Don’t Ask -- Tell

I just realized, thanks to Molly's question, that Abraham has a new relationship to God after the binding of Isaac.

***
Abraham tells his unnamed servant what Lord Yahway will do! "He himself will send a messenger before you" [24:7].

Yahway will help this servant find a bride for Isaac because Abraham says so!

So can we children of Abraham, with faith, say what our God will do? Is this don't ask -- tell?

How comforting that we can with confidence say: God will bless us, comfort us, heal us, and send messengers to guide us to more and more loving relationships.

Lord Yahway's A Matchmaker

My friend Molly writes:

"Did Abraham find another nicer God after he rejected the violent one?"
*****
Lord Yahway's A Matchmaker

Abraham descends alone from the mountain where he almost sacrificed Isaac. Abraham never again will speak with his Lord Yahway (or with Isaac). Never again will Abraham be commanded by an inner voice. But Abraham still believes Yahway will guide in non-verbal ways.
*****
After Sarah dies, Abraham commands his servant to "go to my land and to my kin to get a wife for my son Isaac .... Yahway himself will send his messenger before you [24:4-7].

The servant does not see or hear a guide from Yahway. But when the servant's camels are watered by Rebecca at a well, the servant puts a ring on Rebecca’s nose, bracelets on her arms and "prostrates himself before Yahway ... who led me on the road of truth to get the daughter of my lord’s brother to be the bride for his son" [24:48].

Questioning Divinity

Kierkegaard's understanding of Abraham's story wildly freed me when I was young:

Kierkegaard thinks Abraham is ready to sacrifice his son just because God asks him. There is no reward for doing this. No reason to sacrifice Issac. Just because Abraham feels called to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham is willing: doing what he thinks is right--though the heavens fall.

*****
When I grew older I grew out of this untamed freedom: by carefully examining the biblical story I learned how Abraham freed himself from God's violence. Never again would Abraham listen to (or even hear) the voice of the God who almost moved him to kill his son.

Loving Free Requires Imagination

When Abram’s herdsmen were fighting with Lot’s herdsmen, “Abram said to his nephew Lot: 

Let there be no quarrelling between me and you … for we are brothers.

… Please separate from me … If you go to the left, I will go to the right.

If you go to the right,  I will go to the left” [13:8-9].

*****

What is so beauty full about Abram's giving his nephew the choicest land is that Abram did not expect anything back.
*****

Does someone come in to take the place of the beloveds we help prosper on their way?
*****

Do we broadcast through our world: Loving We Free?
*****
Is our imagination grand enough to envision an un-endlessly expanding family?
*****
Can our actions work through our frailties to manifest a world beyond our dreams?
*****
Can we walk with all our steps faithfully
believing that the source of our imagination,
which is beyond our imagination,
will provide more than we can imagine

Yearning’s Being

10-30-14      Yearning’s Being

It feels good reading your quests Margaret.  Thanks so much.

Here’s how I imagine Abram’s quest:

*****

Yearning’s Being

How can we describe yearning from our being?
Is it a deep dream we have not dared to dream --
a deep scream we have not dared to scream --
through an empty space we share with the human race?

may cosmos dream through chaos

turning night to day

moving  us to play

sharing the blessing that we pray

Here’s how I imagine Abram’s quest:

*****

Yearning’s Being

How can we describe yearning from our being?
Is it a deep dream we have not dared to dream --
a deep scream we have not dared to scream --
through an empty space we share with the human race?

may cosmos dream through chaos

turning night to day

moving  us to play

sharing the blessing we pray

Do We All Get the Divinity We Deserve?

When Abram’s life is as barren as his wife, how does he find blessings?

The yearning for blessings must infuse all he does. He’s like a thirsty man in the desert looking for water.

His cry for blessings must also arise from his unconscious and from his Greater Self? 

His cries attract a lonely spirit who promises to fill Abram’s emptiness with a new world of blessing?

Abram and this mysterious Being then co-create a new way for humanity to make divine dreams real.

How much does the energy to co-create a blessed world come from Abraham?
How much does the energy to co-create a blessed world come from Abraham's divinity?

All beings are made of, infused with, blessing force.

Perhaps we sometimes feel this blessing force is outside us until we discover blessing force is in all of us.

Changing Names Changing Lives

Abram's name is changed to Abraham while he is communicating with divinity in chapter 17.

"Abram" means "my father is great."
"Abraham" means "father of many." Abraham no longer is focused on exalting his father. Abraham can look at Ishmael and see and feel: I am a father who is fruitful and multiplying.

*****

"Sarai" means "my princess."
Her name is changed to "Sarah" in Chapter 17. "Sarah" simply means "princess." She's now a princess who belongs to no one. When she looks into a pool of water she sees a princess looking back at her. She doesn't need Abraham's eyes or anyone else's eyes to feel and know she is a princess.