“The Book”

FRI., SEPT. 18, 1992, 6:35 AM
FARM, STUDY

As the small children receive Bibles in the worship service on Sunday, there will be a homiletic emphasis on this “Book”, so important to Christians of all ages. I have offered you Teachings on this in “earlier times,” but listen as I comment anew. You can never hear enough about this “source” of My Holy Scriptures.

The most obvious division is that into two Testaments, the Old and the New. Now of course this is quite relative for you who are presently in the last decade of the 20th century, calculated, roughly, from My birth as Jesus. The Old is older, abut the New also is old. You shall have to read the Scriptures with this in mind, for it seems now, in impression, that there was little real difference in day-to-day life in the 2000+ years of the whole Bible story… as compared to life 2000 years later. Life in the culture called American is incredible different from that of Abraham’s time… and of My time as Jesus.

Yet the basic story is that I, as, eventually, the Almighty Triune God, am reaching out to humans, and they are both reaching out to Me and turning away from My Way and Presence. Even in the earliest symbol story I reached out to My creations, Adam and Eve, and they responded as independent humans rather than as automatons, which was not being faithful, but was being human, as I really intended. I reached out to Abraham, and he responded rather faithfully. I reached out to both Esau and Jacob, and Jacob responded more faithfully… but I was also exerting more influence on him than on his brother.

So you must see that as I reached out to people, from the beginning of the “Book”, I was also choosing, electing, and exerting more pressure and influence on some than on others. Your Mother-in-law, Mabel, doesn’t read My Scriptures with such interest and faithfulness out of a free decision to follow Me, as the Christ. I leaned on her. I called her, and the call brought some pain in her life, particularly in relation to her family. But it also brought much reward and happiness. “The Book” is central in her life as an aged person, her Companion (along with My personal presence) as she experiences some isolation from people.

The Scriptural story tells of several ways in which people were governed, the most desirable being the role of a benevolent king, such as David. There is little guidance for a democracy such as yours, or for the campaigning which is now in progress. In Scriptural times women were not considered equal to men. Oh, there were some wonderful women in both Testaments, but mostly they knew their “place” and were not central to the story, as men were. Increasingly it should be realized and accepted that I, in My Triune nature, am the “embodiment” of both male and female. The male domination of the Scriptures must increasingly be translated to a balance, in My nature, between the sexes.

The Scriptures contain little desire for “progress,” in modern terms. There was little capacity to exploit the environment of their time, and therefore no obvious desire for a “better life.” American Christians have to ignore this, for the Scriptural story cannot be one urging you toward a simpler, more spiritual life. Objectively you can realize that the Biblical people mostly lived lives that you would now call poverty, and yet the great spiritual truths are expressed and lived in that time.