Adam would have to till the ground and his crop would be thorns and thistles.“To the woman he said: I will intensify your toil in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children. Yet your urge shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” Gen. 3:16
Our present actions have future consequences. Sacrifice in the Solomon’s Temple was the ritual acting out of a future that could be attained by giving up something in the present.Cursed is the ground because of you. In toil you shall eat its yield all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bear for you, and you shall eat the grass of the field. By the sweat of your brow you shall eat bread, until you return to the ground, from which you were taken; For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” Gen. 3:17-19
Amos complained that the people of Israel couldn’t wait to get the Temple sacrifice out of the way in order to cheat and to make money. When they returned to their work, they rigged the scales, sold bad produce and abused those most in need. The poor always have less options than the well-off. For Amos, 2,800 years ago, the ethical and the religious sacrifice were intricately connected.Hear this, you who trample upon the needy and destroy the poor of the land! "When will the new moon be over," you ask, "that we may sell our grain, and the sabbath, that we may display the wheat? We will diminish the ephah ( a unit of measurement), add to the shekel ( currency), and fix our scales for cheating! We will buy the lowly for silver, and the poor for a pair of sandals; even the refuse of the wheat we will sell!" The LORD has sworn by the pride of Jacob: Never will I forget a thing they have done!” Am. 8:4-7
Dr. Peterson's best seller, "12 Rules for Life" is a combination of stoic philosophy and Jungian psychology. I think it is a thoughtful book that is respectful of Christianity. I think it also demonstrates that others from outside the Church also see the disarray of modern culture and the value of traditional patterns of life. Well worth the read. Fr. John“Recall, if you will, that the necessity for work is one of the curses placed by God upon Adam and his descendants in consequence of Original Sin. Adam’s waking to the fundamental constraints of his Being—his vulnerability, his eventual death—is equivalent to his discovery of the future. The future: that’s where you go to die (hopefully, not too soon). Your demise might be staved off through work; through thesacrifice of the now to gain benefit later. It is for this reason—among others, no doubt—that the concept of sacrifice is introduced in the Biblical chapter immediately following the drama of the Fall. There is little difference between sacrifice and work. They are also both uniquely human. Sometimes, animals act as if they are working, but they are really only following the dictates of their nature. Beavers build dams. They do so because they are beavers, and beavers build dams. They don’t think, “Yeah, but I’d rather be on a beach in Mexico with my girlfriend,” while they’re doing it.” Peterson, Jordan B.. 12 Rules for Life (p. 161). Random House of Canada. Kindle Edition.