3. DIVINE REVELATION: ISRAEL & THE OLD TESTAMENT

APPETIZER: By love, God has revealed himself and given himself to humankind. He has thus provided the definitive, superabundant answer to the questions that humans asks about the meaning and purpose of life. God has revealed himself to humanity by gradually communicating his own mystery in deeds and in words. (CCC #68-69)

MAIN COURSE: We have touched upon how God reveals himself to the observant seeker through such things as the intricacies of creation and the wonders of the human person. But that's only like knocking on the front door. To know more and personally to encounter the One Who Is, we need him to answer our knocking, open the door and invite us in so that we can get to know him. And that is precisely what God has done for us. We call this initiative of God making himself better known Divine Revelation. "To reveal" means to pull back the veil, to show what is hidden. 

It might help to think of the how and why of this revelation by looking at our own experiences. We don't readily reveal ourselves, details of our childhood and lives, who we really are, what we struggle with, what we enjoy, etc. to just anyone and everyone.  We tend to talk about these things and reveal these facts of our life to those who eventually become our friends.  We do so gradually, over time, as the relationship deepens. And when we do show forth aspects of who we are and what we like, we often do so in various ways:  by words, by our choice of gifts, by particular movies we talk about or through sharing songs that we like. We don t just throw the entirety of our lives at a person and overwhelm them with our reality in one fell swoop!

In a similar way, the CCC reminds us that God revealed himself over time, bit by bit. He is so Great and Awesome, so deep a Mystery, that we would not be able to endure receiving the fullness of this revelation all at one time!  And even now, thousands of years after God first starting revealing himself in a unique way through Scripture, we still remain so far away from understanding who he really is and what he is really like! And of course...we never will truly comprehend God precisely as he is, not even in Heaven (though that will be the closest we will get)!

God's in-person revelation of himself began with Adam and Eve upon the creation of humanity and continued even after the original sin through his communication with Noah. It reached a decisive point in God's call of Abraham around the year 2,000 B.C., who was chosen by God to become the father of a chosen people who would become known as Israel.  The Old Testament (also called the Hebrew Scriptures) is the written experiences of God's revelation to Israel recorded through various literary forms such as history, prophecy, poetry, hymns and parables.

God chose to make himself known and to entrust this self-revelation to a people who would be specially dedicated to him. It was though their faith and experiences that others would be able to come to know of the One True God.  So we see that right from the beginning, God chose to use people as his instruments on planet Earth and he has continued to do so to this day. 

The Chosen People (aka Israel, Hebrews, Jews) were well aware of the unique relationship they had with God and guarded it jealously, sometimes so jealously that they excluded others from their company. Their relationship with God was sealed with covenants, guided by commandments, and celebrated in cultic (i.e., liturgical) worship. 

They had outstanding figures in their history of revelation such as Isaac, Jacob, Moses and King David whose stories and experiences are recorded in the books of the Bible such as Genesis, Exodus and Kings.  Their prophets, such as Isaiah and Jeremiah, were people chosen by God to receive much of this revelation and to remind the people to live up to their calling and we find their encounters with God in the books that bear their names. The formal prayers used for liturgy in Israel are beautiful and meaningful expressions of various human emotions and collected in the Book pf Psalms.

Israel suffered much both because of their fidelity to God and because of their sins. For much of their history they were a struggling people, an oppressed nation. But through it all, their prophets received the Word of God concerning the coming of a future Messiah or Deliverer who would vindicate them. While the prophecies concerning this Messiah were spoken in mystical and symbolic language, the people came to think of him as the one who would be their greatest King, their bravest Warrior, their mightiest National Hero forever.  They began to refer to him as The Savior,  The Promised One and The-One-Who-is-to-Come.  

Here are some of these messianic prophecies, but presented here with what we know now looking backwards from the vantage point of Jesus and the Resurrection:

* He would be conceived and born of a virgin and would be Emmanuel, which in Hebrew means “God-with-us”; 

* He would be born in Bethlehem, the city of his ancestor King David; 

* A star would announce his birth and foreigners would coming bearing gifts; 

* Bitter agony would grip the mothers of Bethlehem, which happened with Herod’s slaughter of the Holy Innocents after Jesus’ birth; 

* He would live for a time in Egypt but return to Israel and become a resident of Nazareth;

* His mission would be like a light shining in darkness, with great signs of God’s power and presence;

* The Messiah would die a sacrificial death on behalf of the people, a suffering that would heal us;

* Finally, and marvelously, He would not be left for dead dead but escape the corruption of the grave.

Finally, about 2,00 years after the calling of Abraham the right time came in God's plan of gradual revelation to make himself known in the most awesome and personal way possible: by coming among us himself in the flesh. Now humans would be able to not just receive the Word though the medium of prophets, but directly from the lips of God himself.  Even more...they would be able to see, hear and touch the Word become flesh, Jesus of Nazareth, Son of God and Savior.

DOGGIE-BAG: Here are a few things for your spiritually snacking through the day.

Prayer Before Reading the Bible:  Lord, inspire me to read your Scriptures and to meditate upon them day and night. I beg you to give me real understanding of what I need, that I in turn may put its precepts into practice. Yet, I know that understanding and good intentions are worthless, unless rooted in your graceful love. So I ask that the words of Scripture may also be not just signs on a page, but channels of grace into my heart. Amen. (Origen, Father of the Church, 184-253 AD)

Prayer to Encounter God in Revelation:  Teach me to seek you, and reveal yourself to me as I seek: For unless you instruct me I cannot seek you, and unless you reveal yourself I cannot find you. Let me seek you in desiring you: let me desire you in seeking you. Let me find you in loving you: let me love you in finding you.  (St Anselm of Canterbury, 1033-1109 AD)

Scripture Verse to Memorize:  "Long ago God spoke many times and in many ways to our ancestors through the prophets. And now in these final days, he has spoken to us through his Son." (Hebrews 1:1-2)