with the advantage of being the same for everyone. This is how God Himself enters into His own drama. At first very distantly, but at this point visibly. Or is He instead dragged into it, being unable to resist out of love? Difficult to judge, it progresses slowly. From a completely hidden author, God-the-Creator manifests Himself partly as a director, as an empowering God, with the miraculous power to intervene and change the way the story goes at the last minute, whether at His own discretion or in response to an impassioned plea for help from the participating actors. 4 You are our God “Who are we? We are the ones who have claimed allegiance to you.” To whom? “The one God, who is not an idol, nor does He have to look like a person or an animal. He who has no face is surely untouchable and that is why He is the mighty God! When foreign priests turn up with another god, we have two options for them: if their god has some form, then it’s an idol, and that makes it the kind we reject. Alternatively, they turn up with a god without a face or form and then we will try to convince them he is actually our God, and they will join us…“ Therefore, a nation espousing a single God must necessarily be favoured, if it persists in its trials and does not lose faith. Dramatically speaking, until such a nation betrays its God. From this point, the whole of the history of the nation of Israel is a riveting drama of loyalty and betrayal, of courage and cowardice. “Lord, who are you? You are the one who chose only us.” What does it mean to be chosen? To be paid particular attention to, to be showered with love. This is actually a continuation of a child’s relationship with its parents. Of course, to be “the chosen one” does not necessarily result in exceptionality, since after all, almighty God can surely pay special attention to everyone… However, this is once again shrouded in ignorance! And so the child has the impression that at that moment he or she is the only one in the world beloved by the father. And it is not only a child who has that kind of impression… That makes the entire drama of God even more real, more genuine: not only have I no idea that God is within me, but I even rejoice that the single, great and immensely distant God pays attention solely to me! Greater tension can hardly be created. It is only now when God’s drama gains the proper momentum. 5 True name of God Nevertheless, the Israelites had the most difficult problem in learning what the name of the true God was. There were two ways of solving this: either admit that a single God can have many names, as, for example, is acknowledged in India to this day. How- ever, it would be difficult not to confuse Him with foreign idols: “Idols, after all, have their own names and having the name of some idol coinciding with the name of our God, that’s something we could not bear!” So there was only one option left: to find an exclusive name that belonged to no idol. That is exactly what the nation of Israel opted for. However, who would dare to defend the 72 (4) Petr Pavlík
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