In my previous letter to you on February 4th, 2024, I urged you to rediscover Jesus, to visit Catholic churches and partake of the sacraments of the Catholic church to get exposed to the grace you need to overcome your bad aka sinful ways. But some of you may be wondering-who is this person and why do you want us to rediscover Jesus.
So, allow me to take a moment to introduce myself. I am woman in her 50’s hoping to age into my
60’s and 70’s or even possibly 80’s but knows that the specter of death is
still stalking me a bit closer than it was in my teens, 20’s and 30’s. This
means I’m worried about the world I’m leaving behind and worrying about my
ability to get into heaven because of all of my ongoing sinful ways. So, I’m trying to urge you kids to not make
my mistakes and not to allow the awful things I let slide in my life slide in
yours.
As a person in her 50’s in the 2020’s I was around for about
30 years’ worth of 20th’ Century events and so far about 20 years’
worth of 21st century events, I knew others who were around for
another 30-60 previous 20th century years’ worth of history and
would go on and on about ye golden olden days of their youth. For example, my Grandparents who were part of “The
Greatest Generation” probably listened to, and I vaguely remember some comedian
parodying this guy in the 1980’s, a radio broadcaster (sort-of a podcaster except
you had to turn a radio dial only at a certain time of day to a very specific
radio station) named Paul Harvey who would tell “The Rest of the Story” [i].
For example, he would tell the story of
how manly man movie star John Wayne,[ii]
famous primarily for portraying cowboys and soldiers in 1940’s and 50’s[iii]
(Think Chris Hemsworth or maybe even Arnold Schwarzenegger only with an
American accent) was originally a skinny wimpy kid who was constantly bullied
because his parents gave him a girl’s name(original name was Marion Robert
Morrison until Hollywood gave him the stage name of John Wayne) until some
local firefighter taught him boxing techniques and began to call him “The
Duke”.
Well, I realize now that I have to tell you kids the rest of
the story of salvation, or at least up to one specific chapter.
As you may recall from my last letter God made the heavens
and the earth with his son Jesus and the Holy Spirit. God put two human beings as caretakers of His
garden of Eden named Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve, however, messed up creation
and their assignment when they ate the forbidden fruit of the tree of good and
evil and were cast out of Eden. Ever
since then human beings have had a tendency to want to do the bad thing 1st
instead of good things that make the world a better place at least until Jesus
showed up to offer us saving grace.
However, there were
4,000 years (give or take a few eons) between the lifetime of Adam and Eve and
the arrival of Jesus on our planet in 0 AD (plus or minus about 3-5 years,
experts are trying to still narrow it down).
So, let me fill you in on some
of the rest of the salvation story. If
you want the complete details read the book of Genesis but here’s how salvation
history went.
Adam and Eve had a son named Seth. Seth had a son, who in turn had a son, who in
turn had a son, and so on for about 20 generations until a man named Abraham
came who, well didn’t have a son, at least at first. Furthermore, Abraham was old, and his wife
Sarah was old so becoming a father at an old age was almost impossible,
almost.
But God had promised Abraham his descendants would be as
numerous as the stars [iv] and his descendants would own the land in
ancient times known as Canaan but now known in modern times as the state of
Israel. Sure enough, Abraham’s wife
Sarah gave birth to a son named Isaac when both were around 100 years of age. Isaac, in turn grew up, got married, and had
two twin sons named Easau and Jacob. (Read Genesis 25:27-34, and then Genesis
27,28,29,30,31,32,33 to find out the rest of that story I don’t have space for
now) Jacob then became the father of 12 boys and 1 girl, and got his name
changed to Israel after fighting with an angel[v]. Then one of Jacob’s younger sons named
Joseph, who was Jacob’s favorite, got sold into slavery by 9 of his older
brothers and was sent to Egypt. (Once again read Genesis or have your parents
rent/stream Andrew Llyod Webber’s “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor
Dreamcoat” to find out why and what happened after that). Joseph, then moved his way up from Egyptian
slave to Pharaoh’s prime minister in charge of making sure everyone in ancient
Egypt had plenty of grain to eat during a time of famine that God warned Pharaoh
about in a dream. The famine not only
struck Egypt but nearby countries as well like Canaan. Jacob heard Egypt had food, sent his 11 sons
to get it, and let’s just say the sons of Jacob aka Israel were shocked to find
their brother Joseph was alive after all this time. So, Joseph invited dad Jacob, his three
step-moms, his 11 brothers with their wives, his sister, his numerous nieces
and nephews to all move in with him and his family in Egypt. And the descendants of Jacob aka Israel did
stay in Egypt for a long time.
Until life became uncomfortable for them.
You see, the Pharaoh who thought Joseph was one cool dude and
had no problem with a bunch of Israelites running around Egypt died, and then
the heirs to that particular Pharaoh’s throne died along with Joseph and his
brothers and sister, nieces, nephews, grand nieces and nephews and Joseph’s own
sons and grandsons died and in time a Pharaoh came to power who had no idea why
there are all these Israelites running around Egypt and probably refusing to
worship your standard Egyptian gods like Ra, Osiris, Isis,[vi]
etc. So, that Pharaoh turned all of the
Israelites into slaves, and then started the world 1st genocide
against Israelites by ordering the death of all Israelite baby boys[vii].
Except one Israelite baby boy managed to escape the genocide
by hiding out in a basket shortly after his mom gave birth to him. He floated
down the Nile River and ended up on the doorstep of the Pharaoh’s palace where
he was adopted by an Egyptian princess who named him Moses. (Read Exodus to find out about Moses’s early
life or have your parents rent/stream Dreamworks “The Prince of Egypt” to find
out what happened to Moses after he found out he was an Israelite), and then
was tasked by God to lead his fellow Israelites out of slavery in Egypt back to
the promised land of Canaan by confronting Pharaoh directly demanding to let the
Israelite slaves go. To sum up about 15
chapters worth of Exodus though, Pharaoh wasn’t about to let thousands of
Israelite slaves go free. So, God sent 10 plagues to convince Pharaoh and the
Egyptians otherwise. The last one was
weirdly specific and couldn’t be attributed to any other natural
phenomenon. God killed all of the 1st
born of the Egyptians but to the Israelites, whom he warned ahead of time to
stay awake and be ready for a fast exit, all of their 1st born
survived. Pharaoh briefly relented and
agreed to let the thousands of Israelites slaves go, only to send his extremely
large army of chariots and horses with archers after them. Moses led the Israelites to the shore of the
Red Sea, and miraculously everyone saw the Red Sea part and all of the
Israelites walked on dry land.
Meanwhile, when the Egyptian army caught up with the Israelites, God
caused the waters of the Red Sea to close back up again drowning Egypt’s entire
army. All of the Israelites were
thrilled to be free from their Egyptian slave drivers and masters. This event is remembered every year in the
Jewish feast of Passover and in addition to “The Prince of Egypt” there [viii] are probably a half dozen specials and or
movies showing the grand epic of the Israelite Passover.
However, there is more to this story than just 10
spectacular plagues and a special effect heavy shot of two ginormous walls of
water making a path for hundreds of thousands of people to cross on dry land.
This, my dear little ones, is the rest of that story you
need to pay attention to. The one where you may have to read all of
Exodus along with Numbers, Leviticus and Deuteronomy for since I don’t know if
there are any movies that tell the rest of this story.
But the story goes something like this.
Now Egypt and Israel are only about 244 miles apart from
each other[ix]. You pretty much can fly from Cairo Egypt to
Jerusalem Israel in less than an hour but since the airplane wasn’t invented
until 1903 most Israelites had to walk it.
Now even walking that distance the Israelites the 600,000 Israelites[x]
should have reached the promised land in 11 days. [xi]
Moses, however, decided to take the
long way to Israel. Moses had the
Israelites wander through the desert of Sin[xii]. Now, if you ever been on a road trip and you
asked your parents “Are we there yet?” because you were hungry or tired,
imagine that magnified by hundreds of thousands of people. Many of them said they wanted to go back
home to slavery in Egypt. So, they
complained to God and Moses and miraculously God provided food out of nowhere[xiii]
. Then the Israelites were thirsty, so
Moses struck a rock and then water[xiv] came out.
Eventually after 50 days and 1,100 miles later the Israelites arrived at
mount Sinai.[xv]
to get the famous 10 commandments plus another 603[xvi]
to establish the famous biblical covenant between the Israelites and God. The
problem was Moses was taking a long time to get those 10 plus the other 603
commandments. So, the Israelites became
bored, and broke commandments #1 and #2 by making and worshiping a golden calf
statue[xvii]
. Moses and God was so outraged at what the
Israelites had done, Moses destroyed the 10 commandments along with the other
603. Moses went back up mount Sinai and
got the laws back from God and led the Israelites further along the Sinai
Peninsula. Israelites continued to
grumble about the food and water and complained to Moses/God again. So, God sent a plague of poisonous snakes to
kill several thousands of them[xviii]
. They finally get to the promised land and
while Moses’ deputy Joshua and his friend Caleb thought they could easily
conquer the Canaanites, the other 10 spies Moses sent ahead complained about
how much bigger and meaner the Canaanites were than the Israelites were.
And this was the moment when God had enough! He vowed that the Israelites now had to
wander that Sinai desert for the next 40 years! [xix]
Now, why would God order the Israelites to wander the Sinai desert
for the next 40 years?
Well, let’s just say life was rough in ancient times and it
was a miracle if you lived a long life.
If someone was a grownup and grew up and grew old under the slave
mentality of ancient Egypt at the time of the Exodus, the odds of them living
past the 40-year wandering was slim to none.
Meanwhile, if you were kid at the time of the Exodus, or were born long
after the Israelites exited Egypt, and didn’t know or couldn’t remember the
slave times in Egypt, you got to go into the Promised Land. That generation of young Israelite kids at the
time of the Exodus probably excitedly told their kids and their grandkids about
how the mighty Nile turned to blood and you a ton of frogs, and lice, and three
days of darkness, and crossed the Red Sea on dry land and had bread
miraculously appear out of nowhere and yeah you knew God was an awesome God and
would be promised a great life if you obeyed all 613 laws.
Because there is also another factor you need to know
now. And that will be in my next letter
to you.
[iv] Genesis
15: 5 Also Genesis 13: 13-15
[v]
Genesis 32:23-32
[vii]
Exodus 1: 15-22
[x] Exodus 12 :37,38
[xi] https://poe.com/p/How-many-miles-did-Moses-and-his-companions-travel-during-their-40-year-desert-wandering
[xiii]
Exodus 16
[xiv]
Exodus 17 1-7
[xv]
Ok I don’t have a formal end note on a formal website to cite. I divided the 11 days referenced in end note
X with the 244 miles between Cairo Egypt and Jerusalem Israel to get an average
miles per day and then multiplied it by the 50 days biblical tradition said it
took Israel to finally reach Mt. Sinai.
[xvii]
Exodus 32
[xviii]
Numbers 21 1-8
[xix]
Numbers 13-14
