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When thou art in distress, and all these things are come upon thee, in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and art obedient to his voice; ( for the Lord thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, nor will he destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he swore to them.

Deuteronomy, 4:30-31.
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And God said to Avraham, As for Saray thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Saray, but Sara shall her name be. And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: and I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of peoples shall issue from her. Then Avraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born to him that is a hundred years old? and shall Sara, that is ninety years old, give birth? And Avraham said to God, O that Yishma'el might live before thee! And God said, Sara thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Yizhaq: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. And as for Yishmae'el I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceeedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation. But my covenant will I establish with Yizhaq, whom Sara shall bear to thee at this time next year.
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And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give to thee, and to thy seed after tee, the land in which thou dost sojourn, all the land of Kena'an, for an ever lasting possession; and I will be their God. And God said to Avraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every manchild among you shall be circumcised. And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant between me and you.

remember the covenant with Noah. at the time the Lord God set a token for himself, now he creates a reminder for every male descendant of Avraham, i.e. a self-replicating rule trigger.
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And when Avram was ninety nine years old, the Lord appeard to Avram, and said to him, I am the Almighty God; walk before me, and be perfect. And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly. And Avram fell on his face: and God talked with him, saying, As for me, behold, my covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be a father of many nations.

"be perfect", what a requirement! Why does the Lord keep offering his covenant? As if he's desperate for human followers capable of believing in him.
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And God spoke to Noah, and to his sons with him, saying, And behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you; and with every living creture that is with you, of the birds, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that came out of the ark, to every beast of the earth. And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth. And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: and I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living crature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.

clear transition from creation/synthesis to maintenance mode. it appears that, while Noah was travelling in his ark, God spent some time re-thinking the situation, and made some decisions wrt earth and living creatures. blood laws, covenant not to destroy, and a reminder (visible to himself and living creatures). the core notion here is the realization that the scale of the system requires an approach not based on direct intervention.

January 2023

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