Heart of Darkness

This will be rather like one of our journal entries, so here goes:

In the book there is this reoccurring theme of the Wilderness. The wilderness itself seems to proclaim a certain...protection almost. Or at least to the natives. 'He was swallowed up in the womb of the wilderness', 'Taken into the wilderness's bosom'. 'Womb', and 'bosom' are words used to convey comfort. They are both Biblical words, 'taken to the bosom of Abraham', 'The womb of a nursing mother'. So it is strange when two such words are used in something that in all else betrays utter terror! 'Those who go out don't come back'. So it is a terrifying goodness...? How is that betrayed in the Bible? Is it possible for something terrifying to be good? All these questions jump at us, demanding answers.

So, is it possible to have a 'terrifying goodness'? The answer is yes surely! quote: "Are our tremors to measure the omnipotence?" (Descent into Hell). An example of something frightening being good would be a punishment. We never think a punishment as good: we fear it, don't we? Yes, think of when you were younger, when your mother or father spanked you (I assumed they did). Your cries of 'pain' often were mere let off of your fear. I grant that that was not always the case, but it was sometimes. We feared the pain of the punishment. But looking back, think of what good it did you! Think of what you would be now if you had impunity! (Another word!) The only reason it was terrifying was because we are sinful: we were selfish of ourselves, not wanting pain, and wanting to get away with whatever wrong thing we did.

Another terrifying goodness would be God himself. If you don't fear him, there is something wrong with you spiritually. Most of the time you don't think of fearing him, but when you dwell on the idea of meeting him, or of confessing to him on the last day; you shake with fear because you know how sinful you are. That brings up another thing: sinfulness is the basis of fear. Without sin there would not be fear and this is why: If there was no sin what would we have to fear? Name one thing we could fear if sin is absent and I will take it back, but we would even have no reason to fear God if we did not have sin! Adam and Eve did not fear him until the fall, and then they ran away from him! They obeyed him, surely but it wasn't the same thing as fear. It doesn't take fear to obey: only respect. And in essence, they didn't obey him, which is why there is sin.

So now we know that there is such a thing as a terrifying goodness, now how is that concept betrayed in the Bible? It is conveyed in every encounter of a man with God. Moses feared the fiery bush, and yet as God is a good God, he is a terrifying goodness. And so is a fearful goodness limited only to that which is in the spiritual realm? (For sin is spiritual, and therefore the driving out of that want to sin, through that attack upon the body, punishment: it would in essence itself be spiritual as well) I would not venture to say so. Can we fear man, or any physical creation of God, and yet he, or it, be good? First we must answer the question, 'What is fear?' Fear is that internal guide or feeling that directs us not to do that which is bold. I know that is rather a bad definition of the word, but it will do. So, the answer to can man fear another physical substance not in the spiritual realm, and yet that thing be good, the answer is yes. Think of all the fighting tools that God used among men: Gideon, Samson, David, and so many others; but those three will do. Gideon: he took three hundred men and slaughtered three hundred thousand. I am sure that during or after that massacre people feared him. Samson: killed five hundred men with the jaw of a donkey; ripped and carried off the gates of Jerusalem! Think of the gates of Gondor in the movie Return of the King. That is about the same type of gate that barred the entrance to Jerusalem! We are told that people feared him! David: 'Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands' and he was yet a boy. He was a bloody man, and many armies turned tail and ran when they heard that he was coming. Now all three of these men were good men. 'Now the man Gideon loved God', 'David's heart was turned towards God', and 'Samson was a man of strong love for his God'. Although they all messed up some time or other, that is expected. They all had something in common: they were mere men, and men sin.

So, I have analyzed the questions, and maybe have gone over the top, but there you have it. I loved that book: it inspired new thought. I might just read it again....for the third time.

~CalebB