You are unique

In Numbers 7, the offering of each tribe is carefully listed even though it is exactly the same as all the other tribes. You matter to God even if you thing there is nothing unique about what you are doing. It all matters.

The Donkey and the Lamb

Exodus 34:20 I think God is laughing at us: Now the firstling of a donkey you may redeem with a lamb, but if you do not redeem it, then break its neck. I think we are the donkeys :)

On the mountain

I have been moving through the readings, though for a couple of weeks the essays derailed me. I'm not planning on taking that job again next year. So today was in Exodus when Moses came down from the mountain with the tablets. There were a couple of things that I missed before. Not only does Moses destroy the golden calf but he sprinkles the power on the water and makes them drink it. They drink the fruit of their sin. The other thing I hadn't notices is that while Moses pleads for the life of Israel as God wants to destroy them, later he has those of God's side kill some of those who presumably were not on God's side. So while Moses prevents total annihilation, he then causes some destruction.

some puzzles

From yesterday's reading in Genesis 6 this part didn't seem to fit: When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3 Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with[a] humans forever, for they are mortal[b]; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” 4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. Afterwards it goes on to talk about how the heart of man is full of evil, but these 2 passages don't seem to indicate it was the human fault, that it was external sources that were the evil ones. So that was a bit puzzling. From today's reading my puzzle is when Ham (apparently) sins against Noah, Noah curses his son Canaan. Why Canaan, who was only one of Ham's children. My ponderings for today!

Lamech

Today's reading was Genesis 4:1-5:32. I got stuck at Lamech's speech in chapter 4: 23 And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt. 24 If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold. This wraps up the story of Cain and Abel with this Lamech being a descendant of Cain (not the same Lamech who was the father of Noah) and having this odd speech. It seems oddly boastful as if he is proud of killing a man like his forefather did. And instead of God decreeing the punishment, Lamech decrees the punishment. An unrepentant heart will breed unrepentant hearts. Without any comment on the speech the text then switches over to the "good" line that comes through Seth. The geneology of Adam in Chapter 5 does not even list the Cain line in the lineage any more.

Firmament

In reading Gen 1:1-2:3 the verses that caught my attention were about the second day 1:6-8. I think when I read it previously I thought it was referring to the earth's waters but I read it a number of times and this seems to be before God made dry land. So he is separating water below Heaven and water above Heaven. There is an interesting discussion on this here: http://www.kjvbible.org/firmament.html though I'm not sure it addresses how the waters are above the Heaven it does give a good interpretation of a lot of things.

Year One Week One

I bought a new devotional study bible and it has a 2 year reading plan. I'm planning on tracking my reading here. Day 1 looks fairly light: Read Genesis Introduction and Key Verse. The reading suggests that to know where we are going, we need to know our origins and heritage. The key verse is Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.