A History Lesson

This week we finish reading the first five books of the Bible, the Torah, the books of Law or teachings in our Grand Sweep journey of reading through the Bible. It is easy to get bogged down as we read through the lists of laws. But they were necessary as God took his people and formed them into a faith community. He had to instruct them in the ways of worship, in the ways of living together on a day in and day out basis, what basic health and nuitrition would be like and how to settle disputes. The laws sought to cover every conceivable situation so the people would know what was expected and what to do when particular circumstances arose. If the people had stuck with these laws, they would have found shalom, spiritual, emotional and physical well-bieing.

Now we move on to the history books. But the history books of the Bible are different from our history books. Modern history books seek to be objective. They seek to record history exactly as it happened. We have eye witness accounts to events that go on in the world and these are written down precisely. History is secular. We see it as happening separately from our religion. But this is not so in the Biblical world at all.

In the Biblical world, the peple were intent on observing and participating in what hppenend in and around them because they believed that God was personally alive and active in the world, in their community and in them. God was active in whatever was happening from a simple sunset to an encounter with a neighbor. For biblical people, God was not an idea that philosophers discussed. God was present in the ordinary and extraordinary occurrences of daily life. They did not make up and embellish fanciful stories. They simply revealed the ways of God with men and women and the world. They gave narrative shape to actual people and circumstances in their dealings with God and in God's dealings with them.

Sometimes they did not mention God a lot, as in the book of Esther. But that is because God's silent presence was in everything that was taking place. As far as the writers were concerned, the reason to pay attention to any event was to stay alert to God.

I hope that as we read these books, especially the difficult ones, we will remember how grounded in God they are. We will struggle because some are so harsh. The call to wipe out entire peoples is very difficult. We can only explain it by remembering the time in which the people lived. It was wipe out your enemy or be wiped out. And some of these cultures practiced horrors beyond our imagination that are not described in the pages of the bible. We simple have to keep reading and keep trusting God. So keep reading and what you will find is a history that is very different from "our" usual history. This history will pull us into a way of reading that involves us and everyone around us in all the ways of God.

Grace and peace,

Rev Linda