The Scroll of Jacob
Chapter 1
Jacob, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.
This is not groundbreaking news to biblical scholars and philologers, but James is a mistranslation of Jacob. And Jacob, the heel-hooker, is of infinitesimally more literary value than James. He was renamed Israel, he who plays jujitsu with God, after playing submission grappling with a messenger of God, and refusing to let go of the submission-hold, unless he received a blessing (Genesis 32:22-32).
It is not that these are the same Jacobs, but that there are no accidents in scripture, and we should at least be familiar with the namesake of this letter’s author. This New Testament Jacob pertains to God and the Lord Jesus the Anointed. And he writes to the Jewish/Israelite diaspora. In the strictest sense, a diaspora is a people scattered and dispersed so that there are more abroad than in the homeland. Loosely speaking, many immigrant groups call themselves diasporic even when they have 10x or more the population in the homeland. For reference, there cannot be 10 million Ethiopians outside of Ethiopia, and in Ethiopia there are over 100 million Ethiopians. Jews, Palestinians, Assyrians, Armenians, and Kurds have arguments.
In any event, our homeland is no earthly place, rather the zion that is above.
My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into diverse temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
Do not just randomly rejoice when situations do not go your way. Rejoice in whatever calamities befall you because of the gospel. If you are feeding the homeless and a bumbling bureaucrat asks you for your food permit, rejoice.
If you are an Amharic speaker and teacher born in the diaspora, and yet native-born Amharic speakers chastise you for sharing the gospel in English rather than Amharic, rejoice. Practice patience that will edge you toward the perfection of God who is perfectly perfect. And ask him for help. This help is an invisible gift more precious than any visible gift you have ever received.
Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he is exalted: But the rich, in that he is made low: because as the flower of the grass he shall pass away. For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways.
Earthly wealth flaunted by the rich and powerful are as fragile as a flower.
MTV Cribs (2000-2010) was a show around when I was coming up where these types would put on display, for your viewing pleasure, the limits of ostentatious living. We learn form Ecclesiastes’ preacher that their fate will be no different than that of every embodied being, besides my namesakes Enoch and Elias. The yutes tell me TikTok has a trend of influencers doing something analogous, in a decentralized fashion.
Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.
People seek after the complementary crowns of In-n-Out and Burger King. They seek out birthday and quinceañera tiaras. They would blush and gush at an invitation from their presidential candidate of choice, let alone if they themselves got the glory. Instead, we should seek after the crowns of the ምሥጢረ ተክሊል (misTeere tekleel)—mystery of matrimony ceremony— which are but a shadow of what is to come; the crown of life received from God after enduring calamities for his sake. The crown of the martyrs, confessors, righteous, and saints.
In C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Letters, we learn that the devils and the demons cannot directly harm us; only indirectly by making suggestions that align with our own deep desires. God does not tempt us. He cannot. And will not.
Every gift that we are given is bestowed to us by God. Therefore, let us give him thanks, as we lead our lives and lead the rest of creation as his stewards. Conservationists like the good folks at Ducks Unlimited understand this mission well. I used to have spectacles under their brand.
Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God.
Americans, beware the legacy of the Hatfields and the McCoys ( real-life Montagues and Capulets). They brought Old World style an eye for an eye justice to our shores. Ethiopians, beware the legacy of the dem’melash (returner of blood; avenger). Whole bloodlines have been wasted due to our pride; the desire to get the final lick and last laugh here on Earth. God is avenger. Trust him to do his job.
And this begins with active listening. Listen actively to those you perceive to be your enemies. You may learn something. And so may they.
Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Hearing the word of life is level one. Most people do not make it to level two. Level two is doing the word of life. This looks like not utilizing the full repertoire of our wit and access to the lexicon in verbally dressing down our loved ones and strangers on the internet. Second, to take care of the poor. We have no religion, let alone orthodoxy (the right opinion), or Orthodoxy, if we cannot control our tongue and neglect the needy.