Catching Up.

So, all this time I've been reading the Bible and the Good Book but I have not been blogging about it, which kinda defeats the purpose of the assignment and blogging in general. So here are a few things I've taken note of throughout my reading:

The Bible as a Time Machine –

I love history. I love hearing stories about the past and walking through museums stalked full of little tidbits of information and material that make up who we are today as a society. I think it's so cool - though sometimes very boring, I must admit. So, reading through the Bible is kind of like a jump back to that time period. It's so interesting to read about life back then.

First of all there's the whole aspect of how they kind of lived by the sword. On multiple counts men feel the need to pretend their wives are their sisters, just so that they may not be murdered in the night. For the most part, today we don't need to worry about that. However, if your partner is "handsomer" than you, there is the fear of gossip behind your back and of someone stealing your partner away from you, which, admittedly, is sucky. But at least your not Abraham or Isaac who practically give their wives away just to save their necks - which presents a whole can of worms I'm not prepared to open.

Secondly, there's this whole blessing debacle. Certainly today we still look to our parents or some sort of authoritative figure or role model for their blessing. Whether it's with a new job, or special someone, or just with our lives in general. But this, this is just silly. So Abraham accidentally blesses Jacob. Why can't he bless Esau too? What did the blessing tire him out too much for his favorite son? But, that actually wasn't my point. My point is how seriously Esau took the denial of his blessing and to what extent Rebekah will go to give Jacob his father's blessing. And just as a side note, I must agree with Plotz, what is the deal with Isaac being too frail to bless his first born son, but then he goes on to live for at least 20 more years? That’s just plain silly.

God’s Incomprehensibility –

It’s interesting, reading the Bible straight through starting with Genesis in the Old Testament, to really see God working in peoples’ lives, before Jesus ever came around. It reminds me how powerful he is and how, though we may not always be able to understand why he does things the way he does, he knows why and has his reasons. It definitely takes some trust and faith in him. Because God is, well, God and we’re “merely human,” there is a huge gap between us making miscommunications and misunderstandings inevitable. For instance, Plotz was confused when God said to Adam and Eve, “’You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die’” (Gen 3:3). I think God means more of a spiritual death than immediately and physical. Because we ate of the fruit, there is that separation between us and him and therefore we must suffer death to pay for our sins. But because we live in the physical, I think it must often be difficult to understand him in the spiritual.

Which brings up all these acts of “evil” on God’s part. But isn’t that interesting? Neither the devil nor evil in general has been outright mentioned, as far as I can remember from reading anyway. Plotz points out how odd it is that we are told the story of the devil in serpent’s form, but then the Bible doesn’t even say that it is in fact the devil. Huh. However, it is safe to say that in the world there is the ongoing battle between Good and Evil, is it not? Everything seems to revolve around these two staples of morality. So, God created the world and man and all that jazz, and he saw that it was good. Then man ate of the forbidden fruit which was evil, and now evil has taken over the world that was once good. And many years later here we are, still battling evil. Therefore, it is not God that is acting maliciously, but God that acts out of love against the bad things in life.

Quick note on the “P” Writer –

Okay, I think we can all agree, the J writer is a little bit more interesting than the P writer. But the P writer is just as essential as his counterpart. As humans, isn’t it true that we feel the need to dig up history and science and find out where/what exactly we come from? Sure Granny Margaret reciting to you the long, long, long, long, LONG list of ancestors from generations past is boring with a capital ‘B’ but it is important to know and have knowledge of one’s past. So when you find yourself falling asleep to the soothing rhythm of P’s “These are the descendants of so-and-so…” just remember that we, or at least someone somewhere, can take comfort in the fact that we know where we have come from. I think it’s perfectly acceptable to skim (and when I say skim I mean run) over these parts but it just makes good sense to have.

Fear of God –

Now this is a tricky topic. All our lives we grow up hearing “God is love,” then he wipes out the world in The Great Flood. Yes, I can see the conflict that might come up here. I’m not sure how many of you have read The Prince by Machiavelli, but it’s this pretty boring work on how princes should act. One point he makes is that a prince must be respected by his people, he must be kind to them and love them, but he must also instill fear within them. It is just simply necessary that we fear our leaders – to a certain extent. Otherwise we become ignorant of who they really are and disrespectful towards what they stand for. It’s like Jamie said earlier on in the class, if the voice of God commands you through a burning bush, you best have some fear and respect enough to obey. That’s not exactly a moment that you say, “Aw, God! I LOVE you!:D You’re so loving and kind.” Not that he’s not, that’s just not the appropriate time for such a reaction.

Rock on Joseph! –

Can I just say, high-five Joseph! He seems like the first guy to have a little common sense and not sleep with some woman no matter how pretty she is. He actually runs away from his seductress at one point. I gotta say, that put a smile on my face. Well, up until the point that he was thrown in jail…yeah, that was a little unfortunate…And this ability to read people’s dreams, I don’t think I have ever had a dream as interesting as the two men’s whom he meets in jail. Let’s see, last night I had a dream that I was pulled over by a cop, but he startled me and I slammed on my breaks and then the cop rear-ended me. I then had to give him a ride to the hospital…what’s that mean?

Anyways, I know this is a lot and I highly doubt anyone will really read it just because of its gargantuan length, for which I apologize. I’ll try to write shorter entries more often in the future so that this may not be quite so overwhelming.