Ascension Presents with Fr. Mike Schmitz- YouTube. Day 7, 2024
Genesis 14-15, Job 3-4, and Proverbs 1:8-19.
Genesis 14-15 Abram joins the battle of the kings adn sets out on a recue mission to recover Lot. Afterwards, the priest King Melchizedek blesses Abram and offers up bread and wine on a high place. Later on Jesus is described as having a priesthood according to Melchizedek- a priest for all time, also using bread and wine as an offering.
Abram forges a covenant with God through the sacrifice of animals cut in two and to walk between their two halves to show that if he should break the covenant, he will end up split in two as the animal sacrifices are. Interestingly, Abram did not cut the two birds in half and it is God who walks between the sacrificed animals, but Abram does not. This is seen as the mercy of God. So God is saying that I know you will fail in this covenant (Abram did not complete the sacrifice of the birds), but I will take on that burden for you. It can be seen that Jesus will be the payment of this debt. God still offers Abram the promise of multiple generations that will carry his name, even though Abram is still without a son of his own.
Job 3-4 In his suffering, Job starts to curse the day of his birth. He questions God. There is beautiful poetry in his lamentations. One of Job’s friend, after seven days and seven nights of silence questions Job as to why he should not suffer as people suffer as a result of sin. However, Job is not known to have sinned, so why does he let Job suffer? What is the lesson?
Proverbs 1: 8-19 A warning to not follow men who would try to gain power through bloodletting, for it is their own blod that they lie in wait for. This sounds like an injunction against murder. This is all somewhat ironic, given the amount of birds and animals that were sacrificed in the previous chapters of Genesis with Abram! However, it is possible to see these animal sacrifices, and even upcoming wars, as a path of development for humans that will culminate in God’s fulfillment of the covenant with Abram in the form of God’s only begotten son, Jesus. Jesus passion and crucifixion will be the ultimate sacrifice required to save humans from sin—A sign that we are to follow the King of Kings of both heaven and Earth, and not any other earthly kings. It is certainly more interesting to read the Old Testament scriptures through the lens of Jesus fulfilling the demands that God is putting on people in this world of the ancient Fathers.
Citations:
The Bible in a Year & More: Fr. Mike & Jeff Cavins. (2021, June 13). Day 7: God’s Covenant with Abram— The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up30wE2u-AI