The Scripture repeatedly uses the word “fulfillment” many times, but what exactly does this mean? The words of Hosea refers to the past, which alludes to the idea that Israel is awaiting fulfillment. In Hosea,God says that “The more I called them, the farther they went from me, sacrificing to the Baals, and burning incense to idols” (Hos 11:1-2). This is the opposite of fulfillment as the people are wandering away from God and His presence. The objective of fulfillment is the restoration of communion with God so that we may be able to enter into the divine presence. The means of this restoration is alluded to when God says “For I am God, and not a man, the Holy One present among you; I will not come in wrath” (Hos 11:8-9). This shows that fulfillment lies in the presence of the Holy One, namely Emmanuel which means “God is with us”. For us, this Emmanuel is Jesus and he is the fulfillment of Judaism. He even states “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill” (Mt 5:17). 

In the opening chapters of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke bear many similarities to elements of the Old Testament. In the beginning of Mathew 1, it is written that Jesus is “the son of David, the son of Abraham ” (Mt 1:1) showing the immediate connections to the elect in the Old Testament. Furthermore in Matthew 1, an angel speaks to Joseph through a dream, telling him what he must do. It is almost immediate that our minds are drawn to Joseph from the Old Testament and his dreams that were showing what his future role as the elect will be. This repetition highlights how dreams are a form of divine thought sent to humans to lead them in the direction that God desires. We also see the importance behind the meaning of names. For instance, Adam means dirt, Jacob means heel-catcher, and Israel means “God contends”. These names reveal something crucial about the story of these people just as referring to Jesus as Emmanuel, which means God is with us, reveals that Jesus is the son of the Father. Additionally we see similar elements in Luke 1 with Elizabeth being barren just like Sarah, Rebekkah, and Rachel but in all cases, God blesses them with a child. However, because Zechari’ah doubted God, he is unable to speak. This element of doubt is present in many places in the Old Testament, especially with the wilderness generation doubting Moses and God’s ability to lead them out of Egypt and to the promised land. All of these elements go to show how the Scripture repeats itself in order for us to understand God’s message clearly.

Although the plan was to leave Egypt and inhibit the holy land, God declares that the current generation will not inherit Cannan, even Moses. In Numbers 14, God asks Moses why the people of Israel still spurn him and have no faith in him despite His numerous signs that He has performed. They show no faith, and God wants to wipe out the entire population but Moses’ pleading shows God that He should be merciful despite the generation’s ignorance of His power and glory. God declares in Deuteronomy 28:46, that the people “did not heed the Lord your God and keep the commandments and laws that He enjoined upon you.” It was Moses’ job to speak to the people and to let them know who God is and why they should follow him. By them not being faithful and not obeying the commandments, Moses has failed at his job as well. Moses is allowed to view the promised land from a distance, but not enter. When he dies, he does so “at the command of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 34:6). He is an obedient servant to his death. However, his job has been fulfilled. He led the people out of Egypt and into the wilderness. His death symbolizes a new chapter, as God never meant for him to enter the land for it was assigned to his offspring. Although it is unfortunate that Moses never enters the promised land, he dies following God’s orders assuring that he will find peace with the Lord. 

After the death of Moses, God commands Joshua to lead the Israelites across the Jordan river into the promised land. This alludes to God’s command to Moses in Leviticus to lead the Israelites out of Egypt into the wilderness. The end of Deuteronomy reveals that “never again did there arise in Israel a prophet like Moses– whom the Lord singled out, face to face.” However, it also writes how Joshua will be the new Moses and the Israelites will heed him. This acts as a guide to show us that Joshua will lead them into the promised land and help the Israelities. However, there is the shadow that he will never be able to fully enter into the divine presence as Moses got close to. The first generation was truly the Chosen generation, and now things will never be as they once were, especially in terms of their relationship with God. 

Purity is the act of being pure and clean that qualifies a person or object for contact with the holy space and interaction with the Lord. Acts of purification such as certain forms of sacrifice are simply making one ready for that contact. Impurity is something that makes one impure and unclean, and it disqualifies them from holy contact. Impurity is contagious and can be transferred from one person or object to another by physical contact or sharing space. Impurity can also defile holy objects. God requires the maintenance of purity as in order to worship God in all of his glory, we must have the highest degree of purity. Interacting with either the middle or lowest degrees of purity makes the highest category impure. If the person is impure, they are unable to perform their worship to God, and therefore cannot reenter communion with him. We also see many times that God focuses on the order of things, such as in the Creation story, and by maintaining purity, we are maintaining order. 

As the footnote states “the logic of the purity rules is an ongoing point of debate.” However, it is suggested that there is a double source for impurity: sex and death. Hence, actions associated with these two sources are considered impure and should be avoided. Mary Douglas also states that “any given culture must confront events which seem to deny its assumptions” (40). If this is the case, then God created these laws in order to deal with the anomalies, or the impurities, that may arise in the Israelite culture. This allows cultures to approach this uncleanliness through order. In terms of the food laws, God states that we should not eat certain animals because “they are unclean for you” (Lev 11:9). He grants us permission to eat certain animals, but does not permit us to eat others as they are missing qualities that qualify them as pure. As stated before, contact with an unclean or impure object means that you also become impure. Therefore, you are unable to joyfully be with God through the act of worship. As we saw with Noah and the killing of animals after the flood in Genesis, there are certain things that God only has control over and certain things that humans have permission to do. Since we know that God is a merciful and just God, his laws concerning purity must be for our benefit.

In “The Reasonableness of Faith,” Wilken discusses faith and reason and why faith is unavoidable. He cites Origen, a bold thinker of the church, who wrote that “a desire to know the truth of things has been implanted in our souls and is natural to human beings”(165). Wilken uses this to connect this desire for knowledge with our faith. He writes that “faith is the portal that leads to the knowledge of God.” If Origen is correct and our souls seek out knowledge, then by our natural instinct we are looking for faith. However, according to Augustine, this knowledge of God is dependent on someone else’s word. The knowledge of any historical event is “indirect and dependent on someone else’s word” (169). So in his treatise On the Usefulness of Believing, he replaces the term knowledge with belief. In this way, in order to know anything about the past, we must trust and believe in the testimony of the people that were witnesses to the events. In fact, Augustine writes that “without faith, that is, without confidence in the truthfulness of others… the sacred bond of the human race would be shattered” (171). Trust binds the human race together and therefore, it is unavoidable to truly be devoid of any form of faith.  

Faith is beneficial to us because it brings us closer to God. When we have faith, we are able to “see the Word and behold his glory” and, therefore, gain “genuine knowledge of God” (178). It is through believing in Christ, that He comes to us. We not only gain knowledge of him but we “are somehow united to him and made into a member of his body” (184). Faith allows us to truly love and trust God despite not being able to perceive him in the way that we perceive a book or a rock. As it says in Benedict XVI’s encyclical letter, believing in God is not simply a choice, but “an encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” By believing in God, we have something to center our lives upon and have the ability to grow in new, better ways. 

The story of Joseph starts with jealousy. As Gary Anderson states in ”Joseph and the Passion of our Lord,” Joseph is “clearly favored over [his] blood brothers and the act of favoritism becomes legitimate source of intense anger” (205). Joseph’s dreams only serve to anger his brothers more: to the point that they decide to toss him into a well, but then due to Reuben and Judah, end up selling him to a caravan heading to Egypt. He eventually becomes “the provisioner not only of his family in Cannan but of the entire world” (207). He recognizes his brothers when they come to beg for food yet he pretends he does not. His brothers’ wicked actions earlier in the story give Joseph “good grounds to seek vengeance against those who have treated him so unjustly” (211). By planting the silver cup in Benjamin’s bag, he is setting up a plan that allows him to hold Benjamin captive. Joseph is acting out of vengeance, but his ultimate aim is to almost to see if his brothers will act similarly towards the new beloved son, by getting rid of a “favored sibling, spurning their father and leaving Benjamin behind in Egypt” (208). However, this time Judah pledges his own life in place of Benjamin’s. Joseph finally is able to complete the cycle of death and resurrection that every beloved son in Genesis has gone through by finally revealing himself to his brothers and in a way, becoming alive to the family again. He died when he was thrown into the pit, and symbolically died to his family when he is announced dead and Jacob is shown his bloodied clothes. He is resurrected when he and his father are reunited and he is able to forgive his brothers. Joseph recognizes that his death was part of God’s plan by saying to his brothers that “it was not you who sent me here, but God” (Gen 45:9). His placement of the silver cup was testing whether Benjamin would go through the same cycle of death and resurrection as he became the beloved son. However, Judah’s intervention prevents the death of Benjamin allowing the family to reconcile.

The scene of Jacob’s wrestling raises many thoughts, the most important are those two simple questions: Who wins, really? And who is his opponent? Throughout Jacob’s life, he has had an adverse relationship with his brother, Esau, who even threatens to kill Jacob. So, the reader initially may believe that this wrestling is symbolic of Jacob’s fear of his brother, and that he is metaphorically wrestling with his conscience and his fears. However, Jacob walks away with a limp: a physical reminder of his struggle that will be passed down to the children of Israel. This limp serving as a reminder that seems to connect with Abraham and circumcision: God’s reminder that the realization of promises is God’s work, not man’s alone. This indicates that it is not just an internal struggle, but instead Jacob is fighting with a divine being. The figure gives Jacob a new name, which points back to when God gave Abraham a new name. This suggests again that this figure may have divine powers, and this figure is most likely an angel in human form.
Although Jacob is hurt and ends up with a limp, he ultimately wins in the fight. The figure gives Jacob a new name, Israel, along with a blessing. As we have seen previously, a blessing usually results in success and prosperity. Additionally, Jacob had prayed earlier in Genesis 32 but did not receive an answer from God. If in fact the figure with whom he wrestles is a divine being, Jacob is getting the interaction and response he wanted. By wrestling with the divine, he is fulfilling as Leon Kass writes “his desire to be close to God, even as he struggles with and against Him.” He becomes more engaged with God and gains a better understanding of Him. Jacob, or Israel, struggle in the dark relates to his struggle in the womb with Esau. He emerges from the darkness renamed, making the wrestling match appearing as a second birth; this time he is the winner instead of Esau. The sun rising upon him after the fight implies a new life, this time with more knowledge.

Religion, in its simplest terms, is the system of faith and worship. Religion has the ability to transcend societies, cultures, and countries. As William Cavanuagh states in “Violence, Religion and the State”, there are many definitions of religion. He references Martin Marty and his five essential elements that characterize a religion. In my interpretation, the elements are as follows. The first is that religion focuses on some big questions and concerns such as what the people of that religion cares about. Secondly, religion must build community. As stated previously, religion stretches across many divides. For instance Catholicism is not solely in one place but can be found all over the globe. It connects people together by having something similar that they believe in. Members of this community lift each other up in times of weakness and celebrate in times of strength. Thirdly, religion must appeal to myth and symbol. In Catholicism, we view the snake as a symbol of deception and evil and view the Virgin Mary as a symbol that we all should look up to as a model of innocence and obedient love for God. The fourth element is that it is enforced through rites and ceremonies. For example, Catholics go to mass every Sunday as a demonstration of their faith. This doubles as community as everyone in the community gathers to pray and worship together. Another example is that Muslims pray five times a day which includes repetition of a unit called a rakʿah. The fifth and last element is that religion expects certain behaviors from the members such as some religions require their followers to go on a pilgrimage or wear certain types of clothing. These elements are all important, but for me religion is much more than certain restrictions or rituals. To me, religion is something that I center my life upon. It is about feeling God’s love and constantly seeking understanding of what He wants my life path to be.

In “The Reasonableness of Faith,” Wilken discusses faith and reason and why faith is unavoidable. He cites Origen, a bold thinker of the church, who wrote that “a desire to know the truth of things has been implanted in our souls and is natural to human beings”(165). Wilken uses this to connect this desire for knowledge with our faith. He writes that “faith is the portal that leads to the knowledge of God.” If Origen is correct and our souls seek out knowledge, then by our natural instinct we are looking for faith. However, according to Augustine, this knowledge of God is dependent on someone else’s word. The knowledge of any historical event is “indirect and dependent on someone else’s word” (169). So in his treatise On the Usefulness of Believing, he replaces the term knowledge with belief. In this way, in order to know anything about the past, we must trust and believe in the testimony of the people that were witnesses to the events. In fact, Augustine writes that “without faith, that is, without confidence in the truthfulness of others… the sacred bond of the human race would be shattered” (171). Trust binds the human race together and therefore, it is unavoidable to truly be devoid of any form of faith.  

Faith is beneficial to us because it brings us closer to God. When we have faith, we are able to “see the Word and behold his glory” and, therefore, gain “genuine knowledge of God” (178). It is through believing in Christ, that He comes to us. We not only gain knowledge of him but we “are somehow or other united to him and made into a member of his body” (184). Faith allows us to truly love and trust God despite not being able to perceive him in the way that we perceive a book or a rock. As it says in Benedict XVI’s encyclical letter, believing in God is not simply a choice, but “an encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction.” By believing in God, we have something to center our lives upon and have the ability to grow in new, better ways.

Abraham is completely devoted to God. Before God even reveals himself to Abraham, he is aware that he is speaking to a god as the speaker establishes himself as an intelligent being, and “he has seen directly into Abram’s heart, for the promises that are made respond to Abram’s deepest longings” (Kass). God promises Abraham land and more important He makes the promise that He “will make [Abraham’s] name great” (Gen 12:2). This contrasts the people of Babel saying that they wanted to make a name for themselves. God blesses and protects Abraham, which establishes Abraham’s dependence on God. Additionally, despite having a beautiful wife, Sarah bares no children. However, God also grants him that desire by promising that Sarah will bear a son, named Isaac. He owes God everything he has, so when God calls him to offer his son “as a burnt offering” (Gen 22:2), he prepares to make the sacrifice. It is also possible that Abraham did it out of fear, as when the angel comes down to stop the sacrifice he says that he knows that Abraham fears God (Gen 22:13). This shows that although God is merciful and just, he is still all-powerful and there are aspects of him that humans should fear.

By asking Abraham to sacrifice his favorite son, God is testing Abraham’s obedience and love. Many times in the past, humans have disappointed God through their corruptness. God is hopeful for the good in Abraham but wants to see if he is truly loyal. When Abraham does as he is told without question, this allows God to trust him and afterwards justly bless him with a successful line as Abraham is a faithful follower. 

Abraham is not necessarily lying in 22:5 and 22:8. Although Abraham intends to go through with the sacrifice, he has full faith in God. When he spoke to God in Genesis 18, Abraham believes that God deals justly with the earth and that He is merciful when they talk about the innocent versus the evil in the city of Sodom. Abraham trusts that God has a plan. So, he alleviates his language, but they are indeed going to worship God on the mountain although it is questionable if both will return in Gen 22:5 and Abraham does believe that God will see the sheep, although this could be a symbolism for the son as we see later in the Bible the lamb of God refer to Jesus, God’s son. 

I think that Abraham is praiseworthy as he intended to go through with the sacrifice despite being blessed with a son at such a late age. His faith is a model for all of us; God wishes for all to be as loyal as Abraham is. God also is praiseworthy as he stops the sacrifice. This further proves that God is merciful and loves his creations. He did not intend to hurt the boy, but was just testing Abraham. After the ritual, God blessed Abraham with abundance and success, only showing more reason to praise God.

The story of Noah has similar themes in common with the story of Adam and Eve, specifically the account of the first sin in Genesis 3. The story of Noah starts with informing the readers that Noah is a descendant of Seth, Adam’s third son. This is important as this line of Seth is simple and pious, and slightly God-fearing whereas the line of Cain, Adam’s first son who killed his brother out of jealousy, is self-reliant and shows signs of corruption. In the words of Leon Kass, “the men in Seth’s line flourish” as they all live modest long lives, almost escaping the punishment of death brought upon humans due to Adam and Eve’s disobedience. The root of the trouble in Noah’s story is an extensive of the troubles in Adam and Eve’s. In the story of Noah, the weakness of humans stems from the attitude of men towards women. Instead of appreciating each woman as a person, they are viewed like trophies, something to be desired or possess. This is related to Eve’s intense desire to eat the apple because it was “a delight to the eyes”. The narrative is emphasizing that evilness lies discreetly in the form of desire. Both these corrupt men and Eve are ignoring what that desire means: for Eve, it is disobeying God’s commandments and for the men, it is ignoring their dependence on women. This desire is what causes humankind to become corrupt and violent, causing God to regret the creation of men. After the disobedience of Adam and Eve, God showed them mercy but in this case, he decides that the only solution is total destruction of the world. However, God saves Noah on account of his virtue. He gives God what he has wanted since Adam and Eve: obedient love. Noah does not question God, but does what he is told. On the ark, there is no helm as the ark travels according to God’s will. As the creator, God simply wants humans to honor him and live piously in his likeness. Because Noah “walked with God,” he is saved.