by
Michael Bogar
God made everything there is, but
the focus of the Hebrew story is on humans made in God's image and their lives
on the earth. God made humans "in His image, blessed them and gave them
the vocation of ruling the earth. But the humans experienced loss and
separation from the very first. They hurt themselves and each other as seen in
the stories told in Genesis chapters 3-11. So God called two people, Abraham
and Sarah, to repair the separation and alienation that filled the earth. God
gave Abraham and Sarah a promise--a special land, allowing them to settle and
have many children. He made them prosperous (blessed) in order that their
prosperity could spread through them to the whole earth, healing the division
and alienation on the earth. The reason for giving them the promised land was
to allow them to bless the entire earth.
The offspring of Abraham and Sarah,
through their son Isaac and grandson Jacob, grew into twelve tribes of people.
These twelve tribes eventually came to be named Israel, after their father
Jacob had wrestled with God and had his name changed to Israel which means "struggles with God". This would
foreshadow the entire biblical narrative as a story of people who wrestled with
the meaning of God and a human existence that had so much trouble in it. One of
Jacob's sons, named Joseph, ended up in Egypt where he became a very important political
administrator under the Pharaoh. At this time, in order to survive a famine,
Joseph arranged for his Israelite kin to move to Egypt for food and safety from
the famine. This respite turned into a 400 year ordeal, and the Israelites
eventually became slaves to the Egyptians. God designated a very important
Hebrew named Moses to lead the Israelites back to the land promised to Abraham.
On the way back, the Israelites received instructions from the "One True
God" about how to build and administrate their new religio-political society
with God as the ultimate leader. The Israelites journeyed for forty years, and
after Moses died, they were led by Joshua back into the promised land where
they settled, gradually growing into a great nation with monarchs leading them.
The nation prospered, especially under King David who was a masterful general,
benevolent sovereign and cultured poet. He wrote and gathered great literature
like the Psalms. His son Solomon
carried on this literary tradition, writing and collecting Proverbs and other perceptive literature like Job, Ecclesiastes and the
Song of Solomon. Solomon, however,
was a crafty politician and compromised the monotheism of Moses by making
treaties with the many polytheistic tribes and nations around him. These
treaties were often sealed with a marriage contract--causing Solomon to have
many wives who brought their polytheistic religions with them. The Hebrews
became more and more polytheistic and neglected the laws of Moses. The next
king, Solomon's son Rheoboam, was very selfish and split the nation in half
through his corrupt taxation policies. The northern faction came to be known as
The Ten Tribes of Israel, and the southern faction, ruled
by Rheoboam, was called Judah, named
after the ruling tribe of Judah (one of Jacob's twelve sons) in Jerusalem. The
northern Israelite faction was most often seen as polytheistic and errant,
while the southern Judahites were most often portrayed as monotheistic and
obedient to the ways God had revealed through Moses. These two groups fought
incessant civil wars. During this period God sent several prophets to warn
Israel and Judah to turn back to the ways of God as delivered by Moses. When
they wouldn't listen, God sent foreign powers to discipline His people in order
to get them all to reunite in the promised land given to Abraham and Sarah. The
prophets brought stiff warnings and judgments, but always closed with promises
of renewal and an optimistic future for Israel, Judah and sometimes the entire
earth. Eventually the northern Israelites (the ten tribes) were obliterated by
a great eastern power called the Assyrians, and the southern Judahites were
eventually conquered and taken into captivity by the Babylonians who had
conquered the Assyrians. It was during this time (c. 600 BC) that these exiled
Judahites began calling themselves the "Jews" (from the word Judah).
This is where the "Jews" began to write down their story in what came
to be called the Hebrew Bible or Christian
Old Testament. Eventually the
Persians conquered the Babylonians and allowed the "Jews" to return
to their promised land. A small group returned to Jerusalem to rebuild the city
and the temple. The majority of the "Jews", however, scattered throughout
modern day Africa, Iran, Turkey and Europe, continuing the new
"Jewish" religion that was formed in Babylon by building synagogues
where Rabbis taught from the Torah (Hebrew Bible/Old Testament). This tradition
would be the root of both Christianity and Rabbinic Judaism.
Four hundred years passed from the
return of the Jews to Jerusalem. At that time a Hebrew teacher named Jesus, who
had descended from the line of Abraham/Sarah and David, taught people that the
true promised land and lasting prosperity (blessing) arrive through surrender
to God as a caring Father. The goal of existence was to love God and your
neighbor (every human being). Jesus' life and teachings exemplified that
surrender to God and love for all humans, especially the down and out. Jesus
revealed that even in the horror of crucifixion one could know peace, joy and
the forgiveness of one's enemies. After Jesus’ crucifixion he was resurrected
by God and his followers declared that the world was now open to a larger
Reality for all people everywhere. They called the arrival of this new Reality
by several terms: kingdom of God, kingdom of heaven, eternal life, salvation,
etc. In this evolving new creation there was no more separation between male
and female, Jew and Gentile, slave and free. God loved all humans equally, and
the Jews were to be the conduit of this message, just as it was promised that
through Abraham "all of the earth would be blessed".
This message went "viral"
when a fellow named Paul had a powerful post-resurrection experience with the Living
Christ. Paul felt compelled to take this "gospel" (good news) to the whole
world, succeeding in some measure by spreading his message all of the way to
Rome. The original twelve disciples of Jesus, like Paul, went to Egypt, Persia,
India and to the corners of the known world, teaching that God's sacred Presence
was available to all who trusted in Jesus Christ as the first human to achieve
the original ideal of "the image of God" by removing all obstacles to
that goal. The message was considered unique in that it had the audacity to
proclaim that the Divine and human seeds were joined in a human womb, Mary's,
to form the first completed Human Being. Those who trusted this message were
immersed in water to symbolize their spiritual and psychological union with the
living Spirit of Christ. Evidence of this union would result in the psychic experience
of release from guilt, fear and death. These would be replaced by an overwhelming
desire to practice love for all people.
The last book of the Bible, The Revelation, speaks of an eventual
end of this old earth and the creation of a new earth formed out of uncorrupted
spiritual matter, populated by those whose consciousness has also been
transformed into the image of God through Christ. These people will also have
bodies made of pure spiritual matter where there is no more death, decay or
disease. Those who remain unconscious and spiritually oblivious will experience
obliteration. The biblical story ends in The
Revelation as it began in Genesis--with
a union of male and female in the Presence of God (Adam and Eve; Christ and the
Church).
No comments:
Post a Comment