Jacob Chanikuzhy

Eagle is swift; eagle is powerful. It is to eagle’s flight that God’s saving activity is compared in the Old Testament (Dt 32:11-12). When God decided to save Israel from Egypt, just like an eagle, God reached fast and saved Israel easily with the easiness of an Eagle carrying its chicks. However, in the New testament Jesus Himself compares His saving activity to that of a hen (Mt 23:37). Hen devotes her whole self for the security of its chicks. It constantly accompanies its chicks, closely looks after them, warns her chicks about the dangers around, hides and protects its chicks from predators…Nevertheless, the hen has its limitations. The imagery of hen expresses the condescension and humiliation of Jesus.
Eagle and hen represent two different modes of God’s dealing with the human kind. In the Old Testament God appears in all His majesty, glory and power. Appearance of God on Mount Sinai is an unforgettable example (Ex 19). God was accompanied by lightning, thunder, fire, smoke, wind and cloud. The commonality of all these is that all these elements do not have a particular form. They assume different forms at different times. Thus, God wanted to teach His people that He cannot be represented by any form. He made it the basis of a prohibition of making His images and statues. In the NT, however, God took human form; He became a human being. Now, we know, how God looks like. We can make the images, pictures, statues of God because we have seen Him in Jesus. Jesus assured us that, “Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
In the OT, God’s arrival on Mt Sinai caused cataclysmic effects on the earth. However, Jesus was born in a silent night. Instead of the alarming trumpet sound, there was just consoling peaceful song of the angelic choir. In the OT God did not allow anyone to see Him. Only Moses, the greatest leader of the people of Israel was allowed to approach God. It was, however, the poor shepherds who were invited to see the Son of God first. In the OT, God descended to the highest mountain in the vicinity; But, Baby Jesus was born in a lowly cow shed.
Thick cloud was the manifestation of God’s presence in the OT. The cloud was so thick and so dark that no one could see anything. The thick cloud reminds us that not everything about God is clear to us. The thick cloud invites us to respect the mystery that is God. It promptly prohibits us from vain curiosity into things mysterious and to appreciate what is revealed to us about God. However, in the infancy narratives, we see God lying wrapped in saddle cloths before our naked eyes. He grew in an ordinary family amidst people of an ordinary town. People did not find anything mysterious about him. Although He was God, He took the form of a slave (Ph 2:7). By living among humans as another human being, God revealed Himself in Jesus as fully as humans can comprehend Him.
Many think that today God needs to wrap Himself in darker cloud and should send more thunder, lightning, earthquake, fire and smoke to make people fear Him more and to keep people away from sin. But, is it true? It is interesting that in spite of the terror around His presence, God had to warn the people for a second time not to come near the mountain (Ex 19:21). That means God knew well that people would forget the instructions even if they were given by God Himself, even if they were given in a fearsome way. Besides, we all know that 40 days after, the very same people who trembled in the presence of Yahweh, forfeited Him and made a golden calf and worshipped it as their God! Even the high mountains trembled and melted at God’s presence, but the heart of the people were unshaken and was too hard to melt. It may be easy to make someone afraid, but it is never easy to make someone love and obey. Israel had plenty of awe, but little of love.
Sinai theophany reminds us that God is an awesome God; we ought to fear and obey Him. The birth of Jesus in the manger reminds us that the awesome God has emptied Himself; we ought to love and obey Him.