Hebrew Bible and Christian Scriptures

Genesis 32:9-12

9 Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O LORD, who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’

10 I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two groups.

11 Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children.

12 But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’ ”

I find myself identifying with Jacob in this Passage.  What at first glance seems like a lofty and grand prayer, fails upon closer inspection.  Up until this point in his life, Jacob has lied and deceived his immediate and extended family and grifted through life.  He had certainly lived up to his name.  He had not relied on God for his blessing, but rather on his own cunning and sly abilities.  Suddenly, we see him cry out to God.  Esau is coming, and he is not alone!  The last interaction between the two brothers was not positive and Jacob is afraid of the actions his brother (and his 400 men) will take against him (32:7).   Jacob’s prayer is not motivated by thanksgiving, but by fear and necessity.  I can certainly relate.  I have voiced more than a few prayers that were motivated by mistakes coming back to haunt me.  The most recent examples that come to mind are procrastination and lengthy seminary assignments.  The closer the due date (or time), the more “heartfelt” my prayers become.  There are many more examples of insincere prayers that I have spoken over the years.  In most cases when the request is granted, my actions reveal that my prayer was insincere and I go right back to the behavior that initially motivated my frantic prayers.  Again, I find a parallel in Jacob.  After the brothers reconcile, Jacob’s actions reveal a less than grateful heart that does not represent the lofty prayer language in 32:7.  He lies to Esau and ditches him to go to Succoth.  Jacob’s actions betray the kindness that Esau showed him.

It doesn’t take long in reading Ezra and Nehemiah to pick up some pretty strong themes of election.  Perhaps this is nowhere as pronounced as in Ezra 4 where the Israelite leaders reject aid from the surrounding peoples.  The Israelites alone will share in the task of rebuilding the temple to the exclusion of all others.  1 and 2 Chronicles offers similar themes as they uphold and celebrate the election of the house of David to the kingship.  And all of this talk of election makes some of us a tad uncomfortable.  What it, after all, we were members of the surrounding peoples who were excluded from the temple project.  It’s never fun to be left out.

But what is the real root of this discomfort?  Is it a problem with God’s grace – that undeserving people should be chosen when they have obvious character defects?  If this is the case, then we would wish to exchange election for works righteousness.  We would want people to somehow earn God’s favor rather than seeing it bestowed so undeservingly. While I am not a huge fan of elect characters such as Abraham and David, I don’t think that their lack of character is my particular problem.  No, I actually think that there is something beautiful about God’s grace triumphing over even the most agregious human iniquity. 

My problem comes with the exclusivity that comes with election.  If, after all, some people are elect, wouldn’t it seem to be implied that some people aren’t?  This was exactly the line of thought invoked in Ezra 4 – We are the chosen people, and you have no part of us!  And while this might be frustrating from a temporal point of view, it takes on new and grave significance when the concept of election is applied to salvation.  We are no longer talking about who gets to be king.  We are talking about people’s eternal destinies.

In writing this I do not wish to explain away the many election passges in the Bible, though I will admit an aversion to a Calvinistic reading to such passages.  Instead, I merely wish to explore my own problems with the concept.  My problem is not that people who aren’t good enough get in.  It is that some people don’t get in at all.  To me this seems especially problematic if we believe in a God with an inexhaustible store of grace.  Why would an infinitely gracious God not elect all people?  But this is not an orthodox concept.  With universalism off the table, it seems to me that we are left to struggle with the concept of election.  Let us celebrate a God who elects regardless and even despite human merit.  But let us struggle with an election that leaves some on the outside looking in.  Especially if that looking in involves a conscious process of torment for all eternity.

Is it just me, or does Julius Wellhausen have a ridiculously awesome beard?

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When Jacob flees to Haran, what one prohibition does his father give him?

Genesis 28:7 – “You shall not marry one of the Canaanite women”

It is an interesting read to go through Psalms in sequence.  What it did for me as I was reading was truly give me a taste for all of life…

When life is good and we are praising God out of the abundance He has given…

When things are dark and we are mindful of our sinful ways…

When there is real persecution around us…

When we see the wicked prospering…

As we look at all the different scenerios in the Psalms and in our lives, we are reminded that the human condition and/or situation has not changed.  So whatever the place we are in, Praise The LORD, for He is good, and His love endures forever.

The following is a request for all bloggers. Please read carefully the two scenrios listed below.

Scenario 1: So it was the night before my first My FAQ game in Scriptures. As I was trying to review all of the Biblical Objective Questions posted for my particular class, I discovered it was easier said than done. What seemed like a straight forward endeavor became a scavenger hunt for clues like titles with a specific book of the Bible or categories that seemed to fit the mold of a Biblical Objective Question. In the end I did the best I could with sifting through the various spellings of Biblical Objective Question and the various questions that addressed the specific books of the Bible related to my class.

Scenario 2: It was the night before my first My FAQ game in Scriptures. I simply went to the blog site and clicked on the category BOQ1 (meaning Biblical Objective Questions for Scriptures 1) or BOQ2 (meaning Biblical Objective Questions for Scriptures 2) and behold all of the questions that were pertaining to my class were all there. It was amazing how fast and furious I was able to parse my way through the questions (esp. those that had the relevant book of the Bible in the title).

So which experience would you like to have before every My FAQ game, Scenario 1 or Scenario 2? If you have chosen to take the less stressful path, then I implore you in joining me to make this scenario a reality. How you ask, well all it takes is for each of us to create a new category (either BOQ1 or BOQ2) and assign all of our Biblical Objective Questions to them. Please use the exact spelling and case as provided above.

Food for thought…with consistency comes dependability and with dependability comes trust (meaning you can trust the questions in the aforementioned categories are the ones your looking for). So as we close this public service annoucement, I encourage you all to join in this humble request for unity and clarity as we all journey through the Old Testament together.

Be Encouraged!