God Says in Exodus 3:14, "Imagination is My Becoming": Move It to the End
God has an end in mind, with "mind" being the operative word. The Ineffable is becoming. Jethro is Its end.
The Ineffable, whatever it be, is intelligent. It has consciousness. It imagines. It thinks. And Its imagination is, I repeat: is, Its becoming. The Ineffable’s imagination is Its manifestation: the manifestation of the Ineffable is Its imagination. There is nothing else in the universe. The Ineffable we cannot know, but Its imagination we can, for we are that.
We are a point along the way in the development of the Ineffable’s imagination. The Ineffable's imagination is becoming the full manifestation of the Ineffable. It isn't there yet.
Ferrar Fenton translated the Lord's Prayer of Matthew 6 along these lines:
The hallowing of Its nature, the restoration of Its kingdom, and Its will, MUST BE BEING DONE.
That is a standing order. Because It is becoming, pray toward that end. Help It to become.
The end is the full, complete, and probably never-ending manifestation of the Ineffable. That is ever better than the present. This is ever changing, constantly in motion, becoming and expiring, and we are commanded to pray to move it toward the end. To what end? To anything and everything better than this. And we are to do this not for things to be had, but for us to become more like It.
This whole thing is a self-improvement program; it is the Ineffable's self-improvement program. It wants us not just to have things, but to be ever more like It. Every thing that can ever be is in that!
We, the "I" in each of us, are the Ineffable becoming manifest. It becomes manifest in and through us. Pray that It become manifest in and through you and your loved ones as that which you desire. Love everyone, and imagine them (and yourself) as the Ineffable manifest more fully and complete than It is right now. You are that. This is, I believe, the meaning of Exodus 3:14, "Ahiyeh Ashur hiyeh," according to Victor Alexander's translation from the ancient Aramaic. His notes on the verse say:
3:14 Lit. Aramaic: (1) "Ahiyeh": "the One Who Comes in His Coming," the absolute sense of "the One Who Comes." (2) "Ashur": "the Beginning Spark that kindles the Fire" or "the Light." (3) "Hiyeh": "His Coming." (4) "Ahiyeh" and "hiyeh" are related forms of the same word. They mean more than "the Coming." They signify also the "Eternal Presence," "the Ever-Present," and the "Never Ceasing Intent of the Comer to Come." (5) In the same way, "Ashur" signifies "the Uncreated Creator who Creates Everything from Nothing." (6) Also, "Ashur" signifies: "Above-the-Flames."
So, it God who is becoming; imagination by which It is becoming; and Jethro is what it is becoming. I believe this can be stated as: "Imagination is My Becoming,” or perhaps, “My imagination is my manifestation.” And we are charged to so pray. To imagine!
Here is an interesting essay I recently found on the Internet:
Why Pray if God Has Already Decided Everything?
(https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/why-pray-if-god-has-already-determined-everything/)
MAY 1, 2017 | Paul Rezkalla
Why should we pray if God has fixed the future? If God has predetermined every event, how do we reconcile that fact with the power of prayer to actually change things (James 5:16)?
The answer is found in a right understanding of God’s providential determination.
Determinism ≠ Fatalism
It’s important to distinguish between determinism and fatalism. Most Calvinists believe in a form of determinism—that is, God has determined every single event. At each moment there is only one possible future: the future God has determined. This is not to be confused with fatalism. Fatalism is the view that our choices don’t affect the future. Some Christians, both Calvinists and non-Calvinists, think of God’s providence in this incorrect way: “If God has determined every future event, then my choices don’t affect the future.”
Fatalism is both philosophically and theologically impoverished. It holds that God fixes some, but not all, future events in place.
Suppose God has determined to heal Sally of cancer three months from now; it will happen and cannot fail to happen. The event is fixed. But so is every other event leading up to that moment—including the prayers offered on Sally’s behalf.
God not only ordains ends, he also ordains means. He plans the destination and the entire journey to get there. When God determined that Christ would die on the cross, he also determined the means by which he was killed, the means by which he was delivered to the authorities, and the means by which he was betrayed. God governs all events in his universe—including the “small” ones leading up to the “big” ones.
What happens in the future, then, does depend on what we do and pray in the present.
Prayer Changes the Future
Some things have happened only because they were prayed for; they would not have happened if they were not prayed for.
In both Scripture and our experience, God responds to prayer. Moses prayed for food and water for the Israelites (Exod. 15 and Num. 11), Hannah prayed for a child (1 Sam. 1), and Elijah prayed for drought and then rain (1 Kgs. 18–19). The events God had already determined came to pass. But God also determined that Moses, Hannah, and Elijah would pray for those events, such that the events would not have taken place if they did not pray for them. Sam Storms puts it well: “We must never presume God will grant us apart from prayer what he has ordained to grant us only by means of prayer.”
To say we don’t need to pray because God has determined all outcomes is as ridiculous as saying we don’t need to take medicine, work for a living, or look for a spouse because God has determined all outcomes. It is true God has determined all outcomes, but God has also determined the means by which those outcomes will take place.
If God has determined a woman will be healed of cancer, then he has also determined the prayers on her behalf, not to mention the birth of the oncologists who would operate on her and the opening of a medical school in the region. Prayers are one of the many means God determines.
God Ordains Our Prayers
Similarly, if God has determined that Sally will decide to follow Christ in 2017, then he has also determined the births of the people who will share the gospel with her and the prayers offered on her behalf. As C. S. Lewis explains:
The event [in question] has already been decided—in a sense it was decided “before all worlds.” But one of the things taken into account in deciding it, and therefore one of the things that really cause it to happen, may be this very prayer that we are now offering. . . . My free act [of prayer] contributes to the cosmic shape. That contribution is made in eternity or “before all worlds”; but my consciousness of contributing reaches me at a particular point in the time-series.
Again, God determines both the ends and the means, including the prayers we offer. And he’s ordained his interventions to be in response to faith-fueled petitions.
Put simply, God gives us the privilege of including us in his work.
If your understanding of God’s providence leads you to pray less, then you need to rethink your understanding of God’s providence. There are events that will not happen, souls that will not be saved, and relationships that will not be restored unless we pray for them. Our prayers make things happen.
That insight alone should bring us to our knees.
Paul Rezkalla is pursuing a PhD in philosophy at Florida State University and attends Four Oaks Community Church in Tallahassee. He completed an MA in philosophy and ethics at the University of Birmingham in England and an MA in theology at St. John's University in New York City.
_________________________________________
We are the manifestation of God. Part of Its action, anyway. It is in the process of becoming, and obviously is not done yet. The far side, the “end,” is Jethro. Jethro is "His Excellence." Yes, we are not as excellent as It is yet, but It wants us to become so. Pray to become God's Excellence. He'll take care of the things.
When Abraham offered Isaac, Isaac asked him where the sacrifice was. Abraham indicated that God would provide himself the ram. Abraham passed the test, God provided the ram, and Abraham said the nature of the land was Jehovah Jireh (YHWH Provides). What I am getting at is that in my reading of this passage, God provided himself as Abraham's improvement. "He will provide himself the ram." That is us . . . toward Jethro.
We recently heard from Tom Medwin whose daughter nearly died of appendicitis. Tom and his family prayed for her life. Then they prayed for his father's life. Tom prayed for own his financial life. Not for things, but for changes in them toward Jethro, the life of the end. The theology of It is the technique. When it works, "you have found Him, God, to be your own, wonderful, human imagination.”
The Ineffable, whatever it be, is intelligent. It has consciousness. It imagines. It thinks. And Its imagination is, I repeat: is, Its becoming. The Ineffable’s imagination is Its manifestation: the manifestation of the Ineffable is Its imagination. There is nothing else in the universe. The Ineffable we cannot know, but Its imagination we can, for we are that.
We are a point along the way in the development of the Ineffable’s imagination. The Ineffable's imagination is becoming the full manifestation of the Ineffable. It isn't there yet.
Ferrar Fenton translated the Lord's Prayer of Matthew 6 along these lines:
The hallowing of Its nature, the restoration of Its kingdom, and Its will, MUST BE BEING DONE.
That is a standing order. Because It is becoming, pray toward that end. Help It to become.
The end is the full, complete, and probably never-ending manifestation of the Ineffable. That is ever better than the present. This is ever changing, constantly in motion, becoming and expiring, and we are commanded to pray to move it toward the end. To what end? To anything and everything better than this. And we are to do this not for things to be had, but for us to become more like It.
This whole thing is a self-improvement program; it is the Ineffable's self-improvement program. It wants us not just to have things, but to be ever more like It. Every thing that can ever be is in that!
We, the "I" in each of us, are the Ineffable becoming manifest. It becomes manifest in and through us. Pray that It become manifest in and through you and your loved ones as that which you desire. Love everyone, and imagine them (and yourself) as the Ineffable manifest more fully and complete than It is right now. You are that. This is, I believe, the meaning of Exodus 3:14, "Ahiyeh Ashur hiyeh," according to Victor Alexander's translation from the ancient Aramaic. His notes on the verse say:
3:14 Lit. Aramaic: (1) "Ahiyeh": "the One Who Comes in His Coming," the absolute sense of "the One Who Comes." (2) "Ashur": "the Beginning Spark that kindles the Fire" or "the Light." (3) "Hiyeh": "His Coming." (4) "Ahiyeh" and "hiyeh" are related forms of the same word. They mean more than "the Coming." They signify also the "Eternal Presence," "the Ever-Present," and the "Never Ceasing Intent of the Comer to Come." (5) In the same way, "Ashur" signifies "the Uncreated Creator who Creates Everything from Nothing." (6) Also, "Ashur" signifies: "Above-the-Flames."
So, it God who is becoming; imagination by which It is becoming; and Jethro is what it is becoming. I believe this can be stated as: "Imagination is My Becoming,” or perhaps, “My imagination is my manifestation.” And we are charged to so pray. To imagine!
Here is an interesting essay I recently found on the Internet:
Why Pray if God Has Already Decided Everything?
(https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/why-pray-if-god-has-already-determined-everything/)
MAY 1, 2017 | Paul Rezkalla
Why should we pray if God has fixed the future? If God has predetermined every event, how do we reconcile that fact with the power of prayer to actually change things (James 5:16)?
The answer is found in a right understanding of God’s providential determination.
Determinism ≠ Fatalism
It’s important to distinguish between determinism and fatalism. Most Calvinists believe in a form of determinism—that is, God has determined every single event. At each moment there is only one possible future: the future God has determined. This is not to be confused with fatalism. Fatalism is the view that our choices don’t affect the future. Some Christians, both Calvinists and non-Calvinists, think of God’s providence in this incorrect way: “If God has determined every future event, then my choices don’t affect the future.”
Fatalism is both philosophically and theologically impoverished. It holds that God fixes some, but not all, future events in place.
Suppose God has determined to heal Sally of cancer three months from now; it will happen and cannot fail to happen. The event is fixed. But so is every other event leading up to that moment—including the prayers offered on Sally’s behalf.
God not only ordains ends, he also ordains means. He plans the destination and the entire journey to get there. When God determined that Christ would die on the cross, he also determined the means by which he was killed, the means by which he was delivered to the authorities, and the means by which he was betrayed. God governs all events in his universe—including the “small” ones leading up to the “big” ones.
What happens in the future, then, does depend on what we do and pray in the present.
Prayer Changes the Future
Some things have happened only because they were prayed for; they would not have happened if they were not prayed for.
In both Scripture and our experience, God responds to prayer. Moses prayed for food and water for the Israelites (Exod. 15 and Num. 11), Hannah prayed for a child (1 Sam. 1), and Elijah prayed for drought and then rain (1 Kgs. 18–19). The events God had already determined came to pass. But God also determined that Moses, Hannah, and Elijah would pray for those events, such that the events would not have taken place if they did not pray for them. Sam Storms puts it well: “We must never presume God will grant us apart from prayer what he has ordained to grant us only by means of prayer.”
To say we don’t need to pray because God has determined all outcomes is as ridiculous as saying we don’t need to take medicine, work for a living, or look for a spouse because God has determined all outcomes. It is true God has determined all outcomes, but God has also determined the means by which those outcomes will take place.
If God has determined a woman will be healed of cancer, then he has also determined the prayers on her behalf, not to mention the birth of the oncologists who would operate on her and the opening of a medical school in the region. Prayers are one of the many means God determines.
God Ordains Our Prayers
Similarly, if God has determined that Sally will decide to follow Christ in 2017, then he has also determined the births of the people who will share the gospel with her and the prayers offered on her behalf. As C. S. Lewis explains:
The event [in question] has already been decided—in a sense it was decided “before all worlds.” But one of the things taken into account in deciding it, and therefore one of the things that really cause it to happen, may be this very prayer that we are now offering. . . . My free act [of prayer] contributes to the cosmic shape. That contribution is made in eternity or “before all worlds”; but my consciousness of contributing reaches me at a particular point in the time-series.
Again, God determines both the ends and the means, including the prayers we offer. And he’s ordained his interventions to be in response to faith-fueled petitions.
Put simply, God gives us the privilege of including us in his work.
If your understanding of God’s providence leads you to pray less, then you need to rethink your understanding of God’s providence. There are events that will not happen, souls that will not be saved, and relationships that will not be restored unless we pray for them. Our prayers make things happen.
That insight alone should bring us to our knees.
Paul Rezkalla is pursuing a PhD in philosophy at Florida State University and attends Four Oaks Community Church in Tallahassee. He completed an MA in philosophy and ethics at the University of Birmingham in England and an MA in theology at St. John's University in New York City.
_________________________________________
We are the manifestation of God. Part of Its action, anyway. It is in the process of becoming, and obviously is not done yet. The far side, the “end,” is Jethro. Jethro is "His Excellence." Yes, we are not as excellent as It is yet, but It wants us to become so. Pray to become God's Excellence. He'll take care of the things.
When Abraham offered Isaac, Isaac asked him where the sacrifice was. Abraham indicated that God would provide himself the ram. Abraham passed the test, God provided the ram, and Abraham said the nature of the land was Jehovah Jireh (YHWH Provides). What I am getting at is that in my reading of this passage, God provided himself as Abraham's improvement. "He will provide himself the ram." That is us . . . toward Jethro.
We recently heard from Tom Medwin whose daughter nearly died of appendicitis. Tom and his family prayed for her life. Then they prayed for his father's life. Tom prayed for own his financial life. Not for things, but for changes in them toward Jethro, the life of the end. The theology of It is the technique. When it works, "you have found Him, God, to be your own, wonderful, human imagination.”
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