Politic?: Our Heavenly Father

You shall not make yourself an idol, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. Exodus 20: 4-5

Instructions from the Almighty to those over whom He has complete dominion. Instructions to the ancient Israelites, as they became monotheistic.

Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.

Obviously, not. For there is but one Divine Spirit, one glorious, omnipotent, omniscient, all-powerful Presence toward whom the faithful turn their faces and pray. A sometimes-benevolent, occasionally spiteful-seeming God who demands much of his followers, and sometimes overlooks the need to protect them from themselves.

The strange thing about this Father in Heaven is that He is so much like our fathers right down here on Earth. Similar foibles, jealousy being merely one. Like earthly fathers, He demands complete obeisance, an obligation to obey his every word and edict. In reflection of what society, most male-dominated societies once were like.

This Heavenly Father is vain, egotistical, celebrity-seeking. Demanding unalloyed and unlimited, undivided loyalty, respect and honour. Oh, of course, above all, obedience to His word. He is fatherly, dictatorial, tyrannical, megalomaniac, narcissistic.

In short, typically human.

Are we made in God's image? Or has humankind, out of a very special spiritual need - confused with a child's need to have trust that its father will always be there to protect and have solicitude for him through the byways of life - created God as a reflection of our needs, imbuing Him in the process with all our emotions and insecurities?