Thanks class for all the great writings and insights you have all posted for this wonderful class. This has been a tremendous experience for me as I am sure it has been for everyone in the class. Thank You Rev. Guy Williams for your insight and dedication to the Hebrew Bible and sharing it with us in such a delightful way.
Les DeMarco
Song of Solomon
Isn’t this just a love song/poem?
How does one find passion in something that is so dry?
I suppose the answers are poor translation, different culture and century, and my inability to find this to be anything more than a call to move past the animalistic desires of life and allow Love to blossom and grow. I have read this passage numerous times in my life and it does the same nothing for me now as it did then. I am not compelled to be inspired by flowery words, or romantic language. I do not find value in or partake of, cooing or wooing. The artistry of this passage is certainly lovely and probably needed by the church to romanticize the relationship of God and Man, and I am certain that someone somewhere has a built a church on just this book alone.
I can guess what it must be like to have so many wives and what turmoil that might lead the soul into. Hence the quantity of reunification with the beauty and the passion that is displayed outwardly through word (though as I mentioned—it does nothing for me). I can see where the variety of verse could lead one into believing that one man might not have written this song (and being a songwriter if find the verse far from poetic). We actually don’t even know if this isn’t biblical satire being translated as some grand poem, I mean, none of us were there nor were the scholars that interpret and translate this. At best, at the council of Nicea, they must have needed something of a romantic nature and felt this best suited the role. Definitely there is some allegory towards man’s relationship with God within, and one doesn’t have to stretch too far to make this scenario fit. We have much more romantic stuff from St. John of the Cross, or St. Francis of Assisi, than that which is contained within this Song of Solomon, but in their prose we cannot miss that it is definitely about individual relationship and adoration for the Divine. You might even think that some of it is rather sexual connotative as we could also sense in Song of Solomon. But nonetheless, it is interpretation and how one chooses to perceive these writings.
.
Kings
Take me to the construction of the temple! Don’t give me the finish schedule give me the structural details of its construction. How many men did it take to achieve this grand model? What tools were used? Who was the architect? What was the foundation made of? How was it lit and who made the windows to let in the light? Only two Angels at the pillars? How was it plumbed? These things interest me. That wood doesn’t exist anymore. Where are the ruins? Do we have any pieces left to be seen anywhere? I know the temple was destroyed, but I shall build it up in three days! The direct lineage of Jesus comes from David according to biblical pointing. Yet why is there so much mention of various people in Kings? If everything is an aspect of our consciousness and we are all of and in and using the One Mind, then that which I seek I already am.
So the names clearly mean things as we have discussed through previous papers, and this isn’t just about the travels and ancestry of the Hebrew tribes. There is something intriguing about the nature of what should be historical content, and we don’t have a lot of evidence that this is so, but these names and these stories are continuing to be told.
So we have two chief players Solomon and David. Two major thrones, two major artists by right. One clearly a visionary for architecture and one for psalm and musicianship. Both grand leaders and just lords. One gives in to the passion he lives for women, and one the passion he lives for love. Yet both love God and serve its laws. A great savior is said to have come from the line of David, and that line goes way back through the patriarchs (but this is taking the biblical history as fact and then we have nothing but incest anyway). However Solomon was a great romanticizer and remained close to God and performed just actions as a ruler using wisdom and fairness as a basis for his throne. 1, 000 wives! Holy cow! I can’t imagine what that must be like. Now if it is just for the sake of variety, then the story might be told differently, but then when we read some of Solomon’s wisdom and we might read the proverbs such as, “It is better to live in a house with a leaky roof than to live with a nagging woman,” we can see where the issues begin to arise and convince Solomon of what it is he is in love with. We’ve all read the books so no need to rehash it!
I believe there is a feminine side to him that completed him and he matched each of the majesty and the mystery that men may not see in themselves, by being in relation with multiple wives or concubines. He was vain, flamboyant, and opulent in his reign. Yet justice prevailed through the wisdom of being wholly united with both aspects of himself: the feminine and the masculine.
If I were a psychologist I might go into the various archetypes that show up in these books. If was a criminologist I might investigate the polygamy and try to uncover criminal behavior from today’s standards. If I was a Mormon, I might use Solomon as an example of biblical pointing to why polygamy is of God. If I was an historian, I could pick apart the lineage and the discrepancies within the stories here. But I am none of these. I am a metaphysician that sees the metaphors and the allegories as applicable to my life and to my ministry; and what I have discovered is the ability to be wise in council, sound in judgment, humble before the Presence of God within, and obedient to the principles that I understand about the Universe. I take great pleasure in understanding my inherent Divinity and that in others, and am just as proud to serve as Solomon and David. This is what I get from these stories/books. Love for God and its creations, its laws, and its Beauty.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Job & Ezekiel
Judith P. Pando
11/2/09
Metaphysical Bible I
A Practitioner Session with Job
If I were Job’s Practitioner, I would like to think that I would be much more compassionate and empathetic than his ‘friends’ Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. But, what does a Practitioner do with the all too common problem of innocent suffering? Job lost everything, his family, his prosperity and his health, and he saw himself as blameless. He had done everything right according to his viewpoint, he feared God and worshipped Him; he cared for his family and appreciated the gifts he had been given. He was a good man, an upright man and was rewarded for his goodness as, according to tradition, was his due. God Himself declared: There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was PERFECT. Yet, God, on an apparent whim took it all away. And Job lamented, he grieved, he wished he had never been born. And his ‘friends’ kept telling him that he must have done something to disserve it, that he should repent. Eliphaz believes Job is suffering because he has sinned; Bildad ponders that if Job was more upright, he would not be in the trouble he’s in; Zophar rebukes Job for being so self-righteous and fearful, and urges him to repent. But Job remains faithful “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God and receive the bad.” Job reproaches his friends for being judgmental and feels forsaken by his friends and God. "I have been wronged. I cry for help, but there is no justice." (19:7)
Job was self-righteous, and self-righteousness comes out of fear; and the things Job feared the most came upon him. His friends had no answer for him because they looked only at the level of effect. Job continued to argue with them that he was totally blameless. So a 4th friend, Elihu, the interpreter, gave his opinion of the situation. He suggests that who are we, a mere mortal to say what is good or what is bad, right or wrong. God will define righteousness and He knows what is just. Then the Lord speaks to Job “out of the whirlwind”. God displays the wonders of creation to Job, and Job has a mystical experience of the sacred. And Job is humbled, his eyes are open; he sees things in a completely new way. He repents and prays for his friends and is forgiven and healed. And the Lord blessed him.
As I look at my life, I have had my own Job experiences, although not to the degree that Job suffered. There have been times when God has thumped me on the side of the head to get my attention and I spent altogether too much time in shame, blame and regret, my three friends. Spiritual practices help me to see things differently; to inoculate myself against the viral infection of fear and to create a new life of my choosing—until I get another thump. Perhaps my spiritual practices should include the ability to get a new life without the thump in the future.
Getting back to my original question, what does a Practitioner do when a Job walks into her office? I would listen with a loving compassionate, empathetic heart, and know the truth for the individual. I would pray and meditate, and with time, maybe help him reveal his own transformation.
The Prophet Ezekiel
Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, I was among the captives by the river of Chebar that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God
Thus starts the Book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a prophet and a priest. He prophesized while in captivity in Babylon. Ezekiel denotes a couple different meanings - God is strong, God strengthens or God makes hard. Ezekiel had a number of very mystical visions. These visions have Shamanistic elements in that Ezekiel enters into a trance like state and is given messages from God to relay to the people of Israel. He carried several different messages to the people, the first being that God was not only in the Temple, but was with them wherever they are just as He was when they were pastoral nomads. The second is that Jerusalem and the Temple will be destroyed because of their sins and disobedience. Third, that only when the nation as a whole and each individual within it returned to their covenant with God, would they be able to return to Jerusalem.
In his first vision, Ezekiel saw God in a spectacular chariot, in the sky above him. And then God entered him and spoke to him. This was significant because the Judeans thought that they could worship their God only in the temple. How would they be able to worship Him when they were now in a distant land? Was their God still available to them? Ezekiel speaks to this problem. He first explains that the Judean exile is a punishment for disobedience and he then offers hope to the exiles, suggesting that the exile will be reversed once they return to God. God will come to them, they are not abandoned. God was not defeated; He caused the destruction because they would no longer hear Him and because of their lack of morality. The third prophecy was important, because God was telling His people that not only the nation, but each individual is personally responsible for his life and maybe the sins of the father don’t really impact the son after all. Chapter 18 deals with the idea of social responsibility. God is charging his people to be just and to not worship idols.
The soul that sinneth shall die. But if a man be just and do what is lawful and right…Hath walked in my statutes, and have kept my judgments, to deal truly he shall truly live, sayeth the Lord God.
How might I apply this teaching in my own life, to my ministry? First the idea of not worshiping idols strikes me as an important message for today. I must ask myself what it is that I am putting before my God, my good; money, diversion, or something like conditional loving. Where is it that I am experiencing separation? I believe that it is the will of the divine to bring about greater and greater good in my life and to bring harm to no one. But it is my responsibility to do the work, to hold the vision and to raise my own consciousness because everything I think, say or do has an influence the world.
11/2/09
Metaphysical Bible I
A Practitioner Session with Job
If I were Job’s Practitioner, I would like to think that I would be much more compassionate and empathetic than his ‘friends’ Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar. But, what does a Practitioner do with the all too common problem of innocent suffering? Job lost everything, his family, his prosperity and his health, and he saw himself as blameless. He had done everything right according to his viewpoint, he feared God and worshipped Him; he cared for his family and appreciated the gifts he had been given. He was a good man, an upright man and was rewarded for his goodness as, according to tradition, was his due. God Himself declared: There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was PERFECT. Yet, God, on an apparent whim took it all away. And Job lamented, he grieved, he wished he had never been born. And his ‘friends’ kept telling him that he must have done something to disserve it, that he should repent. Eliphaz believes Job is suffering because he has sinned; Bildad ponders that if Job was more upright, he would not be in the trouble he’s in; Zophar rebukes Job for being so self-righteous and fearful, and urges him to repent. But Job remains faithful “Shall we receive the good at the hand of God and receive the bad.” Job reproaches his friends for being judgmental and feels forsaken by his friends and God. "I have been wronged. I cry for help, but there is no justice." (19:7)
Job was self-righteous, and self-righteousness comes out of fear; and the things Job feared the most came upon him. His friends had no answer for him because they looked only at the level of effect. Job continued to argue with them that he was totally blameless. So a 4th friend, Elihu, the interpreter, gave his opinion of the situation. He suggests that who are we, a mere mortal to say what is good or what is bad, right or wrong. God will define righteousness and He knows what is just. Then the Lord speaks to Job “out of the whirlwind”. God displays the wonders of creation to Job, and Job has a mystical experience of the sacred. And Job is humbled, his eyes are open; he sees things in a completely new way. He repents and prays for his friends and is forgiven and healed. And the Lord blessed him.
As I look at my life, I have had my own Job experiences, although not to the degree that Job suffered. There have been times when God has thumped me on the side of the head to get my attention and I spent altogether too much time in shame, blame and regret, my three friends. Spiritual practices help me to see things differently; to inoculate myself against the viral infection of fear and to create a new life of my choosing—until I get another thump. Perhaps my spiritual practices should include the ability to get a new life without the thump in the future.
Getting back to my original question, what does a Practitioner do when a Job walks into her office? I would listen with a loving compassionate, empathetic heart, and know the truth for the individual. I would pray and meditate, and with time, maybe help him reveal his own transformation.
The Prophet Ezekiel
Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, I was among the captives by the river of Chebar that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God
Thus starts the Book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a prophet and a priest. He prophesized while in captivity in Babylon. Ezekiel denotes a couple different meanings - God is strong, God strengthens or God makes hard. Ezekiel had a number of very mystical visions. These visions have Shamanistic elements in that Ezekiel enters into a trance like state and is given messages from God to relay to the people of Israel. He carried several different messages to the people, the first being that God was not only in the Temple, but was with them wherever they are just as He was when they were pastoral nomads. The second is that Jerusalem and the Temple will be destroyed because of their sins and disobedience. Third, that only when the nation as a whole and each individual within it returned to their covenant with God, would they be able to return to Jerusalem.
In his first vision, Ezekiel saw God in a spectacular chariot, in the sky above him. And then God entered him and spoke to him. This was significant because the Judeans thought that they could worship their God only in the temple. How would they be able to worship Him when they were now in a distant land? Was their God still available to them? Ezekiel speaks to this problem. He first explains that the Judean exile is a punishment for disobedience and he then offers hope to the exiles, suggesting that the exile will be reversed once they return to God. God will come to them, they are not abandoned. God was not defeated; He caused the destruction because they would no longer hear Him and because of their lack of morality. The third prophecy was important, because God was telling His people that not only the nation, but each individual is personally responsible for his life and maybe the sins of the father don’t really impact the son after all. Chapter 18 deals with the idea of social responsibility. God is charging his people to be just and to not worship idols.
The soul that sinneth shall die. But if a man be just and do what is lawful and right…Hath walked in my statutes, and have kept my judgments, to deal truly he shall truly live, sayeth the Lord God.
How might I apply this teaching in my own life, to my ministry? First the idea of not worshiping idols strikes me as an important message for today. I must ask myself what it is that I am putting before my God, my good; money, diversion, or something like conditional loving. Where is it that I am experiencing separation? I believe that it is the will of the divine to bring about greater and greater good in my life and to bring harm to no one. But it is my responsibility to do the work, to hold the vision and to raise my own consciousness because everything I think, say or do has an influence the world.
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