14,15 Mar -- Why is God Hiding?
Readings for Wed 14 and Thurs 15 March are -- Gen 29:13-30:43; Ps 10:1-6; Prov 2:16-19; Mt 11:1-19.
"LORD, why do You stand so far away? Why do you hide in times of trouble?" Those could easily have been the words of John the Baptist as he languished in prison. (See yesterday's post.) In fact, they are the words of David in today's Psalm. (Psalm 10 is most likely a continuation of Psalm 9, written by David.) David laments the evil of the wicked he sees around him and wonders why God doesn't rise up against them. John the Baptist no doubt had similar thoughts as he pondered the reason for his imprisonment -- speaking out against the wickedness of Herod.
Maybe sometimes they are your words. God may seem far off and remote at times. But God promises us that He will never forsake us (e.g. Hebrews 13:5). God is always alongside us and within us through His Spirit. If God seems far away, that's the time to re-examine my life. Because, as someone succinctly put it, "If God seems far away, guess who moved!" It was Adam and Eve who were trying to hide in the garden, not God.
posted by Ps John @ 5:56 PM
8 Comments
8 Comments:
No comment on the Genesis passage for these last 2 days as yet, so...
It's interesting to note throughout these early chapters the still developing sense of morality. There's lots of "going in" going on with maids, multiple wives and so on, even by the forefathers of the Jewish faith. Were these things considered wrong then or were they just conforming with the prevailing attitudes of their society? This is all pre-Moses, so they haven't had that revelation of God's commandments. Did they just not know any better?
How do the answers to these questions affect our morality today? Are our ideas of what is moral an anachronistic construct of the conservative Christian subculture? Or do we just know better than they did?
I'm not suggesting we all run out and become bigamists and sleep with all the servants, by the way. It's just interesting that all these things were going on seemingly without so much of a batted eyelid.
The other interesting thing here was how certain agreements and contracts were undertaken which would have no chance of standing up in a court of law today. Jacob gets tricked into marrying the wrong woman! Isaac gives his blessing to the wrong son. Weird stuff.
Actually, I always wondered whether it was ever wrong to have more than one spouse, and how we came to these days where you only have one spouse (when back then guys had multiple wives and concubines). I've only read 1/4 of the bible so far, so maybe it says something else somewhere, but I don't think Gen 2:24 specifically implies that you can't have two wives (or husbands) and you ALL become one flesh. And then even post-Moses they still continued on that way (e.g. it was wrong for David to cheat, but it was fine for him to have multiple wives). So when did ppl start pairing off? And why? It must have been well post-Jesus, coz I think I remember hearing somewhere that Jesus had half-sisters and half-brothers. So maybe it is just an our-own-subculture thing ...
I always thought they were half-brothers and sisters because the only parent they shared was Mary.
Hahah, you made that sound even more scandalous than it is! I can see a grounds to some cult that the Catholics wouldn't like very much at all ...
Yeh,
Jesus had God as his father and the half siblings had Joseph as dad...Scandalous!!!
Much of the New Testament reverses things to where they were before the fall, or wipes out human sin, due to the birth, life and death of Jesus, and the coming of the Holy Spirit. e.g. Pentecost reverses Babel. As Christians today we are living in a world full of sin, but should be attempting to live as if there is no sin i.e. pre-fall and pre-curse whole confessing that we are sinners and need God's help to do this.
Genesis shows a very paternalistic society living in the shadow of the curse in Genesis 3. It also shows a pattern of human sin followed by God's forgiveness and grace which continues down the generations. (Hence all those boring lists) Genesis shows us the detail of people's lives in their context, and also gives us a big picture view of God's character and relationship with us. Weird stuff, but an amazing book.
Karen B
Was all that stuff actually sin though? Take the multiple wives thing for example; in all that I've read so far, I don't remember God or Jesus actually condemning that behaviour. In fact sometimes it sounds like God is just fine with it! For example, Lev 18:18 says not to take your sister-an-law as a rival wife, but why doesn't it say anywhere in that chapter "do not take any other woman as a rival wife"? You'd think that if God made a whole chapter's worth of rules about what is sinful in regards to sexual relations, and that having more than one spouse WAS a sin, then it would be in that chapter (or at least somewhere in the Law). Or was it in fact a sin, but God went along with the Isrealites for the time being so as not to cause too much havoc in their set ways?
And by the way, I still haven't worked out where exactly their sense of morality in regards to this stuff started to change ... Did it happen in the gap b/w Old and New Testament?
Thanks for your interesting observations, comments and questions Callum, Lisa and Karen. You really got things started there Callum! You may find the following quotes helpful. They are from "Marriage and Divorce" (1987) by Dr. B. Ward Powers. He's a local and attends SH Anglican. Also used to lecture at SMBC.
"In the beginning God devised for mankind the relationship of marriage, with all its levels and its various aspects, and created man as male and female with the different characteristics, aptitudes and needs of the two sexes (Genesis 1:27; 2:24; Matthew 19:5-6). Each was made for the other, to find completion and fulfilment in the other (1 Corinthians 11:11). The distinctive bodily differences between the male and the female represented this complementarity and provided, through sexual activity, a significant way in which it could be expressed -- the combination of the differeneces into a one-flesh unity... Male and female were created equal, with each equally needing the other... After the Fall, the man asserted a dominion over the woman and subjugated her to his will, while she found she needed and desired him (Genesis 3:16). The consequences of this were not long in working themselves out. Man began to view woman as being there for his convenience, to serve him and to satisfy his needs and wishes... Before the first Book of the Bible has ended we have seen the faithful recording of the widest catalogue of departure from God's plan -- instead of a one-flesh relationship which would involve exclusive and permanent faithfulness between two equal partners, we have polygamy and concubinage, fornication, prostitution and rape, incest and homosexuality. Any unattached woman is virtually at the mercy of any man who takes a fancy to her; her wishes are rarely consulted, her rights are apparently close to non-existent. She is a sort of property to be traded or bartered for expensive gifts (cf. Abraham's servant and Rebekah's family) or for years of labour (cf. Jacob and Laban). She belongs first of all to her father, and subsequently to her husband. The only restraint evidenced is in relation to adultery, and this is because it infringes the rights of the husband to the exclusive use of his wife, i.e. his property rights over her. He cares for her and protects her in the same way (and for the same reason) as he does his other possessions. She is valued not because she is his partner in the unity of marriage, but as being available to meet his sexual requirements, and the bearer of his legitimate children who shall inherit his land and property.(This is why he regarded it a simportant that she did not commit adulery -- for if she did, how could he be sure that a child she bore to inherit his property would really be his?)... This depressing catalogue illustrates the hardness of men's hearts to which Christ referred and which, as he says, Moses had to contend with (Matthew 19:8). Many of the people of God rose above this, of course, and the Scripture contains a great deal of praise for a wife who is a good partner (many references, for example, in the Book of Proverbs), and we have in the Old Testament the gentle, tender love story of Ruth and the frank sensual enjoyment of the Song of Songs. And it needs to be remembered that the staus of woman in Judaism was higher than elsewhere in the ancient world: because of her status as equal bearer of the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27; 5:2) and because of the position accorded to her in the Law and other Old Testament teaching. By the grace and guidance of God, Moses in the Law sought to restrict and restrain the worst excesses of man's unihibited (sic) indulgence of his passions. To quite a considerable extent the Mosaic code is able to introduce honesty and fairdealing into the relations between men and women, and to show a recognition of the existence of rights for women. Thus an important step was taken in bringing mankind to an acceptance of the plan and will of God for male-female relationships. If the Mosaic code was in some respects imperfect and inadequate when judged by our standards, we must ask ourselves whether that is the right yardstick by which to judge it... Jesus showed in his teaching and behaviour the place that woman should hold as man's equal and partner -- his attitude here often being in total conflict with the attitudes that were current in his day." (Pg 269-276.)
This post is about to drop off, but I just came across this article about the origins of morality (from a scientific point of view).
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