The God of the Living

Exodus 3:6 (BHSMORPH)

⁶ וַיֹּאמֶר אָנֹכִי אֱלֹהֵי אָבִיךָ אֱלֹהֵי אַבְרָהָם אֱלֹהֵי יִצְחָק וֵאלֹהֵי יַעֲקֹב וַיַּסְתֵּר מֹשֶׁה פָּנָיו כִּי יָרֵא מֵהַבִּיט אֶל־הָאֱלֹהִים׃

And he said, "I am myself the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God. (writer's translation)

Rationalists of every age have sought to deny the power of God to raise that which He has made from the condemnation of death. The Sadducees, the Jewish Rationalists of Christ's time, sought to expose the foolishness of the Resurrection. They only viewed the first five books of Moses as scripture (more than contemporary rationalists) and yet the were intent on reading those five books through a naturalistic lens.¹

The hope that Christ extends on the basis of these first books of revelation to us is that God is the God of the Living, not the dead (Mark 12:27). He is the Protector, the Divine Warrior, who continues to fight for His people - not just their memories and impressions, but their reality which is itself being remade. It is in Christ that His people are raised up, in a truly human state. The ressurrection is the truest hope when humanity will finally have been purged of our inherent contradiction and will be living as we were created to be - in perfect harmony with God and consequently ourselves, forever.

Indeed, and as a matter of fact, Christ is Risen, the first born from among the dead. It is so.

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¹ Farley, Lawrence. The Gospel of Mark : The Suffering Servant. The Orthodox Bible Study Companion Series. (Ben Lomond, Calif.: Conciliar Press, 2004) p. 197.