The Story of Sodom: Compassion in time of Tragedy

Sodom and Gomorrah #21 (Genesis 19:16)

The fire of hell is about to hit the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. An entire land is to be wiped out. Whenever I read this part of the Bible, I cannot stop sadness from gnawing inside me. Sadness not only for the hundreds, if not thousands, of people who are to be incinerated.  For me deep sadness also raises its head when I realise how rare compassion is among those who read this passage together with me.

So many of the discussions about the passage are about things like the exact nature of the sin of the people of the Sodom; how little of it is thinking about Lot and how he must have felt when he had to evacuate and leave everything behind. Wasnโ€™t he a man? A human?

If we, the Bible followers, fail to feel compassion when reading about a tragedy at the comfort of our own homes, will we fell compassion towards others when we ourselves are facing hardship?  Can we even feel it at all?  Moreover, is compassion a luxury when a mass tragedy takes place? Verse 16 comes to teach us that our compassion is never a luxury, it must always have place in our hearts.

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PARADOXES IN THE BIBLE – MULTIPLY AND FILL THE EARTH


Welcome to a new short video of
โ˜ฏ๏ธ๐Ÿ“œ The Zen of the Hebrew Bible ๐Ÿ“œโ˜ฏ๏ธ

Paradoxes in the Bible – Multiply and Fill the Earth

Bible Paradoxes 1. Multiply and fill the earth: The first commandment and a paradox at the same time. Why? 2. Jesus on the Cross: How can habits stop our spiritual growth? The image shows three women who felt compassion towards Jesus suffering on the cross. What do we think when we see this sign?
By Cobbin, Ingram, 1777-1851;March, Daniel, 1816-1909;Brockett, L. P. (Linus Pierpont), 1820-1893;Stretton, Hesba, 1832-1911

Multiply and Fill the Earth

This video is about Bible paradoxes and making babies. We will look at the very first commandment in Genesis “Make children and fill the earth” and discuss what it can mean, and why it is a paradox.

It is also about how habits can stop your spiritual growth. For example, whenever you see Jesus on the cross, do you mindlessly repeat some ceremony like a prayer or making the cross sign, or do you stop to think what Jesus did for us? Do you feel compassion for him, for what he had to suffer in his last days on earth?

Too often we forget that the Bible tells us stories about real people, people who had emotions, fears, people who suffered great pains. Can we learn to practice compassion when we read these stories?

https://hebrew-bible.net/sodom-lots-wife-the-humane-side-of-the-bible/

๐Ÿ” Join me and our numerous followers at the โ˜ฏ๏ธ๐Ÿ“œ The Zen of the Hebrew Bible ๐Ÿ“œโ˜ฏ๏ธ to look critically at the details hidden in the Bible stories we thought we were familiar with. Letโ€™s discover together the less known aspects and a spiritual way of reading the Bible.

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๐Ÿ™๐Ÿผ Ran

You can see here the text of the Bible both in Hebrew and in English: https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0101.htm

DAY 12 – COVID, VACCINE AND THE BIBLE ๐ŸŒžย 50 DAYS OF GENESIS ๐ŸŒž VIDEO EPISODES

DAY 12 – COVID, VACCINE AND THE BIBLE
๐ŸŒž 50 DAYS OF GENESIS ๐ŸŒž
VIDEO EPISODES

In our short video episodes of 50 Days of Genesis we will delve into one verse of each chapter of Genesis. Join and explore less-known ways of reading the Bible

WELCOME TO DAY 12 OF THE

๐ŸŒž 50 DAYS OF GENESIS ๐ŸŒž
JOURNEY!

Today we will discuss Genesis 12:1+2

COVID, VACCINE AND THE BIBLE

Can we expect God to help and protect us in every situation just because we have full faith in Him? Do we believe that He will protects you from COVID? That you do not need a vaccine? This is not how faith works, so let’s see what does the Bible has to say about it. In this episode we will explore how Abraham behaved in a similar situation, after he had reached the promised land, the land of Canaan.

Can we expect God to help and protect us in every situation just because we have full faith in Him? Do we believe that He will protects you from COVID? That you do not need a vaccine? This is not how faith works, so let's see what does the Bible has to say about it.
By Attributed to Francesco Bassano the Younger – http://www.rijksmuseum.nl : Home : Info, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34312593

Watch episode DAY 12 on Youtube:

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You can see here the text of the Bible both in Hebrew and in English: https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0101.htm

DAY 11 – WHY IS GOD STOPPING US – THE TOWER OF BABYLON ๐ŸŒžย 50 DAYS OF GENESIS ๐ŸŒž VIDEO EPISODES

DAY 11 – WHY IS GOD STOPPING US?
THE TOWER OF BABYLON
๐ŸŒž 50 DAYS OF GENESIS ๐ŸŒž
VIDEO EPISODES

In our short video episodes of 50 Days of Genesis we will delve into one verse of each chapter of Genesis. Join and explore less-known ways of reading the Bible

WELCOME TO DAY 11 OF THE

๐ŸŒž 50 DAYS OF GENESIS ๐ŸŒž
JOURNEY!

Today we will discuss Genesis 11:4,6,8

WHY IS GOD STOPPING US? THE TOWER OF BABYLON

Why did God stop the people of Babylon from building their tower? Why didnโ€™t he want people to be able to do everything they wanted? Can we understand Godโ€™s plans?

Why did God stop the people of Babylon from building their tower? Why didnโ€™t he want people to be able to do everything they wanted? Can we understand Godโ€™s plans?
Image by Gerard de Jode – https://www.harvardartmuseums.org/collections/object/342322, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=63879290

Watch episode DAY 11 on Youtube:

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๐Ÿ™๐Ÿผ Ran

You can see here the text of the Bible both in Hebrew and in English: https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0101.htm

DAY 10 – LANGUAGES ๐ŸŒžย 50 DAYS OF GENESIS ๐ŸŒž VIDEO EPISODES

DAY 10 – LANGUAGES
๐ŸŒž 50 DAYS OF GENESIS ๐ŸŒž
VIDEO EPISODES

In our short video episodes of 50 Days of Genesis we will delve into one verse of each chapter of Genesis. Join and explore less-known ways of reading the Bible

WELCOME TO DAY 10 OF THE

๐ŸŒž 50 DAYS OF GENESIS ๐ŸŒž
JOURNEY!

Today we will discuss Genesis 10:5+31

LANGUAGES

We know that God confused the languages while the people of Babylon were building their tower. But today we will discover the paradox that different languages were already mentioned in previous chapters of the Genesis.

Day 10 - Languages: We know that God confused the languages while the people of Babylon were building their tower. But today we will discover the paradox that different languages were already mentioned in previous verses of the Bible.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Watch episode DAY 10 on Youtube:

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๐Ÿ™๐Ÿผ Ran

You can see here the text of the Bible both in Hebrew and in English: https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0101.htm

Hypocrisy of the Believers – Student’s Frustration

Some time ago, following a lesson about Lot’s wife, I got a letter from a student who was outraged about the hypocrisy of the believers in the Bible. We had a long discussion about how believers in the Bible, that claim to believe in Love and Compassion, judge others so easily without any compassion at all, as though they were the Inquisition aiming to condemn people and find the most horrendous way to punish them, all in the name of Love.

I could not disagree with her. I had to admit that I, too, see great hypocrisy among believers. And it pains me that judgement is more prevalent than compassion. So I decided to bring her letter here, as is, uncensored. I think we can all learn from it.

Hypocrisy of the believers, who prefer harsh punishment on compassion in case of Lot's wife who had to leave her other children in Sodom.
The punishment of Lot’s wife
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Science Battling Genesis: How Old is the Universe?

I have been teaching recently the first chapters of Genesis. As expected, these chapters raise huge controversy, more than any other chapter in the Bible. It is easy to understand. After all, while most of the Bible deals with society, morals, or spirituality, the first few chapters of Genesis deal with the creation of the physical world, presenting a very different view than modern science. This is particularly true when questions about the age of the universe are concerned.

Naรฏve reading of the Bible will tell us that the world is about 6,000 years old. Science, on the other hand, has a different view. By combining data from different disciplines, scientists believe that the age of the universe is about 13.7 billion years, and the age of earth is about 4.5 billion years.  

This is huge, hardly imaginable, difference. The age of the universe according to science is about a million times larger than the age according to the Bible.  To make these huge numbers easier to comprehend, letโ€™s scale them down. If, for instance, the world according to the Bible was scaled down from 6,000 years to 6 hours (in other words, if the Biblical world was created 6 hours ago) then the world according to science was formed nearly 700 years ago. That was during the Spanish inquisition, before Columbus discovered America.

Of course, there are many religious scientists who are familiar with the two versions of creation and find no contradiction between them. How can they do it?

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DAY 9 – RAINBOW ๐ŸŒžย 50 DAYS OF GENESIS ๐ŸŒž VIDEO EPISODES

DAY 9 – RAINBOW
๐ŸŒž 50 DAYS OF GENESIS ๐ŸŒž
VIDEO EPISODES

In our short video episodes of 50 Days of Genesis we will delve into one verse of each chapter of Genesis. Join and explore less-known ways of reading the Bible

WELCOME TO DAY 9 OF THE

๐ŸŒž 50 DAYS OF GENESIS ๐ŸŒž
JOURNEY!

Today we will discuss Genesis 9:12+13

RAINBOW

Did the rainbow exist before the flood? In other words, did light, and the rules of physics behave differently before the flood? Watch this video to see how science and the Bible do not have to contradict.

Prism illustration with rainbow colours, no contradict between science and Bible
By Dispersive_Prism_Illustration_by_Spigget.jpg: Spiggetderivative work: Cepheiden (talk) – Dispersive_Prism_Illustration_by_Spigget.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12098156

Watch episode DAY 9 on Youtube:

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๐Ÿ™๐Ÿผ Ran

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You can see here the text of the Bible both in Hebrew and in English: https://mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0101.htm