Genesis Notes: The Consequences

Gustave Doré, Adam and Eve hiding from God

GENESIS 3:7-15
This is the scene when God comes calling and Adam and Eve hide from Him. I almost could laugh at the whole "blame game" they play, pointing fingers at everyone but refusing to take any personal responsibility. No one even says they are sorry at all. However, it is too serious to laugh at because this doesn't just affect them but all of us, which is still how it is when we sin today. Also, just as today, is the fact that God already knows what they have done. He is giving them a chance to redeem themselves by confessing their sins. He doesn't need their confession. It is for their benefit. What a shame that they didn't take advantage of that chance. Even today we fall into the same trap. I think that is why Reconciliation is such a wonderful sacrament. There is nothing so wonderful as being able to face up to your sins, confession and being forgiven, as well as being strengthened for future struggles against temptation.

The surprise for me in this segment of study was realizing that when God tells how the devil will be defeated, He is deliberately choosing the most ignominious way to do it. What could be worse than knowing you will be put in the power of those you despise as the devil does humans? This is when we see what is a major theme of Genesis: God does His work through reversals.

... a battle already existed in the rebellion of Satan against God. The difference now is that God is gong to extend the battle to include the human beings. Initially, the humans had been targets of the devil's wrath against God. But now God is going to enlist the humans on His side. Could the serpent have possibly imagined this incredible twist? It is the first great reversal in the story of man. From this point on, reversal will be the underlying theme of our human history. Pause now to think carefully about this. However we come to understand ourselves and our world, we must get this one truth firmly in place — God does His work through reversals.

Remember the contempt for the humans that filled the serpent, infusing that deadly conversation he began with Eve? The devil despised Adam and Eve. They must have looked like such dupes to him. He decided he would strike out at God by striking out at them. He made patsies of them in short order. They appeared to be weak links in the chain. So, when God announces that the serpent, as his punishment, will face a battle with human creatures, the woman and her seed, in which he will be defeated, it is a crushing, mortal blow to his pride and arrogance. We need to linger long enough to let it really sink in. Whatever the devil attempted to rob from humanity — our life, our dignity, our exalted position in God's family-is more than made up for in the punishment meted out to him. God will vanquish His enemy through human beings!

Genesis 1: God and His Creation

This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Well Said: Fulfillment

Fulfillment does not lie in comfort, ease, and following one's inclinations, but precisely in allowing demands to be made upon you, in taking the harder path. Everything else turns out somehow boring, anyway. Only the person who recognizes an ideal he must satisfy, who takes on real responsibility, will find fulfillment. It is not in taking, not on the path of comfort that we become rich, but only in giving.

Pope Benedict XVI

Worth a Thousand Words: Cypress Trees in Cibolo Creek

Cypress trees reflected in Cibolo Creek, Cibolo Nature Center - Boerne, Texas
by Jason Merlo Photography, used by permission

Well Said: Each and All

Little thinks, in the field, yon red-cloaked clown,
Of thee from the hill-top looking down;
The heifer that lows in the upland farm,
Far-heard, lows not thine ear to charm;
The sexton, tolling his bell at noon,
Deems not that great Napoleon
Stops his horse, and lists with delight,
Whilst his files sweep round yon Alpine height;
Nor knowest thou what argument
Thy life to thy neighbor's creed has lent.
All are needed by each one;
Nothing is fair or good alone.
I thought the sparrow's note from heaven,
Singing at dawn on the alder bough;
I brought him home, in his nest, at even;
He sings the song, but it pleases not now,
For I did not bring home the river and sky; —
He sang to my ear, — they sang to my eye.

The delicate shells lay on the shore;
The bubbles of the latest wave
Fresh pearls to their enamel gave;
And the bellowing of the savage sea
Greeted their safe escape to me.
I wiped away the weeds and foam,
I fetched my sea-born treasures home;
But the poor, unsightly, noisome things
Had left their beauty on the shore,
With the sun, and the sand, and the wild uproar.

The lover watched his graceful maid,
As 'mid the virgin train she stayed,
Nor knew her beauty's best attire
Was woven still by the snow-white choir.
At last she came to his hermitage,
Like the bird from the woodlands to the cage; —
The gay enchantment was undone,
A gentle wife, but fairy none.

Then I said, "I covet truth;
Beauty is unripe childhood's cheat;
I leave it behind with the games of youth:" —
As I spoke, beneath my feet
The ground-pine curled its pretty wreath,
Running over the club-moss burrs;
I inhaled the violet's breath;
Around me stood the oaks and firs;
Pine-cones and acorns lay on the ground;
Over me soared the eternal sky,
Full of light and of deity;
Again I saw, again I heard,
The rolling river, the morning bird; —
Beauty through my senses stole;
I yielded myself to the perfect whole.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Worth a Thousand Words: A Domestic Interior

Charles Joseph Grips, A Domestic Interior, 1881

It's the cat that makes it work. As anyone who has a cat would tell you. Or any cat would tell you, for that matter. If they deigned to bother with conversation.

Rose on Reading Envy: A Good Era for Communists

Rose joins Jenny on the Reading Envy podcast ... where they cover a lot of ground, historically and geographically, from moody moors to being raised by vampires for political reasons to whether or not an Oprah Book Club sticker makes us more or less interested to read a book.

I can't wait to hear this! Two of my favorite people, both ambitious readers, finally together!

I see that the "books mentioned" list manages to rival my own. Nicely done ladies!

June 6, 2016 by George Allan England

Jesse came across this story, written a hundred years ago, which predicted what life would be like "in the world of tomorrowwwwww."

I read it aloud and then Jesse, Paul, Maissa and I discuss it at SFFaudio.

I was surprised at what George England got right and interested in some of the inventions he got wrong. I wonder what the author would think of the future? Listen in and find out.

Well Said

Look around. You can't tell who was conceived with wine and roses and who was conceived on a street corner.

Juda Myers, Conceived in Rape, Living with Purpose

Worth a Thousand Words: Cat Nap

Cat Nap,
public domain from the British Library's Children's Book Illustrations
via Lines and Colors

Worth a Thousand Words: Wry Smile

Wry Smile
taken by Valerie at ucumari photography, some rights reserved

Well Said: Communication and Conversation

Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so we can have some conversation.

Miss Manners

Vikings at Dino's: A Novel of Lunch and Mayhem by Will Duquette

Vikings at Dino's: A Novel of Lunch and Mayhem by William Duquette

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

When the Viking war party burst through the front entrance of Dino’s Burgers & More, it was second nature for me to slide quietly under my table. When you’re small for your age, it’s often useful not to be noticed. Once on the floor I waited on events, peering out as best I could past the swivel seats, and wondering what was going to happen. Vikings are not a usual sight at Dino’s. I could tell they were Vikings, because they were wearing bear-skins and helmets with horns on them. There were six or seven of them, all heavily armed. I use the word “heavily” with precision—the battle axes they were toting so nonchalantly looked too big for me to lift. I admit to being suspicious of their motives. Most people I see walking into Dino’s, I figure they are there to eat something. Vikings, well, you have to assume Vikings are there for plunder. The big question in my mind was, were they planning to plunder the living or the dead?

This book is great fun. It is also a wonderful adventure as Michael tracks down not only the Vikings' origins but other mysteries. And tries, repeatedly, to have lunch.

I don't want to say too much because a lot of the joy is in letting the story sweep you along. I will say that I was greatly impressed by Will Duquette's imagination and the way I could "see" the different, exotic locations. I was put in mind of C.S. Lewis's ability to create "worlds" for Mars and Venus in his science fiction series.

Full disclosure. I am friends with the author and read the book in various stages of development. That's no guarantee I'd like it or say that I liked it. But I really, really did.

Worth a Thousand Words: Persephone and Sisyphus

Persephone supervising Sisyphus in the Underworld,
Attica black-figure amphora (vase), c. 530 BC
Photo source

UPDATED - Blogging Around: Dear Hollywood, Why Do You Want Me Dead?

I hadn't heard of Me Before You, either the book or the movie, but am appalled at the premise. (Sometimes living under a rock is a good thing.) 

An 11-year-old wheelchair athlete responds to the upcoming movie, Me Before You, which celebrates choosing suicide as a response to being handicapped or paralyzed.

This could have been a great movie. It could have been the love story of two people and one of them just happens to use a chair. It happens all the time. The people in love don’t think about the chair. It’s the other people who think it’s a big deal.

The thing about the chair is it’s just a thing. It’s my legs. It’s how I get around. That’s it.

While you’re sitting in your offices crying about the bravery of this guy who kills himself and leaves everyone else to mourn him, which seems pretty selfish to me, I’m going to be out living the amazing life you didn’t even bother to know was possible. I have friends, and go on sleep-overs, and live a regular life. A life that doesn’t make me want to die. It makes me happy that it’s mine.

Amen! Read the whole article at Alateia.

ALSO: as the other side of how to tell this story, allow me to recommend two movies, both French as it turns out — Intouchables and The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. Unlike Me Before You, both those films are based on real stories.

UPDATED
Sherry at Semicolon wrote a review of the book a few years ago which she has reposted for anyone interested. Short version: she calls the book "poisonous."

Rebecca Frech says Me Before You highlights society's bias against disabled people. As the mother of a wheelchair user, she had supplemental questions to add to the book club discussion questions in the back of the book. See her whole piece at National Catholic Register. Here's are a few of the questions, which I found good as a refresher for regular life.

• Will’s life is portrayed as being valuable only in relation to other people and in what he means to them. Does his life have intrinsic value independent of anyone’s opinion, even his own?
• This book/movie has been applauded by the able-bodied community, but almost universally condemned by those in the disability community. Is that an indication that perhaps there’s a problem with the way his life has been portrayed?
• The only suicides that are shown as acceptable by Hollywood standards, and applauded by audiences, are those of disabled individuals. Can the suicides of healthy, able-bodied people be justified in a similar way?

Genesis Notes: Temptation and Response

The Fall of Adam and Eve as depicted in the Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo

GENESIS 3:4-5
We also are shown how Satan cleverly twists the truth, putting a "spin" on it to serve his own purposes. He makes his offer in such a way that Adam and Eve must have total trust in God to prevail. This makes it a little easier for me to understand Adam and Eve's behavior. I always wondered how anyone who got to walk with God every day could make such a choice. Well, we've all got weak spots, right? Genesis Part 1: God and His Creation prompts me to have a little more compassion for Adam and Eve who are looking the devil right in the eye and having to think on their feet.

They know what God has revealed to them to be good and evil, although they have not yet experienced it. The serpent suggests not that they shall experience evil (for where is the attraction in that?) but that they will be able to determine for themselves what is good or evil. This temptation strikes at the heart of their relationship with God. Can they trust God to be the only reliable authority about what is good and evil? Don't they want to figure it out for themselves?

John tells us that Satan "is a liar and the father of lies." Satan is adept at lying under the cover of partial or twisted truth. When he says "You will not die," there is a grain of truth in it. Adam and Eve do not die physically the moment they eat the fruit. Their death was a spiritual one, and, as we will see, it happened immediately. This characteristic of Satan-mixing a little truth with a lie-is what makes him so cunning and dangerous.

This is probably one of the most surprising things I read about Genesis ... that Eve wasn't alone when she was tempted. The use of second person plural in Hebrew makes it clear that Adam was there too. Holy Moly! That changes my view of the whole thing. It also is interesting because it shows the two ways we tend to respond to temptation ... taking action as Eve did or passive acceptance as Adam showed.

Because Eve turns and gives fruit to her husband, it appears Adam is right there with her in the garden. Some Bible translations are more specific: the NIV says she "gave some to her husband, who was with her." That is perhaps the only way to get across in English what is abundantly clear in the Hebrew. All the verbs the serpent uses are in the second person plural, indicating that he is speaking to more than one person. We are not told why Adam is silent. Given that he is in charge and sees it all happening, he should do something. Quite possibly the snake was intimidating, if not physically, then by the fact that he appears to have superior knowledge and contradicts God. Adam may be wondering where he came from -- why God didn’t warn him -- where God was at the moment -- whether the serpent was right, and whether he should do what it says because right now it looks pretty dangerous. Perhaps Adam perceives a veiled threat from the serpent when he assures Eve that they wouldn’t die if they eat the fruit. "No, eating it won’t make you die, but not eating it might." At the most basic level, the serpent’s challenge causes Adam to wonder whether he can trust God. And-like uncertainty does to us so often-he’s rendered speechless and unwilling to act ...

Adam’s status as child of God, husband of Eve, and keeper of the garden requires him to stand up in some way to the serpent, and he does not. He should have stepped in to defend his bride, the garden, and God’s name in whatever way that battle had to be fought. If the thought of that was frightening to him, he could have cried out for help from God: "Oh, Father! What do I do now?" Was he silent because he was calculating the cost of opposing the serpent? Did he think it might cost him his life, or, if not his life, at least some pain? Did he find no encouragement in the presence of the Tree of Life? God had said the only way he would die would be to eat of the forbidden fruit. Does he not trust God?

No, he does not. His trust in God dies when he encounters the serpent. He does not trust God enough to face down the challenger, whatever it might cost. Adam’s unwillingness to act, even if it meant suffering, left Eve vulnerable to the serpent. She is left to manage all on her own. She valiantly tries to make the best of it, but what effect does Adam’s silence and inaction have on her? Adam’s self-donation would have confirmed her in what she knew to be true about God. His living example of putting complete trust in God’s Word would have led her to do the same.

This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.

Well Said: Dickens, A Friend

No one thinks first of Mr. Dickens as a writer. He is at once, through his books, a friend.

George Orwell

I like to think of George Orwell feeling that way about Charles Dickens. Orwell wrote a long essay about Dickens which I just discovered. I haven't read it yet, but feel that with a quote like that above, I will like it.

Blogging Around: Vans and Voices

The Lady in the Van

While she struggles with her own demons, her presence forces the whole neighborhood to examine just how much they're willing to help their fellow man, especially when their fellow man is so cantankerous and ungrateful.

Ah yes, it's one thing to give. Quite another to be charitable face-to-face. I was already interested in the movie but Rose's Double Exposure's review made me REALLY want to see it.

VocaliD

Worst logo spelling ever if you haven't heard of the company or concept. Think "Vocal ID" as you read over their worthy goal.

Over ten million people live with voicelessness. Much like Stephen Hawking, they rely on text-to-speech devices to express themselves. Yet, young or old, male or female, shy or outgoing — they all speak with similar voices.

Add to that the hundreds of millions who use generic sounding virtual assistants, GPS navigation, and screen readers, it becomes increasingly clear that digital voices must evolve.

VocaliD is the voice company that is bringing speaking machines to life. We leverage our voicebank and proprietary voice blending technology to create unique vocal persona for any device that turns text into speech.

You don't need special equipment and you can do it from your home in your spare time. Find out more at VocaliD.

Well Said: Joseph Waits for God and God Waits for Joseph

This is part of a commentary about Matthew 2:13 and the way that God communicates with Joseph in dreams.

Why is it that God cannot reveal his designs once and for all? Why must Joseph be continually dependent on God's next word, wherever and whenever it might come? ... Marvel of marvels, God conforms himself to the requirements of human psychology and history. God patiently shapes the fibers of a man's heart, that human love for God might be all the more genuine and lasting. The salvation Christ brings is for man, tailored to man's measure. It is no mere exhibition of what God can do. His sole purpose is the raising up of man from death to life, where man is and as he is. Therefore, Joseph ceaselessly waits for God and God for Joseph, and their ongoing dialogue is punctuated by the events going on in the world around God's Son and his Mother.

Erasmo Leiva-Merikakis,

Fire of Mercy, Heart of the Word

Worth a Thousand Words: Ella Fitzgerald

Ella Fitzgerald, Down Beat, William P. Gottlieb photographer
Forms part of: William P. Gottlieb Collection (Library of Congress)

Caption from Down Beat: A cliché worth repeating is that Ella is the greatest natural singer in the world. It's a thought that hits you anew every time you hear the gal rock. Believe me, that diamond studded queen's crown she wears on her bosom is no uncalled-for affectation.

Agreed!

Genesis Notes: Intimidation

GENESIS 3:1-3
To me a serpent is a serpent is a snake. But that is not the case in Genesis. I knew the serpent had a way with words but I never considered that part of his power of persuasion might have been a fearsome appearance or the fact that he directly bypassed the chain of command to strike at a weak link.

A 17th-century carved depiction of the serpent in the Book of Genesis,
Stokesay Castle, taken by Nick Hubbard

The serpent is "that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world." He is described as a great red dragon, with seven crowned heads and ten horns. In the heavenly vision from Revelation, the crowns and horns represent his tremendous power-he is a creature that strikes fear and dread into the souls of mere men. There are several treacherous or intimidating elements in this scene. To begin with, the serpent’s appearance is frightening. Even if he did not appear as the dragon of Revelation, it was certainly not as a common snake. In Hebrew the same word is used for serpent and dragon. It was a frightening figure in Hebrew thought. If you can’t imagine a dragon, picture a coiled rattlesnake, ready to strike.

Apart from his appearance, the serpent’s presence is intimidating: where did this creature come from? He also is treacherous in his words: he contradicts the only source of knowledge Adam and Eve have, the Creator they know as Father who has been nothing but good to them. And he is intimidating in his method: the snake, as one of the beasts, is presumably under Adam’s dominion. Yet here he is presenting himself as a creature with superior knowledge and information. Not only that, he completely by-passes Adam, who was in charge of the garden, speaking instead to Eve. He appears to be no respecter of authority-a usurper, in fact. Suddenly, things are not as they had seemed.

Genesis Part 1: God and His Creation

This series first ran in 2004 and 2005. I'm refreshing it as I go. For links to the whole study, go to the Genesis Index. For more about the resources used, go here.