I often wondered why the Old Testament was so much harsher than the New Testament. It dawned on me that when Paul spoke to different people he was audience aware. Could God be doing the same thing taking us through phases. People were existing in very hard and rough conditions. Violence was apart of life. God understood that was necessary, as violent people need strong leadership.
It is almost like a distilling process. He takes the faithful and filters out the rest. Noah is an example of this. He took his best into Egypt, and brought them back across the sea, performing a grand miracle. Those who did not have the right attitude all but two were rejected. He applies tests filters out a set, and grows them. I wonder if it could be thought of as Biblical Darwinism, but under direction of God. So God using the natural laws that he created to further his wishes for improving us.
It seems harsh, but what he is filtering out is evil, fear, anything but love. I feel he is trying to get to a people with a spirit of pure love, Agape love, that of giving without concern for yourself. Because if you take care of others and they are of the same spirit you need not worry about yourself. It is Heaven, a state of true belonging, never worrying, complete acceptance. When I look at human behavior through the lens of what could be I feel sad. Why can we not just see the possibility and try to achieve it. I don't think we even understand. It is clear to me that God is justified in his frustration with us and our idolatry, sins of the flesh, greed, etc.
So what is missing in us that we do not try? Could it be faith. The ability to take something on faith. Or is it the fact that we do not seem to understand Love. I feel that Belief, Love and Trust are the two components of Faith. When you Love someone, give without expectation of return, it generates joy in your heart, a feeling of goodwill, peace, and harmony with that person. When you couple that with reciprocity and consistency you develop trust over time. Faith is the extension of trust. You trust a person will do as they say. You have faith that even though they did not say anything they will do the right thing. So it presumes a knowledge of you and that the person will look out for your interests without being asked.
So Faith is the knowledge that the person Loves you: Communicates openly and completely, is Committed to you, Gives freely (not selfish). This process must be mutual and starts slow. As the person sees growth in the relationship they begin to develop trust, overtime if both sides remain committed, communicative, and continue giving without ever considering a return.
So Love is the umbrella term for a set of connections and inter dependencies that enable an unbreakable bond. And a community of people with this bond would be an unstoppable force. A world of people would be Heavan.
This distilling process is also used in the semiconductor industry. In semiconductors a silicon substrate is grown, and cut into wafers (a disk somewhat similar to a large CD/DVD. Each wafer is processed and a very very detailed picture is etched onto the wafer. This picture is repeated many times in a rectangular grid. Each picture (die) represents all the transistors of a circuit. Each die cannot be perfect, there is a yield. The wafer is cut into individual pieces tested, packaged, and tested some more. The ones that pass all tests are used and the rejects are thrown out. The percentage of acceptable die is called the yield. With a new product the yield can often be very low, thus rejecting most and keeping only a few (Noah). The next refinement things are improved and the yield is increased. When God brought the Israeli's out of Egypt, he kept 2 of 12. Have people improved?
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