Living Together: Generations
May 19, 2024Pastor Travis presented today's message, "Living Together: Generations." Here's a video of the message.
I think it's certainly fair to say that the Torah cares a great deal about the relationship between generations. That care falls into two primary categories: looking back and looking forward.
Looking back, the focus is on remembrance and gratitude. Remember the words and deeds of your ancestors, and be grateful for what they and God have done for you. The Passover is a good example of a yearly event to remember what God did for us in the Exodus (Exodus 12:14-20). For the past 1500 years or so, the Passover Seder has provided the "how to" of remembering the Exodus.
As for looking forward... Deuteronomy 6:7 sums it up succinctly, "Impress them [God's commandments] on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up." In other words, pass down your Torah-based values to your children, and work on this all the time.
Another way to summarize the Torah's fundamental requirement of people across generations: procreate and perpetuate "the way."
Bonus
IF (the movie)
It's not the word "if." It's an acronym for Imaginary Friend. Here's its IMDB entry.
And it's the best PG-rated movie I've ever seen... for adults!
You'll laugh. You'll cry, at least a little. I would say it's all about remembering and gratitude - two big themes (of many) in the Torah (as mentioned above, interestingly).
A slight stretch may let one see similarities between an IF and God. Neither can be seen or heard by others. Both bring comfort and a feeling of safety. Both sometimes challenge you to be better. Both have your back.
Many a story came out in conversations following the movie about each other's IFs. Nearly everyone had an IF, and each was remembered vividly.
Enjoy!
Bonus2
Evil (the TV series)
I stumbled onto this series just the other night and binged my way through season one (of four, I think). Here's its IMDB entry.
I find the series a fascinating view into the evil "of Biblical proportions" without being entirely over the top. In other words, it's somewhat believable. Are there demons and possessions, or are there not?...
And it seems to represent good and evil in many of its variations. Evil, which this show focuses on (duh!), comes in a multitude of forms both in real life and in this series. Some evil is so bad it's hard to believe it could be real. Some evil is so subtle it's hard to pick up on the fact that it's evil at all. Some of it is presented in such an intellectual manner that one gets sucked into it. And some evil comes disguised as nice, helpful, or even good. Evil has so many faces.
I love that the investigative team is made up of believers in demons and possession as well as non-believers. The conversations are riveting (if you're into these sorts of topics).
Enjoy! If that's the right word for this one. Your mileage may vary.
Update 5/24/24: I just watched S2E9. There was a fascinating, albeit brief, discussion about whether Man is basically good or not. Also, the episode centered around the report of a UFO. One of the characters wondered out loud whether aliens would be under Original Sin or not. Must we witness to them, or not. That question had not crossed my mind, till now.
Bonus3
Joseph: Genesis and the Quran
As fate would have it... The other day I spotted a car with a license plate that read KARAN12. I get a kick out of figuring out what special plates mean, and this was no exemption. It didn't take long to think of Koran (or Quran) chapter 12. So, guess what I looked up when I got home...
I don't remember ever reading anything from the Quran before, so this became doubly interesting. And to my surprise, this chapter is about Joseph. And just where in Leon Kass' book on Genesis do you think I'm at right now? Correct: Joseph.
I was immediately struck by a comparison of the "column inches" dedicated in the respective books for this story. The Quran covers the story in a single chapter of 111 verses (and not all of the 111 verses are about the story specifically). On the other hand, Genesis takes 14 chapters (37-50) containing a total of 449 verses to tell the Joseph story.
Someday, I might do a thorough compare-and-contrast study on the two versions of the story, but for now I'll be happy simply pointing out a few differences that struck me.
In Quran 12:4-5, the first mention of Joseph's name, Joseph tells his father about his first dream of eleven stars, etc. and his father (Jacob) tells Joseph not to tell his brothers for fear that "they will contrive against you." This is not recounted in the Genesis story. The first we hear of this dream Joseph tells it to his brothers.
Both stories do indicate that the brothers blamed Joseph and Jacob for the imbalance in treatment between Joseph and the other brothers. The stories remain similar in that "a speaker" (among the brothers) argues that they should not kill Joseph. It is Reuben in the Genesis account that argues this, but the "speaker" is not named in the Quran.
Starting in Quran 12:11, the brothers ask to take Joseph with them into the field. And they do. In Genesis, the brothers make no such request. Jacob sends Joseph out to check on the brothers.
In Quran 12:17, the brothers tell Jacob that a wolf ate Joseph. In Genesis, the brothers do not say exactly what happened to Joseph. Instead, they let Jacob's conjecture, upon seeing the bloody coat, that "a wild animal ate him," stand uncontested.
The Quran's version of the Potiphar's wife story is both the same and very different. The basic story is the same. The Quran adds that Potiphar's wife had a banquet with "the women of the town" to dissuade them from their assumption that she was trying to seduce Joseph. The Quran story ends with Joseph asking to be imprisoned in order to avoid what these women wanted of him. None of that is in the Genesis version.
The Quran's telling of the encounter with the prisoners (wine steward and baker) focused mainly on which god or Allah Joseph believed in. It wasn't clear to me exactly what was being said. There was but one verse about the dreams and their interpretations (which mostly aligned in the big picture with the Genesis version).
In the Quran, Joseph explains the Pharoah's dream to the prisoner who has come back to Joseph's cell. In Genesis, Joseph explains the dream to Pharoah after being brought up out of prison. When Joseph eventually sees the Pharoah, Joseph asks about a detail from the Potiphar's wife story and now the truth comes out. This later part is not mentioned in Genesis.
The Quran immediately jumps to Pharoah appointing Joseph to oversee the food situation without Joseph's suggestion of "appoint someone."
In the Quran, there's a direction from Jacob to his sons about which gate to enter upon returning to Egypt. Genesis does not include that, but rather includes Jacob's instructions about gifts for Pharoah.
In Quran 12:69, Joseph tells at least one of the brothers that he is his brother. Genesis keeps that little secret much longer in the story.
That's enough for now. I encourage you to read each version and discover your own interesting comparisons. The wording in the Quran was quite confusing to me. I had to keep re-reading verses to try to understand them. I may very well have misconstrued something.
Here is the Quran text I used: Holy Quran with English Translation Chapter 12. And the Torah translation I was using for this comparison was the New International Version (NIV).