Sunday school did me a disservice. I went to Sunday school for roughly 15 years and learned all sorts of stories from the Bible. But here's the thing - it was mostly a bunch of crap. Ok, maybe that a bit harsh. It was all whitewashed. While that makes sense for when you're young, it seems to me that at some point they should let you in on the harsh realities of the Bible. Maybe then you'd be more prepared for the harsh realities of life.
A prime example of this whitewashing is David. Both 1 Samuel and 2 Samuel are basically about David. I've always thought of David as being a good and righteous man. As a young, scrawny kid he was victorious over the mighty Goliath, who's name is now synonymous with huge, with just a slingshot. We were taught that this was possible because God had chosen him to be great. We then see that because God was with David, he was able to defeat the Amalekites, Philistines, Moabites, Arameans and Edomites, and probably a bunch of other people that I missed. God assures David that his name will be made great.
But guess what? Turns out David is just another flawed, messed up person. He saw a woman he thought was a hottie, slept with her, got her pregnant and then decided he needed to fix his "situation" by trying to get hottie's husband to come back from the war for a conjugal visit. When hottie's husband refused, David basically kills the poor guy and takes his wife for himself. He orders that Uriah be in the front line of a battle where the fighting is fiercest, pretty much sealing his fate. God is not happy with David. But God is still with him. He protects David from Saul, who tries to kill him many, many times in many, many places.
The story of David is disappointing. I thought he was a "good guy," and maybe he mostly was. But he made a pretty big mistake. I wished I would have been taught the good and the bad about this guy. We go through life learning about "heroes" - whether they are the people in the Bible or people from history. But we only learn the good things about these people. We learn Moses led his people out of Egypt but we don't learn he ticked God off enough that he didn't get to the promised land with them. We learn FDR was the architect of the New Deal but we don't learn he had a mistress, kept her near him when he was in the White House and made his wife live near her. We learn that JFK helped the US avoid a nuclear crisis but we don't learn how many girlfriends he had while he was married. We learn David defeated Goliath but we don't learn he kills a guy for practically no reason. When we only learn the good things about people, we're being conditioned to admire them. A lot of times these people aren't worthy of being admired.
I admit that I have high expectations of people. I want them to make good decisions. I want them to good to the people in their lives. I want them to be responsible and sensitive to the needs of others. And I'm almost always disappointed.
So even though I was disappointed in David when I finally learned the whole truth about him, maybe it's actually a good thing. Stories like this show us that people are flawed, even the ones that God chooses. This is a lesson I could stand to learn. Just because people make a mistake or don't behave as you'd like them to, it doesn't mean they aren't good people. If God can still love them, the least I can do is try to do the same.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Fighting
I think I'm probably missing the deeper meaning of a lot of what I'm reading. Part of that is due to me and part of that is due to the reading plan - reading the entire Bible in 90 days is quite aggressive and doesn't leave time for much reflection. Whatever the reason, I basically see a lot of the same thing throughout Joshua, Judges, Ruth and 1 Samuel. Here's where we are: the Israelites finally reach the promised land. Once they get there they have to kick the former inhabitants out - which means a lot of fighting a lot of people. In between various wars and attacks, the chosen people resume their evil ways by worshiping idols or not completely destroying their plunder. Then they cry out to the Lord and are forgiven and the whole cycle starts over again. How's that for a Cliff's Notes version of 3 books of the Bible?
At this point I've finished 20 days of reading (I'm 3 days ahead!) and I hate to admit it, but I resent the amount of time this is taking. How selfish is that? I only have to read 12 pages a day, and yes, that takes about 45 minutes to read, but it's only 45 minutes a day. But resent it I do. I'd rather go out with my friends, get in a decent workout, or work through lunch to get more stuff done. Heck, some days I find that watching something on TV is more of a priority. I have to force myself stop and think about all that God has given me and when I think that spending 45 minutes a day with the Scriptures is an imposition, I am ashamed. Not normally ashamed enough to have a different attitude, however. In that respect, how different am I from the Israelites who can't seem to learn from their mistakes?
With all the differences that exist between my life and that of the people I'm reading about, and though my battles aren't with neighboring people but within myself, I'm a lot more like the Israelites than I originally thought. We're both still fighting.
At this point I've finished 20 days of reading (I'm 3 days ahead!) and I hate to admit it, but I resent the amount of time this is taking. How selfish is that? I only have to read 12 pages a day, and yes, that takes about 45 minutes to read, but it's only 45 minutes a day. But resent it I do. I'd rather go out with my friends, get in a decent workout, or work through lunch to get more stuff done. Heck, some days I find that watching something on TV is more of a priority. I have to force myself stop and think about all that God has given me and when I think that spending 45 minutes a day with the Scriptures is an imposition, I am ashamed. Not normally ashamed enough to have a different attitude, however. In that respect, how different am I from the Israelites who can't seem to learn from their mistakes?
With all the differences that exist between my life and that of the people I'm reading about, and though my battles aren't with neighboring people but within myself, I'm a lot more like the Israelites than I originally thought. We're both still fighting.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Listen to Me One More Time
Here's how I see the book of Deuteronomy - it's basically a final set of instructions from Moses to the chosen people. It comes across very similar to a scene of parents dropping their child off at college and reminding them of everything they've been taught the previous 18 years. Moses is not telling his people anything new. He knows his time is limited. He won't go into the promised land. The closest thing the poor guy gets is to go up to the top of Mt. Pisgah and look at it from afar. But before his people can go on without him, Moses needs to remind them of all the things they've been instructed to do, and not to do. He even repeats the 10 Commandments.
I can almost feel Moses' urgency in giving these final lessons. With the benefit of hindsight, I know these people are not going to uphold their end of the deal with God. Does Moses know this too? It seems like it. He desperately wants his people to keep their covenant with God. They won't.
After giving the people one last reminder that their future is up to them, Moses sanctions Joshua to take his place, blesses the tribes, sends them on their way to complete the task started 40 years earlier, and dies on Mt. Nebo.
Why are lessons so hard to learn? Why do we struggle to do the right thing? It's easy for me to read these books and look down my nose on these people that seem to be very slow learners. But 3400 years later, have we learned anything?
I can almost feel Moses' urgency in giving these final lessons. With the benefit of hindsight, I know these people are not going to uphold their end of the deal with God. Does Moses know this too? It seems like it. He desperately wants his people to keep their covenant with God. They won't.
After giving the people one last reminder that their future is up to them, Moses sanctions Joshua to take his place, blesses the tribes, sends them on their way to complete the task started 40 years earlier, and dies on Mt. Nebo.
Why are lessons so hard to learn? Why do we struggle to do the right thing? It's easy for me to read these books and look down my nose on these people that seem to be very slow learners. But 3400 years later, have we learned anything?
Count 'Em...Now Count 'Em Again
Fresh off of the dry book of Leviticus, we find ourselves in Numbers and to my great disappointment, things don't get any more interesting any time soon. The first half of Numbers describes the census. We get counts of the descendants of the 12 tribes of Israel - how many men "twenty years old or more who were able to serve in the army." Guess what? There were a lot of them. A Lot. 603, 550 to be exact. Then we learn where all 603,550 of these people had their tribal camps. Keep in mind, we're still wandering in the desert. These are not their permanent homes, yet we get a full description of where each tribe camps in relation to the other tribes. Riveting stuff. Then we get descriptions of what each tribe is to carry as they continue to wander the desert. And then we take a census of how many men are in certain tribes. The author throws in a chapter about how to tell if a wife has been unfaithful and then we count some more people. And then, THEN, we get to see what each tribe brings as an offering to God. That goes on for 3 pages. The only thing that was of much significance to me in the first half of this book was the introduction of the priestly blessing. It is one that is used to this day in our church and one that I've always kind of liked myself.
"The Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make his face to shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace."
the Lord make his face to shine upon you
and be gracious to you;
the Lord turn his face toward you
and give you peace."
Finally in the second half of this book, we see the Israelites prepare to take occupancy of the promised land - the land that they were promised flowed of milk and honey. In preparing to do this, there were many offerings given. Aaron dies - he angered the Lord a while back and was told he would never enter the land promised to his fathers. The Israelites do battle with many other peoples and defeat them all because God has gone before them. Even with all this proof that God is with them, they are quite the group of complainers. They keep crying out that they were better off in Egypt and why did Moses take them out of that land where they had plenty to eat. Well, apparently their memories were short and warped. They were slaves in Egypt and their lives were pretty miserable back then. So in the desert they complain that they have no food so God sends them manna, which I'm guessing is some sort of grain-based item. Then they complain that all they have to eat is manna and they want something else so God sends them quail - and lots of it. They're never happy.
So, yeah, I see the lesson here. Not so much with all the counting, but here yes, I get it. Humans are never satisfied. I know I'm not. I tell myself, I'll be happy when I buy a house. I buy a house and I'm not happy. I tell myself I'll be happy when I find a way to go to graduate school. I finish graduate school and I'm not happy. I tell myself I'll be happy if I could run a marathon. I run a marathon - heck I run two for good measure - and I'm not happy. You see the pattern here. See, I don' think I'm all that unusual in this respect. I couldn't have accomplished any of those things without God, yet am I satisfied? Do I even bother to thank God for what I've been given? Nope. I'm just worried about what unfulfilled want is next on my list. I think that's human nature. Yet, while I was reading this book, I couldn't help but think how stupid these people are. How could they be so blind to the blessings they've received? It took several days, and a sermon from Pastor Larry, for me to see that I've done the same thing.
The book of Numbers ends with the second census. Back to the counting before we cross into the promised land. Ok - the book actually ends with descriptions of all the places the Israelites camped, in chronological order, no less.
But come on, there was a lot of counting.
So, yeah, I see the lesson here. Not so much with all the counting, but here yes, I get it. Humans are never satisfied. I know I'm not. I tell myself, I'll be happy when I buy a house. I buy a house and I'm not happy. I tell myself I'll be happy when I find a way to go to graduate school. I finish graduate school and I'm not happy. I tell myself I'll be happy if I could run a marathon. I run a marathon - heck I run two for good measure - and I'm not happy. You see the pattern here. See, I don' think I'm all that unusual in this respect. I couldn't have accomplished any of those things without God, yet am I satisfied? Do I even bother to thank God for what I've been given? Nope. I'm just worried about what unfulfilled want is next on my list. I think that's human nature. Yet, while I was reading this book, I couldn't help but think how stupid these people are. How could they be so blind to the blessings they've received? It took several days, and a sermon from Pastor Larry, for me to see that I've done the same thing.
The book of Numbers ends with the second census. Back to the counting before we cross into the promised land. Ok - the book actually ends with descriptions of all the places the Israelites camped, in chronological order, no less.
But come on, there was a lot of counting.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
How Are There Any Animals Left?
It's a good thing that the Bible starts with Genesis and all the interesting stories therein because if it started with Leviticus, nobody would ever read the darn thing. We journalists call this starting with a strong lead. Although we also have the phrase "If it bleeds, it leads" and there's a whole lot of blood in Leviticus so take what you will from that...
As I alluded to above, Leviticus is boring, boring, BORING. As far as I can tell, this book is all about rules. We start off with the rules for offerings. There are many types of offerings: grain, fellowship (also called peace offerings as the footnotes in my Bible tell me repeatedly), sin, guilt and burnt. All these offerings result in slaughtering some sort of large animal and sprinkling their blood on the walls. It made me wonder, if you have to kill an animal every time you make an offering for one reason or another, how were there any animals left to breed? And, their Tabernacle wall must have looked like a Pollack painting after about a week.
There are lots of other rules too. There are rules for what you can eat and what you can't. Have no fear - eating locusts, katydids, crickets and grasshoppers are ok! There are rules for purification after childbirth. You're unclean for twice as long after you have a girl than after you have a boy. There are rules for cleansing oneself after having infectious skin diseases and discharges(I was unlucky enough to be reading that part over lunch...ewww!). There are even rules for cleansing mildew. Who knew I needed a priest to come over and inspect my shower after I finished cleaning it?
There are all sorts of rules about who you can and can't have sex with. That part was rather humorous. Most of these rules were about not having sex with close relatives. And honestly, was bestiality such an issue back then that God had to officially state for the record not to have sex with animals? It is in this section of the Bible that many folks quote a verse saying it is wrong for man to lie with man, thus defending their position that being gay is immoral. But know what? Two pages later this very same book of the Bible says that anyone who curses their mother or father must be put to death. By this literal reading of the Bible, pretty much nobody would live past their teen years. I'm just sayin'.
Then there's a whole section labeled "Various Laws." These laws are many and varied. Some are basic: do not lie, do not steal, do not go about spreading slander. There there are some odd ones: do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material. That's really missing out on the wonder of the poly blend, but I digress. The punishments for these types of things generally tend to be death or being cut off from your people. There's also a law that says you are not to put tattoo marks on your body so things aren't looking too good for me here...or for Pastor Becca.
After all the rules we see a rather long list of feasts, which also have some sort of offering, thus endangering more bulls and lambs. These feasts are Sabbath, Passover/Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Feast of Weeks, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles, Sabbath Year and Year of Jubilee. Honestly, I couldn't tell what goes on during any of these.
I have to say that the God that I'd been reading about in Leviticus is not the God I was brought up knowing. This is a jealous and vengeful God. And I swear a couple of times it seems like Moses had to "talk him down." This has been difficult for me. I thought that reading the entire Bible might help me grow in my faith, but so far it's only tested it more. I wasn't expecting that at all. I find myself questioning lots of things here in the Old Testament. For example, in Lev 24:17, it says, "If anyone takes the life of a human being, he must be put to death." Then 8 verses later God tells the Israelits to stone a blasphemer. So God basically just told them to take a human life. I just don't get it. I really hope that things will come together after a while.
As I alluded to above, Leviticus is boring, boring, BORING. As far as I can tell, this book is all about rules. We start off with the rules for offerings. There are many types of offerings: grain, fellowship (also called peace offerings as the footnotes in my Bible tell me repeatedly), sin, guilt and burnt. All these offerings result in slaughtering some sort of large animal and sprinkling their blood on the walls. It made me wonder, if you have to kill an animal every time you make an offering for one reason or another, how were there any animals left to breed? And, their Tabernacle wall must have looked like a Pollack painting after about a week.
There are lots of other rules too. There are rules for what you can eat and what you can't. Have no fear - eating locusts, katydids, crickets and grasshoppers are ok! There are rules for purification after childbirth. You're unclean for twice as long after you have a girl than after you have a boy. There are rules for cleansing oneself after having infectious skin diseases and discharges(I was unlucky enough to be reading that part over lunch...ewww!). There are even rules for cleansing mildew. Who knew I needed a priest to come over and inspect my shower after I finished cleaning it?
There are all sorts of rules about who you can and can't have sex with. That part was rather humorous. Most of these rules were about not having sex with close relatives. And honestly, was bestiality such an issue back then that God had to officially state for the record not to have sex with animals? It is in this section of the Bible that many folks quote a verse saying it is wrong for man to lie with man, thus defending their position that being gay is immoral. But know what? Two pages later this very same book of the Bible says that anyone who curses their mother or father must be put to death. By this literal reading of the Bible, pretty much nobody would live past their teen years. I'm just sayin'.
Then there's a whole section labeled "Various Laws." These laws are many and varied. Some are basic: do not lie, do not steal, do not go about spreading slander. There there are some odd ones: do not wear clothing woven of two kinds of material. That's really missing out on the wonder of the poly blend, but I digress. The punishments for these types of things generally tend to be death or being cut off from your people. There's also a law that says you are not to put tattoo marks on your body so things aren't looking too good for me here...or for Pastor Becca.
After all the rules we see a rather long list of feasts, which also have some sort of offering, thus endangering more bulls and lambs. These feasts are Sabbath, Passover/Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Feast of Weeks, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles, Sabbath Year and Year of Jubilee. Honestly, I couldn't tell what goes on during any of these.
I have to say that the God that I'd been reading about in Leviticus is not the God I was brought up knowing. This is a jealous and vengeful God. And I swear a couple of times it seems like Moses had to "talk him down." This has been difficult for me. I thought that reading the entire Bible might help me grow in my faith, but so far it's only tested it more. I wasn't expecting that at all. I find myself questioning lots of things here in the Old Testament. For example, in Lev 24:17, it says, "If anyone takes the life of a human being, he must be put to death." Then 8 verses later God tells the Israelits to stone a blasphemer. So God basically just told them to take a human life. I just don't get it. I really hope that things will come together after a while.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
The Trapeze Act
At this morning's church service, our pastor preached the first sermon on our Bible in 90 Days assigned reading. I was anxious to listen to a sermon for which I had read everything it was based on. I might actually know what was going on the ENTIRE time. The sermon focused on Abraham and his story, which is not something I focused on all that much. I guess that confirms my hunch that I would not a good Biblical scholar make.
Abraham's story is one of taking a leap of faith - having faith that God would come through with unimaginable things he had promised him. Pastor Becca compared this leap of faith to a circus trapeze act. She said that taking that leap of faith had (big surprise) 3 parts: letting go, waiting, and being caught.
We're in the first sermon of this new series and I'm already caught up on the first point - letting go. Letting go requires relinquishing control. This is not something I do well. I'm a planner. If I didn't do something, it surely can't have been done right.
Letting go also requires trust. This is something I'm even worse at than relinquishing control. I don't trust people with the details of my life, with how I'm really feeling or even with invading my physical space by touching me. Past histories with various people in my life have taught me these lessons. And while I know this is a less than ideal way to live, it's the way it has to be for me. For now.
But this morning as I was listening to the sermon, it hit me that maybe the way I live my daily life is also the way I live my spiritual life. I mentioned that I had never really had a desire to go deeper with my faith. Could that be because I don't fully trust God either? That sounds so blasphemous and maybe that's why I never really thought too much about it before. Can you even be a Christian if you don't trust God?
I want to be able to let go. I do. For one, it's exhausting trying to be in control of everything all the time. Also, I think humans are meant to be interdependent on one another as it leads to such a richer life experience. I'm not sure how to learn to let go but maybe knowing where you need to go is the first step...and I'm not as much of a lost cause as I thought I was. If I learn to trust God, maybe trusting people will come next.
For now I'm too afraid of waiting to be caught.
Abraham's story is one of taking a leap of faith - having faith that God would come through with unimaginable things he had promised him. Pastor Becca compared this leap of faith to a circus trapeze act. She said that taking that leap of faith had (big surprise) 3 parts: letting go, waiting, and being caught.
We're in the first sermon of this new series and I'm already caught up on the first point - letting go. Letting go requires relinquishing control. This is not something I do well. I'm a planner. If I didn't do something, it surely can't have been done right.
Letting go also requires trust. This is something I'm even worse at than relinquishing control. I don't trust people with the details of my life, with how I'm really feeling or even with invading my physical space by touching me. Past histories with various people in my life have taught me these lessons. And while I know this is a less than ideal way to live, it's the way it has to be for me. For now.
But this morning as I was listening to the sermon, it hit me that maybe the way I live my daily life is also the way I live my spiritual life. I mentioned that I had never really had a desire to go deeper with my faith. Could that be because I don't fully trust God either? That sounds so blasphemous and maybe that's why I never really thought too much about it before. Can you even be a Christian if you don't trust God?
I want to be able to let go. I do. For one, it's exhausting trying to be in control of everything all the time. Also, I think humans are meant to be interdependent on one another as it leads to such a richer life experience. I'm not sure how to learn to let go but maybe knowing where you need to go is the first step...and I'm not as much of a lost cause as I thought I was. If I learn to trust God, maybe trusting people will come next.
For now I'm too afraid of waiting to be caught.
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Follow the Guy With the Staff
Genesis packed quite a punch. There was lots of action - creation, the fall of man, a big flood and Broadway-musical-inspiring-guy with a colorful coat. Can Exodus live up to its predecessor? The answer to that would be, "Not quite."
Exodus starts off on a pretty interesting note - we see that the Egyptians are becoming leery because the Israelites that live among them are freakishly fertile. So the pyramid builders decide they'll kill all the boys born to these uber-reproducers. But one particularly cleaver woman put her "fine" son in a basket and hide him among the reeds near the river. Long story short - Pharaoh's daughter finds the tyke, names him Moses (Hebrew for "draw out," by the way) and raises him as her own. Some stuff happens, Moses kills an Egyptian at some point and doesn't get punished, yadda, yadda, yadda. Fast forward many years and Moses decides to investigate an oddly burning bush and basically meets God. God tells him that he has been chosen to lead his people out of Egypt.
God decides that he's going to make sure the Egyptians won't allow the Israelites leave. Which leads to a pretty odd scenario considering several years prior the Egyptians tried to basically exterminate this group. I don't think the Bible ever really explains why God wanted to make it this hard on his chosen people. Maybe it does and I missed it? Whatever the reason, it illustrates the actions of a a Pharaoh that is even more stubborn than I've been known to be. It took 10 different plagues on his people before he finally let Moses' people go. We then learn the origin of Passover: the chosen people put blood over their doorways as a way to separate them from the Egyptians so that the plague of the unborn doesn't bother them. God causes this plague to "pass over" these houses. Which makes me wonder - didn't they have to suffer the other nine plagues, even though they were innocent?
Now that the Israelites are free to go, they follow Moses into the desert. But once again, the Egyptians feel the need to keep them around so they follow the wandering group. They catch up to them only to have their efforts thwarted when Moses uses his handy dandy staff (which has already turned into a snake a couple times) and parts the Red Sea for his followers but not for the unfortunate Egyptians following them in their chariots. Those poor suckers drowned when the waters un-parted.
Safely free of their previous captors, the Israelites now have time to listen to some instructions from God, via Moses, via Aaron. These instructions are the 10 Commandments. The thing I took note of here is that, in at least the NIV version of the Bible, the Commandments aren't numbered. Is it possible that God listed them in no particular order and man interpreted the the order? You always hear people say stuff like, "The 4th Commandment says to keep the Sabbath holy." But then God also dictates a bunch of other rules regarding personal injuries, protection of property, social justice and some other stuff. Why are these never considered in the same league as the "big ten" that we hear so much about?
And that's where the action seems to come to an abrupt halt.
That's pretty much all I can tell that happens in Exodus. The next 15 chapters of this book go on to laboriously explain how to construct the Tabernacle, design the priests' outfits and consecrate the priests.
Full disclosure, I skimmed that last part so I wouldn't call on me to make your next Tabernacle.
Exodus starts off on a pretty interesting note - we see that the Egyptians are becoming leery because the Israelites that live among them are freakishly fertile. So the pyramid builders decide they'll kill all the boys born to these uber-reproducers. But one particularly cleaver woman put her "fine" son in a basket and hide him among the reeds near the river. Long story short - Pharaoh's daughter finds the tyke, names him Moses (Hebrew for "draw out," by the way) and raises him as her own. Some stuff happens, Moses kills an Egyptian at some point and doesn't get punished, yadda, yadda, yadda. Fast forward many years and Moses decides to investigate an oddly burning bush and basically meets God. God tells him that he has been chosen to lead his people out of Egypt.
God decides that he's going to make sure the Egyptians won't allow the Israelites leave. Which leads to a pretty odd scenario considering several years prior the Egyptians tried to basically exterminate this group. I don't think the Bible ever really explains why God wanted to make it this hard on his chosen people. Maybe it does and I missed it? Whatever the reason, it illustrates the actions of a a Pharaoh that is even more stubborn than I've been known to be. It took 10 different plagues on his people before he finally let Moses' people go. We then learn the origin of Passover: the chosen people put blood over their doorways as a way to separate them from the Egyptians so that the plague of the unborn doesn't bother them. God causes this plague to "pass over" these houses. Which makes me wonder - didn't they have to suffer the other nine plagues, even though they were innocent?
Now that the Israelites are free to go, they follow Moses into the desert. But once again, the Egyptians feel the need to keep them around so they follow the wandering group. They catch up to them only to have their efforts thwarted when Moses uses his handy dandy staff (which has already turned into a snake a couple times) and parts the Red Sea for his followers but not for the unfortunate Egyptians following them in their chariots. Those poor suckers drowned when the waters un-parted.
Safely free of their previous captors, the Israelites now have time to listen to some instructions from God, via Moses, via Aaron. These instructions are the 10 Commandments. The thing I took note of here is that, in at least the NIV version of the Bible, the Commandments aren't numbered. Is it possible that God listed them in no particular order and man interpreted the the order? You always hear people say stuff like, "The 4th Commandment says to keep the Sabbath holy." But then God also dictates a bunch of other rules regarding personal injuries, protection of property, social justice and some other stuff. Why are these never considered in the same league as the "big ten" that we hear so much about?
And that's where the action seems to come to an abrupt halt.
That's pretty much all I can tell that happens in Exodus. The next 15 chapters of this book go on to laboriously explain how to construct the Tabernacle, design the priests' outfits and consecrate the priests.
Full disclosure, I skimmed that last part so I wouldn't call on me to make your next Tabernacle.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
In the Beginning...a lot happened!
I've complete 4 days of reading now. I've actually finished the entire book of Genesis. I've never read a complete book of the Bible before. That's actually pretty cool once I stop to think about it. My giddiness quickly turns to my standard state of pessimism when I realize I have 65 more books to go.
So here's what I've learned so far:
1) I've already used up my limited amount of Old Testament knowledge. Growing up, I learned your basic Bible stories in Sunday school and Bible school but you know what? All that stuff happens in basically the first 12 pages of the Bible. My first day of reading covered creation, Adam and Eve (and that pesky snake), Cain and Abel, Noah and his big boat, Lot and his sodium-heavy wife and why Jewish guys get circumcised. That's a lot of information! After all that, I still have 795 pages of the Old Testament to cover. I wonder what else is in there 'cause I'm pretty sure this is all I ever learned to this point.
2) Apparently, it was common practice in those days to pretend your beautiful wife is your sister so the rulers of foreign countries don't kill you. Seriously. This has happened more than once so far in my readings. But here's the deal, God always lets the ruler of said foreign land know the truth, which scares the bejezus out of the ruler and usually ends up giving the husband his wife back, plus some shekels. This may or may not happen after he's slept with her and produced an heir.
3) Life expectancy plummets after the flood. Adam, he of the apple-eating controversy, lived 930 years. His son Seth lived 912 years. Seth's son Enosh lived 905 years. Enosh's son Kenan lived 910 years. Kenan's son Mahalalel lived 895 years. Mahalalel's son Jared lived 962 years (he must have worked out). And so on it goes for several generations. Methuselah wins the prize though. That guy lived 969 years. Side note: now I understand my mom's lovely down-home expression - "She's as old as Methuselah!" Now along comes Noah and the flood that wipes out humanity. But here's the rub: Noah lived 950 years but his direct descendants didn't fare quite so well. Shem only got 500 years, Eber only 430and Reu and Peleg only 209 and 207 years respectively. After that most men only tend to get in the range of 130 - 150 years. Now this might not be the most important aspect of what I read, but I couldn't help but wonder what happened there. I'm pretty sure fast food hadn't come into the picture yet so what's the deal here?
4) There's a lot of incest in the Old Testament. It always involves drinking much wine so I guess times haven't changed all that much. So to all those right-wing, conservative, holier-than-thou nut jobs out there who want to ban books like To Kill a Mockingbird or Tom Sawyer I say this: "Have you read the Bible lately?"
5) I think I learned where the word sodomy comes from. Those dudes that lived in Sodom were freaky!
6) Jacob was renamed by God and given the name Israel. His descendants were the Israelites. Ok, so most 10-year-olds who DON'T skip Sunday school probably already know this but I had no idea. NO. IDEA.
So that's what I've covered so far. I've learned more about the Bible in the last 4 days than I did in my entire confirmation class. I've just started Exodus and it's not too bad so far, but I hear Leviticus, which comes after that, can be a little dry. Guess I won't recommend that one for book club.
So here's what I've learned so far:
1) I've already used up my limited amount of Old Testament knowledge. Growing up, I learned your basic Bible stories in Sunday school and Bible school but you know what? All that stuff happens in basically the first 12 pages of the Bible. My first day of reading covered creation, Adam and Eve (and that pesky snake), Cain and Abel, Noah and his big boat, Lot and his sodium-heavy wife and why Jewish guys get circumcised. That's a lot of information! After all that, I still have 795 pages of the Old Testament to cover. I wonder what else is in there 'cause I'm pretty sure this is all I ever learned to this point.
2) Apparently, it was common practice in those days to pretend your beautiful wife is your sister so the rulers of foreign countries don't kill you. Seriously. This has happened more than once so far in my readings. But here's the deal, God always lets the ruler of said foreign land know the truth, which scares the bejezus out of the ruler and usually ends up giving the husband his wife back, plus some shekels. This may or may not happen after he's slept with her and produced an heir.
3) Life expectancy plummets after the flood. Adam, he of the apple-eating controversy, lived 930 years. His son Seth lived 912 years. Seth's son Enosh lived 905 years. Enosh's son Kenan lived 910 years. Kenan's son Mahalalel lived 895 years. Mahalalel's son Jared lived 962 years (he must have worked out). And so on it goes for several generations. Methuselah wins the prize though. That guy lived 969 years. Side note: now I understand my mom's lovely down-home expression - "She's as old as Methuselah!" Now along comes Noah and the flood that wipes out humanity. But here's the rub: Noah lived 950 years but his direct descendants didn't fare quite so well. Shem only got 500 years, Eber only 430and Reu and Peleg only 209 and 207 years respectively. After that most men only tend to get in the range of 130 - 150 years. Now this might not be the most important aspect of what I read, but I couldn't help but wonder what happened there. I'm pretty sure fast food hadn't come into the picture yet so what's the deal here?
4) There's a lot of incest in the Old Testament. It always involves drinking much wine so I guess times haven't changed all that much. So to all those right-wing, conservative, holier-than-thou nut jobs out there who want to ban books like To Kill a Mockingbird or Tom Sawyer I say this: "Have you read the Bible lately?"
5) I think I learned where the word sodomy comes from. Those dudes that lived in Sodom were freaky!
6) Jacob was renamed by God and given the name Israel. His descendants were the Israelites. Ok, so most 10-year-olds who DON'T skip Sunday school probably already know this but I had no idea. NO. IDEA.
So that's what I've covered so far. I've learned more about the Bible in the last 4 days than I did in my entire confirmation class. I've just started Exodus and it's not too bad so far, but I hear Leviticus, which comes after that, can be a little dry. Guess I won't recommend that one for book club.
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
Reality Sets In
It's been barely 48 hours since I committed to reading the Bible in 90 days and I'm already wondering if I made a mistake. Pretty much anyone I've told about this task is completely surprised I'm doing it and I think most of them have doubts I'll be successful - myself included. Why am I having such an extreme reaction to committing to something I'll be doing by myself in the privacy of my own life?
I've taken on several other major challenges in the recent past and didn't have a doubt about it after I decided. Graduate school, studying business no less, was a huge undertaking and didn't provoke this kind of second-guessing. Running a marathon, which less than 1% of the world's population has successfully done, did not elicit this kind of reaction from me once I registered. Something else is definitely going on here. Will I be able to confront it?
I'm definitely not the touchy-feely type of person. My default emotion is anger. If you hug me, you'll likely get a stiff body in response. Could it be that I'm afraid that by doing this, I will tap into an emotion I am not comfortable with? Or what if I complete this entire endeavor and find myself not changed at all? Which is worse?
Oh man, what have I done?
I've taken on several other major challenges in the recent past and didn't have a doubt about it after I decided. Graduate school, studying business no less, was a huge undertaking and didn't provoke this kind of second-guessing. Running a marathon, which less than 1% of the world's population has successfully done, did not elicit this kind of reaction from me once I registered. Something else is definitely going on here. Will I be able to confront it?
I'm definitely not the touchy-feely type of person. My default emotion is anger. If you hug me, you'll likely get a stiff body in response. Could it be that I'm afraid that by doing this, I will tap into an emotion I am not comfortable with? Or what if I complete this entire endeavor and find myself not changed at all? Which is worse?
Oh man, what have I done?
Monday, January 3, 2011
Committed
Today I did something I never imagined I would ever do. I committed to reading the Bible in 90 days. We're talking from "In the beginning"... to "Amen" and everything in between. Even the begats (though Pastor Becca assures me I can skim over those parts). People who figure out these types of things tell me that reading the Bible in 90 days works out to about 12 pages a day. I'll take their word for it - math has never been my strong suit.
You're doing what?
A brilliant woman I know suggested that I take this task on to challenge myself and to write about my experiences. So that is what I am going to do. From January 10 until April 7, I'll be reading the Bible and writing about my experience - what I learned & what impact it has on my life. Though I'm serious about taking on this endeavor, I plan to have fun with it and hope to see the humor in it too.
Why?
I did grow up in the church but I'm far from the Biblical scholar type. Sure, I served as president of the youth group while I was in high school, but I also was known to skip Sunday School by hiding out in the bathroom after my parents dropped me off. As you can see, I'm not exactly the read-the-Bible-from-cover-to-cover" sort of gal. So why did I decide to do it? That is a good question and one I'm still trying to figure out.
I am a competitive person. This is no secret. If someone I know has a convincing argument, I can surely come up with an even more convincing counter argument. If someone runs a 5k, I can run a 10k. And on and on it goes. (It's also been rumored that I threw the sand timer from a board game when my partner wasn't taking the competition seriously enough - but I refuse to confirm the validity of that story.) So when over 100 people at my church decided to take on this challenge, I have no doubt that spurred me on to consider taking on the challenge as well. After all, if they can do it, so can I.
Everyone who knows me (and even, apparently, those that don't) also know that I'm an achievement-driven person. My purpose in life is to achieve things. I'm not happy if I'm not achieving something. I don't like my life any other time as much as I do when I'm achieving something. See the theme here? I guess in my twisted mind, my self-worth comes from my achievements. So I guess that could be one explanation of why I decided to do this. But that caused me some concern. If I was taking on this task purely as a way of improving my self-esteem, of checking off some other thing as accomplished, would I get anything out of the experience?
Maybe I just needed "something" in my life. Maybe this is God's way of telling me to look closer at my faith. I've never really gone much below the surface level in my faith and I liked it that way. I went to church, I prayed, I worked with the youth, but I never felt the need to go much deeper. I don't know if reading the Bible will do that for me...but maybe it will and maybe it's time.
So I don't know if any of these are the reasons I've taken on the Bible in 90 days. I suspect it is probably a combination of all these and some things I'm not aware of just yet. But I guess that's the beauty of a challenge like this. Sometimes you don't know what you need until you finally find it.
You're doing what?
A brilliant woman I know suggested that I take this task on to challenge myself and to write about my experiences. So that is what I am going to do. From January 10 until April 7, I'll be reading the Bible and writing about my experience - what I learned & what impact it has on my life. Though I'm serious about taking on this endeavor, I plan to have fun with it and hope to see the humor in it too.
Why?
I did grow up in the church but I'm far from the Biblical scholar type. Sure, I served as president of the youth group while I was in high school, but I also was known to skip Sunday School by hiding out in the bathroom after my parents dropped me off. As you can see, I'm not exactly the read-the-Bible-from-cover-to-cover" sort of gal. So why did I decide to do it? That is a good question and one I'm still trying to figure out.
I am a competitive person. This is no secret. If someone I know has a convincing argument, I can surely come up with an even more convincing counter argument. If someone runs a 5k, I can run a 10k. And on and on it goes. (It's also been rumored that I threw the sand timer from a board game when my partner wasn't taking the competition seriously enough - but I refuse to confirm the validity of that story.) So when over 100 people at my church decided to take on this challenge, I have no doubt that spurred me on to consider taking on the challenge as well. After all, if they can do it, so can I.
Everyone who knows me (and even, apparently, those that don't) also know that I'm an achievement-driven person. My purpose in life is to achieve things. I'm not happy if I'm not achieving something. I don't like my life any other time as much as I do when I'm achieving something. See the theme here? I guess in my twisted mind, my self-worth comes from my achievements. So I guess that could be one explanation of why I decided to do this. But that caused me some concern. If I was taking on this task purely as a way of improving my self-esteem, of checking off some other thing as accomplished, would I get anything out of the experience?
Maybe I just needed "something" in my life. Maybe this is God's way of telling me to look closer at my faith. I've never really gone much below the surface level in my faith and I liked it that way. I went to church, I prayed, I worked with the youth, but I never felt the need to go much deeper. I don't know if reading the Bible will do that for me...but maybe it will and maybe it's time.
So I don't know if any of these are the reasons I've taken on the Bible in 90 days. I suspect it is probably a combination of all these and some things I'm not aware of just yet. But I guess that's the beauty of a challenge like this. Sometimes you don't know what you need until you finally find it.
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