Painting by Ferdinand
Bol - Jacob's Dream - Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.
There
are, virtually, countless parables in the Bible.
Unfortunately,
most persons do not care to know about these parables because the
Bible is regarded by most persons as, exclusively, a book of
religion; of two religions.
I
am thankful that I had the opportunity to read the Bible as ‘just
another book’ completely detached from religion. I enrolled in
a course of study at a University in 1956, “The Bible as
Secular Literature.”
The
Professor, Mrs Notcutt, studiously evaded equating “secular”
with “atheistic.” Among the students, some were daring
enough among ourselves, though none was daring enough to broach the
point with Mrs Notcutt in class. Mrs Notcutt urged us, for the
duration of the semester, to approach the Bible as we would our
favorite fiction novel written by one of us who was world famous
because of the novel.
At
that time of my life I was so involved in coping with the many larger
issues of natural growing up, that I was totally disinterested in
both the Bible and Secular Literature. As well, my reasons for
enrolling in that course had so little to do with any intentions of
acquiring meaningful knowledge, that I am somewhat embarrassed
nowadays when I recall those reasons.
The
only reason this ever-present embarrassment is not existentionally
crippling, is because I readily avail myself of the secular
interpretation of an entirely religiously meant event that occurs
frequently in the Bible; that of God sending Angels with messages.
By
the criteria of that University course, everyone is allowed to see in
inexplicably lucky happenings in their lives, that, figuratively, a
god had sent an angel to grant them the lucky happening.
In
the Bible, there are at least thirty-two occasions when God sends out
Angels to do His biddings, though in the Bible, it is always other
than sheer luck that brings about the presence of Angels.
I
choose to accept that, figuratively speaking, some god sent an angel
to direct me to enroll in that University course, if only because I
am finding that there is not a day goes by without that dust-in-us
parable in the Bible not being applicable somewhere in the world,
according to the daily news in newspapers, radios, television: “The
Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
Some
of the students asked Professor Notcutt if is explained in the Bible
why almighty God made this mistake, because, surely, being God
almighty, He knew how blasphemously incompatible His divine breath
would be in us with “dust of the ground”?
Mrs
Notcutt said, many scholars have asked and are still asking this
question, and nobody has come up with an answer that is universally
acceptable. She added that while the question is obligatorily
unavoidable in Theology, it is quite irrelevant in a secular
approach. In Theology, God is as real as a loaf of bread; in secular
meaning, god is merely metaphor: “I am the living bread that
came down from heaven.”
The
secular application of this parable is that it gives a religious
explanation to the natural fact that every one of us, by the same
ubiquitous human DNA, is capable of being good and evil, equally,
simultaneously or at different times.
This
genetic-based fact was a natural reality about homo sapiens long,
long before the Bible came along to parabolize it in the equal
mixture of divinity and dust in us, put there, from the very
Beginning, by almighty God Himself, intentionally.
In
the Bible, this parable of the failure of God’s divinity-dust
blending in us is continually exemplified throughout in the many,
many times God angrily observes that His own chosen tribe is
stiffnecked disobedient against Him, despite His continual literal
demonstrations of His holiest almightiness among them, especially in
Ancient Egypt, and in the Wilderness of Zin, and in Palestine.
On
two occasions this failure was at its worst when two persons with
whom God chose to speak directly, went on to intentionally disobey
Him most flagrantly: King David and King Solomon.
‘King
David said unto God, Let thine hand, I pray thee, O Lord my God, be
on me. The Lord said to David, Go up and set up an altar. And David
built there an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the Lord; and the
Lord answered him from Heaven by fire upon the altar......
And
Satan provoked King David; and King David did as Satan provoked. And
God was displeased with King David.’
“The
Lord appeared to King Solomon the second time. And the Lord said unto
King Solomon, I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication that thou
hast made before me. I have hallowed this house, which thou hast
built to put my name there forever. Mine eyes and mine heart shall be
there perpetually.......
King
Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord. Wherefore the Lord said
unto King Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast
not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I
will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and give it to thy servant.”
The
dust-in-us parable in the Bible is the most important parable because
it is being demonstrated everyday all over the world in persons who,
guided by the breath almighty God breathed into us at the Beginning,
achieve truly forever great accomplishments; but somewhere along the
way, rot sets in because of the dust God put in us, too, at that
Beginning. The dust-rot infiltrates the divine breath in them,
causing these achievers of true greatness to perpetrate deeds that
are shamefully demeaning forever more, emasculating their greatness
into utter worthlessness: Clinton, Cosby, Nixon, Schwarzenegger,
Spektor, et cetera, et cetera.
In
the secular scenario, humanity’s capability for greatness will
always be at risk of shameful self-destruction because of our
imperfect DNA within. In the scenario of both religions of the Bible,
there is a promise of salvation coming from outside of us beyond our
DNA contamination.
In
the Bible, when God the first time acknowledges His dust-in-us
mistake, He chooses to see the cause as, not in Himself, but in the
disobedience of Adam and Eve. God’s remedy is to punish all
life severely in the hope that pain and suffering would neutralize
His dust-in-us evil.
God’s
curse-and-punishment remedy did not work. The dust-in-us evil became
more powerful. Cain was not afraid to murder his brother, Abel, in
the presence of God at an altar built by Abel to worship God.
After
a few generations, the dust-in-us evil grew to practically overwhelm
God’s divinity in us into non-existence. God, this second time,
acknowledged His dust-in-us mistake.
When
God acknowledged His mistake the second time, He took full blame. He
decided to erase His blunder by killing off all life, and starting
all over again. He created a forty days rain flood to kill off all
human life. His mistake that second time was that He spared one
family of humans. Noah’s family were of the same ilk carriers
of the deadly dust-in-us virus before God’s world-flood attempt
at cleansing the species and thereby saving His Creation from toxic
demise.
Within
a few generations, the dust-in-us evil in Noah’s family had
created a stiffnecked people whom God was ready again to genocide out
of his Creation. However, some time after his Sodom-and-Gomorrah
catastrophic genocide failed to cower the rest of humans into
obedience, God threw in the towel and decided to pass the buck to a
Messiah He promised to send, sooner or later, to finally rid Creation
of his Father’s dust-in-us original sin.
So
far, the Father’s promised Messiah solution is proving as
hopeless as a secular DNA possibility of helping us against the evil
of God’s dust-in-us.
Contact
Ezra (Unless
you
type
the
author's name in
the subject
line
of the message we
won't know where to send it.)
