She pointed out that other ANE (though I cannot remember if she used that term) deities made many demands of their followers as well, but they didn't know exactly what those demands were, they just lived in constant fear of displeasing them and being punished. In that light, God's revelation of his commands is merciful, showing the people the way to blessing.
The Covenant Code or "The Book of the Covenant" is Exodus 20:22-23:19
Exodus 23:20-21--there is an angel that will continue to guide
All the people were sprinkled with blood because they were part of the covenant and called to be priests. Usually covenants were between suzerain (great kings) and vassals
Exodus 32:14- God repented
Leviticus 18-20- moral purity; Leviticus 11-15- ritual purith
liminal spaces (limen= Latin for doorway)
"Liminality exposes all our rough edges" (105).
"Jesus has no patience for those whose verbal proclamations do not match their agenda" (138).
"Lip service to Jesus without action that flows out of an intimate relationship is falsely bearing his name" (143).
"Peter's extended quotation from Joel includes the words, 'everyone who calls on the name of the Lord (kyrios) will be saved' (Acts 2:21; cf. Joel 2:32). In Joel, that name is Yahweh, signified in our English translations by "the LORD" in all caps. For Joel, Yahweh brings salvation to the remnant. Since kyrios is the Greek word that normally translates Yahweh in the Old Testament but also designates the 'Lord' (or 'master') Jesus in the NT, the significance of Peter's quotation is not immediately evident. Is Peter saying that those who call on Yahweh will be saved? Or those who call on Jesus?
"Later in the narrative Peter clarifies by healing a lame man 'in the name of Jesus Christ' (Acts 3:6) and declaring, 'Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved' (Acts 4:12). Appearing so soon after this quotation of Joel, Peter's statement presents a paradox: no other name but Yahweh and no other name but Jesus. The salvation available only to those who call on Joel's kyrios, Yahweh, is now found exclusively in Peter's kyrios, Jesus. Peter is convinced that Jesus of Nazareth is Yahweh in the flesh, 'God with us.'
....
"The hymn of Philippians 2 ascribes to Jesus the 'name that is above every name' (v. 9). Significantly, it also echoes Isaiah 45:23, one of the most important monotheistic texts in the Hebrew Bible. Yahweh had announced, 'I am God and there is no other' (Isaiah 45:22), adding, 'Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear' (45:23). In Philippians 2:9-11, Paul applies these words to Jesus (emphasis added):
"Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father.
"Here Jesus is drawn to a role that Yahweh himself was expected to fulfill. Bearing Yahweh's name (the 'name above every name'), Jesus receives worship that belongs to God alone, and yet somehow God the Father is still glorified. As explained earlier, kyrios stands for the proper divine name, Yahweh, throughout the Greek Old Testament and into the New Testament. Therefore, the 'name above every name' is not 'Jesus.' Rather, he is given 'the name' LORD (kyrios), which is Yahweh. Knees will bow at the name that belongs to Jesus, that is, Yahweh" (152-153).
"According to Colossians 1:15, Jesus is 'the image of the invisible God.' He represents the Father perfectly, but he is not the first image of God. The first humans were designated as God's image in Genesis 1:26-27. Scholars have suggested a variety of possibilities for what this might imply. Rather than an indication that they looked like God or shared some of his characteristics (e.g. creativity or relationality or eternal nature), I read Genesis as saying that humans function as the image. Humans are not like God's image, they are his image.
"In the ancient world, and 'image' or tselem was something concrete. Every deity had a temple, and every temple had an image. The image was a physical representation of the deity, a visible sign of his or her dominion. John Walton argues that the creation account in Genesis is meant to remind us of a temple dedication. Yahweh has build the cosmos as the temple in which he resides and the domain over which he presides. Rather than setting up a statue of himself, he makes men and women. We function as the sign of his rule to the rest of creation.
"This sounds quite similar to bearing God's name: Covenant members are also representatives of God to the nations. However, there's an important difference between the concepts of being the image and bearing the name. Discussing it here will help clarify the implications of each and offer a fuller picture of biblical theology.
"Both being the image and bearing the name relate to the concept of election. God has chosen people and given them a job to do.
"Too often we think of 'election' as a matter of 'being picked to be saved.' But in Scripture, election is more like a game of blob tag, where if I'm 'it,' and I tag you, then we're both it. We run around together and try to tag as many others as we can, who join hands with us and continue tagging others until everyone has been tagged. In this game, the essence of 'it-ness' is to tag others. So, too, the essence of election, and therefore the essence of the believer's vocation, is to represent God by mediating its blessing to others. Once we are 'it' we don't lean back in our recliners, glad that someone picked us. No, to be 'it' is to tag others. And to be elect--to be his--is to bear his name among the nations, to demonstrate by our lives that he is king and to mediate his blessings to others. That is the whole point of being the elect...
"Every human being is an image bearer, whether conscious of it or not. As the crown of creation, humans bear witness to the majesty of our creator God. We extend his rule over creation by caring for it and bringing order to it.
"Name-bearing, on the other hand, is restricted to those in covenant relationship with Yahweh. It's the second dimension of election involving only a subset of humanity. The purpose of covenant election is to provide a visual model of people rightly related to the creator God, Yahweh.
"Jesus fills both dimensions of election by perfectly imaging God and bearing his name with honor. He is the human par excellence as well as the faithful covenant member through whom others can be reconciled to God" (164-166).
"For Moses, those who obey God's commands and worship him alone are considered 'faith-full,' and those who do not are 'faith-less.' Obedience and faith could almost be considered synonyms. To claim belief in God without obeying him--to bear his name in vain--would be an unthinkable contradiction for Moses" (179).
"Liminality exposes all our rough edges."
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