Living in the Spirit
Living in the Spirit
July 13, 2020
Scripture Reading: Genesis 28:10-19a
Jacob left Beer-sheba and went towards Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him and said, ‘I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.’ Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!’ And he was afraid, and said, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’ –Genesis 28:10-17
Land grants began with Abram. On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, ‘To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates, the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.’ (Genesis 15:18-21) . Genesis 26:3 continues the land grant for Isaac, and Exodus 23:13 describes the boundaries of the Promised Land to Moses.
I struggle with scriptures like the ones above. Didn’t God create the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, and others also? Were they not made in the image of God? I understand the calling of Abraham to be a blessing to other nations but was taking their land from them being a blessing? Is there a record somewhere of these events from the viewpoint of those other nations?
The Europeans migrating to what is now the USA claimed divine intervention. The Doctrine of Discovery was invoked by Pope Alexander VI in the Papal Bull “Inter Caetera” in 1493. It established a spiritual, political, and legal justification for colonization and seizure of land not inhabited by Christians. In the 18 hundreds, we called that principle Manifest Destiny.
How do people of faith in God move from an inclusive Supreme Being who created a world putting God’s likeness in each human being morph into a deity that supported exclusiveness identifying winners and losers among God’s own children?
I do not know the answers to these questions. I would love to have sat and discussed it with Jesus when he dwelt among us on earth. I do not recall any quotes attributed to him that even addressed land ownership. He talked about things like selling everything a person had to gain something more significant than earthly wealth. I do know that he loved us enough to take on all the evil in the world on a cross, gifted us with grace, and sent us forth to emulate his way of being, within the foundation of loving God and loving our neighbor as we love ourselves.
Prayer: Thank your Lord for coming among us and modeling your way for us to follow. We are often tempted to project the world’s methods as your ways. Let your light shine in our darkness and help us to clearly see your path before us. Amen.
All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights are reserved.