Combo time 11,12, and 13….
1142 words by Robert Johnson
Tobit is a unusual and strange story for me to understand. Tobit is deeply in a man who is deeply in his Israelite faith and beliefs, even thoug he has been take captive by the Assyrians, and exile to Nineveh. Even though him being in exiled, he is a very happy to be married and he continues to practice his faith by burying the dead, against Assyrian orders. One night birds pooped in his eyes, and he woke up blind and wanted to commit suicide. Before he kills himself, he wants his son Tobias to go collect the debt owed to him in Media. While on his journey the angel Raphael accompanies him, in the form of a human. On their journey, a giant fish tires to eat Tobias, but Tobias instead kills the fish and saves the liver, gall bladder, and heart for later. When I read this I was like I hope he do not plan on eating those things. In Media, Tobias and Raphael stays with Sarah’s family. Sarah is also suicidal, because an evil demon kills her husband before he can be consummated. Sarah and Tobias fall in love and with each other and deicide to get married. Tobias was told by Raphael to; burn the fish heart and liver, and the smoke drives the demon away. Sarah and Tobias, travel back to Ninevah and rub the fish gall bladder in Tobit’s eyes. Then all of a sudden a miracle happens Tobit is able to reopen his eyes. After this whole miraculously miracle happen Raphael reveals his true identity to everyone. The story ends on a very happy note I would like to add. The moral of this story to me talks about hope and faith. I think being that Tobit always keep his faith in God and never cursed him when he lost his sight was a good thing. I assume that this whole thing was a test and in the end he passed. As the saying goes “every thing happens for a reason”.
There is a plethora of reason that people consider the Maccabees to be heroic. In this time period, the Jews were under the control of the Seleucid Empire, and their King Antiochus IV. Antiochus was very rude and disrespectful to the Jewish people and their religious beliefs. He did not want the them to be in their temples, and they could not offer Jewish sacrifices or read the word of Moses. Antiochus ordered that everyone offer sacrifices to him to show their devotion. The Jewish people did everything that he said because they were scared of him; they did not want him to kill them. In the town of Modien, one man name Mattathias refused to shame his religion. He not only refused to give sacrifices, but he struck a Jew about to do the sacrifice and killed a king’s official. After doing this act of crime, Mattathias and his family had to flee into the wilderness. This began a revolution of Jews wanting religious freedom. Mattathias died shortly, and the leader of the rebellion was his son he had a nickname which was Maccabee. The revolution came to be know as the Maccabeen revolt. Their forces continued to grow, and their heroic efforts finally paid off when they were able to reclaim their Jewish heritage Jesus is truly one of the most counter-cultural people to walk the earth. Since the fall of Adam and Eve, cultures began to spring with all kinds of beliefs. Some of these beliefs were good, and others were not so good. Even though God is a loving God who has given us the freedom of choice, He still wishes for us to choose Him and to choose good over evil. Still, people choose what they want to choose. Jesus came to preach the word of his Father in heaven, and how His love can save us. Even though the words Jesus preached were for the peoples’ own good, it went against what they believed and were already practicing. Jesus wanted people to change the way they were living to prepare themselves for heaven, yet this just went against what some people already believed. Sometimes, Jesus preached things that people just did not want to hear. In this way, Jesus was extremely counter-cultural. I don’t believed that my project is that counter-cultural. The only thing I could say is cultural about it is; the fact that all type of women and men, religion, race, and ethnicity fall harm to domestic violence.
I feel that the main reason Jesus was crucified was because people was scared of what they did not understand. Everywhere he went people flocked to just get a glance. The Romans were envious of this, and were afraid of the power Jesus had on the people. Jesus followers were beginning a revolution, and the Romans definitely did not want this. Judas betrayed Jesus for 30 pieces of silver, and Jesus was arrested for being the leader of a ‘revolution’. He was crucified supposedly because the Jews wanted him to be crucified. Pontias Pilate “washed his hands” of Jesus’ blood, and left it up to the people. Jesus was forced to carry a cross, and was mocked, beaten, and spit on. He was hung on the cross with nails in his wrists and ankles. Upon his death, Jesus went to Hell and defeated the devil, and then brought all the righteousness with him up to heaven. So, Jesus was crucified to save our sins. Even today when people are afraid of what they do not understand they make fun of it or do not try to understand what they are seeing. People are so judgmental about so many things always tying to give their input on something. I feel the ignorance’s of those people who feared Jesus was the reason that he was crucified.
My project is coming along great and I am almost done with it. I have to make a few phone calls to get into with some people then I will be done. I am happy to know that when I am done with my project this great big weight would be lifted off my shoulders. I mean in a good way because I’m going to feel good about myself helping out people.
