The Big Question (Part 2 – A)

For those of you who are just joining, you might want to start out reading The Big Question (Part 1) to help set the context for what is to come. I’ll also warn you that for the next few weeks I’m not going to be drawing to any obvious “motivational” conclusions. That will come later. If you stick with me through this series, though, I believe that you’ll find it to be worth your while. Now on with Part 2-A for this week.

The Religious Side of the Issue (Part A)

At the outset let me state that I’m neither going to try to convince, nor convert. I’m going to explore. My focus will be on Christianity as that is the religion I’m most familiar with. I’m also going to cover a lot of territory very fast. I have no interest in splitting theological hairs, rather I’m going to look at the history revealed in the Bible. It is from this history I believe we’ll be able to learn some things about meaning and effective living. At the end (in Part C) I’ll make some observations, then we’ll look at the Secular side of the issue and make some more observations. From those observations I’ll write a final post drawing from each set and arriving at some tentative conclusions. Discussion is invited all along the way. Just leave your comments after any post that stimulates your thoughts.

The Bible, the book upon which Christianity claims to base it’s beliefs, is divided into two parts: the Old and the New Testament. These can be further divided into categories of history and social commentary. The history of the Bible is not necessarily a literal history (as some would have you believe), rather it is a history designed to teach spiritual truth through repeated telling and contemplation. Writing was a rarity and there were no printing presses back then, therefore it was easier to pass on truths through story telling and discovery of meaning was facilitated through contemplation of the sacred stories.

The Old Testament: History of the Hebrews

From the very beginning the Bible concerns itself with the origins and development of a group of people (the Hebrews). It starts with a creation story, moves through a number of individuals and eventually ends up with 12 tribes of Hebrew people who become enslaved in Egypt. God, who has favored the Hebrews sends a man named Moses to perform a number of miracles and demand that the then Egyptian ruler of the Hebrews let the people go so they may worship. Eventually God destroys that Egyptian ruler and frees the Hebrews, leading them into a highly fertile area of land across the Jordan River.

During the time it takes to bring the Hebrews out of Egypt and into “the Promised Land,” God makes what was essentially, back then, a marriage contract with the Hebrew people. Part of this contract we know as the “Ten Commandments” and the rest became known among the people as the “Law.” Now here’s the important part. The Law didn’t establish any kind of ruler over the people, except God Himself. It did spell out certain dietary rules and certain rituals used in celebrating the people’s relationship with God, but there was no ruler other than God.

This was extremely radical as it made the Hebrews a very odd people. No visible ruler, yet able to live in harmony, peace, committed to justice tempered with mercy and behaving in kind and hospitable ways. Very much unlike their warlike, barbaric neighbors. To be sure there were judges and prophets that communicated God’s Law to the people and there were very strict tests to make sure these people were legitimate representatives of God. But the people lived pretty much on their own following their own conscience and doing what was in their hearts to do (farming, blacksmithing, carpentry, masonry, etc.). Meaning for them was found in their daily activities and in the various weekly, monthly, and yearly celebrations honoring their relationship with God.

Unfortunately, this free and open lifestyle wasn’t to be a permanent thing. The Hebrews had a straying heart, so to speak. They simply couldn’t live with the structure they had been given. They started to forget the positives of their relationship with God and stray after the foreign gods of their neighbors. Dead ritualism became the order of the day. The began to forget about living in justice tempered by mercy. They began to live self-absorbed lives abandoning their relationship with God in favor of a visible leader. A king.

After being clear on what hell life under a King would be like. God eventually gives them the king they wanted. But, he also sends them messengers called prophets who constantly call the Hebrews back to fidelity to their original marriage contract. He keeps calling them back to Himself and to deriving meaning from living out of their core desires, in healthy and honest relationships with each other and in celebration of their relationship to Him. Eventually life under a king does become hellish enough for the people to return to God, only to again abandon Him when life again becomes good.

This cyclical relationship of straying from and returning to God composes 90% of the Old Testament. The other 10% is composed of poetry, social commentary by the prophets, and God’s promise, through the prophets, to finally abandon the Hebrew people in final judgement because of their constant infidelity. However, God, being nothing if not merciful, promises to create a new people out of a preserved remnant and a new age of prosperity and relationship with Him.

I think this will be enough for now. I don’t want these posts to get too long. Long gets boring.

For those of you who are interested, you might find it fascinating to read the Bible in chronological order (according to the date the majority of scholars think the passages were actually written). You can find a reading list at SBL Ministries. Reading the Bible in chronological order opens up a whole new and different meaning to it. You’ll see so much more of the “big picture” than what you get from most modern Christian teaching.

More next week. I hope this week is a good one for you.

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