Punishment vs Reparation and More on NaHiY

One idea that I would like to expose is the concept of reparation as opposed to punishment.

If God is such a loving God, then why is He apparently so quick to punish? The Bible is replete with stories of great ones who, because of a mistake, go through things. Let's examine those things more closely.

(1) Adam who got chased out of the garden of Eden because he ate the forbidden fruit.

(2) The generation of Noah who got washed away by the deluge.

(3) Miriam who spoke unkindly about Moses.

Although it may seem like punishment, if we truly believe and know that God is a loving God, then it would be more reasonable to see these as reparations.

In the case of Adam, who defied God's word and ate the fruit. His reason for eating was to be able to know like God knows, and make right decisions. What is the reparation for this? To actually go through life toiling and making decisions and being flooded with information and yet picking the right thing to do.

In the case of the generation of Noah who were unkind to each other to the point that they had to be "washed" away. What was the reparation for this? Unfortunately, they had to start fresh. For those of us who believe in gilgulim (reincarnation) this can make sense.

In the case of Miriam speaking badly about Moses. She said how can Moses have a beautiful wife and just leave her and always cling to God. Actually, Moses needed to have his "antenna" constantly on alert for new messages from God, so he refrained from earthly desires, even his own wife he refrained from. To a normal person, that seemed bizarre, and so Miriam spoke up.

What was her reparation? She was sent away from the camp. Solitude and Self reflection. Perhaps this way, she can learn to keep things to herself and to think things through or just ask.

What is so great about the concept of reparation?

It gives the repairer a sense of pride. A saving of face. Instead of feeling victimized by punishments for the world to see. We know instead that we are dealing with a just and loving God who gives us a chance to do better. Okay, so we are starting from a few steps behind where we started, but in the end we achieve much more that what we began with. Ultimately, the new path, the path of reparation that we end up on takes us to a much higher level of achievement than we would have ever achieved from the original path.

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In the situation of black folks and the whole thing of Dominion, Splendor, and Foundation (Netzach, Hod, Yesod= NaHiY) as I mentioned a few posts down, every set back brings us to a new level of reparation.

Looking solely at the AA situation, we have men turning to crime. Black on black crime needs to be stopped. We have BW and children looking left and right in search of a solution against their mistreatment. We have the media blasting constantly with studies, diversions, and shameful shows to keep the status quo.

Big challenges. As I once read on a different blog, "the stakes be high" lol.

Who knows why we are in this situation. We don't want to create anymore challenges for ourselves, so I say let us try not to faulter. This work also requires EMUNAH: Pure faith. And we can't have EMUNAH without truth. And we can't have truth without knowledge. We must strive to understand as much as we can understand, and what we can not, leave to faith. We must strive to grasp as much wisdoms as possible and master them. Mathematics, science, medical research, statistics, music, art, Bible, psychology, etc. No domain is too great or too complete that there isn't anymore room for more splendor, creativity, and new revelations. I pray that this be done not with arrogance or with the intent of "beating" another, but for our own sake as well as for the sake of the world. For good.