I always felt it showed how flawed Abraham was. In spite of his great faith "which was counted to him as righteousness" he made many bad choices. And so did Sarah. Our ancestors in faith had a lot of bumps along the way. Comforting I think.
I am afraid I am on only Chapter 5 Mary. There is a lot of obscure mystical references that would have you guessing for a hundred ears, but it is fun to do so. For instance it talks about the Nephilim, the Fallen Angels who mate with women and give birth to giants. I heard an exorcist say that the Nephilim are the, 'Spirits of the air'. Fallen angels who roam the Earth. They are very low level demons that sometimes possess people. Also people living so long. Many centuries. I think the bible explains this by saying the power of the Spirit of God was stronger in them back then. I must have a look at chapter 13 tomorrow. I have feeling that 99% of commentators would not go into this stuff. It would just seem crazy to them.
Frances identifies the nephilim as fallen angels who were manifesting on earth. Human DNA was interfered with and the offspring was not the seed of Adam. Jesus said it will be on earth before his second coming as it was in the days of Noah. Today we can see the rise in cloning and AI so we are really in a similar situation. Thinking about Abraham I think it's more evidence of Abrahams failure to trust God. He failed also when he had a child by Hager so God had lots of patience with him.
Yes. Very similar to Noah's day. Frances points out quite wonderfully that Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Jacob and even Moses and certainly Aaron had many serious failings but salvation history moved forward in spite of it. I find comfort in this.
Everywhere you look in scripture there are very deeply flawed men...even in the New Testament, St Peter and St Paul are such very good examples of this. Personally I find this very reassuring. It makes me feel a lot better about myself. It's the same with the Saints. I love the real sinners like St Mary Magdalene or Matt Talbot. I feel a lot more at home with them. Even recently I was reading about Noah drunk and naked. But the same Abraham who more nor less gave his wife to Pharoah to have things easy was willing to sacrifice his own son. It's like two people in the same body. I heard a priest say in a homily during the week that without grace we are all of us capable of all kinds of evil. As I get older I am less shocked by what people get up to in the Bible, remembering the kinds of things i have gotten up to myself. I love what Jesus said to St Faustina, that great sinners have all the more reason to count on God's mercy. It's almost as if God had a preference for the bad boys (and gals).
One great thing about the Bible; none of them are ever boring , they are all of them, both the good and the bad always up to something.
But you know it is not so much people that can shock in the Bible; it is God Himself who can really, really shock. Especially to modern ears. No wonder the Modernist heretics want to drop Scripture altogether. A Modernist must find the God he or she meets in the Bible impossible to handle. One of the first things the Protestants did was to drop Books of the Bible that were inconvenient, like St James and Maccabees. Inconvenient truths.
I am about half way through the complete Bible. I think it is great that people are doing it now. However, I think I was not entirely satisfied with Fr. Mike Schmitz. Don't get me wrong I have learned so much from Fr. Mike and his advisor, Jeff Cavins. However, the Old Testament is quite shocking in places. There came a point where I had a kind of tizzy fit with God. I had it out with Him and got very annoyed with Him and myself. This was a make or break moment - somewhere about Joshua or Judges. In the end I yielded to the LORD ... it was pointless resisting, trying to force God into some conception that I had of Him. I always start with with prayer, asking God to feed me with His Word, and to send His Holy Spirit to give me a right intetpretation of His word. I think that to read the New Testament in the light of the Old Testament is to develop a 'mature' Faith. It seems to me that the modern Church of 'nice' has its own conception of God - not one based on a mature understanding of Scripture. It is all 'luv'n forgiveness', acceptance and accompaniement. God is Love, yes - but to contemplate His Mercy is to contemplate His Justice also - two attributes of the Most High God. In my opinion, one thing which really becomes clear after reading the Old Testament is that God works with all types of fallen and dysfunctional persons. Even King David has some really bad history. Jesus did warn against being lukewarm, saying that it is better to be hot or cold. God can work with people better if they are not lukewarn - which I believe is why these times we are living in is so dangerous to souls. We are lulled into lukewarmness so easily. I do believe that to grapple with Scripture in the Old Testament leads to really surrenduring and trusting the LORD. It is said that the field of Scripture Studies or Biblical Exegesis is littered with those who have lapsed into atheism or deism. That is why I am interested in Kierkegaard. I believe he really grappled with his Christian Faith. He felt it in an intensely personal way. For him, to be an authentic believer was of the highest importance. Not to be two-faced or duplicitous in any way as regards his Faith in Jesus Christ. He struggled greatly with Abraham's 'teleological suspension of morality' which was God's way of testing Abraham. I am not sure Kierkegaard came to the right conclusions, but one thing is for sure, he was not lukewarm about his Faith. Somewhere into this little discourse or rant, I should say that I also acknowledge the importance of us Catholics yielding to the accepted interpretations of Scripture given by the Magisterium and Doctors of the Church.
What it says to me is that God never abandones us despite our weakness and sinfulness. He is the Potter who persists in reworking the clay. He knows we are dust and is never surprised by our sins.
Yes Dr Jordan Petersen is very good at this. The real danger is not in denying God, the real modern danger is burying poor God under a mountain of pink sugar.
There is a wonderful passage in Scripture were God compares Israel to His wife who runs off from Him betraying him with other men and becoming a Harlot. Yet God tells her that the door is always open to her to return as His wife. What human would do this?
