How do you form your image of God?

Answer 1

For me, God is a human construct, so I form my image from the descriptions of biblical authors, religious tradition and what archaeologists describe.

From the Old Testament, I most often see an image of a jealous and vindictive God, obsessed with the belefit of the Jewish people to the exclusion of all others. On the one hand, the Yahwist tells me of an anthropomorphic God with human characteristics. On the other hand, the Elohist tells me of a more transcendent God who required obedience and was feared by his people. People could never look at the Elohist's God, so he typically came in dreams or visions, but sometimes in the form of a cloud or a flame. The Priestly source describes a remote and unmerciful God. But I notice a softening of God's image from the second part of the Book of Isaiah and some later parts of the Old Testament. From archaeologists, I see that his consort seems to have been the goddess Asherah*.

The image I most often see in the New Testament is very much at odds with some of the earlier images. I now see a loving and forgiving God. Yet I remain puzzled why a confident and all-powerful God is so totally and absolutely concerned with people worshipping him.

Footnote
* Among the many objects discovered at Kuntillet Ajrud during the 1970s were two large pithoi or storage jars. Once restored it was clear that each pithos contained drawings accompanied by religious inscriptions written in Hebrew. Scholars have translated the inscriptions with reasonable consistency. Pithos A seems to be a dedicatory inscription and reads, in part: 'I bless you by Yahweh, our guardian, and by his Asherah'. Pithos B reads, 'Amaryau says: Say to my lord X: I bless you by Yahweh [our guardian], and by his Asherah'. Another inscription that William Dever found on the base wall of a tomb dated to between 750-700 BCE has been translated by the French epigraphist André Lemaire as, in part: 'Blessed be Uriyahu by Yahweh and by his asherah; from his enemies he saved him!' These seem to be references to the goddess ASherah as consort of God.

Answer 2

Through the Torah and tradition, we may form a mental picture of what God is like.God is One. The concept of a dualism (as in Zoroastrianism), an independent Satan, or multiple gods (polytheism; paganism) are all unimaginable in Judaism. Also, any belief that an intermediary between humanity and God should be used, whether as necessary or even optional, is considered heretical.

See: Were the Israelites monotheistic?

God is non-physical, indivisible and incomparable. Jewish tradition teaches that God is beyond human comprehension; and that it is only God's revealed deeds, as He interacts with mankind and the world, that we can begin to grasp.

God is omniscient (He is aware of everything), and infinitely wise.
God created the universe and all existence, including time and space, in a deliberate, purposeful act of benevolent Creation.

God is the mover of everything. No molecule can move without the energy and direction with which God imbues it.

God is eternal; and His ways are also eternal. He is not capricious, forgetful or fickle.
God is just. He rewards good and punishes evil - whether in this world or in the afterlife.

God is ethical and moral; and He expects us to imitate His ways.

The God of Israel is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is the guide of history, who delivered the Israelites from Egyptian slavery.
God is the source of law, who gave the Torah to the Israelites at Mount Sinai.
God is immanent and personal, meaning that he relates to humanity and hears our prayers. This is the basis of the Psalms and our siddur (prayerbook).

See also:

Names of God

Answer 3

Exodus 20:4,5 tells us that we should not make any image of anything in the heavens, earth or water below.