The Meaning of Faith

Have you ever noticed how, despite the importance of God in the Bible, the Bible never attempts to describe God? God speaks, God acts, but there is very little attempt to explain what God is. In fact, there is a strange little story in which Moses asks to see God, but is told that he cannot look upon God and live. But he is offered a compromise: “Hide behind this rock,” God tells him, “and as I pass by you can look upon my afterparts.” Now at one level , that is simply bizarre. Moses can’t look at God’s face, but can look upon God’s backside, God’s butt? That is the worst kind of simplistic literalism. But the rabbis teach another way of understanding that story. Of course we cannot see God directly, but we can see God’s after-parts, God’s after-effects; we can see what happens when God has passed by; we can see the love and generosity and justice and health and beauty that are sure signs that the divine presence has been in the vicinity. I never experienced God directly, but in my experiences of inspiration I saw God’s after-effects.