Throughout the Old Testament, separation and division is a moment in an act of creation. Yahweh “divides” ( badal ) this and that five times in Genesis 1. He separates and sets apart Israel from the nations (1 Kings 8:53), Levites from the rest of Israel (Numbers 8:14; 16:9), priests from the rest of the Levites (Deuteronomy 19:2, 7). The curtain that separates the holy from the most holy place forms a new world, built on divisions between holy and profane (Leviticus 10:10; 11:47).
Against this background, it’s stunning to read that Israel’s guilt has “separated” ( badal ) Yahweh from Israel. This is, so far as I’ve found, the only place in the Hebrew Bible where this verb is used in this context.
It hints at the bizarre creativity of sin. Sin is uncreative; it destroys and separates from life. But precisely in its uncreativity, it has power to “create” an impossible situation, the God of Israel divided from the people of whom He is God. It is an almost sacrificial act, separating head from body. It divides what Yahweh has joined together.
And such creative destruction can be healed only by new creation.
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