Eliana Mann
I chose verse 19:14 of Leviticus. The second part of this verse reads “You shall fear your god: I am the Lord”. This line intrigued me because it touches on the controversial issue, God of Love or God of Fear. To me, this verse meant that a follower of God should obey his commandments because of his fear of the Lord and the Lord’s power, rather than their love of God and love of their fellow man. I believe that people follow religion and follow God out of fear. Whether this is fear of God’s awesome power, fear of the afterlife, or fear of the possibility that God does not exist and we are alone in this universe. It also intrested me that God directly commanded us to fear him. He does not want a personal and loving relationship with his children, but one of order, obedience, and fear. In my life today as a modern person and jew the idea of following orders out of a sort of fear is prominent. I go to school, follow the law, abide to my parents and authority figures becasue I understand there will be consequences if I do not. I choose to follow the commands I recieve from society not because I love the socciety I live in, because I do not, but because I am fearful of what would happen to me and what my life would be like if I do not do as I am told/implied to do.
This is an image of my super adorable, nerdy, parents. As a minor, my parents basically control every aspect of my life. They set the rules that I can choose to follow or break. I choose to follow most of my parents rules. This is mostly because I am fearful of the consequences I face by breaking their commands. Granted, I love my parents, but my love for them is not the reason I do what they tell me to. This relates to God’s command to fear him and follow his rules in fear. My parents warn me of what they can take away or withhold, which makes me fearful of their power, just as God wants his people to be of him. We do not need to follow authority figures or God’s commands, but we do because we fear these superior powers and the consequences of our actions
Wow! Eliana, this is a powerful piece that touches on the deeply theological question of God of Love or God of Fear? What about God of Both? You wrote eloquently about why you follow rules set by your parents and it seemed while, yes, there is an element of fear, there is also a deep element of trust/love. Do you think this could also relate to God? Last, I'm impressed by how you wrote about responsibility for our actions. Kol Hakavod!
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