The Bible In One Year Day 16 (Genesis 31 - 32, Job 21 - 22, Proverbs 3: 9 - 12)

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Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar consoling Job (Giulia Lama)

Day 16 The Suffering of Job 

Genesis 32
What did Jacob learn about God in his midnight wrestling match? Jacob learned that it is God with whom he must "wrestle" for blessing, not his father or brother or uncle or any other person. He also learned - via a permanent reminder in his hip - that God is in ultimate control. 

To name something in ancient times meant you had dominion over that thing. When God re-named Abraham, the new name marked him as God's servant and also indicated the role he would play as Patriarch. 

What is the significance of Jacob's new, God given name? God is marking someone out to be His servant in a special way and designating with a new name the role that servant would play in the nation He was building. "Jacob" - meaning deceiver or he graps - would be "Israel" - he struggles with God. The one who grasped with his own power for birthright and blessing had learned to struggle with God and be blessed. Unlike Abraham, who was never again called Abram, this patriarch is called alternately "Jacob" and "Israel." The nation that bears his name will exhibit the characteristics of both.
A Daily Defense DAY 16 The Practical Problems of Sola Scriptura
CHALLENGE:  “God wants us to determine our theology by Scripture alone. Every Christian should read the Bible and decide for himself what’s true.”

DEFENSE:  This is a view that couldn’t have been entertained until the early 1500s. Until then, multiple practical problems prevented it.

Among the problems are these: 

1. If every Christian is to read the Bible for himself and do the kind of study needed to decide delicate theological questions, then he must first have a Bible. But before the invention of the printing press (in the mid-1400s), Bibles had to be hand copied, and so they were fantastically expensive, costing far more than an ordinary person could afford. The widespread application of sola scriptura thus presupposes the invention of the printing press. 

2. It also presupposes universal distribution of Bibles. Copies not only have to be made, they have to be put in the hands of the people who are to use them. This requires a society with a developed economy and infrastructure capable of producing the wealth needed to print and distribute millions of Bibles. 

3. The recipients of these Bibles must be well educated. Illiterates can’t do the kind of detailed study needed to settle numerous theological questions. Sola scriptura thus requires universal literacy among Christians, as well as a high level of education in the critical thinking skills needed to sort through technical arguments about biblical passages and theological propositions. 

4. In addition to the Bibles, Christians would need to possess extensive scholarly support materials commentaries, concordances, Bible dictionaries, Greek and Hebrew lexicons, and so on. No competent theologian would dream of doing his work without these resources, and they would be all the more necessary for a less-educated layman to accurately determine theological matters for himself.

Needless to say, these conditions didn’t apply in the early Church or for most of Christian history (or for many Christians today). It’s easy to see why the Reformers—a group of well-educated individuals in the 1500s—got excited about the mass printing of Bibles and thought of having everyone decide his own theology. But this was not God’s plan for the first Christians, or for most Christians, which means it’s an anachronistic view that is not God’s plan.

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist

The Bible In One Year Day 15 (Genesis 29 - 30, Job 19 - 20, Proverbs 3: 5-8)

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The Meeting of Jacob and Rachel (William Dyce)

Day 15 Leah Feels Unloved

Jacob's falls in love with the lovely Rachel and works seven years to earn her as his bride  Laban pulls a fast one on him, switching his old daughter Leah for Rachel on the wedding night.  Jacob accuses him of deceit and there is rich irony in Laban's reply:  "It is not so done in our country, to give the younger before the first born."  (Genesis 29:26).  Jacob, who had deceived his own brother and father to take the rights of the firstborn, is deceived himself into taking the firstborn.  He must work another seven years for Rachel.  

Jacob Reproaching Laban for giving him Leah (Hendrick ter Brughen)

                                                    DAY 15 The Anointing of the Sick 

CHALLENGE “The sacrament of the anointing of the sick has no biblical basis; it is a human invention.” 

DEFENSE:  The anointing of the sick is recorded in the Bible. The practice of anointing the sick as a means of miraculous healing was already part of the Christian movement during the earthly ministry of Christ. Jesus performed many exorcisms and healings, and he commissioned the apostles to continue this miraculous ministry, using anointing as one of their methods.

Thus in Mark we read how Jesus sent the Twelve on a preaching and miracle-working mission and “they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them” (Mark 6:13).

The anointing of the sick continued to be used later in the apostolic age. Thus in the letter of James we read: “Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven” (James 5:14–15). 

It is this passage in particular from which the Church draws its understanding of the anointing of the sick: “The first grace of this sacrament is one of strengthening, peace, and courage to overcome the difficulties that go with the condition of serious illness or the frailty of old age. 

This grace is a gift of the Holy Spirit, who renews trust and faith in God and strengthens against the temptations of the evil one, the temptation to discouragement and anguish in the face of death. This assistance from the Lord by the power of his Spirit is meant to lead the sick person to healing of the soul, but also of the body if such is God’s will. Furthermore, ‘if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven’ ” (CCC 1520). 

Note that James says that the sick person is to call for “the elders [Greek, presbuteroi ] of the Church.” Presbuteros is the Greek word from which the English word “priest” is derived. Since the anointing of the sick is part of the ministry of the presbuteroi, “only priests (bishops and presbyters) are ministers of the anointing of the sick” (CCC 1516).

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist

The Bible In One Year Day 14 (Genesis 27-28, Job 17-18, Proverbs 3: 1-4)

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Jacobs Ladder (Jacques Stella)

The fathers of the Church saw Jacob’s ladder (Gen 28:11-16) as a foreshadowing of the Cross of Christ, a Theophany, a supernatural manifestation of God in the world.

In the year 400, in his Sermon 1.6 Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture, Chromatius, Bishop of Aquileia wrote, “Through the resurrection of Christ the way was opened.  Therefore with good reason the patriarch Jacob relates that he had seen in that place a ladder whose end reached heaven and that the Lord leaned on it.  The ladder fixed to the ground and reaching the heaven is the cross of Christ, through which the access to heaven is granted to us, because it actually leads us to heaven.

On this ladder different steps of virtue are set, through which we rise toward heaven:  faith, justice, chastity, holiness, patience, piety and all the other virtues are the steps of this ladder.  If we faithfully climb them, we will undoubtedly reach heaven. And therefore we know well that the ladder is the symbol of the cross of Christ.  As, in fact, the steps are set between two uprights, so the cross of Christ is placed between the two Testaments and keeps in itself the steps of the heavenly precepts, through which we climb to heaven.” 

Day 14 Isaac Blesses Jacob 

Isaac Blesses Jacob (Gerbrand van den Eeckhout)

DAY 14 Jesus as Messiah 

CHALLENGE:  “Why should I believe that Jesus is the Jewish Messiah?” 

DEFENSE:  The answer depends on one’s viewpoint. If one is already a believer in the Hebrew Scriptures, then one can point to various prophecies that were fulfilled by Jesus. There have been a number of understandings of the Messiah in Judaism, which makes the study of Messianic prophecy complex and beyond the scope of these daily entries. However, it is worth pointing to a particular prophecy that was fulfilled through Jesus. The prophets declare that “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isa. 11:9; cf. Hab. 2:14).

When these prophecies were given, the number of people who believed in the God of Abraham was vanishingly small. The vast majority of people were polytheists, and the world was covered in pagan darkness. Today, however, the situation is very different. Half of the human race worships the God of Abraham, and virtually everyone has heard of him. By comparison to the days of the prophets, the world is now covered by the knowledge of the Lord the way the waters cover the sea. 

This did not happen by accident. It is part of God’s plan. It also did not happen apart from Jesus of Nazareth. It was through him that the nations came to worship the God of Abraham. Consequently, he has a very prominent role in God’s plan. This role is linked to his claim to be the Messiah. Without this claim, the nations would not have come to believe in God through him, and he is the single most successful messianic claimant in history, such that even those who do not believe in him routinely refer to him as “Jesus Christ” ( Christos being the Greek word for “Messiah”).

As a result, his role as Messiah must be given serious and open-minded consideration. If one is not yet a believer in the Hebrew Scriptures, or even if one is, a particularly striking proof of Jesus’ role as Messiah is provided by his Resurrection. We have good evidence that this event happened (see Days 206–215), and just as miracles validate the ministries of prophets (see Day 78), this miracle validates Jesus’ ministry and qualifies him to tell us what his role in God’s plan is.

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist

The Bible In One Year Day 13 (Genesis 25-26, Job 15-16, Proverbs 2:20-22)

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Esau Selling His Birthright (Hendrick ter Brugghen)

Thus you will walk in the ways of the good
    and keep to the paths of the righteous.
 For the upright will live in the land,
    and the blameless will remain in it;
but the wicked will be cut off from the land,
    and the unfaithful will be torn from it. (Proverbs 2:20 -22) 

Day 13 Esau Sells His Birthright 

Notes from The Great Adventure Session 5 Patriarchs

The lives of these early people often exhibit what will be true of the nations that come from them. In Genesis 25, the Lord tells Rebekah the twins jostling in her womb will become two struggling nations, and that the nation that springs from the elder will be weaker and will serve the nation that comes from the younger. 

Jacob means he grasps the heal or, figuratively, he deceives. And from the moment of Jacob's birth, he is grasping at what belongs to his older brother: first his heel, then his birthright, and finally their father's blessings. 

Esau is no match for Jacob's cunning. He is more interested in satisfying his immediate physical needs than in hanging on to his birthright, and Jacob is able to wrest it from him for a pot of stew.

Later he and Rebekah trick Isaac into giving him the blessing as well. The boys struggle from day one, and the younger is coming out on top.

God chooses Jacob not because of his faithfulness or his behavior; not because of anything he's done, either good or bad. He chooses Jacob while Jacob is still in his mother's womb. God chose Jacob before he'd had a chance to do anything good or bad to show that God's people did not rise "naturally" or according to worldly skill or wisdom but because of His initiative. They were not chosen because they were better than others but simply out of what the Catechism calls God's "sheer gratuitous love."

Catechism of the Catholic Church  

218:  In the course of its history, Israel was able to discover that God had only one reason to reveal himself to them, a single motive for choosing them from among all peoples as his special possession:  his sheer gratuitous love.  And thanks to the prophets Israel understood that it was again out of love that God never stopped saving them and pardoning their unfaithfulness and sins.  

Romans 9: 10 - 16 

...Rebekah's children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac.  Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad - in order that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works but by him who calls, she was told, "The older will serve the younger."  Just as it is written:  "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated."  What then shall we say?  Is God unjust?  Not at all!  For he says to Moses, "I will have mercy on who I have mercy, and I will have compassion on who I have compassion."  It does not therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God's mercy.  

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DAY 13 Original Sin and Justice 

CHALLENGE:  “Original sin is unjust. How could a good God punish us for something done by our ancestors?” 

DEFENSE: This misunderstands what original sin is. God doesn't punish us because of what Adam did. 

Genesis 1 and 2 depict God creating mankind in a state that was “very good” (Gen. 1:31). “As long as he remained in the divine intimacy, man would not have to suffer or die. The inner harmony of the human person, the harmony between man and woman, and finally the harmony between the first couple and all creation, comprised the state called ‘original justice’ ” (CCC 376).

But man turned away from union with God through sin, which Genesis depicts as the act of eating the forbidden fruit (CCC

390). 

If Adam and Eve had remained in original justice, their descendants would have been born in it as well. However, having lost this through sin, their descendants are born deprived of original holiness

and justice. Thus we are said to be born in original sin. 

However, we are not personally guilty of Adam’s sin, and God does not hold us accountable for it. 

“Original sin is called ‘sin’ only in an analogical sense: It is a sin ‘contracted’ and not ‘committed’—a state and not an act” (CCC 404).

“Original sin does not have the character of a personal fault in any of Adam’s descendants. It is a deprivation of original holiness and justice” (CCC 405). 

Although it is not a personal fault, original sin has consequences for human nature, which is “wounded in the natural powers proper to it, subject to ignorance, suffering, and the dominion of death, and inclined to sin—an inclination to evil that is called concupiscence” (CCC 405). 

The situation is like that of a rich man who gambles away his fortune and is unable to pass it on to his children. The gambler was personally at fault, but his children experience the deprivation and

poverty that his actions brought about. In the same way, God gave our first parents an abundance of spiritual riches that they lost through their own folly. The fault was theirs, but we are born in spiritual poverty and out of divine intimacy. 

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist

The Bible In One Year - Day 12 (Genesis 24, Job 13-14, Proverbs 2:16-19)

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Wisdom will save you from evil people, from those whose words are twisted. (Proverbs 2:16)

The Servant and Rebekah (Benjamin West)

Day 12 Isaac and Rebekah

A Commentary
Finding a Wife for IsaacUnderstanding the Scriptures - The Didache Series (Chapter 6, p 108  - 109)

All God's promises to Abraham were to fulfilled through Isaac. The only way to keep Isaac from falling into idolatry, Abraham had decided, was to keep him away from the Canaanites.  Abraham's servant was sent back to Nahor to find a wife for Isaac.  

Abraham's servant saw the women gathering at the will and prayed to God to guide him, "Let the maiden to whom I shall say, "Pray, let down your jar that I may drink," and who shall say, "Drink and I will water your camels' - let her be the one whom thou hast appointed for thy servant Isaac." 

One did arrive and do this exactly.  The young woman was Rebekah, the granddaughter of Nahor, Abraham's brother.  Her brother Laban was the head of the household now and when Abraham's servant came to his house, he told Laban how Abraham had prospered and what his mission was.   Rebekah agreed to leave her home and return with Abraham's servant. When she met Isaac they married. 

The Meeting of Isaac and Rebekah ( Giovanni Castiglione)

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A Daily Defense
DAY 12 “The Word Was God” 

CHALLENGE:  “Jesus is not God. John 1:1 shouldn’t be translated ‘the Word was God’ but ‘the Word was a god.’” 

DEFENSE: What the Gospel says about Jesus makes this translation impossible. It is true that Greek lacks the
indefinite article (“a,” “an”), and so translators must decide whether to add it in English. However,
one cannot simply assert that it should be added in a particular case. One needs proof from the context. 

Considered apart from its context, the Greek phrase normally translated “the Word was God”
(theos ē n ho logos ) could be rendered a number of ways. However, the thing that determines which

translations are accurate is the context—what else the Gospel of John has to say that has a bearing on

the meaning of this phrase. When this is taken into account, it is clear that any translation of John 1:1

that would reduce the Word to the status of a created being, such as a finite “god” inferior to the true

God, is inaccurate. The Gospel of John repeatedly emphasizes the full divinity of Christ. 

John is explicit about the matter when he states, “This was why the Jews sought all the more to kill

him, because he not only broke the sabbath but also called God his Father, making himself equal

with God” (John 5:18). 

Similarly, when Jesus is asked how he could have seen Abraham, he replies, “Before Abraham

was, I am ” (John 8:58), using the same Greek phrase for “ I am ” ( eg ō eimi ) used in the Greek Old

Testament when God declares his name to Moses and tells him, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘ I

am has sent me to you ’ ” (Exod. 3:14). Jesus’ audience understood that he was claiming to be God,

“so they took up stones to throw at him” (John 8:59). 

Later Jesus declares, “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30).  And after the Resurrection, 

Thomas declares him to be, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). This

reference is particularly significant, because it serves as the bookend for John 1:1’s statement “the

Word was God.” The two declarations frame the Gospel of John’s teaching on Jesus’ divinity. 

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist

The Bible In One Year - Day 11 (Genesis 22-23, Job 11-12, Proverbs 2:9-15)

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Then you will understand what is right and just

    and fair—every good path.

10 

For wisdom will enter your heart,

    and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

11 

Discretion will protect you,

    and understanding will guard you.  (Proverbs 2:9-11)

Day 11 The Sacrifice of Isaac 

 

The Binding of Isaac Genesis Chapter 22

In this passage, Abraham is called by God to take his only son to the land of Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice. This sounds as if God is asking for a human sacrifice, something that existed at the time of Abraham, but was repugnant to the Hebrews and against the will of God.

Was God asking for something that was against His own Commandment’s? On the surface it appears so. But sometimes, well maybe most times, God’s commands are opaque to us, in other words they are not transparent or easily understood. So how do we come to terms with God’s request of Abraham?

Rewind a few chapters to the three promises God made to Abraham, which would set in motion the course of salvation history coming to fulfillment in the Pascal Mystery; suffering, death and resurrection of Christ. “I will make of you a great nation…I will make your name great…All the communities of the earth shall find blessings in you.” (Genesis 12:2-3)

At the time God made these promises, Abraham and Sarah his wife were childless and well beyond child bearing years. Abraham then inquires, “O Lord God, what good will your gifts be, if I keep on being childless? (Genesis 15:2) To which God replies, “Look up at the sky and count the stars, if you can. Just so shall your descendants be.” (Genesis 15:5)

Time passes and Abraham and Sarah still have no children. Sarah suggests that Abraham take her maidservant Hagar.  Abraham agrees and at the age of 86 fathers Ishmael with Hagar. Yet, Sarah is not as excited as she thought she would be over the birth of Ishmael to Hagar.

Years later, in God’s timing, He blesses Abraham and Sarah with a son. (Genesis: 21:5) More years pass and Abraham, Sarah and Isaac are very happy. Then one day God calls to Abraham asking him to “Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust.” (Genesis 22:2) 

Here is where the real depth of Abraham's faith is revealed.  Abraham would certainly rather have offered himself as a sacrifice rather than his only son.  But Abraham simply responds by saddling his donkey and taking his son Isaac and wood he cut for the offering to do as God has asked.  

The people who lived around the ancient Israelites practiced human sacrifice all the time.  Bu did God really want Abraham to sacrifice Isaac? No God did not want the sacrifice of Isaac, nor would the sacrifice of Isaac, or any of the animal sacrifices performed by the high priest in the Temple suffice. The only sacrifice that would break the chain of sin and death would be the sacrifice of the Perfect Lamb of God, Jesus.

God commands Abraham (Domenichino)

At the place where God had commanded Abraham to make a holocaust, Isaac said, “Here is the fire and the wood, but where is the sheep for the holocaust?” “Son,” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the sheep for the holocaust.” (Genesis 22:7-8) 

Now at this time Isaac is not a little boy but rather a strong man.  Abraham is an old man and has left his servants behind.  If Isaac wanted to fight back he could have.  Yet he submits trusting in his father and in God.  Isaac allows his hands to be bound. 

Abraham continues in obedience to God, trusting him even to the moment of raising the knife to slaughter his son. At that moment Abraham hears, “Do not do the least thing to him. I know now how devoted you are to God, since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son.” (Genesis 22:12) “As Abraham looked about, he spied a ram caught by its horns in the thicket. So he went and took the ram and offered it up as a holocaust in place of his son.” (Genesis 22:13)

Sacrifice of Isaac (Caravaggio)

For Christians, the story has far more significance. The Church Fathers saw the sacrifice of Isaac as a type of the sacrifice of Christ.  

Isaac:  A father offers his beloved son; the son submits to the father's will; Isaac carries the wood for his own sacrifice; God himself provides the sacrifice. 

Christ: The Father offers his beloved Son; The Son submits to the Father's will; Jesus carries his own wooden cross; God himself provides the perfect sacrifice. 

The mountains of Moriah were the hills around Jerusalem  On one of the peaks, Solomon's Temple would later be built, where the whole nation of Israel would offer its sacrifices to God. It is this same Temple built on Mount Moriah, that Jesus would be dedicated to God (Luke 2:22-38), drive out the money-changers (John 2:14), and teach (John 7:14).  It  would be on Golgotha, a hillside near this Temple that Jesus would offer himself as the last sacrifice.  

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A Daily Defense

DAY 11 Science and the Supernatural 

CHALLENGE: "Science cannot accept the supernatural. The natural world is all there is.” 

DEFENSE: At best, this leads to a reductionist understanding of science. At worst, it reflects intellectual prejudice. 

The term “nature” is often used to refer to the visible world we see around us (i.e., the world detectible by the senses and by scientific instruments).  The supernatural then would be anything that falls outside of the visible would.  

On this understanding, the assertion that science can’t accept the supernatural would mean that science cannot deal with anything outside of the visible world.  It would not mean, however, that there is nothing outside the visible world.  Just because we can't detect something with the senses doesn't mean that it isn't real.  There could be vast realms outside the visible world that would be inaccessible to science on this understanding.  

Further, those realms might be capable of interacting with the visible world, which would pose a challenge for science.  We might be able to see visible effects of causes in the non-visible world, but science would not be able to explain the effects by their true causes, which it would be forbidden to discuss.  

Sometimes people use "nature" to refer to everything that exists.  On this understanding, one could assert that nature is all there is, but this also would not mean that the visible world is all that exists. There still could be vast realms not accessible to the senses.  They might even interact with the visible world.  Using "nature" to refer to everything that exists just reclassifies things that would otherwise be called supernatural as exotic parts of nature. 

The claim that the visible world is all that exists is simply an assertion. It is not a scientific claim because it cannot be verified by science.  If science, by its nature, is limited to examining the visible universe, then there is no way to perform a set of observations and experiments proving that there are no realms outside the visible universe.  The assertion that only the visible world is real thus would be a matter of unscientific  prejudice against the idea there is anything outside the visible world. 

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist

The Bible In One Year - Day 10 (Genesis 20 - 21, Job 9 - 10, Proverbs 2:6 - 8)

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For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding. (Proverbs 2:6) 

Hagar and Ishmael ( Benjamin West) 

DAY 10 Hagar and Ishmael 

Day 10 The Religion of Your Parents 

CHALLENGE: "Most people accept whatever religion they are raised in.  This means there's no particular reason to believe in religion.  Further, it would be unfair of God to damn people simply because they believe what their parents taught them to believe."   

DEFENSE: 

The fact that people tend to accept the beliefs they are raised with does not give reason to reject belief altogether.  Also, God takes into account the way people are raised.  Children have a natural tendency to accept the beliefs they are taught by their parents and their culture.  This is essential to our education, since we do not have the opportunity to personally verify the vast majority of our beliefs.  This is true across all subjects, not just religion.   

For example, people tend to accept the ideas about the natural world that are prevalent in their culture, but this does not mean they have a reason to disbelieve in the natural world or how it works.  Rather,  it means they have reason to accept what they have been taught unless and until a superior case if made for another view.

Similarly, people have a reason to accept the religion they were raised in unless and until they encounter a superior case for another religion.  Christianity has nothing to fear in this regard.  

If most people remain in the religion of their birth, it is because most do not undertake a detailed study of apologetics and thus do not encounter the powerful evidences for the Christian faith. Nevertheless, God takes into account the background with which a person is raised.  He does not automatically damn people because of what their parents taught them.  The Church holds that "those who through no fault of their own, do not known the gospel of Christ or his Church, but who nevertheless seek God with a sincere heart, and, moved by grace, try in their actions to do his will as they know it through the dictates of their conscience - those too may achieve eternal salvation."  CCC 847

Jimmy Akin, A Daily Defense: 365 Days (Plus One) to Becoming a Better Apologist