April 23, 2018 - Day 15 - Genesis 15

I am writing from my hotel room in San Jose, CA.

Genesis 15:

Some of this one is just silly.

This chapter opens with Abram being told not to fear in a vision from the Lord.  Abram responds by saying "what can you give ME," and then blaming God for not giving him children, followed by pouting that his servant will be his heir.  The Lord rewards Abram for his behavior and says the servant will not be an heir, but that his own flesh and blood will be.

So the Lord reminds Abram that he will take possession of the land, and Abram asks how will he know.  OH THIS NEXT PART.

The Lord asks Abram to bring:  a heifer (a young cow that hasn't given birth yet), a goat and a ram (each three years old), a dove, and a pigeon.  Come on y'all.  Now is a good chance to drop biblical literalism.  Why on earth does the creator of the universe give even the smallest damn about animal sacrifices?  Really.  This is so painfully obvious that primitive man thinks this is a way to please an unseen deity.  Again, this tells us literally nothing about God, yet a whole lot about primitive man.

To add to the bizarreness of this, Abram "cuts them in two and arranged the halves opposite each other."  NOT THE BIRDS THOUGH LOL.  Picture this.  And then picture God smiling or something because he lined them up just right?  Or maybe the halves were just perfect.  Nothing pleases the creator of the universal like a bilateral slice!

So Abram passes out and the Lord tells him that for 400 years his descendants will be strangers in a country that isn't theirs, they'll be enslaved and mistreated.  Well that escalated quickly.  The Lord also tells Abram that the nation who enslaves them will be punished and that his people will come out with great possessions.  Some weird fire stuff happened and the Lord again promised some land to Abram's descendants, for no apparent reason at all.

Taken literally, this story is nonsense and God is bipolar.  Why punish people for 400 years who did nothing wrong?  Sure they'll leave with possessions at the end, but what good is that to the people who lived during the first 300 years of being mistreated.  This story is worthless if its literal.

My friends, the meaning is in the metaphor.

"The journey into our best future always passes through the furnace."  - Erwin McManus




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