104 Ergon—Ma’aseh—Ergon

Remember! When I refer to person in the Godhead in any blog, I am referring either to singular person (one-of-three) or to the collective person (three-in-one) of the Triune.

In last blog, gentle reader, we saw how scripture deals in depth with work, specifically with supernatural accomplishment both positive and negative. That means that scripture has much to say on both divine accomplishment and demonic activity. Scripture also has much to say on human works. We saw how the spectrum of work covered in scripture spans the terms ergon—ma’aseh—ergon (Old and New Testament terms) that can be translated readily enough into divine accomplishment—human activity—demonic activity. Also, the spectrum can be shifted to reflect the value system of each component: dedication to pure goodness—mixed dedication—dedication to pure evil.

Interestingly, our whole human culture is focused on, even geared to, the mixed values of human or natural accomplishment (ma’aseh) in the ergon—ma’aseh—ergon spectrum, geared to the exclusion of just about all else, truth be known. Society, particularly American society is obsessed with the products of work on the natural or human level, so obsessed their value system is easily compromised (witness Enron). Buildings are continuously being constructed, bridges designed, cities developed, businesses created by the work of our hands (Tower of Babel, Genesis 11:1-9), and the list goes on with feverish intensity (or did until greed pulled the economic plug and everything began to go down the drain).

Yes, this human work can be very impressive, spectacular even; but deceptively so. When all is said and done, it is still the product of human activity and limited in its performance, durability and value to humankind, and always falls short of divine accomplishment: for instance, cars are amazing things but they wear out or fail, bridges collapse, infrastructures decay, CEO’s exploit. The same can be said for buildings and structures; they require elaborate maintenance or often have to be imploded and replaced because they, too, deteriorate, often from shoddy construction in the first place.

Astonishingly, this marginal level of human accomplishment grounded in rampant materialism is one to which we have grown accustomed and of which we are even proud and seem determined to revive at all cost in our economy. In fact, there is and always has been a barely concealed human desire to compete with God’s supernatural accomplishments (the Creation, life itself) by taking that power to ourselves; and we keep trying to do so. Wrong thinking this is, admittedly, but common: consider Frankenstein, the classic tale of man messing with the God-given fabric of life, a theme apparent today in man tinkering with the human genome, cloning and genome splicing, or trifling with the laws of physics with giant particle accelerators.

But without going into the whole comparison of man to Satan, who so disastrously failed when he presumed to be greater than God, we can still legitimately liken man’s failures to Satan’s in that both have failed because of displays of arrogant presumption. This dangerous dabbling with horrific outcomes which mankind can and routinely does before he knows how to undo his presumptuous behavior (for instance, the BP debacle currently playing out in the Gulf) occurs throughout recorded human history.

To be continued . . .