Catacomb Resident Blog

Decorate or Die

17 February 2024

Pageau's book gets more and more challenging to comprehend. It shows up in how his writing is sometimes hard to follow. How do you say these things in a language that resists the very existence of Eternity?

We discussed how, in Hebrew thinking, time and space are opposites. We've established that they must remain in some form of balance, keeping a truce so that neither destroys the other. This is the nature of the Sabbath and other sabbatarian cycles. When it comes to the human struggle to survive well enough to glorify the Lord, the ratio is six days of work and one day of rest, in which rest we also contemplate things beyond reason. We must account for the presence in the universe of the unexplained, the absurd, the leftovers of our lives that make no sense at all.

Remember the "stone that the builders rejected"? That's a symbol of the inexplicable, of truth coming down from above for which we must be prepared to answer. The Hebrew outlook on life incorporated ways to do this, to keep the door open for the balance point, the meta-space.

Pageau goes on to explain that the truce between space and time shows up in other ways. If you build and you have finished, you could leave it simply functional and keep the leftovers away. This is like trying to live a dull life that's all work and no play. God has said both must be there; that's part of the Sabbath laws. Thus, adding decorative flourishes to your buildings is a way of honoring this command. It helps to keep the truce alive, by including the wheel of time on the stability of our buildings. This is a way of incorporating the ravages of the wild tides of time, by finding a place, a use for the leftovers. Otherwise, they become stumbling stones.

He mentions the example of Nebuchadnezzar's statue and his command that all worship it. Pageau says that this statue was prompted by Daniel's revelation of the dream about the statue made of mixed materials. Nebuchadnezzar was trying to assert his power to force stability too far. He made the statue of all gold instead of the mixed materials, asserting symbolically that his "golden empire" would stand through the whole period of history to come in Daniel's prediction.

Further, Nebs insisted on the integration of foreigners into his building, demanding that even Israelis should bow before his idol. He tried to use the artistry of the statue and of music to force his will on something that was actually far beyond his control. When he tried to punish the three men for refusing to bow in worship of his idol, he cast them into the furnace. It was beyond his power to act. They clearly survived, and he was forced to back down. Further, he declared that no one could insult their God, because no other deity was able to duplicate that feat.

God will have His way. In His revelation is a call to humans to arrange the world to meet His pattern. If they fail, they will be devoured by time. But when they build, they must not assume that things are fully in their hands. There is always something far beyond them. The use of decoration reminds us all how fragile this life is, and how little we can control.


Comments

Jay DiNitto

Reminds me of the commands for "skilled" artisans, like weavers or masons, to decorate the temple and its accoutrements in Exodus.


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