Hi, it’s me again! This time with a cool (I hope?) header image. It took me two minutes to make that. Mumble mumble procrastination.
Shoutout to my friend Panchsheel for helping me figure out how to add a header and footer to my newsletter. Panchsheel writes a newsletter about cool things he comes across on the internet. Go check it out!
I mentioned in my last newsletter that I intend to read the entire Bible this year. I’m very embarrassed that I haven’t gotten around to it in twenty-odd years of being a Catholic, but that’s what happens when you (I) take your (my) faith for granted 😔
But do you know what’s better than reading the Bible? Doing a Bible study! It’s like reading the Bible but with even more perks! The best things to come out of the Internet are all the memes resources for Bible study. I’ve been following this series of talks by a Deacon from St Teresa’s Catholic Church, Albany. I highly recommend him!
Anyway, this newsletter is going to be about Genesis — the first book of the Bible — and three verses I’m taking away from it.
So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.
Genesis 3:6
This is the verse that tells us about original sin. Y’know, that time Adam and Eve ate an apple and got banished from the garden of Eden? It’s probably one of the more well-known stories from the Bible. I really like this verse because it tells us three reasons why Eve ate the forbidden fruit.
For one, it would satisfy her bodily hunger. So relatable. How often have I committed a sin just because I couldn’t say no to my body? I have had dreams about the Hogwarts great hall feast, y’all.
Secondly, the fruit was a delight to the eyes. Which is a fancy way of saying that it looked good. This one is a little disconcerting, because it’s so natural to be attracted to things that look good. Doing otherwise is almost counterintuitive!
I think it might be a little more than that though. Sometimes bad things appeal to our human nature; take porn for example. It might bring us momentary pleasure, and we might even logic ourselves into believing it’s an exercise of free will and self satisfaction. Ultimately, however, it’s a perversion of sex that can only harm our sexual appetites. Matt Fradd’s book ‘The Porn Myth’ is an excellent (secular!) resource on this topic.
And thirdly, Eve ate the forbidden fruit because it could “make one wise”. That’s exactly how the serpent tempts her; he tells her this: “God knows that when you eat of it [the fruit] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God.” (Gen 3:5, emphasis mine).
Ultimately, what drove us to commit our first sin was the desire to be like God. It’s not wrong to seek the will of God, but we can’t and shouldn’t wrestle God for the ability to be in control. Not only is it literally impossible for us to have more control over our lives than God does, but when we do make decisions that go against the will of God, they just end up being bad for us. Sometimes, they can even get us kicked out of paradise.
I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.
Genesis 12:3
This one is an important verse because it marks the exact moment that the Bible transitions from being a general story about everyone (Gen 1-11) to being a very specific story about one very specific nation (Gen 12 onwards).
These words are said by God to Abraham, the great patriarch of the three Abrahamic religions we have today: Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. Abraham is one of the most important people in the Old Testament because out of his obedience to the word of God comes the entire nation of Israel. (And out of Israel comes Jesus, saviour of the world.)
I like this verse because it made me stop and consider a bird’s eye perspective of the Bible. The Bible story begins with something extremely general. The first few chapters of Genesis are as widely-applicable as anything can be. They tell us about how God created the world, how he created man, and what man did to separate himself from God.
But then it zooms in to one specific family: Abraham and his descendants. We follow Abraham’s family (Israel) for about 80% of the Bible. That’s a really long time. And finally we get to Jesus, who rises from the dead and finally finally reconciles us to God, undoing (in a way) man’s original sin.
And then. The Bible zooms out again! After Jesus’ resurrection we follow the apostles as they travel far and wide, preaching the good news and baptising new Christians in the name of Jesus Christ.
For some reason this coherent structure of the Bible really impressed me. I don’t know why, though. Think about it: if God, creator of the universe etc., were to divinely inspire and indirectly author a book, it’s obviously going to be one of the most coherent books to ever exist. No surprises there.
Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today.
Genesis 50:20
These words are spoken by Joseph, my favourite character from Genesis.
Joseph is extremely likeable, mostly because he’s one of the only people in Genesis who doesn’t ever do anything wrong (that we know of). He also cries a lot, and you know I love a man who’s in touch with his feelings.
He’s a favourite of his father, Jacob (grandson of Abraham), and because of that his brothers really hate him. So they sell him into slavery, and through a series of happy events, Joseph — estranged from his family — ends up a rich man in Egypt. (How’s that for dramatic irony, eh?)
By the end of Genesis Joseph is reunited with his brothers and his beloved father, and just before this verse, his brothers beg for Joseph’s forgiveness for selling him into slavery in an attempt to ruin his life. And then Joseph says these words to them — “Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good.”
It reminded me of someone else in the Bible to whom harm was intended. Grave harm. Joseph’s brothers stopped short of killing him, but Jesus’ detractors in the New Testament pole-vaulted across that line. They literally set a murderer free because the other option was to stop Jesus Christ from being crucified.
So when I read these words from Joseph, I saw how they could be applied to Jesus too. The Old Testament prefigures Jesus in approximately a million ways. It was just pretty cool for me to see that in action. And to be reminded that, like Paul says in Romans 8:28, “We know that all things work together for good for those who love God.”
That’s all for today. I just finished reading Exodus, the second book of the Bible, and wowee do I want to talk about that one. I’ll leave it for another day though. You’re welcome.
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Toodles,
Krys