Week 4: Abraham, Levites and Lepers

Week 4: Abraham, Levites and Lepers

      Paul continues in Romans Chapters 7 and 8 to hone the definition of salvation, moving away from salvation through strict adherence to the Law of Moses to salvation through belief in the Risen Christ.  In Chapter 7 he compares the Christian to a widow who has been released from the law of marriage by the death of her husband.  Rom 7:4: "Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God...; and 7:8:  "But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code."  Paul goes further in Chapter 8 (8:2): "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death."  He concludes this chapter with the very familiar "If God is for us, who is against us? (8:31)."  Human weakness is sustained by the Spirit's intercession and by the knowledge of God's loving purpose.

   Genesis 12 begins with God's call to Abram, telling him (12:1): "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.  And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing."  So aged Abram, acting in faith in his Lord, takes his wife, his nephew Lot and all of his possessions and heads off to Canaan, a land which them God tells him "To your offspring I will give this land."  As soon as Abraham gets there, though there is a famine, so he picks up again and moves to Egypt.  Then follows a curious story where Abram tells his wife Sarai to act like they are sister and brother so that the pharaoh won't kill him.  Sarai, apparently very beautiful, becomes part of the pharaoh's harem. The Lord doesn't react well to this, sending a plague on the Pharaoh.  God then tells Abraham to take Sarai, Lot and all of his accumulations back where he came from.  Upon re-entering Canaan, Abraham gives Lot first choice of land and Lot takes the more fertile land which, unfortunately for Lot, is near some seedy characters in the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Lot is taken prisoner by armies invading from the East and is then rescued by his Uncle Abram.  In Chapter 15 God again promises Abram (who still has no heir) that his descendants shall inherit the land of Canaan and that the people living there then will be displaced.  Karen Armstrong in her book In the Beginning explains this part of Genesis as a story of faith.  In the story of Abram, faith requires bold new starts ("Go from your country..."), a reliance upon God and a constant questioning.  Armstrong states that "Genesis indicates that it is the role of faith to make us more productive and more at ease with the world."

     The next four chapters of Joshua (16-20) relates the division of the land according to tribe.  Asimov notes that these allotments are very small in most cases and were made according to instructions which Joshua recorded as having received from God.  Asimov also points out the importance of the fact that the tribe of Levi received no actual land grant.  Their central role was that of serving as a priesthood and for that purpose it was considered enough that its members be granted a number of towns scattered through the tribal areas.

     Psalm 9 is one of thanksgiving and in verse 9 we read: "The Lord is a stronghold for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble."  In Psalm 10 the psalmist praises God: "O Lord, you hear the desires of the afflicted, you will strengthen their heart;  you will incline your ear to do justice to the fatherless and the oppressed, so that the man who is of the earth may strike terror no more."  In Psalm 11: "In the Lord I take refuge."   Further, "The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence."  

   Job continues his lamentations in Chapter 7, becoming even more pitiful (Job 7:3): "So I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me."  Job's buddy Bildad then gives the first of his three speeches in the Book of Job, this one calling on Job to repent (Job 8:6): "If you are pure and upright, surely then he will rouse himself for you and restore your rightful habitation."  As if this couldn't make Job feel bad enough, Bildad continues (8:13): "Such are the paths of all who forget God.  The hope of the godless shall perish."   Incidentally and totally unrelated, Bildad is also the name of one of the owners of The Pequod, Ahab's whale ship in Melville's Moby Dick.

The Pequod

     Isaiah chapters 18 through 22 predicts the fall of many nations.  Asimov points out that the following chapters (24 through 28) are referred to as "The Apocalypse of Isaiah" (more on this next week) and that these chapters are a forecast of a more generalized destruction for Earth.  In Chapter 18 Isaiah uses the figure of the harvest to remind us that God determines the course of earthly events and that we must wait for God to decide what happens when.  In Chapter 19 Isaiah predicts disaster for Egypt.  God's judgement is seen as civil turbulence and that "The Nile will dry up."  He notes unrest between Egypt and Assyria and that Israel will become a mediator and a blessing for these troubled nations.  Isaiah feels so strongly about this that in Chapter 20 he walks around barefoot and naked for three years as a portent and a sign to Egypt and Assyria.  In Chapter 22 readers are reminded that military preparedness does not replace faithfulness to God.

    Chapter 8 of Matthew contains many familiar stories of Jesus' ministry in Galilee.  His fame is spreading as a healer.  Matthew relates the stories of the leper, the Centurion's paralytic servant and the demoniacs.  The story of Jesus in the boat with his disciples during a storm also appears here.  Jesus calming the storm evokes this memorable observation from the disciples: "What sort of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him?"  (Matt 8:27).  Chapter 9 has Jesus being accused of blasphemy and his challenge of contemporary religious views: "I have come to call not the righteous, but sinners." (Matt 9:13).  Matthew 10 has Jesus commissioning and instructing his disciples: "Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel."  (Matt 10: 6),  He also gives them specific guidelines for how to conduct their mission work.