Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Exodus 32:1

1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

I mentioned at the end of the last chapter that I see this account of Moses receiving the law and the Israelites degenerating into idolatry as a useful analogy for all mankind. Moses was naturally oriented towards God, and he was learning the rituals and process that would draw every soul nearer to the Lord. Meanwhile, the Israelites were obviously oriented towards the perverse and the carnal. Without Moses there to keep them in line, they naturally deviated towards adulteration of the spiritual.

Moses’s path was one of intentional progression and continual realignment with ultimate good. The Israelite’s path was one of mindless entropy, being absorbed back into the sea of complacency.

The two examples present a choice to us. One is a life of fixed attention upward to the divine, with continual effort and sacrifice to both move forward and remain in proper alignment, and the other is to let the eyes stray downward, relax into our basest instincts, and indulge our appetites.

Posted on by Abe Austin

A Great Majority of Good

The ancient Israelites were commanded to perform their labors for six days, and then rest on the seventh. Given the nature of the universe, on that seventh day all their enterprises would deteriorate. Weeds would grow, trade opportunities would pass, and perishables would become closer to spoiling. Apparently, though, even in those harsher ancient times, six days of restoring order was more than enough to account for one day of entropy.

Six days out of seven is nearly 86%. Such a high percent would be necessary, as it is the nature of the universe that chaos spreads more quickly than order. 51% of correcting will not keep up with 49% of undoing.

I’ve seen this personally as I have tried to establish a regular sleep schedule and diet back into my life. Getting to bed a little early allows me an extra half hour of sleep to pay back my sleep deficit, and a 500-calorie deficit will let me lose one pound in about a week. But just one day of indulgence will erase multiple days of toeing the line, so I can’t improve myself by only being disciplined 51% of the time. I have to have a great majority of restoring order, much like God prescribed.

To scale our mountains, we must climb upward for much longer than we slide backward. We must be committed to progress as the rule, not the exception. We must be the best version of ourselves for many more days than we are the worst version. To become great, we must be primarily good.

Posted on by Abe Austin

Scriptural Analysis- Genesis 1:2

2. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Here we see the natural state of this world: without form, void, darkness upon the face of the deep. It wasn’t for millennia after this passage was written that science became aware of entropy, the phenomenon that suggests the entire universe, if left to its natural devices, will dissolve itself into a evenly distributed, stagnant void. Everything will be made uniform until there remains no variety, and with in no variety there is also no catalyst or process. That fits the description of this verse remarkably well, doesn’t it?

Life and individuality can only occur as God moves upon the face of this world. He doesn’t just make our existence good, He makes it possible.