Expectations

I remember plenty of random occurrences. One of them was a late spring day in high school. I noticed the grass was getting tall and mowed it. The front yard AND the backyard, as I proudly and quickly pointed out to my dad after he got home from work. “Okay, that’s great,” he said. “You know,” he added after a pause, “you shouldn’t really expect to be praised for doing what’s expected of you.” That is a life truth I’ve held onto since.

One of Jesus’ teachings according to the New Testament is that humans were created unequally, and those who have been gifted with more (presumably intelligence, skill, wealth, beauty, etc.) are expected to accomplish, produce or deliver more (presumably guidance, succor, philanthropy, chastity, etc.). Jesus’ convictions are overrated, to state it mildly.

According to Genesis in the Old Testament, toil was created as punishment after humans gained independence by learning the difference between right and wrong. The transgression was that this was achieved by disobeying a direct order and trusting a creature other than God. The irony is that God had lied, telling Adam and Eve the fruit of the tree would bring not discernment but death, while the other creature had revealed the truth.

While the man made from dust and the woman made from a rib made from dust did in fact not die as a direct result of eating the fruit, God later on placed an angel with a flaming sword to prevent the couple from eating from another tree which presumably would have granted them eternal life, which he possibly hadn’t even told them about, but the need for its existence in the first place demonstrates that Adam and Eve were never immortal. Some 930 years later, Adam died, and while the exact cause of death is unstated, it was the same year as a physically impossible yet reportedly extremely disastrous flood. When Eve died was not considered noteworthy. No jury ever compiled would ever find that snake responsible for murder, or any other crime for that matter.

Honestly, I don’t know how anybody can read Genesis and then take any of the rest of the Bible seriously. I suppose that’s why most people skim over most of it as well as the rest of the Pentateuch.

The point of the lesson is that we (Jews, really) are expected to obey the one-and-only, unnamable, unstoppable, vitriolic God no matter what. The reality of the lesson is what the big G says is not all that trustworthy. I’d expect more from a being of God’s magnitude. He’ll get no praise from me. There’s no reason God should be expecting it anyhow.