pondering

[novapsyche]

Next week's Joan of Arcadia involves Joan doing something destructive (vandalizing art in her school). This has Joan questioning whether the force that is communicating to her is God or Satan. (Should I mention that Joan's mother is Catholic and that Joan herself seeks a priest in this episode?)

After seeing the clip for next week, I picked up my Bible and flipped through Genesis. For some reason, this reminded me of the test that Abraham went through.

My Student Bible titled this section Abraham Tested (think of this scene from Issac's perspective!):

Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!"

"Here I am," he replied.

Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."

Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you."

Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together, Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, "Father?"

"Yes, my son?" Abraham replied.

"The fire and wood are here," Isaac said, "but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?"

Abraham answered, "God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son." And the two of them went on together.

When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!"

"Here I am," he replied.

"Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son."

Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over there and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, "On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided."
--Genesis 22: 1-14

Several theologians, including Kierkegaard, have been drawn to this passage in the Bible in particular. To me, it seems obvious that the role God played here resembles the role Satan plays later in the Bible. The resemblance isn't exact; there is a difference between being tempted and being tested. But the similarity is there: God is leading Abraham and seeing how far he will go.

As far as I'm concerned, saying that "the Devil" takes on the guise of God to fool humans (as the priest says to Joan, IIRC) is nonsensical. Satan is a guise of God, just as "the angel of God" is a guise of God. So, I guess if God wanted to, he could disguise himself as Satan wearing a God suit. Ockham's razor slashes that to bits, though.

So, in my world, Joan is asking God if God is God itself. The question is pointless.