Blotting Out: From Flood to Forgiveness - Episode 164

Carey Griffel: Welcome to Genesis Marks the Spot where we raid the ivory tower of biblical theology without ransacking our faith. My name is Carey Griffel, and this week we are very solidly back into the flood narrative, but we're going expand that out as we often do. Today we're gonna talk about the concept of blotting out. Now fair warning, this is going to be an episode that is going to be very, very heavy in frame semantics. We're gonna be talking about the conceptual framework of the term, blotting out in Scripture. [00:00:48] Now, I've actually already talked a little bit about blotting out. This was way back in episode number 77 where I was talking about Genesis one as potential poetry, which it's not. But I talked a lot about figurative elements and things like that, and I discussed the idea of blotting out. But what I didn't do is really dig into the weeds of the different frames that blot out covers in Scripture. [00:01:19] Now, there is kind of an overarching framework that this has, and I'm gonna call that the erasure frame. The idea of blotting something out is the idea of erasing it. And I talked about that back in episode number 77 because you know, back in the day you had parchment and you had ink. And although this wasn't necessarily an easy thing to do, it was possible to erase the ink from a parchment and to reuse the parchment or to correct something and things like that. [00:01:54] So that is where this idea comes from conceptually. But we're gonna look at the metaphorical uses of this term. I mean, sometimes it does talk about parchments and scrolls and scripts and ink and things like that, but even when it does use it in a very direct way like that, literally we might say, the idea of the blotting out is still connected to some metaphorical ideas. [00:02:21] So this is a really good term to look at when we're trying to understand frame semantics, and part of my goal in that is to equip you to be able to do this on your own. Now, I do want to mention a couple of things here at the start regarding the study of frame semantics and the way that I am teaching it and approaching it to you and how I don't think that you necessarily have to be nearly as analytical as I am being with it. [00:02:53] Part of my purpose is to teach it, right? So because of that, I am doing that in a bit of an overly analytic way. Some of you might not really be into a whole lot of analysis and that kind of thinking. This might feel to you like a very left brain activity. When you're analyzing something very deeply, then you are kind of drawing upon that side of yourself that uses a lot of that kind of thinking, right? [00:03:26] But what I wanna point out is that the actual use of these things is a very right brained thing. We have these things showing up in metaphor, in story, in real language, and that can be a right brain creative task. So I don't want you to be too afraid of this, even though I am going really high level, I'm gonna be getting very analytical in this episode. [00:03:55] I'm gonna be breaking these frames up, showing you the different frame elements, showing you the continuity, but also the things that are different and why those things matter. But when you sit down with your Scripture, let's say you're doing some devotional reading and you notice something and you are thinking in terms of these conceptual frames, well, you can do frame semantics with imagery. [00:04:20] You can do it with story, and this is what we do. This is just natively how we use language. So even though I'm doing that really high structure analysis, I'm saying that we are all using frame semantics every day. And you don't have to do it with worksheets. You don't have to do it with study guides, although I do present some of that to you because that does work for some people. [00:04:46] But if you're not a study guide person, if you're not into thinking really analytically, that's fine. Think of it in terms of a picture. Think of it in terms of a story. What I'm trying to show you today is that the different metaphors that are used in a narrative and in our figurative language, the beauty in that is that they can give us all of this analytical information without actually going through the analysis. [00:05:17] But if you're only thinking in terms of dictionary definitions of words and things like that, then chances are really good that you will not be seeing that whole complete picture. So I hope maybe that kind of puts some of your minds at ease. Think of what I'm doing here as the teaching aspect, the equipping you for the task, and then you can go into your study and do it in your own way, using the ways that you like to think, using the tools that you like to use. [00:05:52] Think of it in terms of picture and story and the figurative language that is actually right in front of us in Scripture. And you can get to the same outcome. But again, we're just gonna deep dive right into this. I'm going to analyze these frames with you using particular Scriptures attached to them because you want to use real uses of the idea. [00:06:17] And then we're gonna talk about how these are similar, but also different, and how amazing it is that we have this beautiful facility of language with metaphor and similie and idiom and all kinds of beautiful patterns so that we can see something that is a lot harder to explain if you do it in an analytical fashion. [00:06:43] And indeed, this is why I prefer biblical theology over systematic theology because systematic theology will do that over- analysis and it will look at Scripture in a way that it will try to unpack everything and give it to you in a new, neat little package. And sometimes we do need that. Okay? I'm not really putting that down as a practice but biblical theology really drills down into the history and the story, and that is really where our brains usually live. [00:07:18] And doing that will give us more information than we can have in the same amount of time with an over analysis of something. [00:07:29] All right, so we're going to get into the frame of blotting out or erasure. I will note here at the front that this will help us if and when we go to try to understand the idea of being cut off, which we see in many places as well. When we see the term cut off, does that mean that somebody who is being cut off from the community, does that mean they are being killed or they're going to die? [00:08:01] Because a lot of people think that when you see that terminology, being cut off, then that is a death sentence. But what I'm gonna suggest to you today is that blotting out does not have to be a death sentence because it has, again, these rich conceptual frames that are different. [00:08:21] Blotting out can mean to kill somebody. That's how it's used in the flood narrative. We have literal destruction and death. So you move over to a different metaphor, like being cut off, and that could possibly be a death sentence, but it doesn't have to be. [00:08:41] Now, I'm not getting into the idea of cutting off today, or probably anytime soon, but I'm pointing that out because I want you to see how, if you're understanding and tracking along with one metaphor, then it will help you to understand how another metaphor can also have a broad range of meaning. [00:09:02] All right, so blotting out, like I said, this is in the erasure framework, but alongside that is the frame of remembrance. Now for us, when we're thinking of remembering something, that's a mental activity. When we think of the idea of erasing something, we think of that as more of a physical activity, not a mental thing. [00:09:27] But Scripture clearly pairs these two things. We have places where God is said to recall or remember something, and this is an act of restoration or blessing within the frame of covenantal faithfulness. And that is as opposed to the idea of blotting out or erasing. [00:09:47] So let's talk about this idea of remember here because it applies directly to how we understand blotting out. When we see, remember in Scripture, we often see a shift from distress to deliverance. Remembering is involved with covenant action. It's often a turning point in a narrative, especially if there's some sort of suffering or hardship or trial. [00:10:16] That's pretty clear when we have God remembering Noah in Genesis eight. In Genesis 19, we have God remembering Abraham and Lot is delivered from destruction. In Genesis 30, we have God remembering Rachel. That is when she conceives. Exodus two, we have God remembering his covenant and seeing and knowing Israel's affliction. In one Samuel one, we have another connection with having a child with Hannah. [00:10:50] Okay, so I could go on and on here, but in Scripture, when God remembers, it's usually to mark that moment that God moves to act in covenant faithfulness. It's not like God forgot something and now he has to remember it. Like he's at the grocery store and he needs to remember to buy milk. That's not the kind of memory we're talking about here. So I want all of that in the back of your mind while we're talking about blotting out. [00:11:19] Now, blotting out, as I said, is an erasure frame, but the meaning shifts with the object and the medium. So let's look at our first use again in Genesis six. [00:11:34] I don't like the Lexham English Bible translation, but I'm still going to use it here to make a point. Genesis six, verse seven says, quote, " And Yahweh said, I will destroy humankind whom I created from upon the face of the earth, from humankind to animals, to creeping things and to the birds of heaven. For I regret that I have made them." End quote. [00:12:01] I pointed this out last time and how I don't like the idea that it says destroy rather than blot out. Although it is what's going on here in the story, people are being destroyed. And the Hebrew term can legitimately be translated in different ways. We don't always have to say blot out, but why I think it's especially unfortunate to not have it here is that we do get a parallel in Genesis seven, verse 23. I'm again going to read the Lexham English Bible, which says, quote, " And he blotted out every living thing upon the surface of the ground, from humankind to animals, to creeping things and to the birds of heaven. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah and those who are with him in the ark remained." end quote. [00:12:55] So I just find it odd that the Lexhamn English Bible chooses to use blotted out language here, but not in Genesis six . But at any rate, let's look at the different things going on within the frame here. [00:13:10] We are gonna look at five different frame elements in most of these frames. First of all, there is going to be the agent, the one who erases. That's usually going to be Yahweh. [00:13:24] Second thing is the object. What is being erased? [00:13:29] The third thing is the medium. It is being erased from where? We have things like land, memory, book, or a parchment or writing surface. [00:13:43] Fourth thing that we're gonna look at is the resultant state. Either something is no longer present, something is no longer counted, or something is no longer remembered. [00:13:56] The final thing we want to look at is the moral logic behind it. Is there judgment? Is there mercy? Is there comfort? Is there purification? [00:14:07] Now, the thing to keep in mind is that generally speaking, here in this frame, the object and the medium are going to control the meaning of the frame. [00:14:18] Okay, so again, I will probably have some study notes or a study guide that is going to accompany this episode because I do like to share that with you when we're doing a really heavy frame semantics conversation. So you can look at that later. You can look at it right now. It's up to you. You can use it in your own Bible study or in a small group as well. [00:14:42] Okay, so the Bible uses one erasure metaphor here, but the meaning changes, depending on what is erased and where it is erased from. People are erased from the earth, and that's judgment. Sins are erased from a moral record, and that's forgiveness. Names are erased from memory, and that is social death. There's written curses that are erased from a scroll, and that is legal cleansing. [00:15:11] So here in Genesis six, we have God who is erasing. God is erasing humankind and animals and creeping things and birds. They're being erased from the land. And the end result here is destruction. And the moral logic behind it is judgment, and I would argue purification as well, because you don't just have to have one thing. Sometimes you have layered meanings. [00:15:41] I've talked before about how I really do think that the flood is part of the purification from the curse in Genesis three. The curse on the land, I mean. I know that is going to be controversial. People aren't gonna like that because we're so used to thinking of the earth as being cursed. But at any rate, you can go listen to that past episode. [00:16:04] Now let's look at a blotting out frame that is very concrete, and we might say that this is kind of the prototype. We're gonna look at written words or accusations or curses being erased. We're gonna do that in the context of that weird chapter of Numbers five. [00:16:23] So let me set that stage here for a second. Numbers five is the ordeal of bitter water. This is done when there is a suspected adultery case. And ancient Israel, they don't have any forensic abilities. They don't have any witnesses. They don't have any ways to prove that a woman has been adulterous in some cases, right? Like she wasn't caught. The husband is suspicious of her, and that's part of the story here. And so there is this ritual that she's gonna have to go through to either prove or disprove her innocence. [00:17:03] Now, if you've listened to the Naked Bible Podcast on this, Dr. Heiser explained that it's really a mercy for the woman because if a husband was suspicious and suspected his wife of adultery, generally speaking, there was nothing she could do to counter that. So the purpose here is that if the woman is innocent, she really can be proven to be innocent. That's the idea about it. The whole thing is being brought before Yahweh as judge. [00:17:37] So what's happening here is the husband suspects the wife of adultery. He has no proof. The woman is brought to the priest, who is of course, God's representative. The priest will write curses on a scroll. He will mix that with holy water and dust from the tabernacle floor, Then the woman drinks the water. I'm sure that was absolutely delightful and delicious. That's why this is called bitter waters. These are not gonna be delicious to drink. [00:18:09] God is being invoked to judge through this ritual. If the woman is guilty, there will be some sort of affliction and we won't talk about what that is. There's a couple of different ideas there, but if she's innocent, there is no harm. So here, the writing that was done on the parchment is erased, dissolved, and ingested by the woman. [00:18:32] Now, most of your English translations, you will not see the term blot out here, probably because that would be a really weird way to describe it in English. The ink is being washed away. So that's like the actual act that's happening. And so that's usually the word you'll see. [00:18:52] But we have the context of blotting out where erasing the written words from a surface. And this is really the concrete physical prototype of the metaphor. But it's still being used in some figurative ways, right? Like for the most part, if you swallow a little bit of ink plus that nasty dust, I guess you're not really going to be harmed, generally speaking. So if there is harm that comes, it's gonna be because of the judgment. Right? [00:19:26] Now, I know this ritual sounds really strange to us, but what matters for our theme is that the priest is literally writing curses on the scroll, washing the ink off into water, and that is blotting out in its most concrete form. It's a real physical action. [00:19:46] All right, so let's go through our five points here. The agent is the priest who is acting before God as his representative. We have the object, which is the written curses on the parchment, It's like actually the ink on there. Then we have a medium, which is parchment and water. The resultant state is that the accusation is removed from the written record. and it's removed from the written record because it literally plays out before their eyes. Either the woman is afflicted or she's not. Either the curse actually goes on to have some effect, or it does not. The moral logic here is judicial purification, we might say. There's a resolution to what the husband is bringing forward. [00:20:40] Now, hopefully the woman is innocent and so the charges are being erased by the blotting out. If not, the charges are being lived out in her physical body. So Numbers five shows us that there is a very literal physical action here, and the Bible is going to use that same action in figurative ways for removing guilt, identity, or even entire lives. That's where we get the whole idea of blotting out in Genesis six and seven. Genesis six is the decree, and Genesis seven has the fulfillment of it. [00:21:23] Okay, so let's go to a third way of seeing this frame, and this is to erase places or things. Let's go to two kings, chapter 21, verse 13, which says, quote, " I will stretch out over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria. And the plumb line of the house of Ahab, and I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes the dish. He wipes it and turns it on its face." End quote. [00:21:55] Alright, so this uses the same metaphor, just like we have in the flood texts, but it's not people, it's not sins, it's not a curse, it's a city. Now is this literal destruction, like Jerusalem is just gonna be razed to the ground? I mean, that is one possibility, but there's other ideas we could have here too. It could dismantle the institution or the center of kingship, right, or something like that. It could remove the place from its role in God's order as it currently stands. It could undo the covenant function of a place. And interestingly here, the imagery is very domestic, like you're washing dishes. [00:22:44] So let's go ahead and look at all of the different elements we have here. Once again, we have Yahweh, who is the agent. This is prophetic judgment. The object is Jerusalem, the city. And by extension it is the temple system, the political center of the nation, and the symbolic heart of Judah's covenant life. So the object is really the place that embodies the whole order of their lives. Religious, social, and political. [00:23:17] The medium here is the land. Jerusalem is being erased from its role on the map, from its function as sacred center, from its standing as God's dwelling place. And this really parallels what we were talking about with the flood as well. We have a place in both cases, we have the earth or the land, and here we have the center of the land. [00:23:44] Now, what is the resultant state? Well, it's gonna depend on what you think this is exactly referring to. We could have depopulation. This could be talking about the exile where people were taken out, right? It could be destruction, it could be that Jerusalem is stripped of temple function and no longer operating as the place where God dwells amongst his people. [00:24:10] Now, the moral logic here as to why this happens is solidly in the framework of judgment. Jerusalem has become corrupt through idolatry and injustice and covenant violation. And so the logic is really similar- to- identical to the flood. Disorder fills the place and it's removed or reset. And remember what I've been talking about in regards to this framework that I've presented where we have worship corruption, and violence, and land defilement and all of that is involved and leads up to the judgment. [00:24:55] So now we're gonna go on to the idea of blotting out a name. This is solidly in connection with the idea of remembrance that we discussed before. Let's look at Deuteronomy 29, verse 20, which says, quote, " Yahweh will not be willing to forgive him, for by then the anger of Yahweh will smoke and his passion against that man and all the curses written in this scroll will descend on him, and Yahweh will blot out his name from under heaven." End quote. Interesting that we have, again, curses and scrolls. [00:25:35] We've talked before about names in Scripture and how it's not just a word, it's not just a label, but it functions as a literal, figurative example of existence. It is the identity that is recognized in the community. It is a remembered legacy, and a name can have continuing standing across generations. So to blot out a name is not just to kill the person, it's to erase their continuing presence from the whole story of the community. [00:26:10] Now, does that mean that nobody will literally ever remember their name? Well, it can't really be the case because we literally have it written here, right? So it's not that no human being and nobody ever will be able to recall this. The text itself preserves the memory, but there is no enduring name. There is no protected legacy. There is no standing under heaven and within the community as somebody who is part of that. [00:26:41] Okay, so let's look at our different frame elements. Again, Yahweh is the agent. This is divine action and covenant curse logic. The object that is being erased is the name, but conceptually name stands for remembered identity, enduring reputation, and generational continuity. And so this is a legacy and the identity of a person. [00:27:11] The medium is " from under heaven," so this is literally the earth, right? But it is an idiom itself. We have a lot of figurative language in this episode, don't we? Being erased from under heaven is the public's sphere of community, the visible world of society. And again, it's not like the memory of the persons is just gonna be zapped out of everybody's mind, but the continuation and the meaning within the community will be gone. [00:27:44] The moral logic is, once again, we have judgment, covenant curse, and it's a moral boundary. And this is how we have evil not establishing an We'll talk more about names and in this context as well in the context of the Tower of Babel. Humans try to make a name and God is able to blot out that name. [00:28:12] Okay, so let's move on to our next frame here. This is to erase from a book or a record. This is going to be similar to the Numbers five example, but it's very particular, so we're gonna treat it on its own. Let's look at Exodus 32 32 and 33, which says, quote, "And now if you'll forgive their sin, and if not, please blot me from your scroll that you have written. And Yahweh said to Moses, whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him from my scroll." End quote. [00:28:52] Okay, so we have a new medium for erasure. This is the first place in Scripture, I believe, where we have a person's relationship to God framed explicitly as an entry in a book. Now we could go on and talk about things like the Book of Life, and we could even talk about resurrection and final judgment. [00:29:13] But it's possible there are some other ideas here that I won't get into all of those details, but we want to make sure we're not jumping fully into later context, right? So at minimum, what this means is removal from recognized standing among God's covenant people. [00:29:31] It could be very similar to the blotting out of the name without reference to the book. This is a loss of authorized identity before God. It might include some destruction. That is part of the fuzziness of figurative language, right? Because sometimes we'll use a figure of speech in one way. Sometimes we'll use it in a different way, and if we don't have enough of the context, we can't really be sure. That is part of the problem when you go into the idiom of being cut off. [00:30:04] Okay, so back to Exodus 32. The context is after the golden calf. We have mass idolatry, or at least wrong worship. Definitely a covenant violation and corrupted worship. Moses is acting in a priestly mediatory role. He proposes himself as the erased substitute. [00:30:29] This is one of those very clear places where I do think we have substitute language, and Moses ties this into forgiveness. If you will forgive their sin, then forgive their sin. If you won't forgive their sin, then I offer myself instead. [00:30:48] We've connected three themes here, worship failure, covenant rupture, and record status and the idea of staying in the book. [00:30:58] So this fits perfectly, the broader idea of worship disorder and moral disorder and covenant existence. Now, one thing I do want you to note here. With the offering of Moses himself as the substitute, God rejects that and says, no. The blame will fall squarely on the people who are to blame. They will be blotted out, not you. Yahweh explicitly rejects the idea of Moses's substitution. [00:31:31] Let's look at our frame elements. Yahweh, again, is the agent. Moses is a mediator, not the eraser. And so this reinforces the idea that erasure is a divine judicial act, not just for human administration. [00:31:48] The object is Moses, but Moses in the book. It doesn't necessarily mean destruction or death, although it's possible that Moses had that in mind. But certainly Moses's status as a counted member of God's people would be gone. [00:32:09] The medium is explicitly God's book or my book. This is maybe the Book of Life, but it's definitely some sort of administrative record, perhaps a covenant registry or an account of belonging in the community. And the reason I bring those ideas up is because it connects naturally to ideas of ancient Near Eastern royal registers, temple records, censuses, and things like that. [00:32:41] So that's why I say that this does not necessarily mean the Book of Life. When Moses is offering himself, we're not quite sure what that means. If it means his death, if it means his standing in the community, or if it means his ultimate standing with God, we actually can't tell because there's all of these ideas that it could be. When we don't have enough information, we shouldn't overly speculate. [00:33:11] At any rate, for certain, in the book is where belonging is recorded, so the resultant state is no longer being recognized as part of the community, no longer being counted, perhaps no longer being protected as a covenant member. It does not necessarily mean physical death or annihilation, but it does mean removal from the community in some form and exposure to judgment outside of covenant protection. [00:33:44] And why do I particularly say that as well? Because the people are not wiped out en mass afterwards either. God says they will be blotted out, but they're not all killed. We're not just left with Moses here. The covenant continues, new tablets are issued, God's presence remains. [00:34:06] So again, this is a caution to not instantly jump to the idea of destruction and death. Sometimes that's just not what we have going on. [00:34:17] Now, the final frame element of the moral logic, we actually have two things going along here. We have judgment, obviously. We have accountability, but we also have the idea of mercy and intercession. [00:34:33] Moses first asks for forgiveness, and his erasure is presented as the alternative to that forgiveness. So either forgiveness happens and the record remains in the book, or there's no forgiveness, and the entry is erased. Now that's going to set up later frames that we'll talk about here in a second about sins being erased instead of people. [00:35:00] But before I move on, I do want to offer a few thoughts here. Again, is Moses offering substitution? This is one of those places I would say yes, he is. He is offering himself in the place of the people. Is it about sacrifice? We don't really have that context, but we do have the continuation of the covenant and the presence. [00:35:25] So there is a fallout of judgment that happens, but it's not like the judgment of the flood. And God rejects the substitution of Moses in place of actually holding people accountable in some form. [00:35:40] Now, if we go back to the idea of atonement, and by atonement, I mean this Hebrew idea of it, right? Not our really, really overly broad English conception of that, but there is this idea of atonement functioning as repair of covenant standing and preservation of record membership. We could see how those do directly relate to things like the tabernacle or temple because they would have membership lists probably, and ledgers and things like that. [00:36:14] Okay, so let's go ahead and move on to the blotting out of sins or transgressions. There's quite a few places we could go for this idea. Let me read a couple of places in Isaiah. Isaiah 43 25 says, quote, " I am the one who blots out your transgressions for my sake, and I will not remember your sins." End quote. [00:36:41] We also have Isaiah 44, verse 22. Quote, " I have wiped your transgressions out like a cloud and your sins like mist. Return to me for I have redeemed you." End quote. [00:36:56] Okay, so this is a radical shift in our framework. The categories we've talked about before are about judgment and removing people, removing charges, but now here we have it becoming explicitly linked to forgiveness, purification, again, covenant restoration. [00:37:19] So once again, the frame elements. Yahweh is the agent, but there is a human role to this. There's a petitioner or somebody who is penitent. And no human can perform this erasure. Only God can do it. So the human requests it, but only God does it. So God isn't like, okay, I will do it. If you meet my standards. Now, this is just God choosing to do it. [00:37:52] The object being erased are sins or transgressions or iniquities. And conceptually we have moral guilt, covenant violation, perhaps some sort of pollution or defilement. We don't have the sinner being erased here. It is the sinner's record of guilt. [00:38:13] The medium is, well, it's not always explicit, but the metaphor does imply that record or account. Like a surface where the guilt is inscribed. This could be the parallel to the books or perhaps the written charges like we have in Numbers five. Isaiah 44 uses cloud imagery. So again, we're just building figurative layer upon figurative layer. [00:38:41] The resultant state is that sin is no longer counted, no longer held against a person, no longer operative in the relationship in covenant. The person is gonna remain alive. They remain in covenant. Perhaps they are restored. And maybe there was a risk of their being removed, but instead they're restored. If we were to go to another example in Psalm 51, it explicitly links blotting out sin with a clean heart and restored relationship. [00:39:16] The moral logic here, well, it is judgment, right? People have sin and God is going to forgive it instead of doing some sort of retributive action. So the primary logic is judgment, but judgment in mercy and forgiveness. God chooses to erase the offense rather than erase the offender. [00:39:41] There's a secondary logic here, and that is the one of purification, the removal of moral pollution. The restoration of sacred relationship. You can contrast this with Nehemiah four verse five, where the request is to not blot out sin. It's a request for retribution, and that shows that erasing sin is according to God's own mercy or justice in retribution, one or the other. [00:40:14] Alright, I don't want to omit the idea of wiping away tears. This is a little bit different in concept, right? We don't have water washing something. We have the tears that are going to be erased themselves. [00:40:31] Let's look at Isaiah 25 verse eight, which says, quote, " He will destroy death forever, and the Lord Yahweh will wipe off the tears from all faces, and he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth for Yahweh has spoken." End quote. [00:40:50] So now here we have a picture of comfort. This frame extends beyond judgment and even forgiveness, into restoration and healing. And I think this is an important piece to see. The metaphor is still here. We have removal by wiping or erasing, but now the object isn't evil or guilt or people or a place. It is suffering itself. [00:41:18] So let's look at the frame elements we have. Yahweh is the agent who erases. The object erased is tears. And by extension we're supposed to understand that as grief, suffering, and the experiential residue of death and injustice in the world. [00:41:38] The medium is that the tears are being erased from all faces. It's not the land, it's not books, it's not memory. It's human life and human experience. And the resultant state is that sorrow is no longer present. It's not operative. It's not shaping our existence. This doesn't have to be about forgetting that something happened, but the effects are removed. [00:42:06] The moral logic here is comfort and restoration and healing. It's part of the new creation. We don't have punishment. It's not accounting, but this is the healing of the world. [00:42:19] So what we see here is the Bible uses the same metaphor for a whole series of things, from judgment to forgiveness, and finally to comfort. In the end, God isn't blotting out people, he's blotting out what hurts them, And this is the core end of the story. From flood to forgiveness to final comfort, the whole idea of blotting out means removal from God's order in some sense, but the question is, what is being removed? People, guilt, or pain? [00:42:55] Now we're gonna zoom a little bit out and we're gonna look at this interrelated family tree of frames. The prototype is that we're wiping a surface clean. That extends to social, legal, moral, and human experiential domains. [00:43:13] We have a switching going on here between these different frames, depending on the object, the medium, and really ultimately the moral logic that comes from those things. [00:43:25] So again, like I said, we're getting really high level analytic here, but we see these happen in stories, right? We see a metaphor that is extended in meaning into different domains, and those meanings do shift and change according to what we have going on. But it's the same kind of action being thought of or imagined. [00:43:49] So let's talk a little bit more about these frame elements. When we change out the object, like we have people or living beings, we have places, names, records, words on a page, sin or guilt, tears and suffering. So there's a lot of meaning that is going to lie in these things, right? [00:44:12] When we switch the medium, like land, memory, book, scroll, human experience, or our faces, then that shows that there is a real interaction here in the world, right? When somebody tries to tell you that a metaphor isn't real, then that's ridiculous because the concrete imagery we have here really relates to something actually lived out, experienced. [00:44:42] Even if it's psychological, even if it's an experience that is between two people. Like you can't see your love between yourself and a family member. That's not something that's visible. So the medium frame element is something that really gets that connection solid. And then the moral logic or why it happens is the trajectory of the whole thing. [00:45:09] Okay, so let's see how these frames kind of interact for a moment. There are what we might call border zones where the categories or the frames overlap naturally. Things like names and records are natural overlaps here. A name is socially a record, even if you speak it. And so there can be really similar function here and maybe almost to the point of the ideas overlap fully. [00:45:40] But of course you're gonna wanna look at the particular context in all of that because especially when you have the idea of the record being something that God keeps and a name being something that people tend and that people will remember. A name is a kind of interaction on a horizontal level, whereas the record is the interaction on a vertical level. [00:46:06] We also have crossover with the record and the written words, whether we're talking about books or pages, like a single page with a curse written on it. There's a lot of overlap there, but we did see distinctive difference between what's going on in Numbers five and what's going on in Exodus 32. [00:46:27] Another source of overlap is written words and sin or transgression. The reason for this overlap is because sin is being conceptualized in a metaphorical way as something that is written against you. It is a witness that exists even when nobody can speak against you. The written record will speak against you. So to erase the writing is to erase the guilt or the witness, and this is the idea of forgiveness. [00:46:58] And I've said before, I don't know if I've said it here or not, or if I've just said it other places, if we remove the idea of forgiveness from Scripture, where we have forgiveness in its own framework, meaning that a cost of some harm is being absorbed and not counted. If there's always a payment that's needed, then forgiveness cannot even exist. And so here we have an active way to see God forgiving. He doesn't require a payment. He doesn't require the punishment. In fact, he removes the punishment. The witness that will lead to judgment is being erased itself. That's what this picture of forgiveness here is in the frame of blotting out. [00:47:49] All right, so in every case we have the same structure. Pretty much God is always the agent. We have some sort of object. There is a surface or a medium, usually. Occasionally you don't have that directly stated, but there is probably an underlying idea of what that is. The object is removed, and that removal follows either retributive judgment, mercy judgment, or comfort and restoration and healing. [00:48:23] Okay, so I'm gonna take a few minutes here at the end and contrast this again with the frame of, remember. [00:48:32] Let's go ahead to a different passage. Let's look at Jeremiah 31, 34, which says, quote, "And they will no longer teach each one his neighbor or each one his brother saying, Know Yahweh, for all of them will know me from their smallest and up to their greatest, declares Yahweh, for I will forgive their iniquity and their sin I will no longer remember." End Quote. [00:49:00] Let me also throw in a passage from the New Testament here. Let's look at Luke 23, verse 42 and 43, which says, quote, "And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he said to him, truly, I say to you, Today you will be with me in paradise." End quote. [00:49:23] It's obviously the story of Jesus on the cross, and the man next to him on the cross over wants Jesus to remember him. Remember is not about recalling in memory , but it's a covenant action, and as opposed to blotting out. We can have the reckoning of sin where sin is remembered. We can have forgiveness or remission of sin, which is blotting out or remembering no more. We can also have preservation on one side or removal on the other. [00:49:58] So in this passage in Jeremiah 31 and in the passage in Luke 23, we have a very similar logic going on. [00:50:07] When we go to the frame elements, we again, almost always have Yahweh remembering. Occasionally it is requested by humans. We see that in the Psalms in quite a few places. We also see that in the passage in Luke 23. [00:50:25] The object in many of these passages, it will vary. Sometimes it's the people, sometimes it's the covenant, sometimes it's sin, and that is a negative instance of remembering. We see it as deeds in Nehemiah. And the man on the cross in Luke 23. [00:50:46] The medium is covenant relationship, divine accounting, the actual just historical unfolding of history, or we have future kingdom inclusion. [00:50:59] The resultant state is deliverance, preservation, restoration, inclusion, forgiveness. And I'm gonna toss in another one for your consideration. I'm not really gonna take a stance on this because I'm not sure myself, but do you think the resultant state is intended to telegraph the idea of resurrection? I think it's possible, at least in the later New Testament contexts, and that's really fascinating. [00:51:35] So the moral logic is mercy, faithfulness, restoration, and maybe life. It's especially going to be life if we think of blotting out as destruction. This is the reason I do tend to pull back a little bit from going full tilt into the idea of remembrance as necessarily connecting into the idea of resurrection. [00:52:00] I think it can, I think that plays a a logic there at times. But I'm not convinced that earlier people in the Old Testament, especially early on. We do get it by the Book of Daniel, maybe some later texts, but I'm not sure the context of the Torah, the people were thinking actively of physical resurrection. So I hesitate to put the idea of resurrection into the concept of remembrance. [00:52:32] And this ties also to the idea of the Book of Life. If the Book of Life is something that is wrapped up in the idea of resurrection as well, which it might be, especially later on, then the books mentioned early on may or may not be the Book of Life. I'm just kinda tossing some of that out for you guys to consider. [00:52:59] I don't really have a hard position on this yet. I haven't been fully convinced that anybody early on was thinking in terms of bodily resurrection. That does not mean that the text doesn't point to bodily resurrection. There is a logic that goes towards bodily resurrection. Absolutely. But I don't want to put that intentionality into the minds of people who may not have had it. [00:53:31] There's certainly an idea of preservation and continued existence. I don't think there was the idea of annihilation and people just ceased to exist necessarily, although that is a possibility in some of the blotting out language, that maybe in the afterlife that you're also annihilated? I don't know. [00:53:53] It's hard to really dig down into this and understand it, especially when the ancient world used so much metaphor. They're not giving us a systematic theology in the way we want it to be, but there's ideas that point forward. I'm just really hesitant to take later ideas and put those into the minds of earlier people if we can't be sure that they were thinking that. [00:54:19] And not to get too deeply into this whole thing either, but another thing I want you to consider in all of this is the idea of memorials, specifically memorial rituals. Because remembering is an action, the Scripture often gives it embodiment through rituals, offerings, particular days, and particular signs. [00:54:45] And so memory becomes something that you do actively, not just a thing that you think about while you're relaxing in your tent in the evening. Because in the Bible, remembering is something that God does. He does it actively and intentionally, not because he changes his mind from forgetting to remembering, but it's connected to what God is doing. [00:55:08] And so to be remembered by God is to be acted for in some sense, you're being rescued or you're not being rescued. And blotting out removes somebody from God's order while remembering is going to keep them in it. And forgiveness is when God chooses to erase the record of transgression and stop remembering the record of guilt. [00:55:34] This is a really rich set of metaphors for us. And when we look at Scripture and how we have sacrificial offerings, we have the Passover, we have all the festivals and all of these things, those should be part of our idea here. [00:55:51] Those are going to play their part in understanding how God remembers and forgets, right? I mean, it's like the word remember has intentional things connected to it. Offerings, objects, calendars, and that mirrors how the idea of blotting out also has some concrete things like surfaces and books and memory and land and names. And so remembering is not just some, again, mental activity, but it's involved in worship. And so worship also is not just a mental activity. [00:56:29] And I would love to get more into this because I think the idea of memory is really deep in Scripture and I believe that the ancient world understood these things in a way that we really have lost today. We don't have a strong oral tradition. Many people do not have a really firm idea of ritual as having any legitimate function or something that actually does in the world. And a lot of times our worship and our study of Scripture and our knowledge of God really ends up in a mental frame rather than a lived out practical frame. [00:57:11] One of the benefits of understanding all of this figurative language, understanding the ritual and the worship and even the cosmic geography that we have in Scripture, can really help root to us in these things and give us knowledge that we don't often have in our day-to-day lives, especially in today's post- enlightenment, postmodern world where meaning and intentionality is really kind of up to the eye of the beholder. [00:57:45] Let me just give you a few suggestions on how we can look at this in Scripture. Couple of places you'll go is Leviticus two verse two with the memorial portion. I'll also tell you to go to numbers 10 10 where we have trumpets as a memorial. We have Joshua four, verses six and seven, where stones are a memorial. We have Exodus 12 with the Passover, which is described as a memorial when they're doing it later on at least. [00:58:19] And so let's look at the overarching frame elements here. The agent is God who remembers, but we also are to be actively engaged in remembering ourselves. So humans act as the ritual performers, as the covenant partners, and as those who bear the memory. [00:58:41] The object in these various places will differ. Sometimes it's people and worshipers. Sometimes it's the covenant relationship. Sometimes it's the divine acts of deliverance that are to be remembered, and sometimes it is God's promises. [00:58:57] Again, these are not just memory artifacts. They're relational realities. The medium that we have is really key to the subframe that we have going on in each of these places. Leviticus two, we have an offering. Numbers 10, we have sound. Joshua four, we have objects. Exodus 12, we have calendar time and some physical elements, right, like food and all of that. [00:59:29] Memory is being transmitted through these actual artifacts and our interaction with them. Now, the resultant state is that the worshiper is acknowledged or protected or included or preserved. And the covenant relationship is renewed or stabilized or publicly reinforced. The moral logic is primarily about faithfulness, covenant loyalty, preservation, and memory of deliverance, but it's also about protection, identity formation, and finally just gratitude. [01:00:13] Without these things, we really don't have any relational continuity. [01:00:18] These are also part of how we are being formed when we recall something. Like that is a literal psychological thing that happens to you. If, for instance, you are talking to a therapist about something. One of the things that can happen in those situations is that you are walked through your memories in helpful ways, not in unhelpful ways. [01:00:41] Sometimes we have bad practices of reinforcing memories in unhealthy or toxic ways, but if we are living into a memory in a healthy way that is going to restore and give us wholeness, that's something different. [01:00:58] We have connections to our own family, connections to our own past, into our future. And when you realize that all of that is also wrapped up in our worship, and how ritual is going to shape our memory, our identity, our actual formative practice and moral order, then we can see how worship and things like justice or injustice are going to follow. So false worship is going to give you a corrupt memory and it's going to bring social disorder. True worship is gonna bring in covenant memory and moral stability. [01:01:38] Alright, I think it's time to wrap up all of this today. We will be getting more into memory and name and all kinds of things at some point down the line, either soon or not. I don't know. But I hope that this has been helpful and beneficial to you in understanding frame semantics better, perhaps bringing that into an actual practice in your study life and just opening up some windows for you to really dig into metaphors and conceptual ideas, because that's what we're trying to get at. [01:02:15] We're trying to get that ancient person into our heads, and we can't do that without having their conceptions of reality. Good thinking should also always be based in really good hermeneutics, really good ideas of knowledge and an understanding of where you draw your authority from. [01:02:36] All right, I'm gonna leave that here for now. I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. I will be working on creating some study guides for this. They're not gonna be ready when the episode drops, but I'll try to remember to get those out and attached to the show notes later on. I thank you guys always for listening, for sharing the episodes, and for supporting me in the various ways that you do. And a special big shout out to all of you who do that for me financially, whether you're helping through Patreon, through PayPal, or through my Biblical theology community, On This Rock. A link to that will also be in my show notes. But at any rate, I wish you all a blessed week and we will see you later.