Anita Mathias: Dreaming Beneath the Spires

Anita Mathias's Blog on Faith and Art

The Journey of the Magi, by T.S. Eliot. A Poem for Epiphany

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This is a wonderfully dense poem. Note the compression of language, the abundance of details, the effects of repetition, and rhythm, the overarching tone of sadness, and world-weary experience.



The Journey of the Magi, by T.S. Eliot

“A cold coming we had of it,
Just the worst time of the year
For a journey, and such a long journey:
The was deep and the weather sharp,
The very dead of winter.”
And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory,
Lying down in the melting snow.
There were times we regretted
The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,
And the silken girls bringing sherbet.
Then the camel men cursing and grumbling
And running away, and wanting their liquor and women,
And the night-fires gong out, and the lack of shelters,
And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly
And the villages dirty, and charging high prices.:
A hard time we had of it.
At the end we preferred to travel all night,
Sleeping in snatches,
With the voices singing in our ears, saying
That this was all folly.

Then at dawn we came down to a temperate valley,
Wet, below the snow line, smelling of vegetation;
With a running stream and a water-mill beating the darkness,
And three trees on the low sky,
And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.
Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,
Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,
And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.
But there was no information, and so we continued
And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon
Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.

All this was a long time ago, I remember,
And I would do it again, but set down
This set down
This: were we lead all that way for
Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,
We had evidence and no doubt. I have seen birth and death,
But had thought they were different; this Birth was
Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.
We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,
But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,
With an alien people clutching their gods.
I should be glad of another death.  

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Psalm 4. You have filled my heart with greater joy

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Psalm 4
1Answer me when I call to you,
O my righteous God.
Give me relief from my distress;
be merciful to me and hear my prayer.
2How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame?
How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?       Selah
3Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself;
the LORD will hear when I call to him.
David, slandered, remembers and reminds his enemies that those who seek God are under his special protection. The Lord will hear their requests
4In your anger do not sin;
when you are on your beds,
search your hearts and be silent.       Selah
5Offer right sacrifices
and trust in the LORD.
Anger is an emotion, and it is futile to tell people not to feel an emotion which they do feel. So what do we do with our anger? David counsels the sinned-against not to let their anger lead to sin. Just as Jesus told his followers to first remove the log from their own eyes before taking out their speck from their brothers’ eyes, David suggests that, when angry, we search our hearts and be silent.
Anger gives one tremendous energy, but it, generally, is powerless to change hearts. So the counsel of the Psalmist is to use the charge and dangerous energy of anger to search our own hearts, and to see if we have ever sinned in the same or similar ways, or at all. And to repent and change our lives, rather than impotently fume.
And to trust in the goodness, creativity and power of God. We have all known injustice and evil triumph in the short run, but God can bring beauty out of ashes. And so we trust him.

I had written about this before 
http://theoxfordchristian.blogspot.com/2010/08/in-your-anger-do-not-sin.html
Hmm. Not do not be angry (impossible, when you are a woman of unclean lips, living amidst a people of unclean lips), but do not sin.
How? Turn your focus away from the occasion of anger. Examine yourself. Have I ever, ever done what is making me fume, or done something like it? Why? Search your heart. Repent. Be quiet until you have perspective.


All this requires so much more self-control than venting, but it is more productive, and positive. Venting our anger is highly unlikely to change the other person (though praying for both of you might well do so). But searching our hearts, trying to understand the hidden motives and fears of our own hearts, and what makes us tick, may well produce lasting change.


It’s useful to use our annoyance with another person as a trigger to examine our own hearts, and repent. In Jesus’ metaphor, when the temptation to remove specks becomes overwhelming, first clear your own log-pile.


6Many are asking, “Who can show us any good?”
Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD.
7You have filled my heart with greater joy
than when their grain and new wine abound.
Amid widespread despair, God shows David the light of his face. He fills David with joy, so much so that he ecstatically says, “You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.”

8I will lie down and sleep in peace,
for you alone, O LORD,
make me dwell in safety.
The Psalms are often an intense wrestle of the spirit with God, and they end in a movement of resolution and peace.
David has decided to trust God, though surrounded by very real enemies. Yet he lies down and sleeps in peace. His safety is in God’s hands, and that is a very good place for it to be.

Covenant with Noah, Genesis 8,9,10.

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Genesis 8
 1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. 
That is one way God differs from man. Seasons of punishment, of discipline, end.

2Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.
 6 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.
Forty again. The psychologically necessary period for spiritual transition.

 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
 13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.
 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”
Fruitfulness. God’s intention for human beings. His original design. What is fruitfulness? Partly that our effort should bear fruit over and over again, out of all proportion to the original effort. Just as a single fruitful apple seed bears millions of apples over its lifetime.

  18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.
 20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though  every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
 22 “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”
God notes Noah’s act of gratitude and atonement. There is now, some commentators note, a partial lifting of the curse of Gen 3:17 i.e. “Cursed is the ground because of you;
   through painful toil you will eat food from it
   all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you.
At first the cursed earth resists man. He works; it produces thorns and thistles. Now, there is an inextricable and forever connection between seedtime and harvest, between work, and the fruits of work.

Genesis 9
 1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. 3Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
Every creature feels an instinctive fear and distrust of man.
I have long agonized about whether vegetarianism is the most ethical choice, but apparently here, God says, “3Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you.”
(I personally try to eat meat that is as compassionately and ethically raised as possible. Organic, free-range whenever I can. And this is also the healthiest choice).

 4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.
 6 “Whoever sheds human blood,
   by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God
   has God made mankind.
There is a kind of sacredness to every human being, even the worst, because we are made in the image of God. God demands an accounting for how we have messed with the lives of other people.
For how we have treated them.
AND, when people have seriously harmed our lives–relax, because there is a Just judge, and an accounting will be demanded.

 7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”
 8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
 17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”
An unconditional covenant between God and man. A unilateral promise. We see God’s yearning kindness towards human beings, a bit like a parent’s towards even an estranged child.
Mankind is given a second chance. The repopulating of the earth by Noah and his children and the animals from the ark mirrors the original Creation.

The Sons of Noah
 18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19 These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth.
 20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.
 24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said,
   “Cursed be Canaan!
   The lowest of slaves
   will he be to his brothers.”
 26 He also said,
   “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Shem!
   May Canaan be the slave of Shem.
27 May God extend Japheth’s[b] territory;
   may Japheth live in the tents of Shem,
   and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”
 28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29 Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.
Ouch! Ham’s action of dishonouring and humiliating his father was one of those actions with enormous consequences.  His father curses him. Actions are, in fact, revelatory of the heart. And so, though Noah’s reaction appears to be disproportionate, it is, in fact, not so.
Blessings, on the other hand, have an arbitrary element in the Old Testament (and in life).  I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” (Acts 17:11). Both Japeth and Shem appear to have been equally righteous, yet it is Shem, who is given power and a dominant position over his brother (May Japheth live in the tents of Shem).

Genesis 10
 1 This is the account of Shem, Ham and Japheth, Noah’s sons, who themselves had sons after the flood.
   The Japhethites
 2 The sons[a] of Japheth:
   Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshek and Tiras.
 3 The sons of Gomer:
   Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah.
 4 The sons of Javan:
   Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittites and the Rodanites.[b] 5 (From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language.)
   The Hamites
 6 The sons of Ham:
   Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan.
 7 The sons of Cush:
   Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and Sabteka.
   The sons of Raamah:
   Sheba and Dedan.
 8 Cush was the father[c] of Nimrod, who became a mighty warrior on the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD.” 10 The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Uruk, Akkad and Kalneh, in[d] Shinar.[e] 11 From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir,[f] Calah 12 and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah—which is the great city.
 13 Egypt was the father of
   the Ludites, Anamites, Lehabites, Naphtuhites, 14 Pathrusites, Kasluhites (from whom the Philistines came) and Caphtorites.
 15 Canaan was the father of
   Sidon his firstborn,[g] and of the Hittites, 16 Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, 17 Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, 18 Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites.
   Later the Canaanite clans scattered 19 and the borders of Canaan reached from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, as far as Lasha.
 20 These are the sons of Ham by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.
   The Semites
 21 Sons were also born to Shem, whose older brother was[h] Japheth; Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber.
 22 The sons of Shem:
   Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram.
 23 The sons of Aram:
   Uz, Hul, Gether and Meshek.[i]
 24 Arphaxad was the father of[j] Shelah,
   and Shelah the father of Eber.
 25 Two sons were born to Eber:
   One was named Peleg,[k] because in his time the earth was divided; his brother was named Joktan.
 26 Joktan was the father of
   Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, 28 Obal, Abimael, Sheba, 29 Ophir, Havilah and Jobab. All these were sons of Joktan.
 30 The region where they lived stretched from Mesha toward Sephar, in the eastern hill country.
 31 These are the sons of Shem by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.
 32 These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.

Psalm 4. You have filled my heart with greater joy

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Psalm 4

1Answer me when I call to you,

O my righteous God.

Give me relief from my distress;

be merciful to me and hear my prayer.

2How long, O men, will you turn my glory into shame?

How long will you love delusions and seek false gods?       Selah

3Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself;

the LORD will hear when I call to him.

David, slandered, remembers and reminds his enemies that those who seek God are under his special protection. The Lord will hear their requests

4In your anger do not sin;

when you are on your beds,

search your hearts and be silent.       Selah

5Offer right sacrifices

and trust in the LORD.

Anger is an emotion, and it is futile to tell people not to feel an emotion which they do feel. So what do we do with our anger? David counsels the sinned-against not to let their anger lead to sin. Just as Jesus told his followers to first remove the log from their own eyes before taking out their speck from their brothers’ eyes, David suggests that, when angry, we search our hearts and be silent.

Anger gives one tremendous energy, but it, generally, is powerless to change hearts. So the counsel of the Psalmist is to use the charge and dangerous energy of anger to search our own hearts, and to see if we have ever sinned in the same or similar ways, or at all. And to repent and change our lives, rather than impotently fume.

And to trust in the goodness, creativity and power of God. We have all known injustice and evil triumph in the short run, but God can bring beauty out of ashes. And so we trust him.



I had written about this before 
http://theoxfordchristian.blogspot.com/2010/08/in-your-anger-do-not-sin.html
Hmm. Not do not be angry (impossible, when you are a woman of unclean lips, living amidst a people of unclean lips), but do not sin.
How? Turn your focus away from the occasion of anger. Examine yourself. Have I ever, ever done what is making me fume, or done something like it? Why? Search your heart. Repent. Be quiet until you have perspective.


All this requires so much more self-control than venting, but it is more productive, and positive. Venting our anger is highly unlikely to change the other person (though praying for both of you might well do so). But searching our hearts, trying to understand the hidden motives and fears of our own hearts, and what makes us tick, may well produce lasting change.


It’s useful to use our annoyance with another person as a trigger to examine our own hearts, and repent. In Jesus’ metaphor, when the temptation to remove specks becomes overwhelming, first clear your own log-pile.


6Many are asking, “Who can show us any good?”

Let the light of your face shine upon us, O LORD.

7You have filled my heart with greater joy

than when their grain and new wine abound.

Amid widespread despair, God shows David the light of his face. He fills David with joy, so much so that he ecstatically says, “You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound.”


8I will lie down and sleep in peace,

for you alone, O LORD,

make me dwell in safety.

The Psalms are often an intense wrestle of the spirit with God, and they end in a movement of resolution and peace.

David has decided to trust God, though surrounded by very real enemies. Yet he lies down and sleeps in peace. His safety is in God’s hands, and that is a very good place for it to be.

Covenant with Noah, Genesis 8,9,10.

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Genesis 8
 1 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. 

That is one way God differs from man. Seasons of punishment, of discipline, end.


2Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.

 6 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.

Forty again. The psychologically necessary period for spiritual transition.


 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.

 13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”

Fruitfulness. God’s intention for human beings. His original design. What is fruitfulness? Partly that our effort should bear fruit over and over again, out of all proportion to the original effort. Just as a single fruitful apple seed bears millions of apples over its lifetime.


  18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.

 20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

 22 “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”

God notes Noah’s act of gratitude and atonement. There is now, some commentators note, a partial lifting of the curse of Gen 3:17 i.e. “Cursed is the ground because of you;
   through painful toil you will eat food from it
   all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you.

At first the cursed earth resists man. He works; it produces thorns and thistles. Now, there is an inextricable and forever connection between seedtime and harvest, between work, and the fruits of work.


Genesis 9

 1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. 3Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

Every creature feels an instinctive fear and distrust of man.

I have long agonized about whether vegetarianism is the most ethical choice, but apparently here, God says, “3Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you.”

(I personally try to eat meat that is as compassionately and ethically raised as possible. Organic, free-range whenever I can. And this is also the healthiest choice).


 4 “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5 And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.

 6 “Whoever sheds human blood,
   by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God
   has God made mankind.

There is a kind of sacredness to every human being, even the worst, because we are made in the image of God. God demands an accounting for how we have messed with the lives of other people.

For how we have treated them.

AND, when people have seriously harmed our lives–relax, because there is a Just judge, and an accounting will be demanded.


 7 As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”

 8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: 9 “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you 10 and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

 17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

An unconditional covenant between God and man. A unilateral promise. We see God’s yearning kindness towards human beings, a bit like a parent’s towards even an estranged child.

Mankind is given a second chance. The repopulating of the earth by Noah and his children and the animals from the ark mirrors the original Creation.


The Sons of Noah

 18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19 These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth.

 20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. 22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.

 24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said,

   “Cursed be Canaan!
   The lowest of slaves
   will he be to his brothers.”

 26 He also said,

   “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Shem!
   May Canaan be the slave of Shem.
27 May God extend Japheth’s[b] territory;
   may Japheth live in the tents of Shem,
   and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”

 28 After the flood Noah lived 350 years. 29 Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.

Ouch! Ham’s action of dishonouring and humiliating his father was one of those actions with enormous consequences.  His father curses him. Actions are, in fact, revelatory of the heart. And so, though Noah’s reaction appears to be disproportionate, it is, in fact, not so.

Blessings, on the other hand, have an arbitrary element in the Old Testament (and in life).  I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” (Acts 17:11). Both Japeth and Shem appear to have been equally righteous, yet it is Shem, who is given power and a dominant position over his brother (May Japheth live in the tents of Shem).


Genesis 10

 1 This is the account of Shem, Ham and Japheth, Noah’s sons, who themselves had sons after the flood.

   The Japhethites

 2 The sons[a] of Japheth:
   Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshek and Tiras.

 3 The sons of Gomer:
   Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah.

 4 The sons of Javan:
   Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittites and the Rodanites.[b] 5 (From these the maritime peoples spread out into their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own language.)

   The Hamites

 6 The sons of Ham:
   Cush, Egypt, Put and Canaan.

 7 The sons of Cush:
   Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah and Sabteka.

   The sons of Raamah:
   Sheba and Dedan.

 8 Cush was the father[c] of Nimrod, who became a mighty warrior on the earth. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; that is why it is said, “Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the LORD.” 10 The first centers of his kingdom were Babylon, Uruk, Akkad and Kalneh, in[d] Shinar.[e] 11 From that land he went to Assyria, where he built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir,[f] Calah 12 and Resen, which is between Nineveh and Calah—which is the great city.

 13 Egypt was the father of
   the Ludites, Anamites, Lehabites, Naphtuhites, 14 Pathrusites, Kasluhites (from whom the Philistines came) and Caphtorites.

 15 Canaan was the father of
   Sidon his firstborn,[g] and of the Hittites, 16 Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, 17 Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, 18 Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites.

   Later the Canaanite clans scattered 19 and the borders of Canaan reached from Sidon toward Gerar as far as Gaza, and then toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, as far as Lasha.

 20 These are the sons of Ham by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.

   The Semites

 21 Sons were also born to Shem, whose older brother was[h] Japheth; Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber.

 22 The sons of Shem:
   Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud and Aram.

 23 The sons of Aram:
   Uz, Hul, Gether and Meshek.[i]

 24 Arphaxad was the father of[j] Shelah,
   and Shelah the father of Eber.

 25 Two sons were born to Eber:
   One was named Peleg,[k] because in his time the earth was divided; his brother was named Joktan.

 26 Joktan was the father of
   Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, 27 Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, 28 Obal, Abimael, Sheba, 29 Ophir, Havilah and Jobab. All these were sons of Joktan.

 30 The region where they lived stretched from Mesha toward Sephar, in the eastern hill country.

 31 These are the sons of Shem by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.

 32 These are the clans of Noah’s sons, according to their lines of descent, within their nations. From these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood.

Thoughts on Blogging

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1) It’s writing without gatekeepers. You put your thoughts out there; if they resonate, you find an audience, readers, “followers.”


2) It is more or less a meritocracy, but it can also be tweaked and cheated like the old system. 


3 Nothing is better for breaking a writer’s block


4) Bloggers who are honest and keep in touch with their souls are probably happier for the exercise.
























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Ithaka, by Constantine Cavafy, Read by Sean Connery. Full text included.

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Ithaka

Constantine Cavafy

  
Print
As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon—don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon—you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind—
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.

Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.

And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
Translated by Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard

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Proverbs 1, 10-19, Day 6, Jan 6

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10 My son, if sinful men entice you,
   do not give in to them.
11 If they say, “Come along with us;
   let’s lie in wait for innocent blood,
   let’s ambush some harmless soul;
12 let’s swallow them alive, like the grave,
   and whole, like those who go down to the pit;
13 we will get all sorts of valuable things
   and fill our houses with plunder;
14 cast lots with us;
   we will all share the loot”—
15 my son, do not go along with them,
   do not set foot on their paths;
16 for their feet rush into evil,
   they are swift to shed blood.
17 How useless to spread a net
   where every bird can see it!
18 These men lie in wait for their own blood;
   they ambush only themselves!
19 Such are the paths of all who go after ill-gotten gain;
   it takes away the life of those who get it.
Do not harm an innocent person for any gain to yourself, whether in status, position, or wealth.

Though you may get away with it in the short run, in the long run, you only ambush yourself. What you have gained unrighteously will harm you.

How will this work out? Because, contrary to appearances sometimes, this world is in the hands of a just Judge, who loves justice, and who, as Paul says in Galatians, will ensure that men reap what they sow.