Re:calibrating...

I am in Genesis 29 at the moment and it gives me pause at several junctures.

First, the incredible detail--conversations, 3 flocks in front of the well before being joined by Rachel and her father's flock.  Is this really all just made up? 

Second, I consider the fact that all of Jesus' progenitors were incrediblly carnal, reactionary people who blindly stumbled into matters far too great for them, but continued to stubbornly make the same dysfunctional and sinful errors over and over.  Then God breaks in, not so much to prevent people from sin--tho He does that too, say, for Abimilech/s--but to "repair the breach."

 Would any of us really want to fight with any of these people? The cost would clearly be massive--as it was for all of them--but they only occasionally discerned these costs, and rarely thought things through.  We have lots of history on our side--but we don't learn any better than they did; possibly worse due to an acceleration of distractions that they did not have--and people in 3rd world countries still do not have--hence more room for the actual God, as opposed to our secularized overweening committments and "self-esteem"; which is really just steam/hot air balloons.  The vacuum where humility belongs in the present world seems to grow ever-larger, far beyond the mere increase in population. Replaced by dirty hubris, obviously.

Thirdly, these preceders ceded very little to God along the way--Abraham's acts of faith were the exception, even in his own life up until Moriah; and in Jake's life up until his wrestling  match.  These folks were not conspiracy theorists--they just conspired!  Where we would be embarrassed to do what they did, they boldly went before us, and cheated and manipulated their way through life; very much like many of O'Connor's characters.  Maybe we are not supposed to emulate or imitate most of their acts (of un-faith) but to "compare and contrast" their perfidies with the perfection and justice and light of God.  Which is only slowly revealed and/or put into practice by a perfect timing that totally eludes us, esp. in the present. In my case, it is usually only in retrospect that I see His wonders that fail of all other potential explanations.

Lastly, I find it fascinating that Leah was unloved yet bore the first four of these tribal progenitors.  In naming the first three, she concentrated on her bitterness, unloved-ness, and her vain hope that Jacob would really love (prefer her?)her because Rachel the Beatiful Person was barren for a long time. But, by the fourth and probably most important child, she seems to have given up on her husband and in essence made God her beloved--God who showed himself compassionate to her in spite of her and her father's deception. She decided- rightly I think--to just be grateful--and grateful particularly to God, so this time she said, "This time I will praise The Lord." Hence Judah, unlike his elder brothers, was brought up in an atmosphere of an attitude of praise, gratitude, and a heart of a mother tired of depending on the vagaries of her family.  And so God gives us this opportunity--every hour perhaps--to be bitter and cynical--vs joyful and a far better parent. Thus Levi represented the Law--but through Judah even Jerusalem was "saved by grace." (many times and eventulally permanently) And it was Judah alone who kept Joseph from being killed by all--ALL--the rest of the others--including Levi of course. The law kills but grace saves through faith--and seeing one's mother or wife resting in God's glory and not their own--is an influence far beyond mere example.

That this is statistically rare should not be cause for either despair or resentment; nor for doubting God's goodness.  "You already have as much God as you want." The additionally pertinent fact that God builds faith and muscularizes and actualizes faith by suffering upon suffering upon suffering far more than by blessing--is also sensbile, reasonable given the status of "McWorld"; and stated directly by God and His Christ and all the prophets; and by consistent word and ensamples; so He is entirely accurate both about us and Himself; and the absolute necessity of salvation by all-powerful, all -accomplishing grace.

"So what is sincerity worth? You can be sincerely wrong, can't you?  More on that later, probably...