The prophet Habakkuk  warned against false gods and prophets – who were worthless 

‘What use is an idol once its maker has shaped it – a cast image, a teacher of lies?

For its maker trusts in what has been made,/though the product is only an idol that cannot speak!

Alas for you who say to the wood. “Wake up!” to silent stone, “Rouse yourself!” Can it teach?

See, it is plated with gold and silver, and there is no breath in it at all.

But the Lord is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him!’

Habakkuk 218-20.

In the Old Testament the prophets frequently chide Israel for going after false gods. Some of these were gods embodied in statues, trees, rivers, rocks, the prophets too were subject to this form of worship from others and presumably also sometimes inwardly. The message of the prophets was one of purification of themselves, and also of Israel of an embodied god – and instead to substitute a pure spiritual reality.

Neville Symington, psychoanalyst who had previously been a priest, writes that God cannot be cleansed from all human characteristics, and so in that sense is ready for embodiment, and inevitably to become part of what Symington calls ‘the narcissistic structure’. One example linked to this is that the false god described is hurt by the slightest criticism or neglect – a god deeply wounded by an insult, or a god offended by Israel’s infidelities, and in the New Testament Jesus, is seen as deeply wounded by every sin that we commit.

This view of God is easy to understand as it’s something we all experience, such as when we are deeply wounded by the smallest slight and hold onto it perhaps even for years. Here’s an example:

‘A man met a friend who said to him: “Good Lord, John, you are looking well today. When I saw you last week, I thought you were a bit off colour …” John was deeply offended that his friend should have said he was off-colour. “Me … off colour” – what an insult. He was so insulted by it that it entirely wiped out the encouraging statement that he was looking well on this particular day.’

Sometimes the wound is tended and nursed as if it were the greatest treasure. Symington comments that although Adam’s sin was quite a long time ago now … ‘but I still hear people beating their breasts about it’. Worth noting is Jesus’ teaching to let go of grudges and try to love those who upset us.

This is an example from the analytic world:

‘Analyst A said to Analyst B: “Oh you were analyzed by Hans Sachs, were you …” and then looking down his nose, said: “You know, I was analyzed by Freud.” Analyst B was still offended thirty years later and took revenge on Analyst A quite regularly year after year.’

 The hurt only makes sense if you put it in the idea of a godlike ego: “Do you not realize that you are insulting a royal personage? Did you not know that you are insulting the Lord Himself?’