from his ways and live.”(293) The divine holiness does not merely overwhelm and consume; its essential aim is the elevation of man, the effort to endow him with a higher life.
2. It is perfectly true that a note of rigor and of profound earnestness runs through the pages of Holy Writ. The prophets, law-givers, and psalmists speak incessantly of how guilt brings doom upon the lands and nations. As the father who is solicitous of the honor of his household punishes unrelentingly every violation of morality within it, so the Holy One of Israel watches zealously over His people's loyalty to His covenant.
His glorious name, His holy majesty cannot be violated with immunity from His dreaded wrath. There is nothing of the joyous abandon which was predominant in the Greek nature and in the Olympian G.o.ds. The ideal of holiness was presented by the G.o.d of Israel, and all the doings of men appeared faulty beside it.
But its power of molding character is shown by Judaism at this very point, in that it does not stop at the condemnation of the sinner. It holds forth the promise of G.o.d's forbearance to man in his shortcomings, due to His compa.s.sion on the weakness of flesh and blood. He waits for man, erring and stumbling, until by striving and struggling he shall attain a higher state of purity. This is the bright, uplifting side of the Jewish idea of the divine holiness. In this is the innermost nature of G.o.d disclosed. In fear and awe of Him who is enthroned on high, ”before whom even the angels are not pure,” man, conscious of his sinfulness, sinks trembling into the dust before the Judge of the whole earth. But the grace and mercy of the long-suffering Ruler lift him up and imbue him with courage and strength to acquire a new life and new energy. Thus the oppressive burden of guilt is transformed into an uplifting power through the influence of the holy G.o.d.
3. The predominance in G.o.d of mildness and mercy over punitive anger is expressed most strikingly in the revelation to Moses, when he had entreated G.o.d to let him see His ways. The people had provoked G.o.d's anger by their faithlessness in the wors.h.i.+p of the golden calf, and He had threatened to consume them, when Moses interceded in their behalf. Then the Lord pa.s.sed by him, and proclaimed: ”The Lord, the Lord, G.o.d, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy unto the thousandth generation, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin; and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children, unto the third and unto the fourth generation.”(294) Such a pa.s.sage shows clearly the progress in the knowledge of G.o.d's nature. For Abraham and the traditions of the patriarchs G.o.d was the righteous Judge, punis.h.i.+ng the transgressors. He is represented in the same way in the Decalogue on Sinai.(295) Was this to be the final word? Was Israel chosen by G.o.d as His covenant people, only to encounter the full measure of His just but relentless anger and to be consumed at once for the violation of this covenant? Therefore Moses wrestled with his G.o.d. Filled with compa.s.sionate love for his people, he is willing to offer his life as their ransom. And should G.o.d himself lack this fullness of love and pity, of which even a human being is capable? Then, as from a dark cloud, there flashed suddenly upon him the light of a new revelation; he became aware of the higher truth, that above the austerity of G.o.d's avenging anger prevails the tender forgiveness of His mercy; that beyond the consuming zeal of His punitive justice s.h.i.+nes the sun-like splendor of His grace and love. The rabbis find the expression of mercy especially in the name JHVH (_i.e._ ”the One who shall ever be”) which is significantly placed here at the head of the divine attributes. Indeed, only He who is the same from everlasting to everlasting, and to whom to-morrow is like yesterday, can show forbearance to erring man, because in whatsoever he has failed yesterday he may make good to-morrow.
4. Like Moses, the master of the prophets, so the prophet Hosea also learned in hard spiritual struggle to know the divine attribute of mercy and lovingkindness. His own wife had proved faithless, and had broken the marital covenant; still his love survived, so that he granted her forgiveness when she was forsaken, and took her back to his home. Then, in his distress at the G.o.d-forsaken state of Israel through her faithlessness, he asked himself: ”Will G.o.d reject forever the nation which He espoused, because it broke the covenant? Will not He also grant forgiveness and mercy?” The divine answer came to him out of the depths of his own compa.s.sionate soul. Upon the crown of G.o.d's majesty which Amos had beheld all effulgent with justice and righteousness, he placed the most precious gem, reflecting the highest quality of G.o.d-His gracious and all-forgiving love.(296) Whether the priority in this great truth belongs to Hosea or Moses is a question for historical Bible research to answer, but it is of no consequence to Jewish theology.
5. Certainly Scripture represents G.o.d too much after human fas.h.i.+on, when it ascribes to him changes of mood from anger to compa.s.sion, or speaks of His repentance.(297) But we must bear in mind that the prophets obtained their insight into the ways of G.o.d by this very process of transferring their own experience to the Deity. And on the other hand, we are told that ”G.o.d is not a man that He should lie, neither the son of man that He should repent.”(298) All these anthropomorphic pictures of G.o.d were later avoided by the ancient Biblical translators by means of paraphrase, and by the philosophers by means of allegory.(299)
6. According to the Midras.h.i.+c interpretation of the pa.s.sage from the Pentateuch quoted above, Moses desired to ascertain whether G.o.d ruled the world with His justice or with His mercy, and the answer was: ”Behold, I shall let My _goodness_ pa.s.s before thee. For I owe nothing to any of My creatures, but My actions are prompted only by My grace and good will, through which I give them all that they possess.”(300) According to Judaism justice and mercy are intertwined in G.o.d's government of the world; the former is the pillar of the cosmic structure, and the latter the measuring line. No mortal could stand before G.o.d, were justice the only standard; but we subsist on His mercy, which lends us the boons of life without our meriting them. That which is not good in us now is to become good through our effort toward the best. G.o.d's grace underlies this possibility.
Accordingly, the divine holiness has two aspects, the overwhelming wrath of His justice and the uplifting grace of His long-suffering. Without justice there could be no fear of G.o.d, no moral earnestness; without mercy only condemnation and perdition would remain. As the rabbis tell us, both justice and mercy had their share in the creation of man, for in man both good and bad appear and struggle for supremacy. All generations need the divine grace that they may have time and opportunity for improvement.(301)
7. Thus this conception of grace is far deeper and worthier of G.o.d than is that of Paulinian Christianity; for grace in Paul's sense is arbitrary in action and dependent upon the acceptance of a creed, therefore the very reverse of impartial justice. In Judaism divine grace is not offered as a bait to make men believe, but as an incentive to moral improvement. The G.o.d of holiness, who inflicts wounds upon the guilty soul by bitter remorse, offers also healing through His compa.s.sion. Justice and mercy are not two separate powers or persons in the Deity, as with the doctrine of the Church; they are the two sides of the same divine power. ”I am the Lord before sin was committed, and I am the Lord after sin is committed”-so the rabbis explain the repet.i.tion of the name JHVH in the revelation to Moses.(302)
Chapter XIX. G.o.d's Justice
1. The unshakable faith of the Jewish people was ever sustained by the consciousness that its G.o.d is a G.o.d of justice. The conviction that He will not suffer wrong to go unpunished was read into all the stories of the h.o.a.ry past. The Babylonian form of these legends in common with all ancient folk-lore ascribes human calamity to blind fate or to the caprice of the G.o.ds, but the Biblical narratives a.s.sume that evil does not befall men undeserved, and therefore always ascribe ruin or death to human transgression. So the Jewish genius beheld in the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah a divine judgment upon the depraved inhabitants, and derived from it a lesson for the household of Abraham that they should ”keep the way of the Lord to do righteousness and justice.”(303) The fundamental principle of Judaism throughout the ages has been the teaching of the patriarch that ”the Judge of all the earth cannot act unjustly,”(304) even though the varying events of history force the problem of justice upon the attention of Jeremiah,(305) the Psalmists,(306) the author of the book of Job,(307) and the Talmudical sages.(308) ”Righteousness and justice are the foundations of Thy throne”(309)-this is the sum and substance of the religious experience of Israel. At the same time man realizes how far from his grasp is the divine justice: ”Thy righteousness is like the mighty mountains; Thy judgments are like the great deep.”(310)
2. The Master-builder of the moral world made justice the supporting pillar of the entire creation. ”He is The Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are just; a G.o.d of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is He.”(311) There can be no moral world order without a retributive justice, which leaves no infringement of right unpunished, just as no social order can exist without laws to protect the weak and to enforce general respect. The G.o.d of Judaism rules over mankind as Guardian and Vindicator of justice; no wrong escapes His scrutinizing gaze. This fundamental doctrine invested history, of both the individual and the nation, with a moral significance beyond that of any other religious or ethical system.
Whatever practice or sense of justice may exist among the rest of mankind, it is at best a glimpse of that divine righteousness which leads us on and becomes a mighty force compelling us, not only to avoid wrongdoing, but to combat it with all the pa.s.sion of an indignant soul and eradicate it wherever possible. Though in our daily experience justice may be sadly lacking, we still cling to the moral axiom that G.o.d will lead the right to victory and will hurl iniquity into the abyss. As the sages remark in the Midrash: ”How could short-sighted and short-lived man venture to a.s.sert, 'All His ways are just,' were it not for the divine revelation by which the eyes of Moses were opened, so that he could gaze into the very depths of life?”(312) That is, the idea of divine justice is revealed, not in the world as it is, but in the world as it should be, the ideal cosmos which lives in the spirit.
3. It cannot be denied that justice is recognized as a binding force even by peoples on a low cultural plane, and the Deity is generally regarded as the guardian of justice, exactly as in Judaism. This fact is shown by the use of the oath in connection with judicial procedure among many nations.
Both Roman jurisprudence and Greek ethics declare justice to be the foundation of the social life. Nevertheless the Jewish ideal of justice cannot be identified with that of the law and the courts. The law is part of the social system of the State, by which the relations of individuals are determined and upheld. The maintenance of this social order, of the _status quo_, is considered justice by the law, whatever injustice to individuals may result. But the Jewish idea of justice is not reactionary; it owes to the prophets its position as the dominating principle of the world, the peculiar essence of G.o.d, and therefore the ultimate ideal of human life. They fought for right with an insistence which vindicated its moral significance forever, and in scathing words of indignation which still burn in the soul they denounced oppression wherever it appeared. The crimes of the mighty against the weak, they held, could not be atoned for by the outward forms of piety. Right and justice are not simply matters for the State and the social order, but belong to G.o.d, who defends the cause of the helpless and the homeless, ”who executes the judgment of the fatherless and the widow,” ”who regardeth not persons, nor taketh bribes.”(313) Iniquity is hateful to Him; it cannot be covered up by pious acts, nor be justified by good ends. ”Justice is G.o.d's.”(314) Thus every violation of justice, whether from sordid self-seeking or from tender compa.s.sion, is a violation of G.o.d's cause; and every vindication of justice, every strengthening of the power of right in society, is a triumph of G.o.d.
4. Accordingly, the highest principle of ethics in Judaism, the cardinal point in the government of the world, is not love, but _justice_. Love has the tendency to undermine the right and to effeminize society. Justice, on the other hand, develops the moral capacity of every man; it aims not merely to avoid wrong, but to promote and develop the right for the sake of the perfect state of morality. True justice cannot remain a pa.s.sive onlooker when the right or liberty of any human being is curtailed, but strains every effort to prevent violence and oppression. It battles for the right, until it has triumphed over every injustice. This practical conception of right can be traced through all Jewish literature and doctrine; through the laws of Moses, to whom is ascribed the maxim: ”Let the right have its way, though it bore holes through the rock”,(315) through the flaming words of the prophets;(316) through the Psalmists, who spoke such words as these: ”Thou art not a G.o.d who hath pleasure in wickedness; evil shall not sojourn with Thee. The arrogant shall not stand in Thy sight; Thou hatest all workers of iniquity.”(317)
Nor does justice stop with the prohibition of evil. The very arm that strikes down the presumptuous transgressor turns to lift up the meek and endow him with strength. Justice becomes a positive power for the right; it becomes _Zedakah_, righteousness or true benevolence, and aims to readjust the inequalities of life by kindness and love. It engenders that deeper sense of justice which claims the right of the weak to protection by the arm of the strong.