Readings on weekdays of Great Lent are from the Old Testament. The
most read books are the book of the prophet Isaiah, who is also called
the Old Testament evangelist
because of the clarity of his prophecies
about Christ, the book of Genesis, from which we learn a lot about the
meaning and need for salvation and about God’s will, and the book of
Proverbs of Solomon, which is an instructive canonical book, which is
designed to raise a person above the mundane to the threshold of
eternity, to prepare him / her for the highest through the search for
wisdom, and not for certain earthly gains. All three books, like the
entire Old Testament, testify to Jesus Christ, despite the fact that
each book does so in a completely different way.
The topic is very deep, but it should be noted right away that the readers and listeners of the Old Testament in its time were different from modern people. The most significant difference was that the depth of understanding, especially the understanding of repentance, conversion, and purification, was formed at that time, and that is why the reading of the Old Testament books first takes place during the time of fasting, during the time of repentance and preparation, because what those people faced also relevant even now.
The text is multifaceted, for example, already in the third verse there is a prophecy about the birth of Jesus Christ and His earthly life – after all, He was born in a stable near animals, was laid in a manger, that is, a feeding place for livestock, and during the time of service He was not accepted by many people, Jews and not only. At the same time, we are talking about real relationships with God - they are not in religious rites, but in living communion with God, which is manifested in life.
There are many works about the first chapters of the book of Genesis, in general, in my opinion, we do not fully understand the book of Genesis and the book of Revelation of John the Theologian. In particular, there is an active discussion and dialogue regarding the creation of the world.
But to paraphrase and somewhat reinterpret a well-known argument
about the Scriptures, if we fully understood everything, where would
there be reserve
for deepening understanding? And if we understood
almost nothing, then who would want to understand more? And our mind, in
particular, also needs a source of inspiration. Therefore, God inspired
Moses to write in such a way that the text was always both clear and
mysterious.
Someone will say: So every text remains to a certain extent
mysterious, but also to a certain extent understandable
, and indeed,
but the Scriptures were written not only for contemporaries, but for all
generations, of which there were actually many and there may be many
more ahead.
Paul’s image of the Church and its members comes to mind (see, for example, 1 Corinthians XII). Only instead of the Church and people can there be a book of Genesis and ways of understanding it. After all, it appeals not only to the mind, and is holistic, which is not reduced to the sum or a simple collection of its components, but has organic connections and grows.
I will stop at this for the time being, I hope God will give the actual words, tomorrow.
The beginning is the relevance of the book, it
shows wisdom as desirable and necessary for people, even the uneducated
and simple. It is like a bridge
between life as existence and
spiritualized, full-fledged life.
Glory be to Thee, our God, glory be to Thee!