But first Yahweh’s portion, his people, would have to take root. Yahweh would initiate a relationship with Abraham, and that required a meeting. That presented a fundamental problem for God. He is so unlike anything in human experience that his pure presence cannot be processed by the human senses. It would, in fact, be lethal. God’s solution was to veil himself for human protection and detection. This was necessary even in Eden, where the writer casts God as a man, walking through the garden, searching for his fallen imagers (Gen 3:8). That, too, will emerge as a pattern hidden in plain
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