Theologian David Ray Griffin once said to me, “I believe God is all-powerful but His power is not the power to control; it is the power to enable. God can’t prevent some things from happening but He can enable us to cope with them.” I told him, “That helps me understand why in so many religious traditions God is symbolized by fire. Fire is not a thing; it’s not an object. It is a process, liberating the energy hidden in a piece of wood or a lump of coal and turning it into something useful. But while fire can be warm and life-sustaining, it can also be destructive, not because fire is evil but because fire follows laws of its own.”

As I understand the phrase “fearing God,” it has nothing to do with being afraid. It refers to an innate sense of morality, a feeling of horror at the prospect of doing something evil, the perception that some things are so wrong that no one should ever do them. When Abraham, in chapter 20 of Genesis, tries to explain to the king of Gerar why he introduced his wife Sarah as his sister, he explained, “I thought there was no fear of God in this place.” He was afraid that the men of Gerar would kill him to take Sarah for themselves. It was not the theology of the Gerarites he was criticizing; it was their lack of decency, their readiness to do something profoundly immoral.

There is a Jewish legend that describes how Abraham came to believe in God. Unfortunately, the key phrase in the story is just ambiguous enough that it can be interpreted in either of two contradictory ways. The story describes Abraham walking through the desert when he comes upon a palace “lit up by fire.” He muses to himself, Is it possible that no one is in charge of that palace? At that point, God appears and says to him, I am the master of this palace
The key phrase is “lit up by fire.” What does it mean? Some scholars take those words to mean that there was light throughout the castle, indicating that someone was living there. In an age without electricity, people used fire—candles and torches—to provide light after sunset. The Jewish custom of lighting candles on Friday afternoon to welcome the Sabbath, which we take today as a symbol of peace and serenity, was originally a practical measure to keep people from tripping over the furniture on Friday nights when fires could not be kindled. In this interpretation, the well-lit castle represents a world animated by God’s presence. Our world is so well designed that it seems to point to an intelligence behind it. It can’t just have happened, any more than a palace could sprout of its own volition in a desert. Someone must have planned it this way. If there was light, someone must live there.
Other scholars interpret the phrase “lit up by fire” to mean that the building was on fire and burning to the ground. Abraham sees it and thinks, Such a beautiful building. Doesn’t anybody live there to take care of it? At that point, God appears and says to him, Don’t be afraid, I am the master of this palace. Bad things may happen in My world. Good things, good people don’t last forever. But never suppose that the world has been abandoned and given over to chaos.
One story, two radically different interpretations, two different ways of understanding where to find God’s presence.