Comment: The Year of Living Biblically by A.J. Jacobs

A.J. Jacobs, I admire your book The Year of Living Biblically. The details are amazing! With your phenomenal research you captured thoughts and elaborated on them in amazing honesty. Yet you were able to do this in an engaging and funny book that clearly looked at very serious matters while remaining who you are, a secular, agnostic, Jew.

I did not buy your book. It was a Christmas gift this year from my Jewish brother-in-law. He knows I love things of the Bible because I have made it known to him that I am a Christian who reads my Bible. So he thought that naturally I’d be interested in your premise. I was a little reluctant when I picked it up because I was afraid of any tangents that might take you to harsh conclusions about believers, but I found not a word amiss. Thank you for your honesty with the written word.

The journey you proposed is one I wish everyone would take and that is why I am enthusiastic about your book. The Bible is the book of the ages and I think it is a love letter from God to mankind. It is important because, as you found with the Answers in Genesis believers, we believe we are all brothers on this earth, and if we are all cousins then we’d better learn what God has said to us in His Bible, after all one of His names is The Word..

You took obscure subjects from the Jewish and Christian cultures and helped us to see where they came from and what they meant to the followers. So I learned a lot of things I have never thought about before like the blowing of the shofar every month, dancing with Hasidic Jews, the kaparot ritual, and the work of Dear Mr. Berkowitz.There are so many other interesting things in your book, things where you found beauty and dignity without being critical and derogatory, only factual, and that truly kept me riveted, I read your book in two days. I was sorry when I finished and I wished you would have kept on going with the lives of the apostles because of your knack for details. Oh to have you live the life of Paul or Peter as you danced with King David.

At many times you made it clear that your secular, Jewish, agnostic background kept you guarded and objective on this journey. So you looked at these things with the touch of a scientist looking under a microscope with bemused bewilderment. You came to the door of faith and saw the glorious light shining all around the edges of a closed door. You even looked through the keyhole and were dazzled by the faith you saw in others. At times you even identified with being a man of faith during that year as you enjoyed the brotherhood of believers because of your appearance. But you did not turn the handle and open the door for yourself. It reminds me of Jesus words in Revelation 3:20 “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”

I became a Christian 34 years ago after a time of searching, somewhat similar to what you have done with this book. But the difference between you and me is that at the end of my journey I realized, “God has a plan!” A beautiful plan for all mankind, laid out here in the Bible, His Holy Scriptures and I said to myself in my heart, “I believe”. It was that simple, and I became a Christian all by myself standing in my parents’ family room when I was a 21 year old woman. I experienced the bewildering awe of the Holy Spirit falling on my spirit with Great Joy, my own personal epiphany. The Holy Spirit is the deposit spoken of in 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.”

Thank you for the personal glimpse into your family. Your wife Julie is very funny and well grounded in reality. The “Helmet” comment is terrific as well as the other comment she made from time to time, “Things happen for a reason”. It makes it even more poignant when we read about the “favoritism shown to Joseph at the expense of his brothers in Genesis Chapters 37-50 that these things indeed, “happen for a reason”. Nothing happens without God’s notice. Luke 12: 6-7 “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies]? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”

You are so right in saying that we need to raise our children with morals and guidance. I would suggest that for a future project you tackle “The Truth Project” by Dr. Del Tackett.

I identified strongly with your comments on circumcision; I had two such experiences when my sons were born. First in 1975 just before my son was born, I asked my OB-GYN Dr. Bernard Weiss, in Torrance California, if my son could be circumcised on the 8th day. He responded, “Why?!? You’re not Jewish!” He refused to listen to my reasons. One being my love for the Bible and its traditions, the other being my faith that God had good reason to require such things and there may be better immunization or blood clotting on the 8th day. Nevertheless, my son was circumcised right after birth in the hospital. Looking back I regret that I did not quit that doctor the moment he said what he said to me, but I was young and did not realize I had a choice in the matter.

My second son was born in 1977 in Culver City California at a birthing clinic run by Dr. Victor Berman. What a fine doctor he was to me in every respect. He did not question my wishes, he made all the arrangements. My son was circumcised on the 8th day. He put him in a “circumstrant” and told me to offer my thumb knuckle for Todd to “bite” with his toothless gums. I did, and we both cried as it was done. It was a moving experience that I’ll never forget. Yes, it did seem cruel and barbaric to bring such pain to my dear little boy. But, he soon forgot and now it’s done. I am grateful to Dr. Berman for his compassion and I’ll never forget his kindnesses to me.

When you went to the south to visit Jimmy Morrow regarding snake handling as in the scripture found in Mark 16:17-18 “And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well."
I believe Jimmy is correct that “God locked the snakes jaws” so he was not bitten at the age of 13 years and that it was a profoundly spiritual experience. I believe it was because God knew Jimmy would preach the Gospel to others to win souls. Just like Paul was spared death from a snake bite in Acts 28:3-5

“Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, ‘This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live.’ But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects.”

I believe this was because God told Paul in Acts 26:17-18 that he had a mission to spread the Gospel, “I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.'

I also believe we are not to test or tempt God in these matters as in a vaudeville or circus display because God reads the heart and we better be very careful because in. Matthew 4:7 “Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.' Here Jesus was quoting from the beautiful Psalm 91.

I wonder what your comments would be on some other verses in the Old Testament like; Zechariah 12:3 “On that day, when all the nations of the earth are gathered against her, I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock for all the nations. All who try to move it will injure themselves.” Because of this verse I would not want to be Osama Bin Ladin because he said this week, “I would not give an inch to the Jews”. According to my understanding of “Recompense” OBL may end up on the receiving end of that curse.

Or what you would say about Zechariah 12:10 "And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.”
As you can imagine, I don’t agree totally with your friend Pastor out to Pasture regarding “cafeteria” style religion. I may not be able to live up to the Word but I still think we’re supposed to try to the best of our ability.Yes, we fail, but the teaching is to not give up, not stop trying, and to encourage each other. Jesus said, (do a word search on the word ‘overcome’) in many places in the Bible that we cannot do it on our own strength. But if we try, from the heart (do a word search on ‘heart’) then we have this (and many)promise(s);

“He said to me: ‘It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son...” Revelation 21:6-7

Personally, I am looking forward to it.

Thanks for the book, God Bless you and your family.


Marcie

marciegram.com