EXPLORING GENESIS.
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THE BIBLE EXPLORING GENESIS. ICON. |
The period of the Patriarchs.
From Chapter 12 onwards, the book of
Genesis describes to us the history of the patriarchs of Israel and
the successive interventions of the God of Abraham, of Isaac and of
Jacob. Since we have events of long ago which have come down to us
through folk-legends, set down in writing only at a later date, we must not
expect to find history in the modern sense of the word.
The history of Israel as it
is described to us in the Bible is a very special phenomenon: The Bible is not
concerned in relating historical events in a precise way; it is always a
religious meditation of the facts of the history of the people chosen by the
living God. The Bible does not present us with chronicles; it describes
and at the same time comments on ‘God’s dealings with his people in history’.
The figure of Abraham dominates the
early history of the Chosen people. The book of Genesis tells us
about this nomad who lived in Mesopotamia about 1800 years before
Christ. God, who promised him numerous descendants and the
fertile land of Canaan, called him. This promise was
handed down to Isaac and the to Jacob (called Israel) and to his sons who
were the ancestors of the 12 Hebrew tribes. A famine in
the land of Canaan forced the nomad tribes to emigrate
to Egypt.
The Bible is not a book of morality
in the sense of us finding edifying stories of picked men and women as
outstanding examples of moral behaviour. These stories from the
patriarchal times give us a living insight tin men and women of flesh and
blood, rooted in their milieu and age, men and women to whom no human behaviour
is unknown, men and women capable of the most sublime generosity and also of
the greatest cowardice. The history of Israel reflects the manners
and the customs of the time.
The crucial aspect however when we
reflect on these chapters is to see the saving action of God in the midst of
his chosen people, and see how God accepts men and women as they are, how He
takes His time in educating them and leading them where He wants.
Can YOU see the saving action of God
in your life?
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