Genesis 12-13; Job 1-2; Proverbs 1:1-7;
The readings of the day introduce us to interesting people. In Genesis, we enter the patriarch era, where we are introduced to Abram and Sa’rai (which will become the patriarch Abraham and his wife Sara) and, in the Book of Job, Job himself. We are also introduced to the Book of Proverbs.
Commentary on Genesis:
- God sends Abram to a new land and makes him three promises: through Abram, God will make a (1) great nation, (2) a great name, (3) and all the families of the earth will be blessed.
- Abram does as God said, and with his wife Sar’ai and his nephew Lot, starts his journey. When Abram is in Canaan, he makes an altar to the Lord, and He promises to give this land to him.
- Because of a famine in the land of Canaan, Abram is forced to go to Egypt. But, he is worried that the Egyptians will kill him to take his wife, as Sar’ai is a very beautiful woman. Thus, he says to the Egyptians that Sar’ai is his sister.
- The Egyptians see Sar’ai, and the Pharaoh makes Sar’ai his wife and takes her into his home. Because of her, the Pharaoh gives Abram many riches, including animals and servants.
- God afflicts the Pharaoh with plagues because of Sar’ai, leading the Pharaoh to return Abram his wife, and sending him on his way out of Egypt with all his newly acquired possessions.
- Abram and Lot return to Canaan, to the same place where he had built the altar.
- But now they had so many possessions, so many animals, that the land couldn’t support both of them together, thus they need to move apart from each other.
- Abram lets Lot choose where he wants to be, and Lot chooses to be near the city of Sodom, and the people of Sodom were “wicked”, great sinners.
- God reiterates the promise to Abram that He will give him all this land. This is part of the larger promise of making a great nation.
The elephant in the room: What? Did Abram really got “cucked” by the Pharaoh? Not only the Pharaoh took Sar’ai as his wife, this was planned by Abram?
I won’t go here on the historicity of the patriarchs’ story, but one thing that strikes me deeply is how different these stories are from what one would expect a creation myth to be. Instead of a flawless hero, we have an imperfect man like Abram. Instead of assertions that this land was always an Israelite land and thus they can claim that land, the narrative tells us that there are already other people living there, and that God will give this land to Abram.
Even with God’s promise, Abram doesn’t trust that God will care for him when he enters Egypt. He sins by not trusting the Divine Providence and his sin leads to brokenness in his family (the Pharaoh taking his wife). And it seems that he also shouldn’t have brought Lot to the journey, as God asks him to leave his country and kindred (family).
But Abram was faithful to God in leaving his original land and country and not even knowing where he was going to. He also is faithful in prayer by building an altar and making sacrifices. He also trusts in the providence when he says to Lot that he can choose the land that Lot thinks it’s best, knowing that wherever he is, God will take care of him.
Lot sees that the Jordan valley is a fertile region and moves in the direction of Sodom, a city of “great sinners”. Gen 13:10 says that the Jordan valley was well watered like the “garden of the LORD”. I think this is reference to The Fall, with the garden of the Lord being a reference to Eden. Lot goes towards a place of sin (Sodom) because of attractive features he sees in that region. Similarly to how Eve sees attractive features in the forbidden fruit (Gen 3:6).
Questions:
- If the Pharaoh know that God existed and His power, why did he and the Egyptians worshipped false gods?
Commentary on the Book of Job:
- Job is a blameless, righteous, and really wealthy man. He has a big family and huge possessions and land. He always offered burnt offerings because his children may have sinned.
- Satan when talking to God, accuses Job of only being a good servant because of his material possessions. And Satan says that if God removes all of Job’s material possessions, Job will curse God.
- God allows Satan to remove everything from Job, but not touch him. Then, all of Job’s material possessions are destroyed, robbed, his servants killed and all of his children die in an accident.
- Job, in severe distress, worships God, and doesn’t curse God or sin.
- After failing, Satan comes back to God, saying that Job will curse Him if he bodily suffers. God allows Satan to continue, as long as Job continues alive.
- Job is afflicted with a severe skin disease, with constant pain, weight loss, cracking skin and severe itching.
- Job’s wife seeing his agony tells him to curse God, so that He may punish Job with death, which would be preferable to living in this situation. A sort of Euthanasia.
- Job denies his wife suggestions and does not sin.
- Job’s three friends, when they heard of what happened, go visit Job.
I have really enjoyed the Book of Job. It is mostly written as poetry, in a very elegant and well-written way. The author is unknown, but he certainly is a literary master. Reading it feels like watching a tragic theatrical piece, with some sprinkles of humor along the way. The Book of Job narrates a story around a deep philosophical question: Why innocent people suffer?
This question is known in philosophy as the problem of evil. Why evil and suffering exist in a universe created by an all-powerful, all-knowing, good God? The premises of the Book of Job are perfect to explore this issue, because we know from the beginning that Job is completely blameless, he will indeed suffer without cause.
On the question of historicity, it seems most scholars believe the Book of Job is mostly a didactic work, that explore abstract ideas and concepts in a concrete setting. Although it may have some historical basis, God interaction with “the Ardiversary” do not conform to what is expected from testimony of witnesses, and the dialogues between Job and his friends do not follow dynamics of spoken conversations.
That said, again, I really like it, it is a pleasure to read it.
Job is a righteous and blameless man, a servant of the Lord. He is a rich man, with a big family and a lot of material possessions. Without cause, Job suffers. The context of how this happens is a “contest” between God and “Satan”. “Satan” in Hebrew is a legal term for “Adversary” or “Accuser”. Satan is the one who will accuse Job of worshipping the God only for selfish reasons, challenging God’s knowledge of Job’s motives.
In these series of contests, Satan will talk to God, accusing Job and trying to put him in a situation where he, the devil says, will turn against God. Job doesn’t turn against God in his suffering, though. In the following chapters, there will be dialogue between Job and his friends on why this is happening to him.
One parallel I found interesting is how Satan tries to make Job sin through his wife (the suggestion of Euthanasia), just like the serpent made Adam sin through Eve (Gen 3:1-6).
Commentary on Proverbs:
- We are introduced to the what the book of proverbs is about: a collection of teachings of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel.
- Fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
To grow in wisdom is a spritual quest, and the bedrock of the spiritual life is faith, a theological virtue. Faith allows us to recognize what is virtuous and vicious, and move away from sin and towards a communion with God.
St. Bede, in his Commentary on Proverbs differentiate between two types of “fear” of the Lord:
- Servile fear: corrects the error of sins. It is a fear because you fear the punishment for your wrongdoings. It is related to “imperfect contrition” when we sin and repent. Replaced by perfect love of God.
- Holy fear: the fear of a good son who is afraid to offend his loving father. Perfect love supplements this fear. It is related to “perfect contrition” when we sin and repent.
Applications:
- In our suffering, we should turn towards God, because He cares about us, will not abandon us, and will ultimately provide for us. But God will give what we need in the moment He judges is right. We must abandon our pride, persist in our prayers, and God will provide in the right moment, not in the moment that we want.
- Sin leads to brokenness. We must root out sin from our lives. We can only turn away from sin by strengthening our spiritual lives, acquiring wisdom and knowledge. And the basis of the spiritual lives is faith, and the fear of the Lord.