In
which the exiles reimagine exile as God’s constraint and shelter for them
Genesis
1:6-8
And
God said, “Let there be a vault in the midst of the waters, and let it divide
water from water.” And God made the vault and it divided the water beneath the
vault from the water above the vault, and so it was. And God called the vault
Heavens, and it was evening and it was morning, second day.
Amos 9:1-6
I
saw the Master stationed by the altar, and He said: Strike the capitals that
the thresholds shake. I will split them on the heads of them all, and who is
left of them I will slay with the sword. None of them shall be able to flee,
and no survivor from them shall escape. Were they to dig down to Sheol, from
there My hand would take them, and were they to ascend to the heavens, from
there I would bring them down. And were they to hide on the peak of Carmel, I
would search them out there and take them. And were they to take cover from My
eyes on the floor of the sea, from there I would summon the Serpent and it
would bite them. And should they go in captivity before their enemies, from
there I will summon the sword and it would slay them. And I will put My eye on
them for evil and not for good.
And
the Master, LORD of Armies, Who but touches the earth and it melts and all
dwellers upon it mourn, and it goes up like the Nile, and sinks like the Nile
of Egypt. Who builds in the heavens His lofts and His vault upon the earth He
founds. Who calls forth the waters of the sea and pours them over the earth—the
LORD is His name.
In
dark times, we long for hope. But when we rush, we are likely to rush to false
hopes. The exiles deported to Babylon needed to make sense of their situation,
and Advent asks the same of us. God has set limits on our human capacity to
determine our lives, has fashioned a vault that—like all great architecture—both
shelters us and draws out wonder.
In
what ways have you had to accept the limits of your capacity over the past
year? In what ways have you discovered this to be grace?
Biblical
texts: Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary
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