Men's Club

IT IS A CHOICE

At the close of creation, our Lord took a step back, and saw everything that he created was very good. So if everything was so good, it begs the following question. Why did our Lord need to create evil? More specifically, in the form of the serpent. Our Lord understood the human species being endowed with freedom of thought, would be unpredictable and uncontrollable in their actions. These types of actions may lead them away from following the ways of the Lord. So the Lord needed a testing device to see if mankind would choose the correct path in their actions, to be in alignment with the Lord’s ways. Of course, Adam and Eve failed the test by eating of the fruit of the forbidden tree. The serpent represented a visual presence, the Lord was just a voice. Adam and Eve may have made a different choice if they benefited from social interaction generated by contact with familial, collegial, and communal support steeped in a cultural value system, shared by other members of mankind. Next to fail the test was Cain. When the Lord saw the disappointment and sadness in his facial expression, he encouraged Cain to do better the next time, to achieve a more positive result. But Cain turned to an expeditious route of violence, resulting in the death of his brother Abel, eliminating the competition. If Cain had access to a knowledge base of agricultural methods that generated greater crop yields from fellow growers, he may have made a different choice to accept the Lord’s advice. Finally the next person to fail the test was Esau. When he returned from the fields exhausted, he smelled Jacob’s pottage, and begged his brother to give him pottage to relieve his dire condition. When Jacob requested Esau to relinquish his birthright, in return for the pottage, he blindly acquiesced to giving up such a valuable asset. If he gave the decision more thought, he would have realized he came from a prominent family, and any other household in the community would not have denied him the sustenance he so desperately needed to restore his bodily wholesomeness. Again this choice would have allowed Esau to retain his birthright.

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Fast forward to the present day. Unlike Adam and Eve, Cain, and Esau, we are blessed to be the beneficiaries of an overabundance of knowledge made available to us, via the instruments of the modern technological age. Computers, the internet and AI give us access to vast amounts of information, which helps us examine all our options to be diligent in making our decisions wisely. Today, the need for information and knowledge is more acute, in the many moral and ethical choices we will have to make at home and in the workplace.

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As the High Holy days are fast approaching, vows unfilled are released, and new vows will be made. May we be blessed to receive our Lord’s guidance in making the right choices to keep us on the path, in following the ways of our Lord.

Shalom!

Martin Solway – Club President