Monday, January 5, 2015

Battlestar Galactica Bible Study Week: 11



Season 3- Episode: “Crossroads Part 1”
Genesis 37:1-11
Jacob lived in the land where his father had stayed, the land of Canaan.
This is the account of Jacob’s family line.
Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them.
Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.
Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”
His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.
Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”
10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” 11 His brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Isaiah 30:8-21
Go now, write it on a tablet for them,
    inscribe it on a scroll,
that for the days to come
    it may be an everlasting witness.
For these are rebellious people, deceitful children,
    children unwilling to listen to the Lord’s instruction.
10 They say to the seers,
    “See no more visions!”
and to the prophets,
    “Give us no more visions of what is right!
Tell us pleasant things,
    prophesy illusions.
11 Leave this way,
    get off this path,
and stop confronting us
    with the Holy One of Israel!”
12 Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says:
“Because you have rejected this message,
    relied on oppression
    and depended on deceit,
13 this sin will become for you
    like a high wall, cracked and bulging,
    that collapses suddenly, in an instant.
14 It will break in pieces like pottery,
    shattered so mercilessly
that among its pieces not a fragment will be found
    for taking coals from a hearth
    or scooping water out of a cistern.”
15 This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says:
“In repentance and rest is your salvation,
    in quietness and trust is your strength,
    but you would have none of it.
16 You said, ‘No, we will flee on horses.’
    Therefore you will flee!
You said, ‘We will ride off on swift horses.’
    Therefore your pursuers will be swift!
17 A thousand will flee
    at the threat of one;
at the threat of five
    you will all flee away,
till you are left
    like a flagstaff on a mountaintop,
    like a banner on a hill.”
18 Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
    therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
    Blessed are all who wait for him!
19 People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. 20 Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. 21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

Compare and contrast the two Bible passages with each other. Reflect on them in light of the episode.

What is the substance of Laura’s dream?

What is the substance of Joseph’s dream?

What would it be like to hear music like Saul and the others do?

What do you think it would be like to be a prophet, hearing the voice of God when no one else can?

Reflect on this quote: “you really want me to put Laura Roselin on the stand to testify about her drug-induced visions?”

How do the people see Isaiah’s visions?

How have Gaius’ writings affected people?

What is the significance of the Nebula they are all travelling to?

What is Earth for these people?

Why did Tori respond to the questions for Laura as she did?

Reflect on the conversation about ‘the weather changing.’

How did Isaiah portend ‘the weather changing’?


Mark 7:24-30
 Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. 25 In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an impure spirit came and fell at his feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
27 “First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”
28 “Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”
29 Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”
30 She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Reflect on the Bible passage in light of the film.

What do you think of the request to have Gaius bless her child?

What do you think of Jesus’ response to a request for healing in the Mark passage?

What does it say that Gaius describes the woman and others like her as ‘crazy’?

What does it say that Jesus saw the woman as a ‘dog’?

Reflect on this quote: “I saw a woman in pain, a woman who can see you even more clearly than you can see yourself.”

How might have the syrophoenician woman affected Jesus? How did she ‘see Jesus more clearly’ than He saw Himself?

Ecclesiastes 4:1-8
 Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun:
I saw the tears of the oppressed—
    and they have no comforter;
power was on the side of their oppressors—
    and they have no comforter.
And I declared that the dead,
    who had already died,
are happier than the living,
    who are still alive.
But better than both
    is the one who has never been born,
who has not seen the evil
    that is done under the sun.
And I saw that all toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the wind.
Fools fold their hands
    and ruin themselves.
Better one handful with tranquillity
    than two handfuls with toil
    and chasing after the wind.
Again I saw something meaningless under the sun:
There was a man all alone;
    he had neither son nor brother.
There was no end to his toil,
    yet his eyes were not content with his wealth.
“For whom am I toiling,” he asked,
    “and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?”
This too is meaningless—
    a miserable business!

Reflect on the Bible passage in light of the episode.

What do you think of Lee’s decision to defend Gaius?

Do you think Gaius deserves to be on trial? Why or why not?

Reflect on this questions: “how do we measure loss?”

How does Ecclesiastes ‘measure loss’?

What do you think of the prosecutor’s opening statement?

What do you think of the defense’s opening statement?

Reflect on both statements in light of the Ecclesiastes passage.

What do you think of Lee using Laura’s use of cammala to discredit her?

How was Gaius ‘a man all alone’ on New Caprica?

Does Dee have right to leave Lee over what he did in court? Why or why not?

Is Dee right about ‘the system’? Why or why not?

How does Ecclesiastes see ‘the system’?

Micah 7:5-6
Do not trust a neighbor;
    put no confidence in a friend.
Even with the woman who lies in your embrace
    guard the words of your lips.
For a son dishonors his father,
    a daughter rises up against her mother,
a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law—
    a man’s enemies are the members of his own household.

Reflect on the Bible passage in light of the episode.

What do you think of the conversation regarding Caprica Six and Sharon’s daughter Hera?

What do you think of the fact that Caprica Six has the same kinds of visions as Gaius?

Reflect on this quote: “he’s just using you to exorcise his own pain.”

Reflect on this quote: “you humans always destroy the ones that love you, don’t you?”…in light of the Micah passae.

Does Caprica Six use the information the vision gave her wisely? Why or why not?

What is the real reason why the vision had Caprica Six push Saul in this way?

What is the real reason why Saul hates Gaius?

Does Saul have a right to blame Gaius for what happened to Ellen?

How did Saul and his wife exemplify Micah 7?

What do you think of the Admiral attacking his son as a ‘coward’?

Reflect on their conflict in light of the Micah passage.



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