Tuesday, September 23, 2008
A famous tree (suffering part 2)
The Knowledge of Good and Evil was the title of a famous tree. Like that tree, created by God and declared "good", suffering can be used for infinite gain or infinite loss. Suffering is the currency of heaven, redeeming sinners (Isaiah 53) and damning them (Isaiah 51). Suffering has been part of the human condition since the Garden, where God planted the tree of pain. And since the Fall, suffering has been the only way back into the Garden, where Adam once conversed with God. The story of Job is an inside-out Garden, a story of a man forced to eat of the tree and gaining knowledge "too wonderful for me" that led him back into God's presence. The story of Job is a reversal of the Fall, a story in which God beats Satan at his own game. It becomes the archetypal story of victory over suffering and the defeat of death.
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This was also written by the aforementioned man (see below post)
Here is his Bible study/book on Job.
http://www.rbsp.info/rbs/RbS/JOB/job.html
yikes, this stuff is powerful in so few words...the spectral imagery is amazing...especially since the final--or middle? garden where a man hung on a tree for all to eat...to look upon..and live. I have wondered why the snake in the garden is evil, yet moses lifted it on a pole, and was it peter? said "the snake is lifted high so men might live"? ANd yet not mixing evil and good, but condemning and killing evil, while resurrecting/giving life to good...you probably have inspired me to a blog post...
um, I didn't write this, it was your dad
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