The Mystery of the Gospel

Intermittently, in this crazy global turmoil, while awaiting the long promised political solutions, I comfort myself by spending time with my leather-backed friend.

We've been friends now for over 52 years.

Having earned some relational license (I heard that smirk), I have begun this year's annual read, as if I were Moses.  

Reading through Genesis, I am affording him margin for the same human  frailties which I have now experienced.

Rather than some word for word literal approach, I recognize his limitations, academically, save for the time in Pharaoh's house.  Especially with regards for the sciences, which I have far more knowledge of, he was definitely limited.

As well, he was deeply dependent upon oral transfer for historical facts, though folk back then lived longer and kept good "scrolls". 

Yet, he mysteriously lays the groundwork for the Gospel as we know it.

This morning, the story of Abram's near sacrifice of Isaac.  

Abram's understanding of God was surely influenced by the idolatry of his dad's day.  Wrathful gods, required appeasement, at a price comparable to one's treasured first born.

So, Isaac, with wood strapped to his back, follows his father up a mountain near modern Jerusalem.  Later, on a separate but nearby hill, would be the place where the wood carried on the back of our Lord provided means for the ultimate sacrifice, which religion still deems necessary! 

Moses could have had no idea where his stories were leading, save the impact of meeting the "I Am" one day, when a voice spoke from within a burning bush that was not being consumed. 

We didn't just make this stuff up, nor did Moses.

Abram's moment foretold Calvary, where the "I Am" would take on flesh, raising his hand in remedy of man's religious requirements.

Good stuff to ponder when politics, in bed with religion, tends to diminish one's hope!