Last night I read Numbers 1-2, which is basically a census of the Israelite people. There were 603,550 males above the age of 20. So these people who came out of Egypt- this was a massive undertaking to have so many people travel!
Not only that but to perform a census on so many people with no computer and probably not much in the form of paper- the administration of it all boggles my mind!
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Friday, February 4, 2011
update
My computer has been wonky for 1/2 of January so I have not been able to update as much as I have wanted to.
I have completed all of Genesis and Exodus and reading larger chunks of it (rather than one chapter at a time) gives a good overview of what is going on.
I am working on finding a listing of the Bible in Chronological order that matches what this book is working from because now that the first 2 book are done, there is some disagreement among scholars about the chronology of the rest of it :)
I have completed all of Genesis and Exodus and reading larger chunks of it (rather than one chapter at a time) gives a good overview of what is going on.
I am working on finding a listing of the Bible in Chronological order that matches what this book is working from because now that the first 2 book are done, there is some disagreement among scholars about the chronology of the rest of it :)
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Barren
In the readings I have now covered the Isaac/Rebekah story.
I thought it was a neat "God-moment" how the servant found Rebekah.
And how Rebekah reacted like Mary (or rather Mary reacted like Rebekah, lol) when told God's purpose for her.
I found in interesting that both Sarah and Rebekah were barren for parts of their lives. Isaac had to pray to get Rebekah to bear children. Jacob's wife Rachel will also be barren for a time. That's 3 generations of barrenness! I wonder what that means. Was it a spiritual curse?
The reading today was about how Esau gave up his birthright for a bowl of stew. How it is important that we think things through before making rash decisions.
I thought it was a neat "God-moment" how the servant found Rebekah.
And how Rebekah reacted like Mary (or rather Mary reacted like Rebekah, lol) when told God's purpose for her.
I found in interesting that both Sarah and Rebekah were barren for parts of their lives. Isaac had to pray to get Rebekah to bear children. Jacob's wife Rachel will also be barren for a time. That's 3 generations of barrenness! I wonder what that means. Was it a spiritual curse?
The reading today was about how Esau gave up his birthright for a bowl of stew. How it is important that we think things through before making rash decisions.
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Ram
Today's reading covered Abraham's attempted sacrifice of Isaac. God provided a ram for him to sacrifice instead after he saw that he would not withhold anything from God.
The devotional book that I am reading suggested that now WE are the rams. We are God's hands and feet in the world. We need to be instruments of peace and healing in the world. The world seems to need it!
A song to go with this is Michael Franti's "Hey World (Don't give up)"
The devotional book that I am reading suggested that now WE are the rams. We are God's hands and feet in the world. We need to be instruments of peace and healing in the world. The world seems to need it!
A song to go with this is Michael Franti's "Hey World (Don't give up)"
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Isolation
In Genesis 19 God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah but saves Lot, his wife and 2 daughters.
Though his wife looks back, though the angels told her not to and she becomes a pillar of salt and is out of the story.
Originally, when the angels tell Lot to flee, they tell him to go to the mountains. But he negotiates to go to the small city of Zoar. The angels agree and only destroy Sodom and Gommorah after Lot arrives in Zoar.
However, after going through this trauma, Lot starts to make decisions based on fear and decided instead he should live in the mountains. Maybe he thought he shouldn't have bargained with God as God knows best. Though it is not clear that God wanted him to spend a lifetime in the mountains, just to go there for safety during the sulphur dispersal.
But he does go live in a cave in the mountains with his daughters. And the next bit goes on to show the dangers of isolation. The daughters get Lot drunk and get themselves impregnated by him.
I think Lot's story shows us that it is not good to move in fear and also that it is good to live in community.
In Genesis 20 Abraham pulls the same half-truth that he used earlier in Genesis that got him in some trouble- that Sarah was his sister and not his wife. It was fear driving this decision as well.
The devotional book that I am reading along with indicated this as a moral failure on Abraham's part. It also suggests that the lie was easier for Abraham to do the second time as he had already convinced himself that it was true.
It does suggest why repeated sins occur. One reason is they are probably our weak point. The other is that we tend to rationalize things and if we've done them once (even with a bad consequence) we may be more prone to doing it again.
May we be driven by love and not fear in our decisions
Though his wife looks back, though the angels told her not to and she becomes a pillar of salt and is out of the story.
Originally, when the angels tell Lot to flee, they tell him to go to the mountains. But he negotiates to go to the small city of Zoar. The angels agree and only destroy Sodom and Gommorah after Lot arrives in Zoar.
However, after going through this trauma, Lot starts to make decisions based on fear and decided instead he should live in the mountains. Maybe he thought he shouldn't have bargained with God as God knows best. Though it is not clear that God wanted him to spend a lifetime in the mountains, just to go there for safety during the sulphur dispersal.
But he does go live in a cave in the mountains with his daughters. And the next bit goes on to show the dangers of isolation. The daughters get Lot drunk and get themselves impregnated by him.
I think Lot's story shows us that it is not good to move in fear and also that it is good to live in community.
In Genesis 20 Abraham pulls the same half-truth that he used earlier in Genesis that got him in some trouble- that Sarah was his sister and not his wife. It was fear driving this decision as well.
The devotional book that I am reading along with indicated this as a moral failure on Abraham's part. It also suggests that the lie was easier for Abraham to do the second time as he had already convinced himself that it was true.
It does suggest why repeated sins occur. One reason is they are probably our weak point. The other is that we tend to rationalize things and if we've done them once (even with a bad consequence) we may be more prone to doing it again.
May we be driven by love and not fear in our decisions
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Pride
I noticed in the story about Noah that he found favor with God- and then he had an awful lot of work to do! But it was all worth it in the end.
Today I read Genesis 11. The comment in my devotional was that "human pride is at the very heart of all sin- elevating our will above his" (in relation to the Tower of Babel) That is indeed an interesting thought.
And I tried to follow some of the family lines. Terah had 3 boys- Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Nahor married Milcah who was Haran's daughter. That would be his niece then. Familial interbreeding was not such a taboo then.
Today I read Genesis 11. The comment in my devotional was that "human pride is at the very heart of all sin- elevating our will above his" (in relation to the Tower of Babel) That is indeed an interesting thought.
And I tried to follow some of the family lines. Terah had 3 boys- Abram, Nahor and Haran. And Nahor married Milcah who was Haran's daughter. That would be his niece then. Familial interbreeding was not such a taboo then.
Sunday, January 2, 2011
RErun
Apparently, the same verses tend to be of interest to me when reading the Bible.
I went back and read my entry from 2008 on Genesis 4 and I thought- that's exactly what I would say this time as well. So I thought I might as well not write it again, just link to it!
I also read my first entry from 2008 and thought that it was pretty neat- better than my first entry this time around anyway :)
The devotional for today also focused on the same passage that I wrote about in 2008:
Genesis 4:7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.
And it indicates there is a difference between doing what "feels good and what truly is good"- Cain may have felt that his offering was good, but there was something that was lacking to make it truly be good.
I know that when James doesn't really care about something, he can do the actions but it is very obvious that he doesn't care and he's just doing it so he can get on to something he is interested in. The attitude with which we do things can make a big difference.
If we are called to rule over sin, then we must have the ability to do this.
I went back and read my entry from 2008 on Genesis 4 and I thought- that's exactly what I would say this time as well. So I thought I might as well not write it again, just link to it!
I also read my first entry from 2008 and thought that it was pretty neat- better than my first entry this time around anyway :)
The devotional for today also focused on the same passage that I wrote about in 2008:
Genesis 4:7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.
And it indicates there is a difference between doing what "feels good and what truly is good"- Cain may have felt that his offering was good, but there was something that was lacking to make it truly be good.
I know that when James doesn't really care about something, he can do the actions but it is very obvious that he doesn't care and he's just doing it so he can get on to something he is interested in. The attitude with which we do things can make a big difference.
If we are called to rule over sin, then we must have the ability to do this.
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