Мысли при чтении Книги Бытия

Chapter 1, Article 29. This is the beginning of your food with its varied variety and properties. Always give thanks to your Creator, who feeds you from His bounties and supports your life, among other things, with food and drink. Chapter 3, Article 7. And the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed together fig leaves and made aprons for themselves. This is the beginning of human clothing; look how simple it is in its beginning and what made a man cover himself with clothes. How we have now deviated from this initial simplicity in clothing and how the very purpose of clothing has changed for us: we cover ourselves with them not in order to cover our nakedness, but mostly in order to adorn ourselves with it, to flaunt it. What are we flaunting? - A bandage on the wound. Chapter 3, Article 19. You will return to the ground from which you were taken, for dust you are and to dust you will return. Here is your punishment, ungrateful creature, for the fact that you did not know how to support yourself in your dignity with the forces given to you by God. Look at your beginning: from earth, from dirt, from soulless matter, God created what a wondrous creature, consisting of a beautiful body and an even more beautiful soul, endowed with reason and freedom. Instead of living and blessing and thanking God and obeying Him for his own good - eternal perfection, man forgot in his beauty and in his greatness, the creature itself wanted to be Divinity. She saw well with her bright mind how perfect and great the Lord God is; her lips did not utter blessings and gratitude to the Creator, she went directly against Him: she did what was forbidden to do under fear of death, and - alas! - a beautiful creation - the soul, was almost doomed to eternal torment, and the vessel of the soul, made by the hands of the Wise Artist, lost forever that amazing beauty and that strength that it had during the innocence of the first people, so that over time it certainly collapses, becoming again what it was made of, decomposing into those constituent principles of which it is composed. Every person even now, having lived on earth for as long as God sends him to live, will certainly finally return to the land from which he was taken. What would have happened to us if the Lord our God had not raised us from our fall? Chapter 4, v. 9–12. And the Lord [God] said to Cain: Where is Abel your brother? He said: I don’t know; Am I my brother's keeper? And [the Lord] said: What have you done? the voice of your brother's blood cries to Me from the earth; and now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened its mouth to receive the blood of thy brother at thy hand; when you cultivate the land, it will no longer give its strength to you; you will be an exile and a wanderer on earth. Look how boldly Cain answers God! This is the fruit of sin: it created a terrible storm and indignation in the soul of poor Cain, so that it seethes before the face of God Himself. I can see darkness, storm and excitement in his soul. I don’t know (darkness), he says, am I my brother’s keeper? (storm and excitement, attacking the Creator of all things). It was necessary to punish a terrible sin - and Cain is cursed: the earth, which opened up to receive the blood of Abel, will be stingy for him in its gifts; he himself will groan and shake on it, like a monster of God’s creation, without peace, without consolation. Chapter 5, Article 23. And all the days of Enoch were three hundred and sixty-five years. And Enoch walked with God; and he was no more, because God took him. This means that a person’s permanent place of residence is not on earth, but in another place; This means that we only need to please God - and we will leave the gloomy land, sooner or later. And where will the people be who anger God with their iniquities? In the underworlds of the earth. And the Lord [God] said in His heart [church-glory: And the Lord God spoke (to Noah) in thought]; I will no longer curse the earth for man, because the thought of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will no longer smite every living thing, as I did: henceforth, all the days of the earth, sowing and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will not cease [chapter 8, vv. 21–22]. What was it like for Thy love, O God, to see the death of so many of Thy creatures - husbands and wives, young men and maidens, adults, young and infants, and all kinds of animals that walked and reptiles on the earth, and also flew through the air? But for Your truth, human deeds, ugly and vile, were intolerable; Your holiness could no longer tolerate the untruths of man, created in Your image, untruths that, growing more and more, finally prompted Your justice to take righteous revenge on everything living on earth, since besides man, all other flesh, according to the testimony of Scripture, corrupted its path on earth, as if following the example of man, the king of all earthly creatures. Thy justice was made a satisfactory sacrifice by the flood; people have ceased from their wickedness - Your righteous anger has also subsided; Your fatherly heart again opened to love for creatures, with the eye of favor you again looked upon the remaining creatures; You seem to feel sorry for those who perished, and now You promise not to punish Your creatures with such a flood in the future: I will no longer curse the earth for man... I will no longer smite all living things, as I did. Thus You said to Noah, Your chosen one. It was hard (speaking humanly) for Your loving heart, for Your all-governing and all-creating Providence to see how during such a period of time there was no sowing, no harvest, no winter, no summer, no autumn, no spring, no day, no night on earth, how everything had fallen into disorder and confusion. It was unpleasant for You to see such emptiness on earth. And You said that this will never happen in the future, that henceforth, throughout the days of the earth, sowing and harvest, winter and heat, summer and spring, day and night will not cease [Gen. 8, 22]. And so they obey You and have not ceased to this day. Chapter 11. What kind of children the Bible presents people after the flood - what childish concepts and judgments about everything! So they want to build a city for themselves, following previous examples, antediluvian ones. But if God again sent a flood to the earth (they did not believe Him that such a flood would not happen again), they thought, then their lives and works would again be in extreme danger. They could not imagine that God is omnipotent and omnipresent, that if He wants to punish a person, then he will have nowhere to hide from His punishing right hand - and so, to ensure the safety of their lives and their labors when building a city, they decide on a children's enterprise: they build a pillar in the founded city, but what kind? - one that would touch the heavens, that would, on its lofty heights, save them all from drowning, because some of them saw, and others heard from eyewitnesses, that flood water covered the highest mountains. Children are just children. So a bird that has made a nest for itself on the lower branches of a tree moves its nest to the top of the tree if people or animals bother it there and threaten to kill it and its future chicks, as if thinking of hiding in the upper parts of the tree from its pursuers and hoping that no one is able to penetrate there. They understood God so poorly and imperfectly. They knew so little what earth was and what heaven was. They thought that the earth was a huge, motionless layer, and they considered the sky to be the azure of heaven, suggesting that it was a solid concave cover above which God lived. So the house spider, which has made its home at the bottom of the room, sends its web up to the ceiling, where it thinks it will remain safe. But this one, at least, achieves its goal, since the ceiling, like a solid plane, actually exists and is not very far from the floor. And the people who began to build the pillar! They would never reach their goal because there is no solid plane above. It was necessary to stop the crazy and daring enterprise - and God confused their languages. Chapter 12, Art. 17 But the Lord struck Pharaoh and his house with heavy blows because of Sarai, Abram's wife. What fatherly care the Lord had for His chosen one. For Pharaoh's abduction of Sarah from Abram, He subjected the Egyptian king to severe torture. And now the Lord protects His chosen ones like the apple of his eye, sometimes punishing them with cruel torment for the insults inflicted on them by the wicked. Chapter 13, 14–15 art. And the Lord said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him: lift up your eyes, and from the place where you are now, look to the north and to the south, and to the east and to the west; For all the land that you see I will give to you and to your descendants forever. This is Who is the sovereign distributor of plots of land; kings, by His will, receive this or that portion of it, larger or smaller. In these words the Creator of the earth and its Lord are visible. 16th century And I will make your descendants like the sand of the earth; if anyone can count the sand of the earth, then your descendants will also be counted. It is Who spreads the human race, it is by Whose will we are born into this beautiful world. In these words you see the Creator of the human race as a potter, on whose will it depends to make more or fewer vessels. Ch.14, v.19–20. And (Melchizedek) blessed him (Abram), and said: Blessed is Abram of the Most High God, Lord of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hands. [Abram] gave him a tenth of everything. Chapter 15, v. 1–6. The Lord says to Abram: Do not be afraid, Abram; I am your shield; your reward [will be] very great. What will You give me, he says, I have no children - who will be the heir to my estate? My household? The Lord says: not he, but the one who will come from you. He brought him out and said to him: look at the sky and count the stars, if you can count them, and added: so numerous will your seed be. And Abram believed God, and it was credited to him as truth. If the Lord could create countless bright heavenly worlds, then what would it cost Him to multiply the human race like the stars of heaven? In these words the Creator of the starry sky and the human race is visible. The same chapter 12[ – 16] art. When the sun set, a deep sleep fell on Abram, and behold, horror and great darkness fell upon him [Church glory: As the sun set, horror attacked Abram, and behold, great dark fear attacked Nan]. And the Lord said to Abram: Know that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and they will enslave them, and they will oppress them for four hundred years, but I will bring judgment on the people to whom they will be enslaved; after this they will come out [here] (to the land of Canaan) with great property, and you will go to your fathers in peace and will be buried in a good old age; in the fourth generation they will return here: for the measure of the iniquities of the Amorites has not yet been filled. It can’t help but be scary when the Creator of everything Himself wants to speak to a dumb spiritual creature. That is why fear attacked Abram, and the word of the Lord came to him. In the words of the Lord one can see the Chief and Judge of all nations, the Creator of earth and time. As if in His justification for why He does not now give Abram the land of Canaan as an inheritance, he says that the sins of the Amorites have not yet filled up at the present time, that there is still a remnant of good among them, for which I will still endure their iniquities. What justice, alien to any partiality! He rewards like a Father and punishes like a Father! To please Abram, His friend, He did not destroy the sinful nations and did not give him their lands as an inheritance! [Ch. 15], v. 17–18. When the sun set and darkness fell, behold, smoke as if from a furnace and the flames of fire passed between the dissected animals (between the halves of a young woman, a goat and a three-year-old ram). On this day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying: To your descendants I give this land (the land of eleven nations), from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates. God appears in the fires, since He is the Fire that consumes human iniquities; in the Testament the sovereign Ruler of kingdoms, kings and peoples is visible. Chapter 16. Abram gives birth to a son from Hagar - Ishmael. Ch.17, [v.1–7]. God appears to Abram and says to him: walk before Me and be blameless; And I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will greatly, greatly multiply you. Abram falls on his face; God says again: this is my covenant with you: you will be the father of many languages; I give you a name - Abraham - instead of Abram 2, since I made you the father of many languages. And I will make you very, very fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you; And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and between your descendants after you throughout their generations, an everlasting covenant, that I will be the God of yours and of your descendants after you. The establishment of circumcision as a sign of the Covenant. In the words of God to Abram, the omnipotent and all-perfect Creator is visible, Who, having created everything visible and man from nothing, and after creation, already according to previously established laws, forms the human race, so that the spread of humanity is directly His work. I have made you, he says, the father of many languages; I will make you very, very fruitful, and I will make nations from you, and kings will come from you. When there was nothing yet - no nations, no kings from the seed of Abram, and only Abram was before the face of God, God already sees all the nations and all the kings that will come from him; they appeared before Him as if they were real, or standing before His face. I revere Your words, O Almighty God, Who created everything with His word and does not cease to create everything now with His mighty right hand. What a multitude came from Abraham! And now from the pious root God produces more people! The pious people, too, according to His will, are growing greatly and greatly. Chapter 18. The Lord with two Angels appears to Abraham at the oak of Mamre while the patriarch was sitting at the door of his booth at noon 3. He sees three men in front of him, gets up, approaches them, bows to the ground and says: Master! If I have found favor in Your sight, do not pass by Your servant. I will have you bring water and wash your feet so that you can cool yourself under the tree. Then I will bring bread for you to eat, and then you will go on your way from which you turned to your servant. They said: do as you said. Abraham hurriedly went into the hall 4 to Sarah and said to her: hasten to mix three measures of pure flour and make loaves. Abraham himself went to his homestead and took a good young calf and gave it to a slave so that he could prepare it as quickly as possible. And so he, taking butter, milk and a cooked calf, offers them all this. They ate, and Abraham stood before them under the tree. The Lord's question about Sarah: where? “In the canopy,” Abraham answered. The Lord says: on the way back I will come to you at this time, and Sarah your wife will give birth to a son. Sarah heard this as she stood with Abraham in the vestibule. She laughed to herself, saying: it hasn’t happened before, but now my husband is old. The Lord's remark to Abraham on this... Is there anything difficult for the Lord, He added, and again repeats: at this time I will return to you, and Sarah will have a son. Sarah, frightened by the remark, locked herself away because she was not laughing. Rising from here, the wanderers looked at the nearby cities of Sodom and Gomorrah; Abraham walked with them, seeing them off. The Lord turns to Abraham, who is accompanying Him, saying: Will I hide from Abraham My servant what I am doing? Abraham will grow up with Me into a great and numerous people, and because of him all the nations of the earth will be blessed because of him. I know that he will discipline his children and his household so that they keep the ways of the Lord, justice and righteousness - so that the Lord will fulfill everything that he promised Abraham. Then the Lord speaks about Sodom and Gomorrah: the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and their sin is very heavy; I'll go and have a look... Meanwhile, two Angels came to Sodom, and Abraham still stood before the Lord and, coming closer, said to Him: Will You destroy the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous will be as if wicked, if there are fifty righteous people in the city?.. Will you not spare the whole place because of fifty righteous people, if they are in it? You will not kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous will be like the wicked? - no way. Judge of all the earth, will You not execute just judgment? The Lord's answer is affirmative. Abraham says: now I have begun to speak with my Lord, while I am earth and ashes; if there are only forty-five righteous people? Again the answer is yes. If forty? – the answer is affirmative. If thirty? - Same. What if it's twenty? - Same. Finally, what if ten? - Same. The Lord moves away and stops speaking. Abraham goes to his place. Oh dear patriarchy! How sweet you are in your simplicity! O God almighty and righteous! What a tenderly loving Father You appeared to Your chosen servant Abraham, so that You did not hide from him the deeds of Your omnipotence and goodness; but also what a formidable Judge You were for hardened and unrepentant sinners, among whom there were no righteous people - Your holy seed, for whose sake You have mercy on entire cities and kingdoms and even the whole world, since the seed is holy in its standing [Isa. 6.13]. Cities and kingdoms stand for piety. Abram (Heb.) – “father is high”; Abraham (Heb.) – “father of many nations.” Tabernacle (Church Glav.) – tent, tent. You might be interested in: