Reincarnated?

The Gospel of Trees by Apricot Irving tells the story of a missionary kid in Haiti.  Aside from the issue of missionary effectiveness, the book highlights the stunning disparity between worlds.  This mission-minded family with precious little personal resources had been in the country a while when they seriously considered adopting a struggling Haitian infant brought to the American Baptist hospital.  The family ultimately decided it unwise to attempt it; the tiny girl had a living parent and family.  Thus that child's life, unlike the author's, remained grim over the years.  "The world's deep inequity was a wound that never healed."  "No matter what path we could have taken, we would have failed her:  love's inevitable sorrow" (306).

I, like Apricot, have all I need and more--so too my family, neighbors, friends, and a majority of fellow Americans generally speaking.  In fact, with so many ways of making our lives easy and with such an abundant food supply we make ourselves sick.

           
Sometimes when I think about this, a strange thought comes to mind:  Could I have been reincarnated?   Seriously.  

I know that, as a Christian, it's anathema to set this idea out there.  It is appointed unto man once to die, after all, and after that the judgement:  Hebrews 9:27.  

"Everyone has to die once, then face the consequences.  Christ's death was also a one-time event . . . ."  The Message 

That's pretty clear.  When glaring inequities present themselves though, my wondering returns.  It comes not from any thought that I earned an upgrade in another life, but rather from a sense that there should be, there must be, some fairness, some justice.  (See CS Lewis's Mere Christianity.) 

So here's what I imagine.  Let's say I was born a malnourished child in Haiti.  Or perhaps born at the bottom of the hierarchy in a caste-based society.  I could have been born to a Syrian family uprooted by horrific civil war, born female in Afghanistan, born with dark skin to a cocaine mom in Los Angels.  How about born a Jew in Germany a hundred years ago?  Born with a clef palate in Switzerland or born to a Tiger Mom in a Hong Kong high rise.  I could have been born ugly and stupid to an abusive family or I could have been born, God forbid, to a rich and arrogant man like our current president. 

Let's say, in that situation, I have the presence of mind to cry out to God.  Maybe I look at the more fortunate people in the world--in whatever respect more fortunate--and ask, "How can they carry on with their relatively unburdened lives when I live in misery?  Where is my cup of water?"
 

And God says, "Ok.  Let's see if you do any better as one of the fortunate ones."

Boom!  

I am re-birthed to humble, healthy, stable, loving parents with hearts for God who, although not well-to-do themselves, live in the heartland of America the Beautiful.  And then I have the further good fortune to get an education, to marry a wonderful man, to raise a beautiful family with him and . .. .

But wait.  What's that other voice crying out?

Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief.

Do justly, now.

Love mercy, now.

Walk humbly, now.

You are not obligated to complete the work,

But neither are your free to abandon it.        

                                                     Talmud, Mishnah, Avot 2:21

Faster Now

It took me months to process through chapter one of Genesis and that was good.  But now I have set myself to read all sixty-six books of the Bible this year, so I"m going to have to go a lot faster.  I decided to try and still keep some notes of thoughts and questions here.

To the woman He said,

“I will greatly multiply

Your pain in childbirth;

In pain you will give birth to children;

Genesis 3:16  Amplified Bible

Some translations of this verse, like this one, use the word multiply or increase.  Others just say make.  But I've gotta ask:  multiply or increase from what previous standard?  Since Eve had not given birth herself, this word choice leads to questioning if she is indeed the first and only woman at that time.

Break Time!

Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
2 By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.  Genesis 1:1-3  NIV

Thus ends part 1 of the Genesis creation account.

Because of three significant upcoming time- and energy-consuming focuses this summer and because the creation of Adam opens a big new box of questions, I'm taking a blog break until the trees start turning.  Early Genesis is fascinating and full of mystery.  I'd love to hear about it if you are pondering and seeing new aspects of it.  :-]

Rest

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.  Genesis 2.2  NIV

7 “Let us go to his dwelling place,
    let us worship at his footstool, saying,
8 ‘Arise, Lord, and come to your resting place,
    you and the ark of your might.
. .. .
13 For the Lord has chosen Zion,
    he has desired it for his dwelling, saying,
14 “This is my resting place for ever and ever;
    here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it.  Psalm 132.7-7, 13-14  NIV

 10 But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and he will give you rest from all your enemies around you so that you will live in safety.  Deuteronomy 12:10 NIV

These are other verses used to make the point that God's rest means his reigning in peace.  As security and stability allow people to go about the normal functions of life, they similarly allow God to rest in his reigning.

 

Engagement without Obstacles

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.  Genesis 2.2  NIV

Wait.  All-powerful God who created the cosmos with his word needs to take a nap now that it's finished?  What are we missing here?

A lot, says John Walton.

Proposition 7 in his book The Lost World of Genesis One is "Divine rest is in a temple."  If we look at Genesis 1 as telling of material creation, then day 7 is anticlimactic, the exciting six days of creation having been finished.  Original hearers/readers, Walton says, would understand day 7 in a very different way.  Ancient Near Easterners would have known "deity rests in a temple, and only in a temple.  That is what temples were built for."  In this culture rest is what happens when a crisis has been averted and stability achieved.  At this point normal routines can be established and enjoyed.

"[God's resting] is more a matter of engagement without obstacles rather than disengagement without responsibilities" (Walton, page 72).

How long is the seventh day?

By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. 3 Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.  Genesis 2.2  NIV

Do you notice something missing from the seventh day?

There is no concluding statement, "And there was evening, and there was morning—the ______ day."  Scholars tell us this an intentional exclusion because the seventh day, God's day of rest, unlike the others, is ongoing.  Whatever state God was in on day 7—subject of next entry—he is still in today.

How long are six days?

31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. 1 Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.  Gensis 1:31-2:1  NIV

So we have the world created at last!

Putting aside the question of when this happened (already discussed), how long did the six days of creation take?  Six days, you say?  Maybe so.  But we are talking about an ancient piece of literature about which many smart people disagree, so maybe not.

Here is a quick review of the three primary interpretations.
1.  Creation took place in six 24-hour days of one earth week--the 24-hour view.
2.  Each day of creation was eons in length as the earth was developed over time--the day-age view.
3.  The six days are a literary device to show how things were set up (days 1 to 3 creating space and days 4 to 6 filling it) rather than a chronology--the framework view.

I can add John H Walton's functional creation view that Genesis 1 is a narrative of God assigning role and function to the earth which he had previously created.

All four have strong and weak points.

Here's a fifth proposition from the esteemed mathematician and theologian John C Lennox.  In chapter 3 of the aforementioned Seven Days that Divide the World, Lennox explains why he believes that the text of Genesis 1 to 2:2 can be read as referring to six 24-hour days that happened eons apart from each other.

So on the evening and morning of creative day 1 God says "Let there be light" and there is light!  Then there are unknown eras of  days as the coming into existence of light works itself out in our world.  The next time we read "And God said" we get a day in which the vault of sky or atmosphere (perceived as a solid dome) is created and then the ages of time with the working out of that before the next big act which separates dry land from the waters.  So the days are consecutive, but not necessarily one right after the other.  Each one inaugurates a new era.