Zegalee

I finally have my own copy of Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. I had been wanting one for a while, even though I found it rather confusing. However, I am very familiar with Roget’s Thesaurus, and it seems to work the same way, so I was able to overcome my difficulties with only a little effort.

I looked up some stuff in it tonight and it put a whole different slant on something I was not understanding. Very illuminating, and well worth the $1.99 we paid at the Goodwill 50% off sale!

Abraham is commanded to do two things: 1) Be Perfect and 2) get himself and all his male charges circumcised. In return, God bestows upon him Three Great Promises: a Land promise (the literal and converted seed of Abraham are to inherit land forever and ever), a Posterity promise (his posterity must be up in the hundreds of millions by now), and a Priesthood promise (all the families of the earth would be blessed because of the righteousness he exemplified).

The commandment to be perfect was not as insurmountable as it may seem. Remember in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve were told that in the day they should partake of the forbidden fruit, they should surely die? Well they didn’t drop dead immediately. God gave them a probationary state (a lifetime) with which to prove themselves, but they DID bring death into the world even in the act of transgressing God’s Law. Well, that is how it works. Noah was commanded to build an ark, but it didn’t magically appear just because the Lord said to do it. Abraham was commanded to be perfect, but of course he was given that same probationary time to accomplish the goal. So are we. If we – each of us – are on the right track when we die, we will never fall off the track! We just need to keep on keeping on until we get it absolutely right.

The other part of the covenant, the circumcision part, was so Abraham could prove he was committed to the agreement he had made with the Lord. Since his posterity would be benefiting from this covenant, the physical emblem of it was to be taken from the part of his body involved in the partnership to create them. It was a sign of self-control and submission.

Who knew the Old Testament was so fascinating?!!!

My teacher has a plethora of fascinating insights, given to her by her own past instructors, which she shares in a way that brings the scriptures to life. I am learning a lot of the background to the language and other aspects of life in New Testament times.