Wisdom 1:1 Love virtue, you who are judges on earth,
let honesty prompt your thinking about the LORD.
Seek Him in integrity of heart: 2 since He is to be found
by those who do not put Him to the test,
He shows Himself to those who trust in Him.
Wisdom 1:16 But the wicked call with deed and word for Death,
counting him friend,
they wear themselves out for him,
with him they make a pact,
and are fit to be his partners.
Wisdom 2:1-20
Wisdom 2:21 This is the way they reason, but they are misled,
their malice makes them blind. 22 They do not know the counsels
of God,
they have no hope that holiness will be rewarded,
they can see no appropriate reward for innocent souls.
It is a dream as old as life on earth.
A man and woman fall in love, then work to produce and support
their children. The Jews--and subsequently many in western
thought--believe that by following God's law, a person, a family,
a community will attain prosperity here on earth.
But the earth is full of weather related problems:
hurricanes, floods, droughts, and many other extremes.
These extremes when not making obvious fallacies of faith,
force many people to rethink their concept of God and
His promises more than once in their lifetime.
Earth's extremes cause communities to develop different ideas of God,
and to use eachother, to make war on eachother.
This brings the possibility of suffering to the fore of
a communities' being:
life is harsher than the earth makes it,
disease is used by one community on another, lies are told,
life is shorter than would be in other circumstances.
All religious systems try to stabilize this situation.
And after a life of observing friends and other people live their
lives, the statement of a very learned priest I once knew stays fresh
in my consciousness.
The Jews have loved God for five thousand one hundred years. Why are
they still waiting for a messiah to fill the earth with good things?
Why didn't Jesus give his disciples control of infinite sources of
energy?
In 2000 years what has Homo sapiens--the wise human--done with
the gifts God has given him? What was life like in Jesus' time? What
have nations spent on security and defense? What is the price tag for
a manned mission to Mars? Why are there terabytes and more of
pornography? What is the price tag for the Stars' continuing struggle
with good and evil? Will this 5000 year trek ever end...or even
change? Why is Earth a paradise for some and a prison for most!
Jesus Christ's logos--the promises of His word--indicate possibilities
far beyond man's conception of wealth and put them within his reach.