The Icon as a Witness

Earlier this year, while reading through Joshua, I was struck by the altar of witness that the Israelites dwelling in Gilead set up, as I think it may be helpful for us to understand the role of iconography for the Christian. I’m very warily treading what I think is new ground in the discussion, but I think there may be at least an analogy between the two types of images.

To recap the story, the Israelites dwelling in Gilead (who I will henceforth refer to as Gileadites for ease) had basically struck a sort of deal with Moses so that they could have the land, even though it wasn’t past the Jordan. They were shepherds and this was very valuable land for grazing, so Moses allowed it on the condition that they could still be called upon to fight for Israel in the future conquest of Canaan, which they agreed to and complied with fully. Upon their return to this land and the end of the Canaanite conquest, they apparently built a massive altar, and this was immensely concerning for the mainland Israelites (Joshua 22:10). It was so distressing that the other tribes actually got ready to war with one another (22:12), and this makes a lot of sense, as later we see Jeroboam, after splitting Israel according to God’s command, idolatrously create a new altar and golden calves for his kingdom (1 Kings 12:25-33). In any case, when questioned, the Gileadites give a very interesting response as to the purpose of their altar:

““The Mighty One, God, the Lord! The Mighty One, God, the Lord! He knows; and let Israel itself know! If it was in rebellion or in breach of faith against the Lord, do not spare us today for building an altar to turn away from following the Lord. Or if we did so to offer burnt offerings or grain offerings or peace offerings on it, may the Lord himself take vengeance. No, but we did it from fear that in time to come your children might say to our children, ‘What have you to do with the Lord, the God of Israel? For the Lord has made the Jordan a boundary between us and you, you people of Reuben and people of Gad. You have no portion in the Lord.’ So your children might make our children cease to worship the Lord. Therefore we said, ‘Let us now build an altar, not for burnt offering, nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you, and between our generations after us, that we do perform the service of the Lord in his presence with our burnt offerings and sacrifices and peace offerings, so your children will not say to our children in time to come, “You have no portion in the Lord.”’ And we thought, ‘If this should be said to us or to our descendants in time to come, we should say, “Behold, the copy of the altar of the Lord, which our fathers made, not for burnt offerings, nor for sacrifice, but to be a witness between us and you.”’ Far be it from us that we should rebel against the Lord and turn away this day from following the Lord by building an altar for burnt offering, grain offering, or sacrifice, other than the altar of the Lord our God that stands before his tabernacle!”” Joshua‬ ‭22‬:‭22‬-‭29‬‬‬

To summarize, the altar has a dual purpose:

• To confess that they, too are children of Israel, lest those living in Israel proper begin to forget or malign them for not living in the conquered lands beyond the Jordan (22:24-25).

• To teach the Gileadites of future generations about the Lord who they serve and their religious identity, pointing them to the true altar in Jerusalem (22:27).

The first purpose is clearly the primary one expressed, and this makes sense from a rhetorical point of view, as the Israelites have a history of people forgetting them and then persecuting them (Ex. 1:8-10). However, it is certainly true that it functions for an educational purpose in reminding their own children of their heritage as the Lord's people.

Perhaps, then, we can make an analogy between this altar and icons, as well as our own altars and many other liturgical implements. As the Gileadites said, this altar was not the place for sacrifice, that is not its telos. Rather, it is as a witness both within and without. It is the calling card that these people are Yawhists, not pagans, and it is a means to teach their own children who they are as Yawhists. The same is true for us as Christians. As Hebrews says, there is only one sacrifice for all men and all time (Heb 10:12-14) and Christ, our great High Priest, did not sacrifice Himself on an altar made by hands but upon God's own heavenly altar, to which all altars point (Heb 9:24, Rev. 8:3). The Romans misunderstand this as a resacrificing (in the medieval period) or a representation of the one sacrifice to the Father, but this is not the case. We, like the Gileadites, are part of the chosen people, but we dwell beyond the Jordan. We do not dwell in the land the Lord promised us, Eden, though in hope we await the New Jerusalem's coming. Thus, the altars in our sanctuaries are like the Gileadites' altar, which points to the true altar which will one day descend from heaven, bearing the Lord's bounty. And yet, our altars are obviously much greater, since those types from the Old Testament are clearly greater in the New. They are greater because the Gileadites' empty altars are replaced by our own, from which flows the bountiful bread of heaven, Christ Himself, whose body and blood grace us with their presence. Of course, the altar is obviously not the means by which these things come about. The Last Supper took place at a table, St. Paul may have celebrated the Eucharist on a ship, and Christ broke bread with Clopas and his companion within a house, no altars in sight. And yet, our Eucharists are all united by the altar of Christ (1 Cor 10:18-21).

Back to the point at hand, I think icons may serve a similar purpose. Altars are blessed like all other things, "the word of God and prayer" (1 Tim 4:5), and altars especially so because they bear Christ's fruits to men. Thus, icons don't carry the same weighty place, hence why it took a bit for them to become mainstream in Christian circles. And yet, they carry an invaluably role for us in our wanderings. They are things that ground us in our Christian identity. Through a language of symbols, they show forth the saints blessed by their inclusion in the word of God as well as Christ's working throughout history in the lives of his people. These images, then, are able to identify that we are Christians. I can more easily identify a devout Christian if they wear a crucifix, for example, or if they have Christian images on their walls. Like the altar for the Gileadites, they remind us that the person before us is a fellow brother in Christ, who we are bound to by His own blood and in the one bread (1 Cor 10:17). This encourages our charity, since we can see them as a fellow member of the one body.

In addition, these icons have an even more important purpose--to remind us who we are. The Eucharist, like the ancient Passover for Israel, makes us who we are, members of Christ's body. Icons, however, are reminders of such. They have no significance in themselves and are not to be offered the sacrifices of incense or prayer, as our fathers testify, but they are there to help us remember who God is, what He is done for us and for His people, and what He will do on the last day. They encourage us to greater faith by showing us God's promises and faithfulness and the faithfulness of the saints towards Him, and they push us on to virtue by showing us these saints' virtues and the glory they have before God because of them. These are incredibly useful purposes, as was the reason for the Israelites' keeping of the bronze serpent, the golden tumors, and the treasures within the Ark of the Covenant, though of course they were rebuked when they fell into idolatry.

So let us look towards these beautiful images which declare the glory of God through the work of men's hands, not falling into the idolatry of the papists and the eastern church, but in line with historic orthodoxy and our own Lutheran fathers.

Edit: I was reading Chemnitz on images, and he used this passage to argue for his view, which is (I think) virtually the same as mine! Here it is for your edification:

An outstanding example is found in Joshua 22. When the two and a half tribes had built an altar, the other Israelites, thinking that this had been done for worship, declared war against them. However, when the former showed that they had built this altar, not for sacrifice, but for a testimony and a memorial of history, the children of Israel approved this and praised the Lord. Examination of the Council of Trent volume 4, pg. 78