The Slave

What impressed me most about The Slave when I read it was the fact the Jacob remains so loyal and so faithful, but also the fact that he is faithful to a religion and laws rather than the God that supposedly enforces them. Even while he is in bondage, Jacob preforms rituals and fights to remember the prayers he is supposed to say. He falls in love with a gentile but fears the consequences of acting on his desires both from God and the Jewish laws. When he has access to books however, he seeks to understand the laws he follows. His need for knowledge is both admirable and confusing. While in the beginning of the novel he follows Jewish law blindly but once he realizes he has been wronged he goes to the source and begins to question God.

Ecclesiastes

Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.

While many (including the preacher) interpret this as an explanation of the endless cycle of meaningless life on earth and the fact that because nothing you can possibly think or do is original and it all ends in the same inevitable death, it is all pointless. Everyone dies, and everything you do between now and then is in vain. For some this is justification for pursuing a life of sinful debauchery, indulging themselves for lack of anything meaningful to do, but as the third chapter explains, there is a time for every purpose under heaven. To me, this is God's reassurance that life on earth is not all that we are destined to see, that the meaninglessness seen by the preacher is really the triviality of life on earth compared to that of heaven.

The preacher prides himself on his wisdom, but also says that with much knowledge comes much vexation. He wishes to give advice and share the wisdom in a series of proverbs but at the same time it is hard to take him seriously with him constantly reminding you that all of it is meaningless.
Finally he decides that it is better to enjoy your vain life than dwell on its vanity. Very confusing.

"The Words of the Wise"

As we learned in class, the book of proverbs is an example of prudential wisdom. That is,wisdom that shows practicality and foresight. The reason I enjoy reading the book of Proverbs is because not only the content is practical and planned out but the format of the book itself is outlined in the first few verses, followed by very organized bits of fortune cookie wisdom.

Proverbs opens with giving the authorship to Solomon, son of David, King of Israel. It then explains the purpose of reading the proverbs, which is interesting because I don't recall any other book in the bible telling you the lesson or moral before you read it. Why is everything addressed to "my son?"

Proverbs is easy to read because it is made up of such short elements strung together, with each verse being a proverb.

This wasn't much of a blog but I will say that I intend to write my term paper on The Slave.

Psalms

The 150 poems contained in psalms act as the Bible's hymn book. These hymns include songs of praise, prayers to ask for help, and it just wouldn't be the bible if it didn't have some instructions on how to live, all of which are said to have been written by king David.

My favorite is Psalm 100:

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord,

all ye lands.

Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence of with singing.

Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he

that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are

his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and

into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him and bless his name.

For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting;

and his truth endureth to all generations.

If I am to look at the bible as literature alone, I will say that this psalm in itself is a good poem. It has the classic sheep metaphor, it has music, and it has a light and triumphant tone. However, if I am to blog what comes to mind I have to say that I enjoy this psalm because it covers all the bases as far as making faith easy. This psalm is reassuring to me. God is good, he enjoys it when you play music for him, and he is merciful and honest. When you read something like this in the bible, and it reaches out to you, you kind of forget all of the things God did to make you think he was cruel and petty. When you read something like this, you want to believe.

Job

When considering Job's suffering in the middle of his story, it is hard to fathom the motivation behind his patience in both the prologue and epilogue. How can he remain faithful to an omnipotent being that allows for everything in his life be destroyed when he has done nothing in his mind to deserve it?

I recently read a poem in my British Lit class that gives some insight about Job's patience called "Hap" by Thomas Hardy. In the poem, the speaker explains that he would be more willing to accept the pain and suffering in his life if he knew that there was some supreme being that willed it. He comes to the conclusion that there's no such thing, that all of life is left up to chance and that both happiness and pain are given to mortals at random by the forces of chance.

Perhaps it is the fact that Job knows that there is a God, and that that God is controlling his life that makes him patient. By understanding his place ion the universe in relation to God, Job is put in a position to accept what God is doing to him, trusting that he will make it right again or at least that what he is doing is right because of the fact that it is God doing it.



Thomas Hardy : Hap
If but some vengeful god would call to me
From up the sky, and laugh: “Thou suffering thing,
Know that thy sorrow is my ecstasy,
That thy love’s loss is my hate’s profiting!”
Then would I bear it, clench myself, and die,
Steeled by the sense of ire unmerited;
Half-eased in that a powerfuller than I
Had willed and meted me the tears I shed.
But not so. How arrives it joy lies slain,
And why unblooms the best hope ever sown?
—Crass Casualty obstructs the sun and rain,
And dicing Time for gladness casts a moan. . . .
These purblind Doomsters had as readily strown
Blisses about my pilgrimage as pain.