Time for a New Operating System?—Part Two

Silly me! When I originally tried to save this blog title, my computer told me I already had a blog with that title, written last year. I had totally forgotten. But the topic still fascinates me, so here is Part Two with some additional thoughts.
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The Book of Jeremiah turns out to be the third longest book in the Bible by chapters, both Testaments included. Weighing in with 52 chapters, it is exceeded only by Psalms with 150 and Isaiah with 66. Jeremiah’s many prophecies are generally warnings from Jehovah that “He” is about to organize the destruction of this country or that, this tribe or that, for their having done something execrable in God’s sight. Although a singular universal deity, the Creator of all and everything, the Almighty is reported in the Judeo-Christian Holy Book as acting like a tribal deity who favors “His people,” Israel. How human to play favorites!

An exception to these jeremiads is the passage in Jeremiah 31:31-34, where the Prophet reports that in a future time God will stop giving rules and regulations—there are 613 in Orthodox Judaism—because that approach in the Divine opinion never really worked. Instead, he will write the guiding laws on all human hearts—in effect, download a whole new operating system, to use current computer terminology. Then, as Jeremiah continues, humankind will not need to be taught ethical behavior since it will be the only way they can behave.

To look at human social evolution, one might argue that, in simplified terms, we have privileged first the body, then the heart, and from the Renaissance and especially the dawn of the Age of Reason on, the intellect. All these important changes in human priorities might be considered updates. However, having universal laws of positive behavior written on every human heart is a difference in kind, not degree. It is in effect the undoing of Adam and Eve’s fall from Grace and exile from Eden. In Adam’s Fall we may have sinnèd all, per the old Puritan reader; but through Divine surgery we will be collectively restored to Grace and truly given a new start. Too bad our Hebrew deity didn’t think of doing this operation right away. It would have saved a lot of grief and hassle in human history. Apparently, no one is perfect, not even this very limited and all-too-human version of Almighty God.

Anyway, I take hope from Jeremiah when he reports that what he heard from God was that “the days are surely coming” when this Divine surgery will take place. With each passing day in 2025 C.E., the need for the operation seems more acute than ever. May it happen soon, before it’s too late.

​Amen.

The Prophet Jeremiah passing on one of his divine receivings.