Yesterday, my sister-in-law Lisa and my niece Sarah Beth met for some Sunday afternoon refreshment and conversation. I asked them what they'd learned in church that morning that would help them throughout the week. Lisa began telling me about certain prayers in which the people (like Hannah, for instance) who had been recipients of God's beneficence spoke prayers of praise rather than of thanksgiving. She wasn't saying whether it was good or bad but was simply reporting something that had been discussed in church. After a moment, Sarah Beth spoke up and confessed that she thought it was boring. I love her honesty and youthful spirit!
When I was 20, I probably felt the same way SB does. The people in the Bible were like characters in a novel, not really real. And truthfully, they weren't really that interesting either. As I've gotten older, I've looked beneath the surface at these people and can see their multi-dimensional essences. These were real people who lived and died and often did a lot of suffering in-between. I'm not inclined to go into a lot of detail tonight, but let's just consider a couple...or a few.
*Think about Sarai, later Sarah, who gave birth late in life after following Abraham hither, thither, and yon. A couple of times, she even went to live in a palace as part of a harem so that they'd be safe. And I wonder how she felt when Abraham took her only son Isaac away as a sacrifice?
*Think about Jezebel who got ravaged by dogs. A lot of good her makeup and hairdo did her that day!
*Then there's Leah, always second in Jacob's affections although she was his first wife.
*And oh my, look at Lot's daughters who "trick" their father into having relations wit them so that they can have children.
*I even told Sarah Beth a little bit about Judah's sexual encounter with his daughter-in-law Tamar that resulted in the birth of twins. Judah didn't know that his partner was Tamar because she was disguised as a harlot.
So Sarah Beth and anyone else who might think the Bible is boring, take a look inside and you might be surprised.
2 comments:
marla marla jayne... you need to desperitely read anita diamant's book the red tent, which is about all of eve's sisters, right up you alley...it is really good about dinah's rape and killing of her husband and about jacob's invovlement with his sons, and laban's adha and her son's involvement in death, just before joseph was sold into egypt and dianah's friendship with joseph, and just about how us smelly men of the goat herds back then were a detriment to marrying women back then...did you know issac was kept away from rebbecca's tent for fourty years becasue he smelt so bad,,,it was amazing all those men had any kids, i think the women would have had them alone if they could have...also my thery is all you women really are the gods, you have the wombs and are the creators, all we are are sperm donors, except for the prieshood and the operation of the church which i think you just let us do like the worker bee or worker ant
You never cease to amaze me with your ideas! By the way, I've read this book; it was one of our book club selections. Somewhere on this blog, I wrote about it because the book really made me rethink some of my thoughts about Jacob and his wives. In the book, Diamant gives the impression that Dinah wasn't raped but that she and Shechem (sp.) were actually in love. I was astounded and appalled that her brothers killed all of the men in the city to avenge their sister's "rape." Yes, I know the story's in the Bible too, but in The Red Tent, it was more drawn out and graphic.
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