Taken for Granted
The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham: Matthew 1:1 NASB
Record – The Jews invented history. Most people don’t realize this. They think history has always been part of the human way of thinking. But they are wrong. Eliade has conclusively shown that virtually all ancient societies except the Hebrews did not have a concept of history as we understand it today. Those ancient civilizations had what Eliade calls, “the myth of eternal return.” That is to say, they understood the passage of time as a cycle, a continuous renewal of the world. Sometimes the cycle was annual. Sometimes it extended for thousands of years. But it never went anywhere. It simply brought about a return to the original, that time before recorded memory where everything began. Human experience was merely a circle, always ending up where it began and starting over once more.
The Hebrews were the very first people to conceive of temporal passage as meaningful direction. We do not return to the beginning. What happens has significance because it alters the world forever. History is going somewhere.
This concept is now so thoroughly embedded in Western thought that we simply take it for granted. But it wasn’t always like that. For most of human experience on earth, and for a great number of contemporary pagan societies, “what goes around comes around.” The world of men is just returning to its origins. Expanse and collapse. The endless repetition. In this kind of world, nothing we do really makes any difference at all. It will all be absorbed into the next cycle and we will all just come again in another form.
When the Jews invented history, they created something totally unique in the world. They created individual meaning. The characters in Jewish history have purpose and destiny and what they do changes the world that is coming. No action is without consequence. When Matthew writes the genealogy of the Messiah, he records that events and actions of individuals whose choices altered the cosmos. That idea never existed before the Hebrews. The biblos (book, record) of the Messiah is not an endless cycle of the rebirth of some god. It is a unique human event with cosmic significance. And, by the way, so is your birth. There will never be another you. There will never be another set of choices and circumstances like the ones that define your life. What you do cannot be repeated precisely as you do it. Therefore, you affect the rest of the story of the universe.
In this regard, the Bible is not a religious book like other books for other religions. It is a very particular, completely unique story about specific people, places and events. It is a story that has no duplicate anywhere, anytime. If we treat the Bible as a theological textbook, we mistake it for a pagan religious guide because we refocus our attention on its universal principles and applications rather than on its individually unique plots. We turn it into an etiquette manual instead of a flesh and blood novel. And as an etiquette manual, it isn’t about us. It’s just about how to behave. If we take for granted that history has always been a human idea, we will not be startled by the biblical narrative that God acts among the world of men to bring about something that never was. Taken for granted, the Bible is just another book. Taken for granted, the Jews are just another people. Taken for granted, you and I are just replaceable parts.
Please, don’t take it for granted.
Topical Index: history, record, biblos, Matthew 1:1
Sometimes you write material that I want to print out and hang on my home office walls (like this one) so that they are there to remind me everyday what it is you wrote. I do this with snippets already so as not to plaster my walls to the point where my wife thinks I am actually crazy and not just infatuated with this new way of seeing God’s word.
Other times I want to print them out on sticky paper and covertly place them just below the drive up window of the taco stand as I’m waiting for my order so that others have them to read while waiting for theirs.
Then there is the actual taping of them to the inside of my vans back window in the hope that a passers by might be overtaken by curiosity at the diatribe on a parked car.
My favorite is to trade them with the persons at the Jehovah witness table as they hand me their offering at the gates of our local pier.
I’m blessed to have a few brothers and sisters who often start a conversation with ‘oh wow, did you see Today’s Word’?
It’s the first thing I do every morning.
Thanks Skip!
This is great -I love your ideas !
I print TW & keep them as a part of my journal -give them to people who I know are seeking a greater God & email & text them to religious family I know are hurting that they are not alone encouraging them there is so much more to explore..
I look to them as fresh breath & it amazes & encourages me how my heart spirit is knit with Skip & others..
I sometimes think the Bible was the reason archeology was invented. I know there is a camp out there that is itching to ‘prove’ it wrong, but there is the other camp out there that is convinced that everything in it can be found out in reality, somewhere. Neither camp is neutral, although both of them, I have seen, love to try to claim neutrality. I laugh.
I don’t see people rushing to prove or disprove Homer, or Hammurabi, even, or, least of all, the annals of the Egyptians. Instead, I have noticed, they tend to show up with their saltshakers.
Not that I am wide-read, mind you, but I remember thinking how different the Histories of Thucydides were than all the rest seemed to be. I thought that his accounts could probably be trusted to be reliable, more than others I had come across. I remember being actually excited to find something from antiquity that sounded ‘real’. Looking back, I can see that, compared to the Bible, Thucydides probably came the closest to sticking to the evenhanded facts. Now, after reading what Skip wrote, I wonder how much he had possibly been influenced in his day by the diaspora and the widespread dissemination of the Jews and their libraries.
What happens has significance because it alters the world forever. History is going somewhere.
From a much earlier time I realized that you could never do the same thing twice, only something similar. Mathmatically I do believe in cycles that affect the structure of the world, but not the inhabitants themselves other than the fact that given a set of circumstances people always act the same. Just look at our current political situation and compare it to the past. We are doomed to repeat the history of past democracys we are too ignorant to learn about. Shamefully the great majority of the population of the world refuses to acknowledge God who is in control. Ignorance is bliss to all those who refuse to look out in front of them and learn from it.
I just finished a ten week church experience called “Rooted”, which begins with an insightful quote about ‘The Mysterious God’ by none other then Skip Moen. The ‘Rooted’ experience is meant to show you how to be followers of Yeshua, but in a more meaningful way, through community involvement, helping the poor and disadvantaged and sharing the Shalom of God where possible. All of it was time well spent, but the most amazing part was when each individual shared their story with the group. This is stripping away the exterior and diving head first into the interior of each person; at least as far as one was willing to share. Each week my jaw would hit the floor as story after story was shared. I could never have imagined in ‘a million years’ what some people have been through. Rape, physical and mental abuse, addictions, heart wrenching losses of loved ones, failed suicides and spiritual doubts about God, His existence and His goodness. Well, you get the idea. I was floored and speechless after most of these stories and it sent me to reflecting. I mean, these were just the stories of eighteen people, sharing a ten week experience, in a small city in Southern California. The closeness you develop with another human, through the ‘Rooted’ experience is well worth the ten week journey. Our history, our story is really the ‘meat of the matter’. Scripture is a telling of those stories and it is obviously very important to our Creator. I have always approached Scripture as one continuous narrative and have been puzzled when bible ‘scholars’ object to that approach. I know in many respects that the ‘best predictor of future action is past action’, as I have observed that without end. Yes, there is in some sense, a ‘cycle’ there to be observed. But human history is going someplace and each of us has the ability to affect our present and our future through our actions and so affect, to some degree, the course of humanity. It may be hard to measure, but it’s there. I am happy our existence is more than a re-run. I am encouraged that God has more for us then an endless cycle, of what would probably be nothingness. Each of our stories is so important and so each of us is an important part of our common human narrative. God loves a good story. Many are painful; maybe most are painful. So share your story, your history. We are not hamsters on a wheel. We are going somewhere and we are all part of the same narrative. And who knows, you just might find enjoyment.
The Butterfly Effect has merit. What we do changes the world that is coming. An amazing concept to grasp the significance of. Very good reason to THINK purposefully about what to do. Reaping what we sow comes to mind as practical consequences of any of our actions.
This issue has far reaching implications for sure
Thanks, Skip.
“It is Written”
The [written] record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.. (Matthew 1:1)
Yes, “write that down!” More and more, I believe in the “written word!” It is most practical, in daily practice, to make a list. “Thing to do today.” It is both true and practical, in daily practice, “The weakest ink is better than the strongest memory!” Thank You, thank You God, for a written record of all You have done for your chosen people.
Jesus (who is the) Christ, has a resume´ a written record, a “birth certificate” (if you will), a history, a genealogy and the roots of our Redeemer can be physically traced. The very first verse in the portion of the ‘biblos’ (book, record) New Covenant scriptures is the royal record of our Redeemer!
Son of David? David’s “greater Son?” Indeed, a King has been born! Truly, the written record reveals Him to be the “King of the Jews!” Well done, Matthew!
And Christ Himself, as a man, (the Second Adam, Himself being the Living Word) defeated the Tempter three times by remembering these three words: “it is written!”
Yes,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzq…
Is it important that we learn from the past or else we may continue repeating the same mistakes, including deceiving others through our superior but misunderstood purpose of these records.
Could this be why Paul first returned to study the records before he started his commission.
And why Jesus said you study the records thinking you can find salvation therein while the scriptures only bear witness or testimony of Him. For me implying we need to learn what these records have revealed of Christ rather than what they tell us of the individuals and their family tree…