In God We Rest

720 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Genesis interpretive essay

George Herbert’s “The Pulley” describes how God first created man. Herbert writes with first hand experience to the glory of God and the expectation that God has for humanity. He shows the reader that God has blessed man with all the world’s riches, but has decided to withhold his final blessings of rest to ensure man’s return to him for peace and comfort. Humanity is not the ready for all of God’s gifts because overindulgence can lead to a lack of appreciation for the many gifts that they already possess. Many cultures have their own version of the creation story; Herbert introduces the reader to the Christian viewpoint of how God made man. The poem begins with the creation of man, God “formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). Herbert describes God’s intentions to provide for humanity by saying, ”Let us (said He) pour on him all we can:” (Line 3). Humanity was given all the bounty that the earth had to offer, but he has a time line in mind as stated in, “Let the world’s riches, which dispersed lie, Contract into a span” (4-5). God’s nature is to provide for his creation, so we are never have to worry about what we are to eat or how we are going to be clothed. We are only to look at the lilies of the field and how they grow to find the proof that his gifts are abound. It is hard to imagine that humanity would not be appreciative of any gift that comes from above because they are gifts of love, which should be reciprocal with worship and thanksgiving. God showered man with gifts of strength, beauty, wisdom, honor, and pleasure; all attributes that should be used to build humanity up morally and spiritually (6). However, God knows that man is not perfect, and “spotting a flaw in his original plan and making that an occasion for a new, more original creation” (Brisman 24). Herbert poem is much like a sermon of the life of Adam and Eve. God dispersed the world’s riches on them, yet they disobeyed God and tasted the fruit from the tree of knowledge.

Show More
Related

  • Food as Symbol and Symbolism in Toni Morrison’s Beloved

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    These two passages rely on the retelling of stories from the Bible – the story of the Fall from Grace in the Garden of Eden in the Old Testament and the story of Jesus’ feeding of the hungry with an endless supply of loaves and fishes in the New Testament. In these passages of Beloved, Morrison relocates the reader to the true beginning of the story, the day that Sethe tries to kill her children. In addition, the passage alludes to the eating of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden and the overindulgence is analogous to the parable of the Loaves and Fishes.

    Read More

  • Analysis: Edward Taylor's Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children, and Upon A Wasp Chilled With Cold

    1139 Words  | 3 Pages

    Edward Taylor’s Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children and Upon a Wasp Chilled with Cold are similar in their approach with the illustration of how beautiful and magnificent God’s creations are to humankind. However, each poem presents tragic misfortune, such as the death of his own children in Upon Wedlock, and Death of Children and the cold, enigmatic nature of human soul in Upon a Wasp Chilled with Cold. Taylor’s poems create an element of how cruel reality can be, as well as manifest an errant correlation between earthly life and spiritual salvation, which is how you react to the problems you face on earth determines the salvation that God has in store for you.

    Read More

  • Stephen R. Covey: The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People

    1086 Words  | 3 Pages

    God did not provide Spiritual Gifts for us so we could revel in having them but rather, so we could delight in utilizing them

    Read More

  • God's Forgiveness in Taylor's Meditation 42

    848 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Edward Taylor's "Meditation 42," the speaker employs a tone of both desire and anxiousness in order to convey the overall idea that man's sinful nature and spiritual unworthiness require God's grace and forgiveness to gain entrance to the kingdom of heaven.

    Read More

  • Compare Antigone And The Bible

    762 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is easy to place the blame on fate or God when one is encumbered by suffering. It is much harder to find meaning in that pain, and harvest it into motivation to move forward and grow from the grief. It is imperative for one to understand one’s suffering as a gateway to new wisdom and development; for without suffering, people cannot find true value in happiness nor can they find actual meaning to their lives. In both Antigone and The Holy Bible there are a plethora of instances that give light to the quintessential role suffering plays in defining life across cultures. The Holy Bible and Sophocles’ Antigone both mirror the dichotomous reality in which society is situated, underlining the necessity of both joy and suffering in the world.

    Read More

  • Characteristics Of Marvel In 'Yet Do I Marvel'

    1269 Words  | 3 Pages

    God and the suffering He seems to allow is the paradoxical question posed since the start of religion. Philosophy and literature alike have long struggled with the issue, and poet Countee Cullen takes yet another crack at it in the poem “Yet Do I Marvel”. Cullen uses rhyme, classical allusion, and Shakespearean sonnet form in “Yet Do I Marvel” to exhibit God’s paradoxical nature and purpose the true marvel is in the miracles of life.

    Read More

  • An Analysis of Matt Ridley’s The Origins of Virtue

    968 Words  | 2 Pages

    Inwardly examining his own nature, man would prefer to see himself as a virtuously courageous being designed in the image of a divine supernatural force. Not to say that the true nature of man is a complete beast, he does posses, like many other creatures admirable traits. As author Matt Ridley examines the nature of man in his work The Origins of Virtue, both the selfish and altruistic sides of man are explored. Upon making an honest and accurate assessment of his character, it seems evident that man is not such a creature divinely set apart from the trappings of selfishness and immorality. Rather than put man at either extreme it seems more accurate to describe man as a creature whose tendency is to look out for himself first, as a means of survival.

    Read More

  • Jesus: The First Anarchist

    844 Words  | 2 Pages

    many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!" But God

    Read More

  • Jews and the Passion

    1468 Words  | 3 Pages

    The fall of mankind with Adam and Eve caused an imbalance in the relations between God and mankind. To achieve salvation, this inequity had ...

    Read More

  • Our Insecurity and the Human Predicament

    1409 Words  | 3 Pages

    Before this class my initial stance on the human predicament was the abuse of power by exploiting others to gain more power, but based on our course readings, and my own reflection, I have learned that this is not entirely the case. Now I believe that the basic human predicament is that we are insecure with our being as individuals because of social standards that have taught us it is right to exploit others for our own benefit. To resolve this issue, we need to take time to reflect, ask questions, and trust in God. When we take these steps, God will empower us to gradually learn to exhibit a “self-forgetting love” as Karl Rahner contends, and taking us closer to social justice and confidence with our purpose in life. To support my claim, I will mainly draw on three theologians who share a similar perspective on our predicament.

    Read More

  • Frankenstein Vs. God

    1804 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...ies of a good creator such as God, who provides us with these necessities daily. From this, it is clear to see that humans have only the talents that God gives us, and one should never try to outsmart Him. It is inevitable to see that God is in control of the circle of life and no one should try and disturb that process.

    Read More

  • Dylan Thomas

    1409 Words  | 3 Pages

    Despite Dylan Thomas’ often obscure images, he expresses a clear message of religious devotion in many of his poems. He creates images that reflect God’s connection with the earth and body. In “And death shall have no dominion,'; Thomas portrays the redemption of the soul in death, and the soul’s liberation into harmony with nature and God. Thomas best depicts his beliefs, though abstract and complicated, to the reader with the use of analogies and images of God’s presence in nature. Appreciating the virtue of humility in “Shall gods be said to thump the clouds,'; Thomas associates God with thunder, rainbows, and night only to remind us that He is even more present in a simple stone as He is in other great entities. In “The force that through the green fuse drives the flower,'; Thomas again makes the connection of body and earth, implying that there is only one holy force that has created all motion and life on this planet. This force, because it is so pure and boundless, is present in the shadows and poverty of our world, as depicted in “Light breaks where no sun shines.'; God’s sacred presence in the body and earth is the ultimate theme within these chosen poems.

    Read More

  • The Doctrine of Salvation

    1998 Words  | 4 Pages

    Class notes. Man’s Desperate Need of Righteousness and God’s Glorious Provision of Righteousness. Faith Christian University. Orlando, Florida. August 2011.

    Read More

  • Do the Gods Love Humanity?

    1464 Words  | 3 Pages

    Humans tend to believe that their gods love them, that they were created in the image of their gods to be inheritors, to one day join them in immortality, or even just as children who are loved and cared for. However, when examining the texts of ancient civilizations that offer stories about god to human interaction, it becomes questionable whether or not the gods actually had any sort or regard for humans other than as a pet or a servant. Assuming that the human interpretation of actions of the gods is factual, events such as Creation and the Flood- constants found in nearly every civilization- become advocates that humans do not hold the favor of the gods, and even heroes found in Ancient Mesopotamian myths can be thrown aside without regret. While Humans may hope to be cared for by their lords, the opposite may in fact be the truth. This essay will examine the myth of Creation and the myth of the flood in multiple societies, as well as Mesopotamian prayers and myths about human-god interaction such as How Adapa Lost Immortality, as well as Aqhat to determine whether or not the gods really do care about humans.

    Read More

  • Comparison of the Use of Nature by Shelley and Wordsworth

    1194 Words  | 3 Pages

    He is writing the poem as if he were an object of the earth, and what it is like to once live and then die only to be reborn. On the other hand, Wordsworth takes images of meadows, fields, and birds and uses them to show what gives him life. Life being whatever a person needs to move on, and without those objects, they can't have life. Wordsworth does not compare himself to these things like Shelley, but instead uses them as an example of how he feels about the stages of living. Starting from an infant to a young boy into a man, a man who knows death is coming and can do nothing about it because it's part of life.

    Read More

More about In God We Rest

Open Document