In
which the exiles return to the beginning
Genesis
11:31, 32
And
Terah took Abram his son and Lot son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his
daughter-in-law, the wife of his son Abram, and he set out with them from Ur of
the Chaldees toward the land of Canaan, and they came to Haran and settled
there. And the days of Terah were two hundred and five years, and Terah died in
Haran.
Jeremiah
33:1-9, 25, 26
And
the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah again while he was still shut up in the
court of the guard, saying, “Thus said the LORD, Who fashions it to bring it
about, the LORD is His name. Call out to Me that I may answer you and yell you
great and lofty things you did not know. For thus said the LORD God of Israel
concerning the houses of the city and the houses of the kings of Judah torn
down before the siege-ramps and before the sword, those coming to do battle
with the Chaldeans, but to fill them with human corpses whom I struck down in
My wrath and in My anger as I hid My face from this city for all their evil. I
am about to grant them a cure and a healing, and I will heal them and reveal to
them a wealth of true peace. And I will restore the fortunes of Judah and the
fortunes of Israel and rebuild them as before. And I will cleanse them of their
crimes with which they offended against Me and with which they rebelled against
Me. And it shall become for Me a joyous name, praise and glory, to all nations
of the earth, who shall hear of all the good that I do for them. They shall
fear and tremble over all the good and all the peace that I do for them.
Thus
said the LORD: As I have surely set out My covenant with day and night, the
laws of the heavens and the earth, so will I not reject the seed of Jacob and
David My servant to take rulers from his seed, from the seed of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, for I will restore their fortunes and show them mercy.”
The
origins stories of the returning exiles conclude with a link into the story of
Abraham, drawn out from Chaldea, in what will be the original origin story of
this people who will come to settle in Canaan, via a long detour into Egypt.
Abraham’s story begins with his father,
and a setting out towards a vision Terah will not live to see fulfilled.
Indeed, Abraham himself will not see it, for the vision God has placed in our
hearts, if it truly is of God, is far bigger than our part within in.
As
Advent draws to a close for another year, and prepares to give way to
Christmas, we are reminded that the questions we bring to the issues we face
are not met with false-comforting answers, but that our longing for God’s reign
of justice and mercy to be more fully manifest is sustained once more. We are
in this story for the long haul, the arc of history bending towards God’s will,
done on earth as in heaven. And in this, we are not abandoned.
Biblical
texts: Robert Alter, The Hebrew Bible: A Translation with Commentary
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