10/22 Class

• On the topic of suffering and why God allows horrible things to happen to innocent people (children and adults), I would like to post Sonnet 14 from John Donne

Batter my heart, three-person'd God ; for you
As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.

Donne claims that he has suffered his whole life from Satan. In the last two lines, he cries out for the Lord to take him and bless him with purity at a somewhat brutal cost. Even at the expense of rape and torture he is yearning for the Lord to save him from the pain he has been given by not leading a pure life. If this was me I certainly not be begging the Lord to save me after a life of torture; It is amazing that poets and people alike believe that the Lord can allow awful (not aweful) things to happen to people and still expect to be saved at his mercy.

Here are some of the things that I found enthralling about todays class:

• 586 B.C.E was the destruction of the Southern Kingdom and the Lord's bedroom.
• His-story has allowed the Jewish people to live
• Sal was the first King, Dancing David was the second
• Proverbs is made up of prudential and practical wisdom (lo-brow).
• Wisdom is not necessarily knowledge.
• A clean pot never boils
• A penny saved is a penny earned
• Knowledge is an acquisiton of information
• High-Brow wisdom is skepticism and its depressing
• Fathers say look out for wine, women, and songs
• Mothers say look out for girls
• Superior wisdom-(Job)-investigation into the nature of the causes of suffering
• Ecclesiastes V.2

Vanity of vanities, says the Teacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.

• Question God
• Ecclesiastes Ch 12. V 1-8.
• Joni Mitchell

The Sire of Sorrow (Job's sad
Song) Lyrics:
© 1994 Crazy Crow Music BMI
Let me speak, let me spit out my bitterness--
Born of grief and nights without sleep and festering flesh
Do you have eyes?
Can you see like mankind sees?
Why have you soured and curdled me?
Oh you tireless watcher! What have I done to you?
That you make everything I dread and
everything I fear come true?
Once I was blessed; I was awaited like the rain
Like eyes for the blind, like feet for the lame
Kings heard my words, and they sought out my company
But now the janitors of Shadowland flick their brooms at me
Oh you tireless watcher! What have I done to you?
that you make everything I dread and
everything I fear come true?
(Antagonists: Man is the sire of sorrow)
I've lost all taste for life
I'm all complaints
Tell me why do you starve the faithful?
Why do you crucify the saints?
And you let the wicked prosper
You let their children frisk like deer
And my loves are dead or dying, or they don't come near
(Antagonists: We don't despise your chastening
God is correcting you)
Oh and look who comes to counsel my deep distress
Oh, these pompous physicians
What carelessness!
(Antagonists: Oh all this ranting all this wind
[ Find more Lyrics on www.mp3lyrics.org/1TRR ]
Filling our ears with trash)
Breathtaking ignorance adding insult to injury!
They come blaming and shaming
(Antagonists: Evil doer)
And shattering me
(Antagonists: This vain man wishes to seem wise
A man born of asses)
Oh you tireless watcher! What have I done to you?
That you make everything I dread and
everything I fear come true?
(Antagonists: We don't despise your chastening)
Already on a bed of sighs and screams,
And still you torture me with visions
You give me terrifying dreams!
Better I was carried from the womb straight to the grave.
I see the diggers waiting, they're leaning on their spades.
(Antagonists: Man is the sire of sorrow
Sure as the sparks ascend)
Where is hope while you're wondering what went wrong?
Why give me light and then this dark without a dawn?
(Antagonists: Evil is sweet in your mouth
Hiding under your tongue)
Show your face!
(Antagonists: What a long fall from grace)
Help me understand!
What is the reason for your heavy hand?
(Antagonists: You're stumbling in shadows
You have no name now)
Was it the sins of my youth?
What have I done to you?
That you make everything I dread and
everything I fear come true?
(Antagonists: Oh your guilt must weigh so greatly)
Everything I dread and everything I fear come true
(Antagonists: Man is the sire of sorrow)
Oh you make everything I dread and
everything I fear come true

Susanna

So far, I think that the story of Susanna is one of the greatest I have come across in the bible. Even the way in which Susanna and her beauty are described sets it apart from the previous stories. To me, Susanna represents pure innocence and she seems to be very faithful. Serves the elders right for getting the Holy death penalty for attempting to "know" Susanna. The Lord in her story seems to be a passionate God, for he gladly rebukes the claims of the elders through Joseph. Maybe it is the absence of the Thou Shalt Not statements and lists of rules which also intrigue me about this story. Also, as we discussed in class on Tuesday, this story represents a simple structure for which countless numbers of stories, books, movies, songs, and many other forms of art and entertainment have evolved upon.

Plotts and thoughts

Just past some of the not-so-funny and mediocre jokes about being a jew are a few quotes I enjoyed in Plotts'.

• "God pays as much attention to the stitching as any contestant on Project Runway". While I was reading this part of the text in Exodus I could not help but think the same thing. I understand that God wants Moses and his people to create this lavish and extremely detailed tabernacle but come on. I question that these people who barely have food or water can produce a pomegranate. I understand the principle of the tabernacle, as it is a place where they are to make pure their citizens and worship God, but lines and lines of attention to detail is a bit dramatic. Which also leads me to believe, like Plott, that the editor or author of exodus maybe had seen the tabernacle and was simple describing it in its entirety.
• This book (numbers) is the work of a single tribe at war with everyone around it. The book of numbers so far has been somewhat interesting. The crap that these Isrealites are going through to make it to the promise land is bewildering. If I were an Isrealite, I too would be wishing that I was left in Egypt to be a slave instead of existing in a world where everyday was unpredictable and battle was inevitable...or maybe some, or all of these crazy shindigs that the Israelites have been doomed to experience did not happen whatsoever.....but it does make a hell of a story.

Well I shall be back later with more thoughts about Numbers.