The Hebrew Bible
I liked this highlights of the Hebrew Bible reading, although it is a bit difficult to get if you are like me and are not familiar with the Bible and so do not know what contexts the quotes were taken from. Just like the previous reading I was really struck by the faith in God. I just got the overall impression that God is always there for his people. There is no need to question his presence because he will provide for you. Not only that but God is in everybody’s heart so one can always find him. Even in darkness God is present. Anyone can find and love God. There was an overwhelming sense that God is there for his people.
I found this quote rather interesting: “I form light and create darkness; I make peace and create evil.” I’m not really religious so I don’t really have a very good sense of God, but I had always pictured God as the embodiment of goodness. I had always assumed that any action that God performs is one of goodness. However in this quote it characterizes God as creating evil. Maybe it’s possible to create evil for good or maybe you get into some sort of philosophical thing where you need evil for peace and goodness – I don’t really get it, but I thought that it was interesting that in this definition of God he is both the light and the dark. Maybe it ties in a bit to the Bakhya Ibn Pakuda reading where you have to trust God in both suffering and good times.
2 comments:
I'm right there with you. I wasn't raised religious. So these passages are all really new to me- But I really like this idea that some call God- I like calling it the energy that connects everything. Everything- including good and evil. I think that we have to have both to know one from the other. In the story of Job, job says "God gives and takes". I find that when I give, I receive, it's this subtle balance- the yin and the yang, the ebb and the tide. Thank you for your blog!
Hi Katie,
You wrote: "I thought that it was interesting that in this definition of God he is both the light and the dark. Maybe it ties in a bit to the Bakhya Ibn Pakuda reading where you have to trust God in both suffering and good times."
I think you're exactly right. It does tie in to ibn Pakuda totally. It's not that God creates evil generally, it's that God creates evil in my own life, and he does that in order to sharpen me, to make me better, to grow me through evil and suffering. In my own personal life, I've never encountered anything so purely evil that I couldn't overcome it with goodness (and thus transform it).
Great post...it made me think...
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