{"id":48162,"date":"2025-04-25T09:00:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T13:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.presbyterianfoundation.org\/?p=48162"},"modified":"2025-05-21T09:35:36","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T13:35:36","slug":"rev-dr-justin-reed-of-louisville-seminary-shares-old-testament-insights-on-the-leading-theologically-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/resources\/news\/rev-dr-justin-reed-of-louisville-seminary-shares-old-testament-insights-on-the-leading-theologically-podcast\/","title":{"rendered":"El Rev. Dr. Justin Reed, del Seminario de Louisville, comparte sus ideas sobre el Antiguo Testamento en el podcast \"Leading Theologically\"."},"content":{"rendered":"

The Book of Genesis has plenty to say about reconciliation and repair. Fortunately for listeners of the \u201cLeading Theologically\u201d podcast, the Rev. Dr. Justin Reed<\/a> joined podcast host the Rev. Bill Davis recently to share his insights on some of those frayed and fraught relationships, as well as the reconciliation that sometimes followed the conflict. Listen to their 40-minute conversation here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reed is Associate Professor of the Old Testament at Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary<\/a>. His teaching focuses on African American hermeneutics. His first book, \u201cThe Injustice of Noah\u2019s Curse,\u201d is forthcoming. Davis<\/a> is Senior Director of Theological Education Funds Development at the Presbyterian Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, the mixture of what\u2019s in Genesis is fascinating and relatable as a human and across cultures,\u201d Reed said. \u201cI read a story in Genesis and I can compare it to the beautiful and inspiring stories I know through different cultures. \u2026 It\u2019s really the stories that capture me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis asked Reed to start with what\u2019s often described as the first murder in history, the Cain and Abel story<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What a person brings to the table makes \u201ca big difference\u201d in how we read such stories, Reed said. Cain brings God an offering of fruit, Abel brings an offering from his flock, \u201cand people look at that difference with a high level of scrutiny and say, \u2018Cain did it wrong from the beginning,\u2019\u201d Reed said, adding he\u2019s \u201cnot bringing a desire to justify God\u2019s response to Cain\u2019s offering\u201d when reading and teaching this text. \u201cInstead, I\u2019m looking at how is this true of the human experience I see in the world. It\u2019s so relatable to see a story of two brothers and the divine favor that they receive is different.\u201d Siblings can grow up in the same household, and one is a gifted athlete while another is more cerebral. That\u2019s seen as divine favor.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo me, what\u2019s beautiful about this story is saying there is a difference in favor. That\u2019s a fact of life in the world we live in, and it\u2019s a fact of life in this story,\u201d Reed said. \u201cCain chose the wrong response. It\u2019s homicide, and that\u2019s wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s beautiful in the story is that when Cain tells God the punishment is too much for him to bear and that he fears for his own safety, God gives Cain \u201ca form of grace by saying, \u2018Cain, I know you\u2019re afraid somebody\u2019s going to harm you the same way you did to your brother,\u2019 and then God puts a sign of protection on Cain. \u2026 There is grace with the punishment. There\u2019s a care from God about that person\u2019s fears.\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s \u201cdifficult but important work as Christians to think about redemption for everybody, to think about the full humanity of people in spite of the worst that they\u2019ve done,\u201d and \u201chow we can work toward a society that has space for their redemption, a society where everyone is safe and at the same time you haven\u2019t abandoned, you haven\u2019t given up on someone who has done an extreme harm,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n

\"\"

The Rev. Bill Davis<\/em><\/p><\/div>\n

Then Davis moved to the Genesis account of other brothers in conflict, Jacob and Esau<\/a>. Even before the twins are born, God gives Rebekah an account of what is to be: \u201cTwo nations are in your womb, and two peoples born of you shall be divided; the one shall be stronger than the other; the elder shall serve the younger.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hebrew here is a bit ambiguous, Reed said. \u201cIs this a story about who\u2019s great, or who\u2019s older?\u201d he asked. Here we\u2019re \u201ctalking about a world that\u2019s set up where humans justify differences based on our understanding, our interpretation, our claims of where God\u2019s favor is.\u201d Rebekah\u2019s favorite is Jacob, and Isaac\u2019s is Esau. \u201cNow we have this transition,\u201d Reed noted, \u201cfrom God\u2019s differential favor to humans\u2019 differential favor.\u201d<\/p>\n

One thing Reed loves about Genesis is \u201cit doesn\u2019t say, \u2018the lesson is this,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cGenesis doesn\u2019t say, \u2018these are the virtues that are important for you to follow because of your ancestor Jacob.\u2019 \u2026 You listen to the story, you meditate on it, and it becomes part of the perspectives you have on the world around you.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he tells these stories to his young children, Reed calls Esau \u201cHairy Red\u201d and Jacob \u201cLittle Trick.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy four-year-old caught on quickly to the emotional draw, a hope for a fuller reconciliation,\u201d Reed said. What really got to the child was \u201cthat Jacob, in the aftermath of deceiving his brother, had to go into exile. The big hope that gripped my son is, \u2018Little Trick, Jacob \u2014 is he going to be back with his family again?\u2019\u201d Eventually there is reconciliation. But for the child, \u201cit can\u2019t be just Jacob and Esau. It has to be the whole family.\u201d Sure enough, Reed turned to Genesis 35<\/a> and found a brief mention of Jacob returning to Hebron to help Esau bury their father Isaac.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been there the whole time, but I never paid attention to it as the capstone of reconciliation\u00a0\u2014 to be there for the while family,\u201d Reed said. Thanks in part to his son\u2019s vision, \u201cit was a different layer to the reconciliation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Davis responded: \u201cThe way our children open scripture up for us with their curious insight is a gift that has helped me reconcile difficult texts.\u201d Davis and Reed then turned to a final Genesis story about siblings: Joseph and his brothers<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cReading these stories in order, they build anticipation and hope. You get an immediate setup [Joseph] is the dad\u2019s favorite, and we\u2019ve seen this before,\u201d Reed said. \u201cWe know it leads to inter-family conflict, and it could be deadly conflict. How\u2019s it going to pan out this time?\u201d It doesn\u2019t help when Joseph shares his dream \u201cabout everybody bowing down to him,\u201d Reed said. \u201cWe saw that jealousy well up in Cain.\u201d<\/p>\n

But \u201cthis one ends well<\/a>,\u201d Reed said. Joseph tells his brothers they intended what they did for evil, but God intended it for good. It\u2019s fascinating that in the midst of draught or other calamity, \u201cpeople have tried to make sense of trauma by pointing to God\u2019s will. There is something reassuring in the midst of horrible circumstances to believe it\u2019s part of the bigger plan, that God let this happen so that something great could happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, it can be unhealthy, dangerous, harmful and hurtful to have that theology. We have had people across history who embrace this as a way of having some degree of sanity in spite of what they\u2019re going through \u2014 and the opposite, people who condemn this type of thinking and say, no, that type of thinking lets people off the hook for injustices that we should be fighting against.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the responsibility wrestling with a text like this and plenty of other texts in the Bible should include that back and forth,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n

In thanking Reed for appearing on \u201cLeading Theologically,\u201d Davis said he hopes \u201cour listeners, who spend so many of their Sundays in pulpits \u2014 the next time these pericopes show up in the lectionary, that these conversations will be helpful and provide insight into how to approach these texts through this lens.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Book of Genesis has plenty to say about reconciliation and repair. Fortunately for listeners of the \u201cLeading Theologically\u201d podcast, the Rev. Dr. Justin Reed joined podcast host the Rev. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":48163,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[117],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48162"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48221,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48162\/revisions\/48221"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/presbyterianfoundation.louderstaging.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}