Between Heaven And Earth: Divine Presence And Absence In The Book Of Ezekiel (biblical And Judaic Studies)
by John F. Kutsko /
1999 / English / PDF
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With the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the exile of
members of the Israelite community to the land of its enemies,
whose gods were represented as divine statues, the prophet
Ezekiel faced a challenge: how to respond to the enemies’ taunts
that Israel’s God was absent, whereas the foreigners’ gods
self-evidently were present. Thus, to ask the question, “Where is
God” was to face several complex and tangled problems. How is God
to be represented? How is Yahweh to be differentiated from other
deities? What is Yahweh’s relationship to Israel in exile?
With the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the exile of
members of the Israelite community to the land of its enemies,
whose gods were represented as divine statues, the prophet
Ezekiel faced a challenge: how to respond to the enemies’ taunts
that Israel’s God was absent, whereas the foreigners’ gods
self-evidently were present. Thus, to ask the question, “Where is
God” was to face several complex and tangled problems. How is God
to be represented? How is Yahweh to be differentiated from other
deities? What is Yahweh’s relationship to Israel in exile?
Kutsko sets out to answer these questions within the theme of
divine presence and absence, particularly as it relates to the
kabod theology in Ezekiel. He shows that God’s absence becomes,
for Ezekiel, an argument for his presence and power, while the
presence of idols indicated their absence and impotence. Ezekiel
extends this proposition into a corollary: God’s presence is not
consigned to sanctuary, for God is a sanctuary. In this regard,
absence from the Temple is a message of judgment and the
precursor to a message of restoration. If God can become a
sanctuary, his presence in exile becomes a message of victory
even over imperial powers. This conceptualization of Yahweh,
then, ends up defining the power and position of Israel’s God in
distinctively universal terms. In this contribution, the book of
Ezekiel plays a central and previously unappreciated role in the
development of Israelite theology, and monotheism in particular.
Kutsko sets out to answer these questions within the theme of
divine presence and absence, particularly as it relates to the
kabod theology in Ezekiel. He shows that God’s absence becomes,
for Ezekiel, an argument for his presence and power, while the
presence of idols indicated their absence and impotence. Ezekiel
extends this proposition into a corollary: God’s presence is not
consigned to sanctuary, for God is a sanctuary. In this regard,
absence from the Temple is a message of judgment and the
precursor to a message of restoration. If God can become a
sanctuary, his presence in exile becomes a message of victory
even over imperial powers. This conceptualization of Yahweh,
then, ends up defining the power and position of Israel’s God in
distinctively universal terms. In this contribution, the book of
Ezekiel plays a central and previously unappreciated role in the
development of Israelite theology, and monotheism in particular.