TL:DR: The Genesis Question part forty-nine

Hi, Everybody!

So, two things:

1, the bizness:

The Jaka's Story remaster has a Starcode! APR191258 First month orders will be signed and numbered! Cue Your Friend and Mine, Sean Robinson:

This is just a reminder that you have until April 25th to order the SIGNED, REMASTERED, SELF-DRIVING JAKA'S STORY from your local comic shop!

Regarding that "signed and numbered" bit-- I've discussed it with Dave, and there's a slight change compared to how it was discussed before. Dave will be signing the ENTIRE print run of the book. If stores order X copies, and Diamond orders Y copies over the initial order of X, Dave will be signing X + Y copies total. But the catch is, we have no idea how many copies Diamond will "pad" the order by. So! If you want a signed and numbered copy, you still should proceed with GREAT HASTE to your comic shop and order a copy! But if you're a gambler, and you want to take a chance on it... you might be able to still pick up a signed copy from Diamond shortly after the street date for the book.

Secondly, we would love to have your help in selecting the image (or images) to use for the Jaka's Story bookplate! We'll be printing these on Avery labels. They're 3.5" x 5", and they will be signed by Dave and machine-numbered. Do you have a favorite image from the book, something that's somehow representative and also an attractive stand-alone image? Do you have a design concept? Well, we'd love to hear from you! Leave a message in the comments, or email us at cerebusarthunt at gmail.com. And I'll send the winner who selects the final image a special prize in the mail.

Thirdly (and lastly)—as I've been going over the book with a fine-toothed comb, I've been mulling over what to do about three of the five Jaka's Story pages sourced from newsprint instead of original art. And I've decided to give a shot to re-toning these three pages, that is, digitally removing the Cerebus tone and creating new tone to replace it.

Are you adept at Photoshop, and have a bit of time in the upcoming week? Would you like to "adopt" one of these three pages for your own? Would you liked to be thanked in the back of Jaka's Story? if the answer is "yes" to all three of these questions, please write to me as soon as possible at cerebusarthunt at gmail dot com!

Thanks for your eyeballs and your time, everyone! I hope you enjoy the book. It won't be long now...

Best,

Sean

__________________________________________________________

There's a special AMOC auction for the cover of Green Dante/Green Virgil. (Currently winning with $1277.00 US Dollars is: 高伯乐 (Gao BoLe))  

The remastered Volume 1 is available digitally for $9.99.

Greg Hyland is Kickstartering the second volume of the Monster Atlas, and if he gets another hundred and twenty-nine bucks CAD ($97 USD), it'll have Gerhard art like the first volume. It'll look a little something like this.

2, I ran out of pages from issue 289/290 to run in front of Dave's Genesis Question commentaries. Dave suggested I use Jewish, Christian or Muslim religious images. But then, Superman's Frenemy: David Birdsong sent in a bunch of (so far) unused Cerebus in Hell? images and now I'ma gonna run them. So:
____________________________________________________________________________

image by Doré, Sim & Birdsong

4 January 15

Hi Troy & Mia!

Mr. Ross' next citation is:  Psalms 85:11

Truth shall spring out of the earth: and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

It's certainly, in my view, a commendable hope -- in the "maybe someday" category.  It seems also to point to David as a conduit for both God and the YHWH, while, in my view (again), inclining towards the latter rather than the former. That seems very far from being useful as a citation of anything, in my opinion, though.

The Psalm itself is dedicated "to the chief musician, a Psalm [for/of] the sons of Korah"  which, to me, is something of an eyebrow-raiser.  Korah was the rebel figure who challenged Moshe's exclusive authority over the emigrating Hebrew people. 

(The rebellion is not an unexpected event in the context of the narrative, since Moshe himself is quoted as saying immediately prior to that that he would think it wonderful if ALL of the people were prophets and would prophesy.  You have to be careful what you enunciate and how you enunciate it when you're in the prophetic "catbird seat" as Moshe was.  Miriam and Aaron also appeared to take the enunciation a little too literally and needed to be "smacked down" by the YHWH as a result)

It raises my eyebrows because a Psalm "of" or "for" the sons of an individual who was literally devoured by the earth (that is, the YHWH) for his perfidy seems more than a little weird.  "Of" is one kind of weird:  the sons of Korah are communicating with us from their crushed-to-death demise within the earth through David?  "For" is a different kind of weird:  David, on his own initiative, has decided something needs to be said "for" Korah's sons at this late date? 

YHWH, thou hast been [favourable/well pleased] unto thy land:  thou hast brought back the captivity of Jacob.

This verse seems to me to point in the direction of the extreme ambiguity of the YHWH.  You can bring back the captivity of Jacob by freeing Jacob or you can bring the captivity of Jacob by imposing it.  The way it's phrased makes it irrefutable:  either or both being a source of the YHWH being either or both "favourable" and/or "well pleased".    

Thou hast forgiven the iniquity of thy people, thou hast covered all their sin. Selah.

I read the same contextual ambiguity here:  "thou hast covered all their sin" can be read as forgiving sin by covering it over, judgementally…

…OR as indicating the ubiquitous presence of the YHWH when it comes to sin (which, personally, I would infer):  the YHWH is the superstructure of all sin committed by the Hebrew people whether they're aware of it or not.  The "Selah" appearing at the end of the second verse suggests to me that these were two artful and poisonous assertions suggested to David by the YHWH which David then -- guilelessly and good-naturedly -- transcribed.  Not realizing that what he was doing was really taking the YHWH's side and indicting God (the relationship between Korah and Moshe being comparable to the relationship between the YHWH and God: rebellion expressing itself, contextually, in similar ways).

The first two verses, I read as being the twofold artful and poisonous YHWHistic expression.  Full stop.  Then with the next verse, the YHWH (as I read it) comments favourably upon his/her/its self and the ascribed actions:  bringing the captivity of Jacob and covering the Hebrew people's sin:

Thou hast taken away all thy wrath:  [thou hast turned from the fierceness of thine anger/thou hast turned thine anger from waxing hot]

Which (as I read it) is pure provocation directed at God, basically compounding the twofold artful and poisonous observations on the "captivity" and "covering sin" -- which I think need to be inferred negatively despite the ambiguous phrasing -- by adding to it the suggestion that (between the two) the YHWH is feeling pretty well self-satisfied and beneficent.  I mean, not really. It's the YHWH.  Self-satisfaction and beneficence are always just going to be cosmetic "outward shows of this life present".    

Turn us, O God of our salvation: and cause thine anger towards us to cease.

This, as I read it, raises the provocation of God to a higher level by suggesting that it is God and God's anger which is the cause of the Hebrew people's problems (the YHWH having "brought back the captivity of Jacob" and "covered all their sin") and that it is up to God to "turn us" -- the YHWH and the Hebrew people -- "and cause thine anger towards us to cease". 

Which strikes me as pure misconstruction and -- I would suggest -- a misconstruction which the YHWH was fully aware WAS a misconstruction.  The point isn't for God to turn ANYONE -- Moshe, Korah or the YHWH or you or me.  God has constructed our physically-incarnated context -- planet earth -- and facilitated its population and successive "replenishments" by a multiplicity of physical incarnations (birth, life, death) for the express purpose of allowing ALL spirit within that context the opportunity to incarnate, grow, evolve, develop and enact. 

Turn YOURSELF in whatever direction seems sensible to YOU whoever YOU are.  God is just one option among many.  Do you think something BESIDES God is a sensible choice?  Choose whatever that is.  And then live with the consequences.

Inferring "anger" from that just strikes me as "projection" of the worst and most delusional kind.  If you're a "rebel Korah" you're going to do that: basically rebel and then endeavour to externalize your rebellion and the consequence of your rebellion.  Basically blaming God and God's "anger" because you've made a stupid choice which has made you fundamentally and irretrievably unhappy.      

Wilt thou be angry with us for ever?  Wilt thou draw out thine anger to all generations?

Again, I don't think God is angry and that this is just -- failed -- YHWHistic provocation.  If you sincerely choose God and acknowledge His sovereignty you are going to experience tests and consequences.  My inference -- and my experience -- is that God isn't angry with you when He tests you or when you experience unanticipated consequences.  Tests, and passing tests, is a way of improving yourself.  He doesn't test you to find out what you will do.  He already knows what you will do.  He's omniscient. What His structure does, the context we all inhabit, is to present successive "forks in the road" -- one right and one wrong -- and then leave it up to us to choose, successively.  In many -- if not most -- instances of choosing, the appeal of both is carefully balanced and attuned to your own personal preferences.  One leads "Up" and one leads "Down".  You make enough "Up" choices and you go "Up".  If you make enough "Down" choices you end up "Down".  And the further "Down" you go the more likely you are to see God as being angry with you and everyone like you -- in perpetuity.     

Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?

Well, there WERE revival points in human history -- watershed moments like Jesus' ministry and Muhammad's prophethood -- which made God's salvation more immediately apparent to those in proximity.  But, as we know from the documentation of those times, that didn't mean a universal "Up" state.  People still chose and many people in direct proximity to the Johannine Jesus and the Synoptic Jesus still chose "Down" instead of "Up" -- and thought that they were making the best choice.  Not being fooled (as they would have seen it).

There are, I infer, built-in limits to God's structure.  I infer that there would be no point in stacking the deck in His favour.  Quite the contrary.  Sending a Jesus or a Muhammad to every neighbourhood in every city in every country in every generation (well within God's ability) might result in a more godly world but it really wouldn't prove anything worth proving.  All that is worth proving is that God's creation is good -- even, or, rather, especially -- when the choices are so carefully balanced between good and bad. 

I was just thinking today, before I read Psalm 85, "If half the population of the United States would, tomorrow, decide to fast, sunrise to sundown, and pray five times a day -- to God or YHWH or both if you really think both ARE God -- and give up alcohol and televised sports for two months, I'm pretty sure that an exponential improvement would result. A staggering exponential improvement from which there would be no going back." 

COULD it happen? 

Well, technically, sure.  We all have free will.  We can all do whatever we want for the next two months. 

WOULD it happen?  Well, no, not likely. 

On the other side of the equation, I could decide to stop fasting, stop praying, buy a widescreen TV and a full cable sports package and start drinking five beers a day for the next two months.  Is there anyone who really believes that would be an "Up" choice on my part?

But, the general population of North America, not having chosen fasting and prayer and NO sports and NO alcohol are (pretty much guaranteed) going to be stuck in the "Why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?" paradigm. 

My answer would be:  do you have another way of waking people up? 

I mean, given that MOST of us, at least intellectually, would agree that fasting and prayer are better choices than televised sports and alcohol, what do you do to get people with a "white-knuckle" grip on their TV remote and their booze to even CONSIDER letting go?  I mean, not FOREVER.  Two months.  HUMOUR God.  Even though you know so much better than He does what You. Absolutely. Need. In. Your. Life.  Give His way a two-month "benefit of the doubt". 

Two months from now, you don't feel revived, you still feel God is angry with you or angry with mankind in general.  You've just missed out on a lot of good NFL games and some drinks you badly needed after a trying day. 

BUT! What if there IS an exponential improvement?       

The Psalm concludes (as I read it) with the YHWH stacking the deck in his/her/its favour:  redemption comes only from the YHWH and pleading with the YHWH.  Only the YHWH can "show" mercy and "grant" salvation:

Show us thy mercy, O YHWH: and grant us thy salvation.

As I read it, God then replies through David:

I will hear what God the YHWH will speak: for He will speak peace unto His people, and to His saints: but let them not turn again to folly.

That, to me, is very basic God Thinking, based in irrefutable Reality.  "YHWH the God" or "God the YHWH", it's immaterial to God which term you want to use to express Him.  Your awareness of God, the irrefutable Him who created you and everything else is much deeper than the "name of things" part of you.  "He will speak peace unto His people".  He always did, he always does, through His scriptures.  He isn't angry.  He never is and He never will be.  You go too far in the wrong direction and you'll punish yourself.  You go far in the right direction and you'll reward yourself.  But you'll always face tests as long as you're alive.  "Let them not turn again to folly."  Don't blame God if you do "turn again to folly".  You know better.   

Surely His salvation nigh them that fear Him; that glory may dwell in our land.

Salvation is always "nigh".  It's always right next to you.  It's always the best on-going choice and it's always there, available, and ready to be chosen.  And then stuck with.  You know -- or, at least, suspect -- what "folly" is.  Turn away from it and don't turn back to it.  And make that your central policy. 

Mercy and truth are met: righteousness and peace have kissed.

It's a very good way of putting it.  However temporarily the YHWH had "turned from the fierceness of thine anger" -- and presumably it was quite temporary -- it, temporarily, put God and the YHWH on the same page. Mercy and truth ARE met. Not "mercy and truth HAVE met";  "ARE met".  As in: confronted head-on, a square-on meeting place.  For God, of course, mercy and truth are ALWAYS "met".  God's grace -- God's undeserved kindness -- in constructing the totality of creation in such a way to make everything so perfectly balanced that the only thing that can affect the balance of creation is individual choice enacted and acted upon bespeaks the implicit total integrity of mercy and truth and how they are "met". 

Righteousness and peace aren't fused together in a permanent union in the YHWH's context any more than two sets of lips are fused together in a permanent union in a kiss.  But the text implies that there has been, as with a kiss, an actual point of contact between righteousness and peace. The YHWH HAS been, in the words of the Psalmist, "[favourable/well pleased]" unto Israel.  Not in a covert or manipulative or ironic or artful or poisonous way but sincerely.  If there are more connotations of "Down" than "Up" in the subsequent sentiments expressed, well, only God knows the genuine extent of any of His creations' sincerity.  And here He appears to acknowledge the YHWH's sincerity. 

Truth shall spring out of the earth: and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

It strikes me, as I said, as a commendable hope in a "maybe someday" context.  That is, I don't think truth will "spring out of the earth" overnight.  I think the YHWH is -- like mankind in general -- too far into the mindset of "why does God allow bad things to happen to good people?" to make any more than…fitful…progress.  That's really the essence of the core folly:  making progress and then…turning back to folly.  Either the same folly or a new folly.  In the YHWH's case, can the YHWH let go of the folly of thinking the YHWH to BE God?  My guess would be:  intermittently and anecdotally, "yes".   Generally, over the short term and for the immediate future?  My guess would be: "no". 

But, over the LONG term, God seems pretty definitive on the subject as expressed by David:    

Yea, the YHWH shall give that which is good: and our land shall yield her increase.

Righteousness shall go before him  and shall set in the way of his steps.

Next week:  Psalms 97 (God willing).

Best,

Dave

____________________________________________________________________________
Next Time: You guys got your Taxes done yet?