Third Blog Question: Response

I don’t believe the Bible has ever promised happiness and certainly not teddy bears. I’ve certainly never gotten a teddy bear anyways. The presumption that the Bible is all fluff and happiness times is a misconception. The theophany (or experience of God) that Jacob has ‘wrestling with the angel’ is a good example of that. If you look at what happens to Jacob, who gets his name changed to Isaac because he “has striven with God and with human and has prevailed,” happiness is not a direct result of his victory. No, God or the angel or whomever (the Bible isn’t really clear on that, due to how sparse the language is and using more than one term to describe the “man” throughout the story) dislocated the poor guy’s hip and because of it he limps the rest of his life. Ouch. I don’t think a new name fixes that. (Certainly needs a teddy bear now, doesn’t he?)

A lot, if not all, the theophanies I’ve read in the Bible are similar to that. Promises are made and blessings are given, but at a price. Most of the time the person’s life actually gets worse after having an experience with God. And wrestling with God is not the first encounter Jacob has with Him. He also encounters Him in the story of “Jacob’s ladder.” It’s another theophany that’s not all puppies and kittens.

The LORD stands beside Jacob and promises him that the land upon which he is sleeping he will give to him and his offspring. Jacob is afraid because he encountered God – not warm and fuzzy inside – terrified! And the promise that God makes to him? It’s totally not fulfilled in his lifetime or even in the next one. It takes a couple generations and a lot of wandering in the desert to get around to it being fulfilled through Joshua. Mind you, it does get fulfilled. Just not until after a long delay of time. Delay is a common theme in the Bible.

And these were just the Jacob-related stories in the very first book of the Bible. I’m pretty certain if you read onward there’s a lot more stories to follow involving delayed promises and unpleasant after-effects of God-meetings. When you get God all involved in your life, he really stirs the pot of stability and makes the world a more unpredictable place. Trials and tribulations never worried about before come tromping in, ready to make life more interesting. And as far as I’m aware, I haven’t read about any teddy bears in the mix.