Leviticus

Given that it has been prophesied that they will fall, if I were transported into the land with the Israelites during a time of rebellion, but with knowledge of the future, and the blood of Christ, would there be any significant difference between them and myself with regard to ability to follow God? Why or why not?

Transported back in time to the land of Israel at the time of judges just in time to see the people falling away from God, I think that I would be able to withstand the spreading evil better than most of the Israelites. While those under the old covenant and those under the new covenant serve the same God, we who are under the new covenant have a much closer relationship to God than those under the old covenant. Those under the old covenant mostly serve God out of fear or respect. Because of the distance between them and God, it would be a lot harder for them to serve him out of love. It would be especially hard to know that God was loving if you had watched him kill thousands of your people. From the new covenant, however, it is much easier to love God. We have his sacrifice on the cross to look to, and we are drawn much closer to God than those in the old covenant. He is our father. This means that when the fear begins to get old, and God’s people begin to forget what happened a few generations ago, those in the old covenant lose most of the reason why they serve God. However, for those in the new covenant, we have survived for many, many generations because we love him for what he has done.

Another difference between the old and new covenants is that while the sacrificial system of the old covenant dealt with the external consequences of sin, it was powerless to loosen the stranglehold of sin on the people. In the new covenant, Christ conquered death and gave us the Holy Spirit, so we have a new nature. We have been changed from the inside out. This means that while those under the old covenant are still prone to sin, we are less so. When the people begin to forget why they are following God, those under the new covenant still have the holy spirit in them to remind them, and their changed nature to remind them, while those under the old covenant have neither of those, and only have exterior reminders that are easily ignored.

Also, in the moments that God doesn’t make sense, when life is not fair, those in the old covenant can only cower and wonder and remember God’s past deeds. We in the new covenant have direct access to God, and we have the bible, including the new testament. We have a much more obvious reason to believe that God loves us in Christ’s death and resurrection than the Israelites had at that point.

For myself in particular placed in a time of complacency and forgetfulness, I think that I would have a pretty hard time until things got rough. It is so easy to forget when things are easy. I still think that I would be able to stand where the issues are clear cut. I suppose it would depend on what stage of decay was present at that time.

Numbers: Why the Wandering?

Although forty years of wandering in the desert may seem like a waste of time, and detour from fulfilling God’s purposes, there are several possible objectives for sending the Israelites out into the desert to wander that are not simply about wasting time. One is to purge the people of evil, another is to make them grateful. Yet another reason is to make them obedient. Other possible reasons are to give them time to recover from the large numbers of people who got struck dead, or to strengthen their resolve to enter the land so they don’t run at the first tight of a fight, or to discipline the people. While some may argue that that the given objectives are adequate to explain the forty years of wandering, each of these possible objectives leaves the question of why these things need to be accomplished unanswered.

There is, however, an objective that answers the question of why these things need to be accomplished. If the forty years of wandering in the desert were to bring God glory, then each of the above tasks are to bring God glory. They fit under and support this overarching purpose This is also an objective that does not beg the question of why it is necessary.

While it may seem to be a bad witness for God to be killing large portions of his people, purging evil from God's people does bring glory to God's name, both at the time, and in the future. At the time, it shows that he is a just god who doesn't tolerate evil, and punishes sins accordingly. A purified nation is also more capable of bringing glory to his name in the future by providing the nations with a good witness of who the Lord is throughout the generations than a nation that God doesn't purify.

It also beings glory to God’s name for Israel to learn gratitude. If they are grateful for what he had given them, then they will praise him and give glory to His name. The forty years in the wilderness gave them many things to be thankful for. God guided them safely, and they survived the wilderness. He fed them for forty years on manna. He gave them water. If forty years of miracles is not enough to produce a grateful nation, nothing will. Also, forty years of doing amazing things for his people will cause future generations to praise him. Other nations will see what he has done for his people and will praise him for that as well.

The objective of making the people of Israel obedient is similar to the objective of purging them of evil, except that it is aimed more at changing the actions of the survivors than stopping the spread of evil. It too brings glory to God by providing a witness to the nations. He has chosen the people of Israel to be his representatives among the nations. Forty years in the desert watching God strike thousands of people dead because they didn't obey him is a really good incentive to obey him, and to give him the honor he demands.

Reflections

This summer I am undertaking to read a semsters worth of books for Torrey (the honors program I am in), write the essays that go with them, and learn calculus and physics. It is a daunting prospect, but I think it should be doable if I don't procrastinate too much.

It makes me wonder though, why I never bothered to apply myself during highschool. I could have already taken the calculus and physics, and I could have read these books and thought about them. But no, I graduated by the skin of my teeth, having spent most of my summers working on school. I always had such good intentions, but life was so much more interesting than studying. I wasted so much time doing things that were trivial. I know that some of my 'wasted' time was actually well spent enjoying nature, friends, and my imagination, but the majority of my time was spent procrastinating and making tasks I disliked take as long as possible. I wish I had known, I wish that I had realized just how much of my life I was frittering away by refusing to give the effort necessary.

This past year I wasn't that much better, wasting my time on pointless things like youtube and videos. Yeah, I spent time with friends and had a life, but I could have invested so many more hours on relationships or studies. Instead, I found myself feeling worked to the bone with a workload that I know I could have carried easily if I had been willing to work.

How is it that we manage to waste our time so thoroughly that we have no time to play? It is just redicuous.

So, this summer I hope to take the first step towards learning to invest my time, and not throw it about...I'll keep ya updated on how it goes....

Exodus: Why the Promised Land?

There are three possible reasons why God is so determined that Israel will have Canaan: that the Canaanites need to be kicked out; that God promised Abram, Isaac, and Jacob that their descendants would have Canaan; that and a nation must have land to be stable.

The Canaanites are desperately wicked, and God, being a just god, has decided to destroy them. This is the region that Sodom and Gomorrah were in before they were destroyed. God has promised to give this land to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’s descendants, however, and if the land is abandoned, it will not be a lush and prosperous land anymore. God wants the Israelites to come and be his implements of justice on the Canaanites so that then the Israelites can take possession of the land.

As was mentioned above, God promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that their descendants would eventually own Canaan. Israel is the nation that is descended from them, so it makes sense that Israel should get Canaan.

However, while these reasons seem logically sound, they are not adequate to fully explain why God promised a land in the first place when he promised a nation from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Why was it so important that the nation to come was to have a land, and why that particular land? Perhaps the answer is that having a land is one of the prerequisites to having a stable nation, and Canaan is particularly suited for starting a nation.

In order to have a stable nation, there are several things that are necessary. First, one needs people. This seems rather obvious. Second, one needs a code of laws that are agreed upon by the people and a means of enforcing them. This is necessary to prevent anarchy and the self destruction of the nation. Third, the people need a land to live on that can support them that is moderately defensible. Without a land, a nation will necessarily splinter. It is not practical to have a nation sized group of people wandering around. The land would be incapable of supporting them. Once a nation splits into traveling groups, they will grow separate, and after a few generations will cease to adhere to a single identity or God. Also, a nomadic nation is at risk of being destroyed because they have no cities in which to hide the noncombatant members when attacked.

God is creating a nation out of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He provided the people, the Israelites. He also provides the laws, and the method of enforcement. All that is left is the land. He has promised them Canaan, and Canaan is ripe for the taking. It is a prosperous country in the middle of the desert. It is also a place that is the crossroads of several trade routs. Because of the terrain, it is quite defensible. Canaan is the best land that there is in that area, and God is not a god who gives shoddy gifts, so Canaan is the land that he chose to give them.

Genisis: God's mercy

God, in the beginning, made man in his image, and gave him the Garden of Eden, a woman, and only one command. That command was not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Death was the punishment for disobedience. Eve, however, was tempted by the serpent and ate the fruit and Adam ate it too. God expelled them from the garden and cursed them. Death entered the world, and as our ancestors died eventually, so must we. This could be the entire story, the end of the story.

This, however, is not the end of the story. When people become so evil that God wants them all dead, he spares Noah and his family. Then, when humanity again erupts into evil, he changes their languages, protecting them from their own power. People still refuse to follow him, and instead turn to gods of their own creation, gods who demand obscene rights and horrendous sacrifice. Gods who live on fear and blood. From this chaos God pulls one man, Abram. When Abram follows him in faith, God promises to give him children and a land for them to inherit. After Isaac, the child of the promise, is born, God tells Abram to sacrifice Isaac to him. To those who have been steeped in the Bible, this may not seem a big thing. It is a test of Abram’s faith. That’s all. The idea of child sacrifice is horrifying, and of course God would never make Abram actually kill Isaac. To Abram, however, this was very different. Abram lived at a time when child sacrifice was common, expected. The fact that Abram believes that somehow he will come back down the mountain with Isaac, and that he believes that the god he serves is good is what is really weird. It was the logical assumption. Abram, however, is right. God provides an animal to sacrifice instead of Isaac, a substitute. This is weird, different. God’s mercy and compassion are seen in stark contrast with the other gods, who would have simply demanded Isaac’s blood.

God is good. It is so easy to read Genesis and just see the things that are taught in Sunday School. It is so easy to miss the wonder of how different God is from any other God. What other God is both just and merciful? What other God demands sacrifice for atonement of sin and then becomes his own creation to pay that debt with his own blood? What other God died for the very people who have rebelled against him? How is it that we find it so easy to ignore what we have been saved from. The world of Genesis seems so very far from our own that we cannot see that it is our world. We serve gods that demand child sacrifice, obscene rights, the very destruction of our souls. We serve ourselves. We need a savior before we are destroyed by our gods. God has provided a savior, but we find it the story clichéd. God have mercy.

Paradise Regained: Why this ending?

At then end of Paradise Regained, Jesus wins a tremendous victory over Satan, causing Satan to fall from the sky[1]. After this great victory though, he “unobserved, / Home to his mother's house private returned.”[2] He went home, back to life as usual with no fanfare, nothing to mark that the Son of God had just defeated Satan. This seems an odd thing for a victor to do. The expected course of action would be for him to return home in a blaze of glory, declare his victory and claim his throne. Christ, however, simply and sedately goes back to his duty, back to obscurity.

One possible reason that Milton ended Paradise Regained this way is to continue to show the very marked contrast between Jesus and Satan. Throughout both Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, Satan is shown to be in pursuit of glory. Jesus, however, is not seeking glory for himself, and has submitted himself to his fathers will, to bring glory to his father[3]. For Jesus to go home asserting his victory would have been looking for glory for himself. In having Jesus return home unobserved, Milton is showing that Jesus still is not concerned with his own glory even when he has something to glory in. God’s glory is more important to him.

Also, for Jesus to have come out of the wilderness declaring his victory would have cost him that same victory. He won over Satan because he was not in it for his own glory. For Christ to declare himself victorious would have been seeking glory at the expense of the father.

The ultimate glory that Jesus could bring to God was his crucifixion. If he had conquered Satan but not beaten sin and death, all he would have accomplished was showing that he was stronger than Satan. Satan, however, would still have had the last laugh because he took humanity down with him. It was not just about Satan. It was about undoing the damage that Satan had done. To do that, humanity had to be restored. If Christ had gone back and proclaimed his victory, at that point the Romans might have crucified him, but he would not have been the innocent sacrifice for sins. Declaring himself king and then getting killed would have changed the meaning of his death. He would have died for insurrection, not because he was eerily innocent. Also, having declared himself king, it would have been abdication to let himself be killed. He would have looked like just another failed revolutionary. The amazing, different thing about Jesus was that he was not another revolutionary. He knew his kingdom was of another realm, and admitted it readily. To come out and declare victory over Satan would have been to claim his kingdom then and there, thereby losing it. He had to go back and be a carpenters son who could do miracles, read minds, cast out demons, and who was eventually killed for being too good, and for threatening with his very goodness the corrupt powers that were.

---

[1] IV. 560-581

[2] IV.638-639

[3] IV286-364

Spiderman 3

So, back when I was still at school, a couple of friends and I went to see Spiderman. I really meant to post about it, but somehow, life was crazy enough that I just never got around to it. So, although it has been a while, and my thoughts are not as together as they were, I shall try to say what I thought of the movie.

First off, I enjoyed it immensely. I do not claim to be a good media critic. I could see that there were some flaws in the movie, but viewing it for the sake of the story told, I enjoyed it, and thought it did well.

I thought it was interesting how the movie made a point of jerking the viewer around emotionally. That is something that not a lot of movies made nowadays do, at least that I have noticed. It was skillfully done, and heart wrenching.

The story, however, and the characters themselves, are what made me think the most. Peter Parker was a good boy, or at least, he had good intentions, but he bungled so badly, especially with Mary Jane. I have heard it said that she was simply a spoiled brat who needed to grow up and let Peter be Spiderman. While perhaps she was weak, I do not think that this allows Peter off the hook. To be blunt, if Peter was not prepared to protect her, to be there for her and to listen, to put her needs above his own, he had no right messing with her heart. She knew what she was doing when she chose him despite his being Spiderman. She chose to give up a whole lot because she loved him. What, however, was Peter willing to give up for her? In the first half of the movie, he does not even seem willing to give her the few minutes she needs to talk to him about her job. She needed him, and he was too busy being caught up in his own coolness to hear her out. Yes, maybe she should of spoken up, but if he had been actually paying attention, her face screamed that she was broken, bruised, and battered, that she needed him to listen, to just be there.

The culmination of Peter's bumbling idiocy was his letting Gwen Stacy kiss him upside-down. True, he didn't know how special his upside-down kiss with MJ was to her, but is that any excuse? He should have known. That he did not was a sign that he did not really even know her. Why not? How long had he known her? How long had he thought that he loved her? Can you really love someone you do not even know?

Oddly enough, for me I think the hero of the movie is Harry, not so much Spiderman. True, as the Green Goblin, he was a beast, but as himself, he conquered the monster inside himself and helped save his friends. He knew what it was to be popular, but it did not consume him. He was there for MJ, and honestly, before he remembered what he had become, he was more worthy of her love than Peter. His love demonstrated that it ran deeper, beyond mere words and into actions.

Spiderman's battle against the darkness within himself was very interesting. I like how the movie portrayed revenge...a desire that poisons you until you become the very thing you desire to destroy. It destroys you from the inside out. Regardless of what needs to be done to the person who has wronged you, revenge should not be an option. Justice, yes, but only for the sake of justice itself, not for one's own self-gratification. What good is it to destroy the one who harmed you, if you are eaten alive by your bloodlust?

I also thought that the dichotomy between Peter and Eddie Brock was interesting. Both of them start out the same, excepting Peter's being Spiderman. While Peter has prided himself on his virtue, Eddie shows himself to be not above ditching virtue to get what he wants. When the symbiote tries to take over Peter by playing on his desire for revenge, it cannot drown out the fact that Peter is a boy who wants to do the right thing. He may bungle, but he really does want to do the right thing. However, when the symbiote tries to take over Eddie Brock, Brock has no such defenses against it, and instead embraces his doom, even to the point of self-immolation.

So...thoughts? I think there was more I wanted to say, but it seems to have gotten lost....