Another of the most mysterious and difficult stories in the Bible, this time not difficult because the subject pains us, but difficult to understand. We Westerners are hung up on “understanding”, sometimes it is better to “stand under” (and learn from) than to understand ;) This may be one of them! If we try to understand the story of Jacob’s fight we quickly get a headache, nothing quite works of provides all the answers. (See a fine website produced by Kirsten Abbott in one of my classes for more on this.) If, however, we stand under and learn from this story there is lots to learn!
Browsing Posts in Arguing with God
This second look at the complaint psalms continues to focus on Psalm 22. Part three will return to Jeremiah…
This post starts to talk about Psalm 22, mentioning Job 10 on the way, we will examine these passages as a way into understanding “complaint psalms”. Complaints are the commonest type of psalm in the book of psalms. You might like to listen to my earlier post “Arguing with God: Jer 12:1-4” first, it sets the scene for this one, and should probably have been called “Complaint psalms: Part One”!
I hope the next post – in a few days – will follow up looking some more at Psalm 22.
In What is the Bible (Part 1) I talked of the Bible as witness, and mentioned stories where Abraham and Amos haggle with God, and ended with a reference to arguing with God in the Bible. Here I’ll begin to explore Jeremiah’s side of the conversation from Jer 12:1-4 (we’ll get to God’s reply later!)
