Genesis and Matthew XXIII: "Go." The Difference.

 First Published Wednesday, March 23, 2011

YHWH said to Avram: Go-you-forth from your land, from your kindred, from your father's house, to the land that I will let you see.

Jesus sent out these twelve after first giving them orders saying, "Don't go off on the road to the pagans and don't go to the Samaritan city. Instead go after the lost sheep of the Israel family.. . . "

The command, Go, is frequently repeated in both Testaments. Here Abram is told to go to a land that God will show him. Land is an important promise. God created the earth for us. He commanded us to have dominion over it. The American Dream is all about owning property. We desire our own land. Because of Abram's faith, he was given land for himself and the nation that was to come out of him.

Christ also commands his Apostles to Go. Here, before his death and resurrection, before the Great Commission, he sends them out, as a sort-of training exercise.

Abraham goes, in expectation of a promise's fulfillment. He has only himself and his wife.

The Apostles go, back into the family Israel. Their mission is to recover and restore the nation that came from Abraham. But in the New Covenant, there is a twist.

One command is to go out, into the unexpected. The other is to go back in, to restore what was lost; to remind the people of their birthright, to call them to claim the inheritance that God first promised Abram, when he was told to Go.

The details are left out of these narratives. Unlike most epic journeys from Ancient mythology and legend, Abram does not meet up with monsters and witches. The journey was not the point; rather, the destination was the point.

The Apostles are told to avoid anything that would make their quest "interesting." Turn neither to the right nor the left. The mission was simple: go to the family Israel, remind them, proclaim the Kingdom. Return them to where they were before.

In God's true plan, we are not here to entertain with tales of heroism and valor (although Abram and the Apostles were that and more!). Rather, we present the simple message of God's love, and His promise to us.

Genesis and Matthew XXII: Start with Family

First Published Tuesday, March 8, 2011, with a few 2021 edits

But when they had come as far as Harran, they settled there.

Then he says to his students, "An ample harvest, and few workers. So ask the harvestmaster to send workers out into his fields."

It is hard to resist commenting on the meaning of the town name: "Harran."

Terah, with his son Abram, daughter-in-law Sarah, and grandson Lot, traveled from their native land, towards Canaan. As we saw earlier, Canaan became a great power in those times. It is where the commerce was happening. There were "jobs" there. Perhaps they set out to find a better way of life. Terah is an old man, and one of his sons preceded him in death. Abram, who himself was in his middle years, had no children and was free to move around. This extended family group was like families rarely are today: hanging together, taking care of one another. But Terah is the one in charge. Abram is just a poor unfortunate man with no son to carry on the name. I can imagine that his social profile was meager. He was just one of the family members of Terah, the son with no sons, and no regular job.

They come across a village called "Harran," which means, "Crossroad." It is here that Terah was to die, and where Abram became free to step up to the plate. It is where he first heard God's call on his life. The Gospel is a story for every generation. Starting in Adam, successive generations have the seed of the Gospel planted in some important historical figure. A seed is planted right there in Harran; a very important seed. At the Crossroad of Abram's life, a new root is about to take hold, one that will play a central part in God's unfolding plan.

God once again uses a family. Families are designed to stay together. If we can only get families to stay together, to help each other, to support one another . . . then what need would there be of governments, indeed, of churches?

A pastor friend put it to me once: "I am a minister because families do not do their jobs. If they did, then I would not be needed." Hmmm . . . .

Imagine the seed being planted right there at Harran, thousands of years ago. By the time of Christ, the fields are fully grown. In fact, the harvest is ample. So many people out there, adrift, lost, lonely, missing in action! They are groping along. Now please think about this, reader: they are lost because they do not belong to the most important thing . . . a family!

Our call is to our brethren here on earth. How can we advance the Gospel - build God's Kingdom - while conveniently leaving our own flesh and blood to fend for themselves? I know people that have shared the Gospel with others, but have never offered a hint of it to their own brothers and sisters!!

And once we have figured out that the harvest is really our own immediate families (like that of Terah), then it is no small step to extend it out further, to our cousins, our second cousins, our third cousins . . . until ultimately we can see that we touch every other person on earth!

We are workers in the fields. Start with family.

Genesis and Matthew XXI - The Quiet Place

 

First Published Saturday, February 26, 2011

YHWH said: Here, (they are) one people with one language for them all, and this is merely the first of their doing - now there will be no barrier for them in all that they scheme to do!

And their eyes were opened. And Jesus thundered at them, saying, "Make sure no one finds out!" But they went and publicized him throughout the country.

As much as we love collaboration and cooperation, there is a potential for things to go terribly wrong when humans get together.

Humanity has a great capacity for invention, innovation, and almost god-like achievement. A well-functioning team can outperform an equal number of competitors that do not get along well. There is no limit to what we can do, if we can all just get unified. But humanity unified in the goal of reaching the level of God always goes wrong. Only God is God. When we try to become what we're not, our achievements take a wicked turn. So God had to stop what was going on at Babel.

Jesus, likewise, did not want his deeds to be published like a slick ad campaign. He did not want the word to go out by way of advertisers and promoters. God does not operate that way! He does his work in the quiet places of our lives.

Consider the recent coordinated uprising in Egypt, and similar ones going on in the Middle East, fostered along by the lightning speed and global reach of the Internet. Language and distance barriers are breaking down, and we wonder what awesome power is about to be unleashed on the planet!

March, 2011 Update: We're finding out what can happen, when people have instantaneous access to goings on, throughout the planet; when people can communicate, real-time, with each other; when the language barrier is effectively gone; when power to control the flow of information is concentrated in the hands of just a few very wealthy people . . . 

People strive for celebrity. They pursue a million views on Instagram. They craft messages that are just a little bit edgy, a little bit vulgar, a little bit offensive . . . just to get noticed. Because, you know, they can do good things for the planet if they're famous. Perhaps it should be called the BGS: The Bill Gates Syndrome. 

And yet, as was observed ten years ago - Jesus operated one-on-one. He pursues us one at a time. He affirms our uniqueness and eschews crowds.

Did you catch that? 

Jesus meets us one at a time, in the quiet places. Away from the cameras. 

Forget about the hundred likes. Or the million views. Take care of the people right in front of you. Satisfy the needs of those closest to you. 

Would that be sufficiently counter-culture in 2021?

Genesis and Matthew XX: God Restores

 

First Published Thursday, February 24, 2011

Two sons were born to Ever: the name of the first one was Peleg/Splitting, for in his days the earth-folk were split up . . . 

And as he passed through there Jesus was followed by two blind men shouting, "Have mercy on us, son of David."

We keep seeing this fracturing of humanity in the generations following the Flood, and then a magnetic effect of the Christ, as he walked the earth.

Let's review . . .

* God creates Adam and Eve, and gives them full authority over the earth and its creatures. This is a great deal of power and responsibility to give the young human race. Within a generation, power is already abused more than once: Adam and Eve foolishly seek knowledge for which they are not ready; and then their son Cain murders his brother Abel. Curiosity killed the cat, and ruined humanity. Cain took "have dominion" to a ghastly, but accurate level, by taking the life of his own brother. The first earthly family begins to fracture as soon as the first generation reaches adulthood.

* By the time of Noah, violence runs rampant on earth, as humans everywhere assert their dominion over everything and anything, including other humans. They do what feels good, disregarding any kind of natural consequences. Quite possibly, humanity stands on the brink of self-extinction, (sexually transmitted diseases? Pestilence? Famine? War?), if not for God stepping in, saving Noah and his family, and restoring order . . .

* Within the first generation of the righteous man Noah, his own sons begin to split apart, resulting in a curse upon one of them.

* Just prior to the incident at Babel, humanity has not only spread far apart, but this time its selfish deeds has the aspect of efficiency and strength in numbers. We have learned how to form alliances, collaborate, build empires. Once again our advancement is rushing ahead at a rate greater than our capacity to handle it. Perhaps technology was advancing at a fast pace! This time God causes the earth to fracture even more, by confusing our languages so that cooperation among wicked empire-builders would be unlikely.

But in a quiet village of Judea, thousands of years later, the son of God walks about the moral chaos of the Roman political system, which has established order through its might only. And as he goes about, blind people are drawn to him like steel needles to a magnet.

March, 2021 Addendum: Four years ago, today, my Dad died. He established a large and faithful family group that surrounded him at his deathbed. He built, saved, invested, shared, and presided over a family that reflected his values of steadiness and structure. He was a student of the Bible, and had a disciplined prayer life. His life was orderly. He said "I'm not worried about myself. I've lived a good life and I'll be okay. I am worried about your mother." I assured him that there were twenty of us that would take care of her. 

But in four short years that world itself has gone dangerously chaotic and disorderly. My mother's life has become one in which people build houses within whispering distance of her back door, where before there was a five-acre, undeveloped field. Her beloved dog has shown signs of aging. Her grandkids have scattered into everything from intense business activity to involvement in the social chaos itself. She can no longer just go out into public and be herself. She has to remember a mask and to be prepared for questioning about vaccines and "safety" protocols. She said "I may not catch covid, but this will kill me!"

My life purpose has centered around two things: music and family. I have strained to build and sustain family ties, often reaching out to distant cousins. It has been a gratifying and necessary pursuit. 

But then, this morning, I awoke and planned to reflect on Dad's life throughout the day. I opened Facebook, to see that there was a message waiting from a certain relative. I thought "How nice, perhaps he has remembered what today is". But instead, I read something that could only be explained as an attempt to separate a large group of us into two bitter groups, forever. 

Unbelievable. 

Humanity desires disorder, for whatever reason. Unless God steps in and establishes order, we descend, every time, into chaos. Human behavior itself, in the ordinary affairs of daily life, always proves that everything in the Bible, about the world, humanity, sin, death, and redemption, is real, and true. 

I have in mind, to reveal the contents of this message. I also am being compelled to get out of my shell and share more details from my experience that are all too real, too revealing, and too painful. I don't see any other way back towards order. 

Chaos has to be slapped in the face. 

Genesis and Matthew XVIX: Order Restored

 

First Published Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Afterward the Canaanite clans were scattered abroad.

But when the crowd was thrown out he went in and took her hand, and the girl woke up.

We continue to see the effect of humanity on earth: towards disorder and chaos. We see how God comes in, sometimes personally, sometimes through emissaries such as angels, sometimes as humans like Moses, and in this last age, through His son, Jesus. God intervenes and restores order.

He set up a way of life for us: orderly families, orderly refuges, orderly communities, orderly churches. He knew that, left to ourselves, we start making up our own rules, and things get out of hand.

There has not been a single human being in history, that could establish order anywhere, without God's help. Dictators talk about setting up planned, efficient systems of government, that are run with an iron fist. But within the spirits of these citizens there is fear, and loathing.

Notice how God always cleans the place up, before establishing order. The nations grow, and they spread out. They expand their borders. But the more they expand, the more people there are that want to be in charge. First there is confusion, then disorder, then chaos, and sometimes, violence.

Families are a very simple system set up by God. Men and women meet, and covenant together to establish homes based on stability, deliberate love, security, and most of all, clarity, so that the children have a sense of belonging.

My Grandmother, for instance, knew her grandparents, and aunts and uncles, very well! Yet today, dozens of descendants of these same people whom my grandmother loved, are spread out all over the US, with very little awareness of each other! As a family, they have descended into disorder!

Christ comes in to a chaotic place. A little girl has just died, and in the home a party seems to be going on. The place is overrun with visitors and "well-wishers", but as so often happens, the mob loses a sense of focus and direction.

The first thing He does, is to send the crowd away. In the ensuing silence, order is restored. And in that setting, he touches the girl's hand, her breath returns, and she rises up from death.

Life and peace return. Order is restored.

March 22, 2021 Update: The Hand of God presently moves . . . reconnecting a young woman of our family, fairly closely related to me, back to us. She has reached out and we will soon restore her fully into her own family. If we wait. If we pray. If we resist the disorderliness and predictable random violence of crowds, we will easily see the clear and present Hand of God, making order out of chaos. 

Genesis and Matthew XVIII - Order Reigns

 

First Published Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Now these are the begettings of the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Yefet. Sons were born to them after the Deluge.

As he was saying these things to them, next a high official came and bowed before him, saying, "My daughter has just died, but go and put your hand on her, and she'll live."

After the Flood, humanity began to repopulate the earth. There was an orderliness to it, as each nation that came from Noah's sons had a role to fill in history. Interestingly, the cursed son, Ham, who was supposed to serve the other brothers, became the forbear of such great empires as Egypt and Assyria. Perhaps the point was made even then, that the greatest would be servant to the least!

But inevitably, the spread of humanity would eventually yield to the return of chaos. The first such episode would be Babel, which is just around the corner in our study. God does not want to force us to behave and choose against our own will. But the lesson of the Flood taught several generations to multiply and control the earth, which was God's first and perhaps most important directive in creation. They behaved quite well. Noah's family became very successful.

There's an interesting juxtaposition with the beginning of Christ's ministry. The more ordered society became; in other words, the greater and powerful the world governments, the more in disarray we became, in reality. The Egyptian Empire yielded to the Assyrian, which fell to the Babylonian, and then the Persian, Greek, and finally the Roman, the most terrible of all!!

Rome was the shining moment of the Ancient World, in terms of the expansion of the sons of Noah! How organized and efficient was this nation! It dominated the earth, and even for a time operated as a Republic! It ultimately high-jacked the Church of Christ and sought to make it it's own! How adaptable, how functional, how awesome!  How human!

We have always been very good at the having-dominion-over-the-earth part of God's directives! In the time of Christ, the fleshly part of Noah's legacy was unsurpassed, and completely consummated! But God's flock, His sheep, His children, were scattered, lost, and even fearful.

See how people begin swarming to the Christ! From high Roman officials to poor beggar women, they come. In the midst of a totally disordered and chaotic world (disguised as Roman efficiency) he walks among us, and where he goes, order reigns.

Genesis and Matthew XVII: Equals

 First Published on Wednesday, February 9, 2011 (with some 2021 Edits)

May God extend Yefet (Japheth), let him dwell in the tents of Shem, but may Canaan be servant to them!

Nor do they put new wine in old wineskins, because if they do, the skins break and the wine pours out and the skins are ruined; instead, they put new wine in new skins, and both are preserved.

We can learn about the Kingdom of God by looking at families.

I marvel at how it only takes a generation or two, to unravel what may once have been a close family. One of the major roadblocks in doing family research, is recovering information from family whose ancestors had become estranged from their siblings. Resentment that one sibling may feel towards the rest of the family, seems to get locked into the DNA, when generations later the descendants form no desire to reconnect with their family.

My great-great grandmother is a great mystery to many of us. Her daughter, my great-grandmother, when asked about her mother, would say, "You don't want to know about that," with anger. The next generation, that of my grandmother, learned never to ask about it. Or - what they knew, they learned never to share. But now, a hundred and fifty years later, we do want to know about it!

Relationships are destroyed like old written records that are cast into a fire. Photos are left behind, with no identifying labels. A brother that breaks away from his sister, never to speak to her again, results in grand-children that just want to know where they came from. Are there cousins living nearby, that they do not know about?

Other families, where the parents make an effort to keep their children connected, do much better. Their children seem to accomplish more, and fare more effectively in society.

Christ spoke about putting new wine in new wineskins. He came to simultaneously change everything to a New Order, while preserving the essence of the Old. The Old Covenant, with its emphasis on laws, rules, religious practices, families, nations, and military campaigns, served to define God's holiness, His expectations,  His vision for us, and to clearly define how we are to behave.

Humanity, in its natural state, thinks in terms of rules. Note how children learn the word "No!" immediately after they learn the word "Ma". In our natural, most basic state, we understand rules and  boundaries. So God started off with treating us this way.

We also like roles and positions. We understand authority. We like to know where we stand. Observe elementary-aged children, and their complaints of "that's not fair!" We see ourselves as part of a group, of belonging to something or some group. This explains the influence of gangs in lawless communities. We want to belong, and we want rules, even if the rules are violent (this is in our natural, unredeemed state).

Noah pronounces an order of authority for his sons. Shem would be on top, and Japheth was to be favored in Shem's world. Ham was to be their servant. How cruel this seems! But our parents' decisions always seem not totally fair, from our purview! But Noah's curse on Canaan has been used throughout history, to justify everything from Slavery to military conquest! Noah, a just man, committed a grave error on history, it would seem!

But, Noah's order was part of the world's order in those times. Your family identification mattered. And it still does today, for the world is not completely redeemed yet! Everyone reading these words can instantly identify a close relative that is drifting away. Siblings and cousins, that once were closer than two people can be, today hardly ever say a word to one another! We identify with our group!

The redeemed person, the one living under Grace, does not just put away family identifications!

When Jesus sat down with sinners, he was sitting down with his own distant cousins that were unfortunate enough to be born into the wrong clan! The new wine in new wineskins, in this case, was that we are now free to hang out with these others, regardless of their birth circumstances, their inherited wealth, their college background, their lifestyle choices, the way they dress, their style preferences, the way they vote, their vaccine philosophy, and whether or not they wear a mask. 

Families are God's gift to us, to train in Kingdom living. Embrace your family. Renew your connections with brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles. Put away the old bitternesses whose origins no one remembers. Set aside resentments. Stop being so judgmental! Help the relative in need! Stop gossiping about a niece or nephew whose personal choices have landed him or her in IC, and go pay a visit!

Our families serve a great purpose. And God has given us the chance to redeem the Canaans in our families, to sit down with them, once again, and to treat them as our equals.

 . . . which is exactly what they are!

Genesis and Matthew XVI: Real Expert

 First Published Thursday, February 3, 2011. I have made a few edits, based on the world in 2021. 

I will call to mind my covenant that is between me and you and all living things - all flesh: never again shall the waters become a Deluge, to bring all flesh to ruin!

He heard that and said, "It's not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick."

In a way, God now has a problem. Humanity had already decayed into total corruption in the days before the Flood. Only Noah and his family were spared. God favored Noah, because he was a just and fair man. He honored God, prayed to Him, fellowshipped with Him. Noah did what was right in God's eyes. Now notice - Noah and his family were spared.

God's problem is this: what is He going to do if humanity declines once again? He can't destroy them with a flood, because of His promise. He even has rainbows as a constant reminder of this promise (the reminder is probably more for our benefit!)

But there's something about keeping one man, and his family, around. Noah's righteousness covered his entire family. It is important to belong to a family.

But if humanity is to be spared, then God needs a new plan, a new approach. He had known all along that we were born with a sickness. Mortality itself is the worse kind of illness. What, really, does it matter whether we go by cancer, heart disease, murder, accidental death, old age, or covid? Indeed, what if a direct act of God's judgment is what kills us in the end? We still die. We die because we are sick, and the illness itself is mortality. We need to be saved from Death! Sin is just a cause - but Death is the problem!

Mortality is the ultimate, fundamental virus. We all are carriers. We all are super-spreaders. And there is no mask, or distancing, or vaccine that can improve our odds. In fact: we have been given certain things to help get us through the horror of mortal life: Smiles. Hugs. Social activities. Laughter. Healthy food, exercise, and self-discipline, for starters. 

The Flood had the effect of teaching us the seriousness of sin and of death. But it must have pained God to have to go to such lengths. His new approach, now that we have seen how awful sin and death are (and every catastrophe should always remind us of this!), is to heal us.

The Scribes and Pharisees died. Tax-collectors and godless people die. We all die. Judas died, and Jesus died. We all are sick, and we all need a physician. A Real Physician. A Real Expert. 

Genesis and Matthew XV: Savagery

First Published Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Whoever now sheds human blood, for that human shall his blood be shed, for in God's image he made humankind.

Seeing that, the crowds were terrified and praised God for giving that kind of power to mortal beings.

The first murder in history was that of Cain over his brother Abel. I do not think that Cain understood what would happen. No one had died yet. Perhaps the brothers had fought before, thrown punches at each other. They had felt anger and hatred before. But no one actually ever killed anybody. This time Cain was so jealous and angry that he sought to hurt Abel more than he ever had before. But this time Cain's blow ended Abel's life. The healing powers of Eden had ebbed enough that there was no saving Abel, the brother whom Cain loved. Cain's punishment was banishment from his family. And indeed, his life work was blessed beyond that of any other. God flourished and expanded Cain.

God was basically letting humanity have its way, and following through on His directive to us, that we would be fruitful and multiply, and have dominion over the Earth.

But as evil sprouted, with little consequence, humanity became more and more corrupt. We can imagine murder being pretty much rampant. Sin, violence, and evil were the norm. It had to be pretty bad for God to want to nearly exterminate the human race!!

This was humanity when in full control of its destiny. It's the way we still are. Without God's involvement, we drift away into savagery.

God gave us all the control we can handle. He gave us dominion over creation. But this directive goes awry when we seek to have dominion over each other. And we always seek dominion over each other. We extend the Great Commission of the Old Testament (have dominion over the earth) into a pass for us to control, enslave, and even kill each other!

God then says - if you take a life, you will lose your own life. Without violating His commissioning to us, without taking away trust or our dominion over the Earth, He provides a framework that will get some control back over Creation. He tells us what we may do, what we must do, if we are to avoid another era of rampant chaos.

But He is also making a statement about the value of life. Life is so valuable, that if you take it away from another, you must lose your own. This is not an undervaluing of life. It is a lesson in how precious it is to all of us! Our life, here on Earth, is everything!

What great power we have, when we can end something as precious as life! Is there no other manifestation of dominion and what it means, than for us to have this power? Truly God placed great trust in us, in making us such powerful beings!

But there is something even more powerful than that: the power to return life again to the one who has lost it; the power to restore a limb, or organ, or sense, that has been damaged either through nature or artificially! The taking of life is common, unimaginative, evil. But the giving of life is real power, and God has reserved that for Himself. Thank God we do not have that power yet! As a race, we do not value life enough yet, to be able to grant it!

Genesis and Matthew XIV - Brooding Evil

 First Published Tuesday, February 1, 2011

"I will never curse the soil again on humankind's account, since what the human heart forms is evil from its youth."

"And Jesus, seeing their mood, said, "Why are you brooding evil in your hearts?"

God shows a distinct quality in His ability to change. Before the Flood, He was fed up with humanity, and seemed quite eager to eliminate all but a few humans and animals. (Notice that even the animal kingdom paid for man's sins!) But afterward, His heart softened and He proclaimed that He would never wipe out humanity with a flood, ever again. This turning point in His relationship with humanity now moves in the direction of helping us find salvation.

But perhaps there was also a realization, on God's part, (yes, I know, this is awkward, knowing as we do, that God already knows everything!), that man is, basically, evil. He says - humans are evil, and they can't help it. I can't just punish them for something that is inherent in their nature!

God says, "What the human heart forms is evil from its youth."

Jesus says, "Why are you brooding evil in your hearts?"

Why the change? I think it has something to do with God's role as teacher, mentor, parent, Savior. First comes the conclusion: we are evil. This is guilt, shame, and repentance.

Next comes light on our hearts, paring away at our sinfulness, exposing us for what we are.

Okay, we're sinful - how will we change? By letting Christ in, and exposing ourselves, willingly, to Him.

"Brooding evil." Jesus says, "Why are you doing this?" We sit around with our anger, resentfulness, bitterness, jealousy, irritability . . . and our Lord says "What are you doing?" If we will be honest, we will admit that this is pretty much true. There is not a moment when we are not easy targets for evil thoughts to enter in and take over.

Just stop. Jesus can see our moods. Other people can see, too. If we can be asked "Why are you brooding evil in your hearts" then does it not follow, that we can put a stop to it?

Genesis and Matthew XIII: Doting Parents

 

First published on Monday, January 31, 2011

But God paid mind to Noah and all living-things, all the animals that were with him in the Ark, and God brought a rushing-wind across the earth, so that the waters abated.

. . . and Jesus, seeing their faith, said to the paralytic, "Take heart, son, you are forgiven your errors."

The waters of the flood decrease, and Jesus leaves the boat that had gone through a great storm, just previously. Water had been used as an example of God's power and judgment, and of His command over the elements of Nature.

God set up Nature so that an-eye-for-an-eye is the rule. What goes around does come around. The parent that does not discipline his child is only setting up the child to do greater wrongs later, and to suffer a greater punishment. Every action leads to an equal and opposite reaction, so that the laws of physics cross over into the laws of society.

But this was done only so that we could learn how to love one another with a godly love. I do not believe that God enjoys punishing His children. He is not willing to do this! But He wants us to enjoy the blessings of holiness, and to have full communion with Him, the Author of Life, and Life is everything. It is the only thing that matters, the only thing that ever was, that really mattered.

So we see God holding back, over and over again. He reminds me of a doting parent, one that wears blinders at the errors of his children. He spoils us. He lets us get away with so much. He lets Nature run its course most of the time, for that is how we learn. And God's Nature does do its work in time.

But He paid mind to Noah and all the living things on earth. Once the destructive action of the Flood was accomplished, God returned to a loving, doting focus on His children. The rushing-wind, or Breath of God, came over the oceans again. The spirit of God restored order. All was anew.

It was an early historic act of forgiveness. God forgave humanity, through the faith of our father Noah. It was the first of many New Creations.

The paralytic in Jesus' time was also an example of God letting us start anew. Gale-force winds had engendered fear and dread in the Apostles just moments before. Never is God's judgmental fury more on display than in the middle of a severe storm on the open sea. In the peace and calm that follows a storm, Jesus walks up from the shore and tells a paralyzed man, simply, "Your errors have been forgiven."

God does not need to punish us directly. Nature does. But He loves us, and is more than ready to forgive us.

Genesis and Matthew XII: Safe

 

First published Wednesday, January 26, 2011

 . . . the waters swelled and increased exceedingly upon the earth, so that the Ark floated upon the face of the waters.

Then he got up and yelled at the winds and the sea, and there was great calm.

Water. We are both fascinated by it, and terrified by it, at the same time. We are mostly made up of water. It is second only to oxygen, as the most critical thing we need to survive. Without oxygen, we die an almost immediate death. Without water, we die a slow and miserable death. Water is made up partly of oxygen.

But too much water kills us. It is perhaps the most destructive force in nature, able to wreak havoc and devastation instantaneously. The winds of a hurricane are accompanied by water. Indeed, they are caused by water - the ocean fuels typhoons as gasoline does an automobile. Fires advance slowly, compared to the sudden action of a water disaster. Even the rise of flood waters, once the flood line is topped, expand in an instant. You cannot outrun it.

Prior to God's creative activity in our universe, the earth is portrayed as mostly chaotic. It is mostly ocean. Imagine ocean being all there is on the face of the earth. We would have, in one place, a critically life-giving substance in extreme volume. But there is no dry ground, no plants, no land-dwelling animals. It is total, utter chaos, and humanity cannot survive in those conditions.

With the Deluge of Noah's time, God re-creates the conditions of the earth prior to the creation of humanity. It is a true starting-over point in history. But we have a sense of God's protection, as the Ark is peacefully lifted above the terror on the earth's surface.

Then, for thousands of years, God demonstrates again and again, His protection of His people.

Finally, His son appears, and walks among men. Christ's followers are learning of his greatness. They are on a boat out on the sea, when a great storm comes and tosses their boat about. With even the Son of God present, they are terrified. This is quite different than the scene in Noah's Ark!

There is no greater demonstration of God's power, than that He command even the atmosphere, and it obeys!

Man had departed far from God's will in the time of Noah. By moving away, they re-established chaos on earth. The return of the flood waters, of the global ocean, was a natural outcome. In the time of Christ, humanity had drifted far from God, once again. Christ's friends saw first-hand the chaos of a sea-storm, and how it represents humanity without God. In their presence, the Son of God commands the winds, and order is restored.

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March, 2021 Update: We are approaching the end of a year that can only be described as chaotic. The whims of random humanity have overtaken the globe. True, on the surface it may appear that someone is in control - - - or, more accurately, some small group of people seems determined to exert control over the planet. Claiming "Science," they are like the Gnostics of old, whose confidence in their full understanding of the unknowable made them a danger to the world. The more control they assert, the more out of control seems the planet. God deals with us one on one. He does not attempt to move large masses of people. This is something that humans attempt, for humans are, at heart, insecure creatures. And insecure people seek to expand their dominance of over others. If I can control others . . . then I can be safe. 

Uh-oh, there's that word:

"Safe."

Genesis and Matthew XI: Not so Good

 

First version of this post published on Tuesday, January 25, 2011. It has a few slight 2021 edits. 

Now the earth had gone to ruin before God, the earth was filled with wrongdoing.

Go in the narrow door; because the door is wide and the road is broad leading off to destruction, and many people are going that way.

The idea, that humanity tends to create disorder out of God's ordered universe, goes back to the very beginning of Scripture, and reappears again and again. It is, perhaps, one of the key themes of the Bible.

Do the people that are wrecking the earth, or "ruining" it, realize how wrong they are? Of course not! Nobody goes about to do wrong. We do not deliberately concoct "evil schemes" and visit them upon innocent victims! This only happens in comic books, where the evil people come out and say "I'm an evil scientist," or an "evil villain."

Hitler himself believed in the rightness of his cause. Yes, crazy as it seems, he saw himself as a savior of the earth. Even the wickedness that he did was viewed as right, fair, and just, in his own eyes. And this is perhaps the most unsettling concept of all: that evildoers never intend to do evil! They have redefined "good" and "evil" so that they are on the side of "good." And we do the same, although perhaps at a much more benign level.

It is only when we begin to realize our own sinfulness, and can re-examine ourselves according to God's standards, that we can move towards righteousness. Only by seeing that we need to change, can we begin to change. Our tendency is toward chaos. But God calls us toward Him. When we are moving in His direction, we suddenly become righteous. It's like, the process itself is as important as the destination.

So if something feels good, we consider it "good." If we can make some good happen, through foul means (like ruthless tycoons that hurt people on their way up, but become lavish benefactors after they have become wealthy) we convince ourselves that we are "good." If we can invent some religious ritual that we may follow, we deem ourselves "good." If we can create virtue "signals," outward signs of clothes to wear, signs to post, bumper-stickers, music to listen to, politicians to support, policies to endorse, words to say . . . that the Greater Society deems "good," then it makes us "good" to follow those practices, even if everything else about us is bad.

And if the vast majority is doing something, it must be good and right - for it's majority rule, and the majority must always be right!

But this does not move us in the direction of God.

Even though generations come and go, and humanity keeps moving creation further away from God and more into chaos (are all of the choices available to people today, in terms of lifestyle, careers, hobbies, mates, residences, etc., really improving things?), still God finds one person that got it right.

Enter Noah.