Luther's Work's Volume 6

LUTHER’S
WORKS

VOLUME 6

LECTURES ON GENESIS

Chapters 31–37

Marriage, the blessing of God

AELW 5: 363

"The rest of the populace is more wicked than even the heathen themselves. For most married people do not desire offspring. Indeed, they turn away from it and consider it better to live without children, because they are poor and do not have the means with which to support a house-hold. But this is especially true of those who are devoted to idleness and laziness and shun the sweat and the toil of marriage. But the purpose of marriage is not to have pleasure and to be idle but to procreate and bring up children, to support a household. This, of course, is a huge burden full of great cares and toils. But you have been created by God to be a husband or a wife and that you may learn to bear these troubles. Those who have no love for children are swine, stocks, and logs unworthy of being called men or women; for they despise the blessing of God, the Creator and Author of marriage."

Ask, Seek, Knock

AELW 5:360-361

"This is how we, too, should learn to ask and hope for help whenever there is misfortune and faith totters. For we have the promise of the Gospel; we have Baptism, absolution, etc., by which we have been instructed and strengthened. We have the command by which we are ordered to pray; we have the spirit of grace and of prayer. But as soon as we have begun to pray, our heart is troubled and complains that it is accomplishing nothing. Therefore one must learn that if you accomplish nothing by asking, you should add searching, that is, you should seek; if that, too, seems to be useless, and God conceals and hides Himself even more, add knocking, and do not cease until you storm the door by which He has been confined (cf. Matt. 7:7–8). For there is no doubt that our prayer is heard immediately after the first syllable has been uttered."

Cling Tightly to the Word of God

AELW 5:353-354

"But we should take hold of and firmly retain the Word, and we should bear in mind that we have been baptized, absolved, and taught by the Word of God. Therefore let us give thanks to God and be joyful. Whether heaven or the whole world crashes in ruins and, in addition, hits us on the head, we are nevertheless certain that our games and most wretched misfortunes have been adorned and crowned with divine glory and splendor, namely, with the Word of God. For this reason these histories are called sacred and are common to all men who have the Word of God and in whom God works, and does so with good pleasure, with His mercy, and with His grace. He does not deal in this way with Alexander, Scipio, Cicero, Hannibal, etc. Therefore we should rejoice and be grateful and happy to find rest in God’s good pleasure, and we should bear with equanimity whatever troubles confront us. And no matter how unimportant, servile, womanish, and full of wretchedness our works are, we should nevertheless add this title: THE WORD OF GOD, because of which everything we do becomes glorious and will remain forever, while, on the other hand, the histories of the world are eternally wretched."

Sola Scriptura

AELW 5:348

"...human nature does not want to be content with the usual doctrine and Word of the Gospel or to be satisfied with the sacraments which have been handed down through the Son of God and the apostles and have been propagated through their successors; but it demands something special. Then the devil comes and speaks with you. Therefore unless you will be able to reply: “This is what God’s Word says; you say things contrary to the Word. Get behind me, Satan! (cf. Matt. 16:23)” you will be overthrown immediately."

And again on allegory

AELW 5:347

"Consequently, I hate allegories. But if anyone wants to make use of them, let him see to it that he handles them with discretion. For first of all the historical sense must be sought. It gives us correct and solid instruction; it fights, defends, conquers, and builds. If this is genuine and pure, an allegory may be sought later, not a monastic allegory or one concerning the speculative life but one that is in agreement with the history and embraces the sacred matters pertaining to the holy cross, that is, the doctrine of the cross, of faith, of hope, of love, and of patience, not a monk who sits and speaks with Christ and boasts of visions and of having heard the voices of angels or the voice of Blessed Virgin Mary. For he sits in idleness without a cross and trial. Such a speculative life is cursed and damned."

Luther on allegory

AELW 5:345

"But I have often declared that I greatly abhor allegories and condemn the fondness for them. For the examples and the footsteps of the fathers frighten me. By means of their allegories they obscure doctrine and the edification of love, patience, and hope in God when by those speculations of their allegories they divert us from the doctrine and genuine meaning of the words. Jerome and Origen are especially devoted to this. Indeed, Augustine, too, would have been brought to do so had he not been withdrawn from it by his controversies and disputes with the heretics. But because I admired these men as very great theologians, I followed the same course at the outset. When I read the Bible, I did not follow the literal sense; but according to their example, I turned everything into allegories.

Accordingly, I urge students of theology to shun this kind of interpretation in the Holy Scriptures. For allegory is pernicious when it does not agree with the history, but especially when it takes the place of the history, from which the church is more correctly instructed about the wonderful administration of God in all stations of life, in the management of a household, in the state, and in the church. Inasmuch as such interpreters overlook these things in the histories, they necessarily transform everything into allegories and a different meaning. Thus in this example, because they do not see the counsels of God and His governance, which is hidden under this ordinary outward appearance of household management and marriage, they attach to it a foreign meaning concerning the contemplative and active life"

Luther and Nostradamus

Did Luther (like the alleged predictions of Nostradamus) in this text anticipate and name a combination of several groups of 21st century radicals? e.g., Eco-PETA-Manichaean's?

AELW 5:344

"In his Confessions Augustine reports that the Manichaeans inveighed against the very saintly patriarchs with the most virulent reproaches for having many wives and children. “When I was a Manichaean,” he says, “I derided them as completely lustful men. But you in turn, dear Manichaean, derided me when I devoted myself to your prodigious nonsense, so that when plucking an apple or a pear from a tree I believed that the tree wept.”

Ah Ha!

It is very interesting that in this paragraph, the word "change" and "kitchen" appear. Is this a veiled reference ( a la Da Vinci Code) to a conspiracy by the monks to cause division in the church by changing the authority over the church's kitchen? Can you read into this text that the rulers of the kitchen became the rulers of the church? ;-) (Please read this with an unveiled attempt at humor!)

AELW 5:342

"But God’s care and concern for us does not appear to be so great. Therefore one must learn, and accustom oneself to, that changing and alteration of things and men in the world. The heathen have learned in one way or another by experience that a servant is the master in the house and that the master is a servant. Indeed, the monks made the same complaint about their servants. For they had brothers whom they called lay brothers. To them the kitchen and domestic works were entrusted. But these also ruled over the others..."

It's good to be a peasant...

AELW 5:341-342

"God regulates the world in such a way that all things—those that are highest, those in the middle, and those that are lowest—serve Him. The highest things are the lowest, and the lowest are the highest. Therefore Duke Frederick, the Elector of Saxony, stated wisely and brilliantly to Staupitz that when he made a mental survey of the whole world and all ranks of men, it seemed to him that the peasants, who occupied the lowest place in the state, were the happiest, because they alone enjoy peace and true tranquility and are not tormented by the cares and dangers of the state. In summer they cultivate their fields; in winter they sit by the fire and enjoy their possessions. Although they lack royal magnificence, they nevertheless enjoy the greatest blessings, namely, tranquility and ease, and live more safely and happily within their own enclosure than kings and princes within their citadels or fortifications.

This is God’s wonderful governance or changing of things. For the things that seem to be lowest and most wretched are the greatest and most prosperous. Nothing in the world is more wretched than the church. Hence arise those complaints of the church: “Why hast Thou turned Thy face away? Why dost Thou forget me? I preach, I confess, I do and endure everything that God enjoins; but no one is more afflicted and forsaken than I am.” But then the Lord replies: “I do not forget you,” as is stated most sweetly in Is. 49:14–15: “But Zion said: ‘The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.’ Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should have no compassion on the sons of her womb? Even these may forget, yet will I not forget you.”"

I know I'm behind ;-) Catching up again...Interesting...

In Genesis 32 Jacob wrestles with God. In Genesis 30:8, the Hebrew text states, (literally) that Rachel, with wrestlings of God, I have wrestled with my sister and have prevailed. In Genesis 42, Jacob would struggle again, this time through deciding whether or not to withhold sending his son to Egypt in exchange for his starving families daily bread. Thank God that He did not withhold the sending of His only Jesus Christ so that we may be offered the Bread of eternal Life.

AELW 5:340
An interesting listing by Luther.

A table copied from Dr. Luther’s work on chronology which illustrates the historical sequence in an excellent manner 

	Leah bore		Rachel bore
	Reuben	1	0
	Simeon	2	0
	Levi	3	0
	Judah	4	0
	0	5	Dan
	0	6	Naphtali???	from Bilhah
	0	7	Joseph
	Gad	8	0
from Zilpah	??? Asher	9	0
	Issachar	10	0
	Zebulun	11	0
	Dinah	12	0
	0	13	0
			Benjamin