The Personal God of History: Biblical Insights from the Passover Seder
Passover celebrates the concept of a personal God who cares about us and is the ultimate director of history. Excerpted from Rabbi Blech’s haggadah, Redemption, Then and Now, we explore what is the single most important idea of the Passover Seder. The ritual of this night that commemorates the birth of the Jewish people on the eve of our exodus from Egypt is called Seder because it summarizes our unique understanding of history and the role played by God in the course of human events.
God's Identity and the Exodus Story
The very first commandment of the 10 given on Sinai links God's identity with the Passover story: I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage. It is, on the surface, a very strange way for the Almighty to define himself. Wouldn't it mean much more to us if God's claim to our obedience were to have been expressed with the words "I am the Lord your God who created the heavens and the earth"? While the fact that God liberated us from slavery was a wonderful achievement, only God himself can lay claim to the role of creator.
In the Kuzari, Rabbi Yehudah Halevi puts this difficulty into the mouth of the pagan King of the Kahzars. Why would God, the King wonders, choose a relatively minor event to make His power known if He is in fact the creator of the entire universe? The answer is rooted in the reality that most people in fact are not atheists; both intellectually and intuitively mankind knows there must be a God. Every part of the miraculous structure and design of our bodies force us to agree with the psalmist that "the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork."
Addressing the Heresy of Deism
What is difficult to grasp for the millions of people on this earth who feel estranged from God is that the creator really cares about all those whom he created. The heresy that needs most to be addressed is Deism. Deism acknowledges that the brilliant design of the world forces us to accept a Designer, just as a watch must have had a watchmaker. But just as the watchmaker no longer has an ongoing relationship with the watch he brought into being, so too is God surely indifferent to the lives of its inhabitants. To be a deist is to believe in God – but in a God who truly doesn't matter.
The God whom we met at Sinai wanted above all to refute the heresy that denied not his existence but his ongoing concern. When He told us "I am the Lord your God who took you out of the land of Egypt," He wanted to impress upon us the idea that He is a God of history who maintains a personal relationship with every one of us created in His image.
Comparison of Philosophical Perspectives
- Atheism: The denial of the existence of a higher divine power who brought this world into existence.
- Deism: The belief in a Designer who is indifferent to the lives of inhabitants or the world's ultimate destiny.
- Personal God (Biblical View): A God of history who maintains an ongoing concern and special relationship with individuals.
A Direct and Personal Relationship
Note carefully, said the commentators, that in the Hebrew phrase for I am the Lord your God the word for your is grammatically in the singular. It is as if God is speaking directly to every one of us, promising an ongoing special relationship. A deist would hardly deign to pray, for after all no one is really listening, but because God is a personal God who continues to care about us, history becomes meaningful. It is orchestrated from Above and has a pre-ordained destiny.