A Family with a Destiny: Into this situation of religious pluralism, with a welter of
religions mixing beauty and horror, truth and misunderstanding, God
communicated with a Semitic shepherd living in modern-day Iraq, then known as
Chaldea. The man’s name was Abraham. He was given a sense of destiny, that he
would be the father of a great family, and that his descendants would bring
spiritual blessing and enlightenment to the whole world. Key to this enlightenment
was this revelation: There were not many gods, but only one. And this God could
not be adequately represented by any of the standard images (idols), but was
greater than the stars and the sea, more majestic than the sky and the
mountains, because all things were created by this God. Not only that, but this
God was deeply concerned about the ethics, morality, social justice, and
personal integrity of human beings, Himself being ethical, moral, just and
pure. A real contrast to the capricious god-concepts of Abraham’s neighbors, gods
whose vices were as exaggerated as their powers!
These were radical ideas, though they may seem
commonplace to us, which is proof of Abraham’s ultimate influence. They took
generations to accept. But God was patient; these creations were made to be
free, so they could not be pushed or forced. They had to learn at their own
pace, so direct intervention (via some extraordinary spiritual experience such
as a vision, a voice, a dream) was always delicate. Additional interventions came,
though, at critical times, to Abraham’s son Isaac, Isaac’s son Jacob (who was
later renamed Israel, this name becoming the “family name” of the Jewish people
to this day), and Jacob’s son Joseph. The family was guided to a land of their
own at the east end of the Mediterranean, where this new understanding of God
could be nurtured in relative peace and stability. Eventually, the clan grew
quite large, and God apparently planned a difficult experience to solidify
their identity and more deeply root these new beliefs in this family of people,
and through them, in the human family as a whole.
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