Category: Disillusion
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What is the Difference?
Author Dick Keyes once wrote, "In seeking to become like God, we have become less than human." The biblical story says we were created to be in a relationship with God. When humankind rebelled, we lost our orientation, and we lost our immortality. There was nothing left to give order and meaning to our existence.…
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Reprise: Genesis 12-50 and Illusions
I have been writing about "illusion" for the last six weeks within the context of the book of Genesis. I have more Bible study to share later, though maybe not as in-depth as I have been doing with Genesis. Having reached the end of the book, I thought I would suggest some of the themes…
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Joseph
My illusion posts have carried through the first thirty-five chapters of Genesis. The remaining Genesis chapters tell the story of Joseph. It is a very rich and multi-layered story. I will not probe this story, but I want to make two observations. The story's scheming, deception, and mind games are ….. well …. of biblical…
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Jacob Returns
Gen 35:1-7 NRSV 1 God said to Jacob, "Arise, go up to Bethel, and settle there. Make an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau." 2 So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, "Put away the foreign gods that are…
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N. T. Wright “Shipwreck and Kingdom”
Today's Berkley Blog was about a great sermon by N. T. Wright to the Anglican Consultative Council on 28 June 2005. It is a long read, but I highly recommend it. Shipwreck and Kingdom: Acts and the Anglican Communion Here is one excerpt I particularly wanted to note in light of my ongoing posts on…
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Jacob or Israel
The same night as Jacob's prayer at Penuel, Jacob had yet another encounter with God. Gen 32:22-32 NRSV 22 The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and…
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Jacob’s Prayer
Yesterday I wrote of Jacob's encounter with God at Penuel. Jacob proceeded from there to the home of his uncle Laban. Laban and Jacob ended up in a game of deception in which Jacob prevailed. After one last deception, Jacob fled in anticipation of Laban's anger. Laban pursued Jacob, but no harm came as the…
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Stairway to Earth
Gen 28:10-22 NRSV 10 Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. 11 He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. 12 And he dreamed that there…
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God Gets the Last Laugh
I have friends who live on the Arabian Peninsula. I got to spend some time with them a while back. They told me of a somewhat ironic thing happening in the Mid-East. Last year, Mel Gibson released his movie The Passion of the Christ. As you will recall, much of the press leading up to…
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Isaac’s Failing Vision
Gen 27:18-29 NRSV 18 So he [Jacob] went in to his father, and said, "My father"; and he said, "Here I am; who are you, my son?" 19 Jacob said to his father, "I am Esau your firstborn. I have done as you told me; now sit up and eat of my game, so that…