Assignment 14 - Chronicles 2

Keep it going!  Onward through Chronicles 2! (Shocker, I know!)

Assignment 13 - Chronicles I

This is where I normally tell you what my bible says about the books of Chronicles.  Not gonna do it!  There is quite literally over a page of explanation on Chronicles.  I'm a good typist, but I have no desire to transcribe that much!  Instead, I think the first paragraph gives a fairly good summation and the following just elaborates, so let's be brief!

"Originally the two books of Chronicles formed, with the Books of Ezra and Nahemiah, a single historical work, uniform in style and basic ideas.  The Greek title, paraleipomena, means 'things omitted, or passed over (in Samuel and Kings).'  The Books of Chronicles, however, are more than a supplement to Samuel and Kings; a comparison of the two histories discloses striking differences in scope and purpose.  The Books of Chronicles record in some detail the lengthy span from the reign of Saul to the return from the Exile.  Unlike the exact science of history today, wherein factual accuracy and impartiality of judgment are the standards for estimating what is of permanent worth, ancient biblical history, with rare exceptions, was less concerned with reporting in precise detail all the facts of a situation than with explaining the meaning of those facts.  Such history was primarily interpretative and, in the Old Testament, its purpose was to disclose the action of the living God in the affairs of men.  For this reason we speak of it as 'sacred history'; its writer's first concern was to bring out the divine or supernatural dimension in history."


OK, so we don't need to worry about facts here.  Cool...onward...

A New Meaning to the 700 Club...Thanks Solomon!

Ah Kings.  Still not a bad read.  As I've mentioned before, I'm not sure if I've desensitized myself to Old Testament violence, or if it's just getting better.  Maybe I'll could to a determination on that one eventually.

I noticed that I haven't been making as many notes as I'm reading.  Perhaps it's because I'm not as appalled as I once was.  Sadly, I really haven't seen anything inspiring that would get my highlighter going either.  It's like...blah.  Words, words, words, but at least not too much gore.  PG-13 teen movie.  Not bad, but I'm drooling all over myself and didn't learn much.

So what did I highlight.  Well, a lot more in Kings I than Kings II.  Here goes:

Shimei is told by king Solomon to build a house in Jerusalem and not go anywhere else under pain of death.  Years pass and some of his servants ran away.  He went after them.  Gets killed for leaving Jerusalem.  (1 Kings 2:36).  Um...K

I have to say that I was impressed at what Solomon chose as his gift from God.  He could have picked anything and picked knowledge, "Give your servant, therefore, an understanding heart to judge your people and to distinguish right from wrong.  For who is able to govern this vast people of yours?"

In the very next passage we see Solomon's wisdom with perhaps one of the best known passages from Kings.  When the two women (of course they are referred to as harlots...the Old Testament is good like that) come before King Solomon fighting over a baby.  Both claim it is theirs and to solve the dispute, Solomon orders the baby to be cut in half and each woman gets a piece.  Ick...but it worked.  The real mother gave up her claim to save her child's life, so Solomon then returned the baby (unharmed) to its rightful mother.

Solomon builds a temple in the Lord's honor, "It is your son whom I will put upon your throne in your place who shall build the temple in my honor" (said to David, about Solomon).  Of course, when this promise had previously been made to David (not regurgitated here in Kings I), I thought, maybe this was some Jesus foreshadowing.  I was wrong.  Not the first time and won't be the last!

As for the whole furnishing of the temple.  Wow.  Talk about over the top.  And people complain about Catholic Churches having ornate interiors and artifacts.  We've got nothing on this lot! (1 Kings, 7:13-51).

OK.  Now I know I've called "bullshit" on quite a lot in the Old Testament, but I really have to call bullshit on this one.  Solomon had 700 wives of "princely rank" and 300 concubines!  Um, when did the man sleep?  It apparently led to that gift of wisdom to not be used properly, because they got him ignoring the ways of the Lord and making him quite irate. (1 Kings, 11:3).

So in Chapter 13 a "man of God" came from Judah to Bethel.  The Lord told him to neither eat nor drink nor to go back the way he came as he passed through Bethel.  So an old prophet went out to him, lied by claiming that the Lord sent him to bring him back to his house to eat and drink, so what does the Lord do.  Has a lion kill him.  These poor dudes.  That sucks!

I got a kick out of seeing the succeeding kings almost always having the phrase that so-and-so, "did evil in the Lord's sight beyond any of his predecessors."  To become successively worse!  I wouldn't have thought it possible.  Silly me!

I swear God was bored and enjoyed watching these guys do crazy things.  In 1 Kings, 20:35-36 it reads "One of the guild prophets was prompted by the Lord to say to his companion, 'Strike me.' But he refused to strike him. The he said to him, 'Since you did not obey the voice of the Lord, a lion will kill you when you leave me.'"  Sweet!  You don't hit someone and you're punished.  Wouldn't it have been better to warn him ahead of time?  "Hey, yo, the Lord said to kick my ass.  I'd listen if I were you!"

And a good laugh at the 1 Kings, 20:31 with, "'We have heard that the kings of the land of Israel are merciful kings.'"  If they were merciful, I would hate to see the others!

In 2 Kings, 2:23-24 "From there Elisha went up to Bethel.  While he was on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him. 'Go up, baldhead,' they shouted, 'go up, baldhead!' The prophet turned and saw them, and he cursed them in the name of the Lord.  Then two she-bears came out of the woods and tore forty-two of the children to pieces."  Harsh!  A very strict no bullying policy.

And the last thing I really highlighted before burning through the rest of 2 Kings was that apparently the multiplication of loaves wasn't a Jesus-only thing.  Elisha did it too.  I did not know that.  I'll be curious to see if there are any others that do.  Interesting.

Hopefully, everyone got through their reading.  I know I'm posting late, but tomorrow's assignment will still go out on time!

Assignment 12 - The Second Book of Kings

Same deal as with Samuel.  Continue on to the Second Book of Kings and I'll be posting my comments on both on Saturday!  I hope everyone is enjoying their reading.  It certainly is enlightening...700 wives, Solomon?  Really?  Whenever did you sleep!

Assignment 11 - The First Book of Kings

Well, onward and upward.  Here's what my Bible has to say about Kings:

     "The two Books of Kings were originally, like 1 and 2 Samuel, a single historical work, In conjunction with the Books of Samuel, they extend the consecutive history of Israel from the birth of Samuel to the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C.  This combined work is designed as a religious history; hence in Kings the temple, which is the chosen site for the worship of Yahweh, occupies the center of attention.
     The Books of Kings show clearly the theological bent of a Deuteronomic editor.  In them, as already in Judges, material from various sources, such as the 'book of the acts of Solomon' (1 Kgs 11, 41) and the 'book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel' (1 Kgs 14, 19), is forged into structural unity by an editor whose principal interest is in the fidelity to Yahweh of rulers and people.  The reigns of individual kings are adapted to an editorial framework consisting of a presentation and an obituary notice for each, in stereotyped formulas.  In between, the achievements of the king are reported - above all, his fidelity or lack of fidelity to Yahweh.  The faithful prosper; the unfaithful pay for their defections.  Since this is basically a narrative of sin and retribution, it would not be inappropriate to entitle the Books of Kings 'The Rise and Fall of the Israelite Monarchy.'
     Without minimizing the complexity of the process by which this material was transmitted for many centuries, one may speak of two editions of the Books:  the first at some time between 621 B.C. and 597 B.C. and the second, final edition during the Exile; probably shortly after Jehoiachin was released from his Babylonian Prison (561 B.C.)
     1 Kings carries the history of Israel from the last days and death of David to the accession in Samaria of Ahaziah, son of Ahab, near the end of the reign of Jehoshaphat, king of Judah.  Judgment is passed on Ahaziah's reign but the details are given only later, in 2 Kings.  We should note the two large cycles of traditions which grew up around the great prophetic figures of Elijah and Elisha, the former in 1 Kings and the latter chiefly in 2 Kings.  These cycles, which interrupt the sequence of regnal chronicles, were very probably preserved and transmitted by the prophetic communities to which there are references in the same traditions.  The Elijah cycle is the more important since it dramatically underscores Israel's critical struggle with the religion of Canaan.


     The principal divisions of the Books of Kings are:
          I.  The Reign of Solomon (1Kgs 1, 1-11, 43)
          II.  Judah and Israel to the TIme of Ahab (1 Kgs 12, 1-16, 34)
          III.  Stories of the Prophets (1 Kgs 17, 1022, 54)
          IV.  The Kingdoms of Israel and Judah (2 Kgs 1, 1-17, 41)
          V.  The Kingdom of Judah after 721 B.C. (2 Kgs 18, 1-25, 30)"


Hmm..so more Israelites behaving badly.  We'll see where this rates on the annoying scale and how severe the punishments are.  It should be interesting.  I have high hopes that I will enjoy it at least to the extent of Samuel.

Have fun with the reading!

Got Any Preparation H?

I couldn't find a picture of a hemorrhoid...

My apologies at the lateness of this post.  Previously I had to tell everyone to continue on to Samuel II and then you heard nothing from me when the post on both Books of Samuel were due.  Sadly, the reason was that the stomach flu hit our family.  Still not at 100% but at least I have some energy, so let's attack Samuel!

I actually was enjoying reading Samuel.  I don't know if I just resigned myself to the violence and chauvinism of it all and am looking at it as one crazy story, or if it was actually better.  I'll have to think about that, I suppose.  Let me know what you think.  Was this reading better or has it all been on par with the previous books.

Anyway, my highlighter got some use as I made it through these two Books of Samuel and I'll get to covering what struck me (good or bad) as I was reading:

So basically after the Israelites were defeated by the Philistines and they lost the Ark, the Lord dealt with the inhabitants of any city the Ark was moved to harshly.  What did he do?  He "ravaged and afflicted the city and its vicinity with hemorrhoids; he brought upon the city a great and deadly plague of mice that swarmed in their ships and overran their fields." (Samuel I, 5:6)

And so the Philistines moved the Ark from city to city with the plague of hemorrhoids and mice following along.  So the Philistines asked their fortune-tellers, " 'What shall we do with the ark of the Lord?  Tell us what we should send back with it.'  They replied, 'If you intend to send away the ark of the God of Israel, you must not send it alone, but must, by all means, make amends to him through a guilt offering...' " (Samuel I, 6:3) And what was the guilt offering?  Five golden hemorrhoids and five golden mice!  I'm still trying to figure out what their golden hemorrhoids looked like.  That gave me a good giggle!

So the Israelites then decide they want a king to lead them, which naturally ticks the Lord off to no end, but being the overly-indulgent Father that he is, he granted the request, but at the same time telling them that the king will eventually subjugate/oppress them and when they cry out for help, God will not answer.  Cool.

Fast forward and Samuel is telling Saul a message from the Lord regarding attacking Amalek, "...'Do not spare him, but kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and asses.' " (Samuel I, 15:3).  Yikes!  I really get some indigestion over this whole killing everything crap.  Yeah, yeah, yeah.  I've seen the movies where they say that if you leave one infant alive s/he may rise up as an adult and try to avenge the death of family, but really...whatever!  I'm not all about this massacre everyone bullshit.  This doesn't bring me any closer to my faith.  It shocks and disturbs me instead.

So Saul does actually spare Agag (King of Amalek) and the best animals (no mention of sparing any of the women and children though), so God rejects Saul as ruler and it's all downhill from there for Saul!

"Do not judge from his appearance or from his lofty stature, because I have rejected him.  Not as man sees does God see, because man sees the appearance but the Lord looks into the heart." (Samuel I, 16:7)  I just really liked that quote.  Too bad people don't follow that now.  All we seem to do is judge by appearances.  Sad.

"All this multitude, too, shall learn that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves.  For the battle is the Lord's, and he shall deliver you into our hands." (Samuel I, 17:47)  Now this is something that I can find inspiring.  Is this the first time I've said it since we started?  It feels like it.

So David marries Saul's daughter, Michal.  Saul is jealous and despises David for his favor with God and his prowess in battle.  He plans to kill David and Michal (who loves David), helps her husband to escape.  Very nice indeed, however, I found trouble with the passage, "Michal took the household idol and laid it in the bed, putting a net of goat's hair at its head and covering it with a spread." (Samuel I, 19:13).  Household idol?  OK, this really should have been explained earlier, because I didn't think that this would be allowed?  And if it isn't allowed, why would David as God's chosen ruler for the Israelites tolerate such an idol in his house?  I mean it's just mentioned like it's something everyone had.  Hmmm.

I noticed that in Chapter 21 there was a subheading of "The Holy Bread" and after reading it I immediately thought of communion.  While I understand that communion is the body of Christ and that wasn't the intent here, I have to think that it may have had some tie-in.

Also, noted that in Chapter 28 there was a subheading, "The Witch of Endor".  Witches?  Fortune-tellers?  So is the bible saying that these are real?  If so, apparently saying they are real, but don't use them, or better, destroy them.  K...

Chapter 31 dealt with the death of Saul and his sons.  So the Lord apparently had enough of his crap and said that Saul and his sons would die.  Of course, Jonathan was killed too.  OK, now Jonathan was protecting David from Saul thus betraying his father, but serving David and the Lord...and he gets killed for it?  Seriously, Shakespeare is downright cheerful compared to this!

In the capture of Zion I was a bit disturbed by the phrase, "The lame and the blind shall be the personal enemies of David."  (Samuel II, 5:8).  Well, isn't that sad.  As if the lame and blind didn't already have problems!

A prediction of Jesus? (Samuel II, Ch 7:12-16) "And when your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins, and I will make his kingdom firm.  It is he who shall build a house for my name.  And I will make his royal throne firm forever.  I will be a father to him, and he shall be a son to me.  And if he does wrong, I will correct him with the rod of men and with human chastisements; but I will not withdraw my favor from him as I withdrew it from your predecessor Saul, whom I removed from my presence.  Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me; your throne shall stand firm forever."

Later in Chapter 13 we've got one of David's sons, Amnon, raped his sister Tamar.  This pissed off their brother Absalom who he has him killed which pisses of David.  Really?  OK, if you had punished Amnon for being a little rapist shit, he might still be alive.  Holy cow this part pissed me off!

In Chapter 21 Goliath of Gath reappears.  Resurrected from the dead or just same name different dude?

That's pretty much all I highlighted.  More in Samuel I, I know, but despite the sarcasm and irritation in my post, I found the reading more enjoyable.  At least not painful.

Assignment 10 - The Second Book of Samuel

I'm writing this minutes before running out to a Cub Scout Camping weekend and after just having finished a PTA Carnival this week, so blog post on both books of Samuel will happen next Saturday.  In the meantime, move on to Book 2!

Assignment 9 - The First Book of Samuel

Well, Ruth was nice and short, but Samuel appears to be about the typical length of what we've been reading so far.  I'm hopeful that Samuel will be better than many of the other books we've read to date. 

Samuel does mark the beginning of the "Historical Books" so I'm hopeful.  Let's head off and see what my bible says about the Books of Samuel:

     "Originally but one book, the scroll of Samuel was early divided into two.  The Greek translators called these the first and second Books of Kingdoms, a title St. Jerome later modified to 'Kings.'  The Hebrew title, 'Samuel,' alludes to the leading figure in the first book, who was responsible for the enthronement of David.  It is David's history that the second book recounts.
     This sacred work thus comprises the history of about a century, describing the close of the age of the Judges and the beginnings of monarchy in Israel under Saul and David.  It is not a complete and continuous history, nor a systematic account of the period, but rather a series of episodes centered around the persons of Samuel, Saul and David.
      The final editor is unknown, nor are we certain of the time at which the various strands of the narrative were put together, though one may think of the period, perhaps late in the seventh century B.C., when the other volumes of the 'Former Prophets,' from Joshua through Kings, were built into a more or less continuous historical corpus.  The Samuel-Saul-David narratives clearly depend on several written sources:  a Samuel cycle, two sets of stories about Saul and David, and a family history of David.  This last (2 Sm 9-20; 1 Kgs 1-2), one of the most vivid historical narratives surviving from ancient times, probably originated early in the reign of Solomon.
     One of the most significant theological contributions of the Old Testament is found in 2 Samuel 7, the oracle of Nathan.  David is here promised an eternal dynasty, and this becomes the basis for the development of royal messianism throughout the Bible.  With this promise to David one should compare 1 Chr 17; Pss 89, 20-38 and 132, 11ff; Acts 2, 30; and Heb 1, 5."

Have fun and remember that we're only doing the first book!

Baby Ruth...Butterfinger

Am I showing my age with that title?

I really didn't know that this book was only 4 pages long.  Talk about a joy to read too!  Nothing too horrible about it either.  Ruth's mother-in-law is widowed and looses both of her sons.  She sends her two daughters-in-law to go back home to their original families.  D-I-L #1 does, but D-I-L #2 (Ruth) stays by her.

Upon returning to Ruth's M-I-L's native land, Ruth goes out to try to get food for them.  She follows behind as others harvest (unless I'm misunderstanding that).  Turns out the guy who's harvest she's been picking up after is a relative/cousin of her M-I-L.  M-I-L hatches a plan that results in Ruth sneaking in and sleeping at his feet (I don't get that bit, but I guess it was a cultural/time period thing).  Dude eventually marries her.

Moral of the story is supposed to be that because Ruth didn't listen to M-I-L and stayed with her and took care of her that she was rewarded with husband #2 who was nice and rich.  So if you behave and sleep at some strange, rich dude's feet he'll apparently marry you.

Don't go running out all at once sleeping at Donald Trump's feet or something crazy, now!

Assignment 8 - The Book of Ruth

Can I have hopes that a book about a woman won't have tons of insults against women?  OK, I won't hold my breath.  Hopefully the book isn't about how we can insult Ruth or I will be quite disappointed.  Let's see what my handy-dandy Bible says about this book:

     "The Book of Ruth is named after the Moabite woman who was joined to the Israelite people by her marriage with the influential Boaz of Bethlehem.
     The book contains a beautiful example of filial piety, pleasing to the Hebrews especially because of its connection with King David, and useful both to Hebrews and to Gentiles.  Its aim is to demonstrate the divine reward for such pity even when practiced by a stranger.  Ruth's piety (Ru 2, 11), her spirit of self-sacrifice, and her moral integrity were favored by God with the gift of faith and an illustrious marriage whereby she became the ancestress of David and of Christ.  In this, the universality of the messianic salvation is foreshadowed.
     In the Greek and Latin canons the book of Ruth is placed just after Judges, to which it is closely related because of the time of its action, and just before Samuel, for which it is an excellent introduction, since it traces the ancestry of the Davidic dynasty.  One might characterize the literary form of this book as dramatic, since about two-thirds of it is in dialogue.  Yet there is every indication that, as tradition has always held, it contains true history.
     There is no certainty about the author of the book.  It was written long after the events had passed (Ru 4, 7), which took place 'in the time of the judges' (Ru 1, 1)."

So this book contains "true history"?  Well thank you for telling me that.  What do the other books contain?  A bunch of violent crap?  The book was written "long after the events had passed"?  And the others weren't?

OK...time for a break before I throw my book...

Have fun with it!

Who Judges the Judges?

So I still had about half of Judges to read as of last night, but that's nothing that a little late night determination couldn't fix.  Note to self - reading the Old Testament before bed can cause nightmares!

So I noticed a few times in this book the passage, "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what he thought best."

I imagine they didn't do a lot of thinking though.  A few things I noted as I muddled my way through this latest book of horrors...

We are again back to the Israelites not doing what they are supposed to.  God must really like them since he tolerates their crap and then when they "cry out" to Him he sends a Judge to help.  I supposed it's like any parent with a difficult child.  A series of punishments and forgiveness.  As an outsider it's easier to say that the punishments (severe as they were) just didn't seem to work very well.  I suppose the Israelites were a bit more difficult than my children though.

I found this amusing, "But when the Israelites cried out to the Lord, he raised up for them a savior, the Benjaminite Ehud, son of Gera, who was left-handed." (Ch 3, 15).  I'm sure being left-handed was something noteworthy.  From my point of view as I read this...I just giggled.  "Oh thank goodness for the left-handed.  They have come to save us poor righties!"

Poor ol' Judge Shamgar.  He apparently wasn't worth much more than a brief mention.  So much thanks for rescuing Israel!

Deborah!  Finally a woman not being shown as a whore, a pain in the ass, or just as someone worthless in general.  Glad to see a little feminism there.  I'm sure it will be forgotten before long...

Gideon...brought me back to Veggie Tales (as did many parts of the Old Testament so far, although Veggie Tales does make them look better than they do from actual reading of the Old Testament).  So seriously, Gideon does ask repeatedly for proof that God wants him to do this.  So everyone is afraid to look upon God, but they aren't afraid to question him?  I suppose he was just trying to make sure that it was God asking, but even the people He chooses to act through question him.  Sheesh!

Then there was the bit where Abimelech went to his mother's kinsmen and asked if 70 men (essentially all of Jerubbaal's sons) rule over the people or one man?  So all of the sons of Jerubbaal, save Abimelech (shocker) are killed so he can lead.  Yeah, sure, he gets his comeuppance but why was it permitted to happen?  Yeah, free-will.  Got it.  But why didn't the Lord send a messenger or something to at least ONE of his sons and say, "Hey you might want to get out of town!"

I pretty much stopped marking passages in this book by now and just concentrated on reading it.  The part about Samson was rather odd.  Sent by God...check.  Can't cut his hair...check.  Kills lots of people...check (seems to be the theme of the Old Testament despite "Thou Shalt Not Kill" and all).  Finally meets Delilah and she screws him over...check.  Samson dies.

OK so when Delilah asked Samson what his weakness is, he lies and tells her something else besides his hair and she tries to use it against him (obviously it doesn't work), then why does knuckle-head-a-potomus fall for it 3 more times with the final time him actually telling her about his hair?  I guess no one said the Judges were in any way smart.

Then we've got Micah creating idols and nothing immediately bad happening to him.  Blah.

Finally this Levite with a concubine (alternately referred to as a wife and a concubine...see, I told you it wouldn't be long before women were awful again) is traveling with her, comes to Gibeah and stays the night.  The citizens come to the house he's staying in and demand that he be sent out so they can "abuse" him....this sounding familiar (ahem...Lot)?  So naturally the Levite's wife/concubine and the host's virgin daughter is offered instead.  Well the chivalrous Levite kicks his wife/concubine out the door and they spend the entire night taking turns raping her.  She collapses on the ground.  Levite tells her that it's time to go.  No answer, so he throws her on his ass...we'll assume this refers to his donkey :)...and they travel home where he cuts her up into 12 pieces and scatters her throughout Israel.

So who is the bad guy there?  The people that raped her or the jackass husband that gave her to them and then cut her to pieces?  OK, when I first read this I assumed she was still alive and he murdered her.  I thought "What an asshole!"  Then I realized that if she was pretty much raped all night by the various asshole men of the village, there was a pretty good chance that when they reference her not moving that she was already dead.  And I thought "What an asshole!"

You know it's hard to believe that many of these people died and went anywhere but straight to hell.

Assignment 7 - The Book of Judges

An onward we go!

The next reading assignment is the Book of Judges, and as has become the norm, I'll let you know what my Bible has about Judges:

   "The Book of Judges derives its title from the twelve heroes of Israel whose deeds it records.  They were not magistrates, but military leaders sent by God to aid and to relieve his people in time of external danger.  They exercised their activities in the interval of time between the death of Joshua and the institution of the monarchy in Israel.  Six of them - Othniel, Ehud, Barak, Gideon, Jephtah and Samson - are treated in some detail and have accordingly been styled the Major Judges.  The other six, of whose activities this book preserves but a summary record, are called the Minor Judges.  There were two other judges, whose judgeships are described in 1 Samuel - Eli and Samuel, who seem to have ruled the entire nation of Israel just before the institution of the monarchy.  The twelve judges of  the present book, however, very probably exercised their authority, sometimes simultaneously, over one or another tribe of Israel, never over the entire nation.
      The purpose of the book is to show that the fortunes of Israel depended upon the obedience or disobedience of the people to God's law.  Whenever they rebelled against him, they were oppressed by pagan nations; when they repented, he raised up judges to deliver them (cf Jgs 2, 10-23).
      The accounts of various events, whether written shortly after their occurrence or orally transmitted, were later skillfully unified according to the moral purpose of the redactor sometime during the Israelite monarchy.
      The book is divided as follows:
     I.  Palestine after the Death of Joshua (Jgs 1, 1-3, 6)
    II.  Stories of the Judges (Jgs 3, 7-16, 31)
   III.  The Tribes of Dan and Benjamin in the Days of the Judges (Jgs 17, 1-21, 25)"

So I really don't know what to expect from Judges.  Hopefully more along the lines of story-telling as in Joshua, but doubting the violence will subside.  Despite my frustration with the readings up to now, I'm still excited every time I start a new Book.  I hope you are too!

Joshua - Kicking Ass in the Promised Land

We have arrived.  Joshua and the Israelites enter the Promised Land and slaughtered all the men, women and children (except one tribe that tricked him).  OK, did anyone else have a huge problem with this?

That's really all I have to say about the Book of Joshua.  They went into the Promised Land, mass murdered practically everyone under the Lord's orders, divided the land and that's that.  What more can I say?  Well, apart from this isn't really helping me grow closer to my faith at all.  It's depressing.

Reading it wasn't as boring as in other Books.  This was more like a story, and really the only boring part was dividing up the land among the tribes of Israel.  So yay for not being completely boring,  but boooo for slaughter.

Assignment 6 - The Book of Joshua

Moving forward.  Moses is dead and buried and it's time for the Israelites to claim the "Promised Land" under the new leadership of Joshua.  Thus the title of the book.  Here's what my bible says about this book:

     "The Book of Joshua derives its name from the successor of Moses, with whose deeds it is principally concerned.  The purpose of the book is to demonstrate God's fidelity in giving to the Israelites the land he had promised them for an inheritance (Gn 15, 18ff; Jos 1, 2ff; 21, 41ff; 23, 14ff)
     Their occupation of the country is begun with the crossing of the Jordan and the conquest of Jericho (ch 1-6), in both of which the Lord intervenes on their behalf.  This is followed by a first foothold on the Palestinian mountain range, at Ai, Bethel and Gibeon (ch 7-9), and two sweeping campaigns against the city states in the south of the country (ch 10) and in the north (ch 11), with a summary in ch 12.  The broad claim to total sovereignty thus established is spelled out by a combined list of tribal boundaries and of the towns contained within each area or administrative district (ch 13-19), including cities of asylum and cities for the Levites (ch 20, 21).  The book closes with a narrative about the tribes east of the Jordan (ch 22), a warning speech by Joshua (ch 23), and a renewal at Shechem (ch 24) of the covenant with the Lord, already affirmed there near the beginning (8, 30-35) of the conquest.
     Like the books which precede it, the Book of Joshua was built up by a long and complex process of editing traditional material.  Both Jewish and Christian believers have always regarded it as inspired. 
     The entire history of the conquest of the Promised Land is a prophecy of the spiritual conquest of the world through the church under the leadership of Jesus the Messiah."

Now I don't know about that whole last paragraph.  That just sounds like Christian interpretation and I'm not about twisting words around to get them to mean what I want them to.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm a believer.  A Christian.  I also am smart enough to see that that last bit appears to be generously interpreted.  We shall see.  Perhaps I will feel differently after reading Joshua.  I'm hoping there will be less slaughter-everyone-in-sight, but I suppose if they are following God's wishes, slaughtering their enemies will be what I'm reading.  See ya on the other side (of the week that is!)

Deuteronomy - Moses Tells Off the Israelites

I've been at a Scout ceremony for my oldest today...he earned his religious knot, so the blog is getting out super late right now.  Not a terribly big deal, mostly because Deuteronomy was filled with tons of repetition.  The Israelites are almost to the promised land, but the Lord has already told Moses that he will not be able to ever enter because of his and his people's transgressions so he's a little pissed and pretty much lets the Israelites know it.

I'm going to touch on various sections that I highlighted as I read either because it was a "Hmmm, that was interesting" or a "What the hell?!?!?!" passage.

"No, it is not because of your merits or the integrity of your heart that you are going in to take possession of their land; but the Lord, your God, is driving these nations out before you on account of their wickedness and in order to keep the promise which he made on oath to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Understand this, therefore:  it is not because of your merits that the Lord, your God, is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people." (Ch 9, 5-6)

All I said was, "DAMN!" Tell 'em how you feel, there, Moses!  Don't hold anything back!

"If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer who promises you a sign or wonder, urging you to follow other gods, whom you have not known, and to serve them:  even though the sign or wonder he has foretold you comes to pass, pay no attention to the words of that prophet or that dreamer; for the Lord, your God, is testing you to learn whether you really love him with all your heart and with all your soul.  The Lord, your God, shall you follow, and him shall you fear; his commandment shall you observe, and his voice shall you heed, serving him and holding fast to him alone. But that prophet or that dreamer shall be put to death, because, in order to lead you astray from the way which the Lord, your God, has directed you to take, he has preached apostasy from the Lord, your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt and ransomed you from that place of slavery.  Thus shall you purge the evil from your midst." (Ch 13, 2-6)

And of course I was saying, "No wonder Jesus had it hard!"  A prophecy that a prophet will come but also saying that if someone claims to be a prophet to stone him because he's testing you.  What a test..."Hey, I want to see if those wankers will turn their backs on me...go tell them that you are a prophet and to worship this idol."  Man gets stoned to death.  "Well, I guess they still love me, but boy that looked like it hurt!"

"If one of your kinsmen in any community is in need in the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor close your hand to him in his need.  Instead, you shall open your hand to him and freely lend him enough to meet his need." (Ch 15, 7-8)

Verses 1 through 11 actually deal with Debts and the Poor and it goes on to essentially talks of debts and not being a greedy a-hole.  I figured only verses 7-8 were enough, but feel free to check out the rest!

In Chapter 18, verses 15-20 we hear about the coming of a prophet that speaks for the Lord and within the same paragraph a contradiction...or perhaps it would be better to say, enough of an ambiguous statement that would leave anyone scared to acknowledge a prophet:

"'A prophet like me will the Lord, your God, raise up for you from among your own kinsmen; to him you shall listen...(v15)...But if a prophet presumes to speak in my name an oracle that I have not commanded him to speak, or speaks in the mane of other gods, he shall die.' (v20)".  Not a bit murky at all is it?

I just about died laughing at this one:

"When two men are fighting and the wife of one intervenes to save her husband from the blows of his opponent, if she stretches out her hand and seizes the latter by his private parts, you shall chop off her hand without pity." (Ch 26, v 11-12)

Seriously?  I get the whole, women are worthless, meaningless, can be constantly divorced by their husbands and have not a damn thing to say about it, etc...right...we're dirt...got it, but I guess I'd get my hand chopped off, because if my husband were getting attacked and I could do anything to help him out I would.  Nut grabbing and all.  And this whole, nut-grabbing-hand-cutting verse was just out there flapping.  Like someone was writing down the Old Testament and just said, "Look...squirrel!" or in this case "Nuts!" (pun intended).

And finally the "catch all" phrase in Chapter28, verse 61, just in case the Lord forgot something:

"Should there be any kind of sickness or calamity not mentioned in this book of the law, that too the Lord will bring upon you until you are destroyed..." (regarding plagues that would befall them should they not obey the Lord).

Then we get into the Song of Moses, which is essentially Moses' last screw you, "I know you all are going to f@*k this up!  Now memorize this and teach your children so they too know what a-holes I thought you guys were. "  Then he dies.  I guess he was a grumpy old man...not that the Israelites didn't make him that way.  I guess I can understand his piss-off-ed-ness.

I find myself saying, "Let's get this done and get on to the New Testament!"  I guess I'm just a peace, love and joy type of chick.  All this hate and "fear me" crap is bringing me down!

Assignment 5 - The Book of Deuteronomy

The next reading assignment is the Book of Deuteronomy.  A bit from my Bible on Deuteronomy:

"The fifth and last book of the Pentateuch is called Deuteronomy, meaning 'second law.'  In reality, what it contains is not a new law but a partial repetition, completion and explanation of the law proclaimed on Mount Sinai.  The historical portions of the book are also a resume of what is related elsewhere in the Pentateuch.  The chief characteristic of this book is its vigorous oratorical style.  In a series of eloquent discourses Moses presents the theme of covenant renewal in a vital religious framework.  he exhorts, corrects and threatens his people, appealing to their past glory, their historic mission and the promise of future triumph.  His aim is to enforce among the Israelites the Lord's claim to their obedience, loyalty and love. The events contained in the Book of Deuteronomy took place in the plains of Moab (dt 1, 5) between the end of the wanderings in the desert (Dt 1, 3) and the crossing of the Jordan River (Jos 4, 19), a period of no more than forty days.  The Book of Deuteronomy, written after the Israelites had for centuries been resident in the Land of Promise, takes the form of a testament of Moses, the great leader and legislator, to his people on the eve of his death.  At the time of our Lord's coming, it shared with the Psalms a preeminent religious influence among the Old Testament books.  The Savior quoted passages of Deuteronomy in overcoming the threefold temptation of Satan in the desert (Mt 4; Dt 6, 13. 16; 8, 3; 10, 20), and in explaining to the lawyer the first and greatest commandment 9Mt 22, 35-39; Dt 6, 4)."

OK, so with no real prior knowledge of this book it looks like Moses gets sick of being the leader of the whiny.  So it should be interesting to see how he deals with them.  I'm sure there will be parts of Deuteronomy that I recognize, but going into this, nothing sounds familiar.  We shall see what we learn.  Hopefully it will yield more than listening to a bunch of people that really needed a time out!

Numbers - God Puts the Smack Down

Sorry for the late post.  Got my 10 year old's cooties and have felt better.  So this post will be short, sweet and to the point.  It seems like the whiny Israelites are finally getting God's smack down, but first a little more whining (some of which came from Moses).

I suppose I can understand the Israelites becoming sick of Manna, but when they pulled their whiny "We want meat" to Moses who in return says to the Lord, "For they are crying to me, 'Give us meat for our food.'  I cannot carry all this people by myself, for the are too heavy for me.  If this is the way you will deal with me, then please do me the favor of killing me at once, so that i need no longer face this distress." (Ch 11, v14-15)

Moses must have really been frustrated at that point to ask for death instead of dealing with these people any longer!  Of course, the Lord didn't punish Moses for that, instead he responded, "To the people, however, you shall say:  Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, when you shall have meat to eat.  For in the hearing of the Lord you have cried, 'Would that we had meat for food!  Oh, how well off we were in Egypt!' Therefore the Lord will give you meat for food, and you will eat it, not for one day, or two days, or five, or ten, or twenty days, but for a whole month - until it comes out of your very nostrils and becomes loathsome to you.  For you have spurned the Lord who is in your midst, and in his presence you have wailed, 'Why did we ever leave Egypt?' " (Ch 11, v 18-20)

I love it.  Give them what they want until they can't stand it anymore.  What parent would think that a bad discipline strategy!  Did it work?  Ha!  Of course not.  So when in Chapter 14 they once again turned whiny and wished to return to Egypt (even going so far as to want to appoint another leader), God threatened to destroy them and essentially to start again with a new nation presumably from Moses and Aaron's families.

Moses begged for their lives citing essentially "What will the Egyptians say?".  I'll admit I had a difficult time with that.  Trying to reason with an all-knowing deity just seems odd to me.  But...not going there right now.  Too sicky-icky feeling.

God's punishment? "How long will this wicked community grumble against me?  I have heard the grumblings of the Israelites against me.  Tell them: By my life, says the Lord, I will do to you just what I have heard you say.  Here in the desert shall your dead bodies fall.  Of all your men of twenty years or more, registered in the census, who grumbled against me, not one shall enter the land where I solemnly swore to settle you, except Caleb, son of Jephunneh, and Joshua, son of Nun."

Now I knew the Israelites wandered for 40 years before entering the land of milk and honey as a punishment for their grumbling, but I didn't realize that it was made known to them that they were to wander until the last of the adult grumblers kicked the proverbial bucket.  Of course this didn't mean that their whining stopped.  I don't think it will for the rest of the Old Testament.  What a patient God!  If only I could be so patient with my children!

There's lots more in the Book of Numbers that I haven't touched on.  The censuses that I was so excited about weren't that interesting, but then I suppose to people that hear me ramble on about my family tree feel the same way.  Some very interesting information in those censuses though to include the number of adult men (of a viable military age).  It was very interesting to see how they were broken down and laid out, assigning jobs and areas to camp and who answers in what order when the alarm is raised.  Our God is quite a military leader there!  Even the treatment of captives, division of "booty" (I laughed at that one), purification after combat, etc.  Now that was very interesting!

The last thing I'll mention, because I found it very interesting as well as it was also one of the last thing mentioned in Numbers, was about witnesses.  I was intrigued that witnesses must give evidence for a murdered to be executed and that there needed to be more than one witness to put a person to death for murder.  That bit did surprise me.  What if the murder happened out of sight of anyone?  Still, it's always interesting looking back at such laws.

I'll do my best to get the next post ready for tomorrow's reading assignment.  For now, it's time to rest and kick these cooties!

Assignment 4 - Numbers

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve!

Sorry, but I had the Electric Company running through my head.  Impressionable young child that I was.  Our next reading assignment is the Book of Numbers.  As a genealogist, I got a bit excited when I saw the description and it mentioned a census!  We genealogists drool over things like that.  Let's see if I'm drooling in excitement or all over myself by the time it's all over!

Here's what my Bible has about the Book of Numbers:

   "The Book of Numbers derives its name from the account of the two censuses of the Hebrew people taken, one near the beginning and the other towrd the end of the journey in the desert (chapters 1 and 26).  It continues the story of that journey, begun in Exodus, and describes briefly the experiences of the Israelites for a period of thirty-eight years, from the end of their encampment at Sinai to their arrival at the border of the Promised Land.  Numerous legal ordinances are interspersed in the account, making the book a cominbation of law and history.
   The various events describe clearly indicate the action of God, who punishes the murmuring of the people by prolonging their stay in the desert, at the same time preparing them by this discipline to be his witnesses among the nations.
   In the New Testament Christ and the Apostles derive useful lessons from such events in the Book of Numbers as the brazen serpent (Jn 3, 14f), the sedition of Korah and its consequences (1 Cor 10, 10), the prophecies of Balaam (2 Pt 2, 15f), and the water gushing from the rock (1 Cor 10, 4)."


I'm excited about the whole census bit and actually about it telling of the journey to the promised land.  I'm ready for a story!  Remember that you can comment on the blog or on the Facebook group!

Leviticus - Animal Population Control

So Leviticus is about the laws and sacrifices that Moses relayed to his people at God's command.  I'm not going to lie.  This was incredibly boring and it wasn't enjoyable for me.  Not that I expected the Old Testament to be keeping me at the edge of my seat, but it was so repetitive that I thought I was re-reading previous passages.

All the sacrificing.  Well, I was beginning to wonder how they could have possibly done this and had any animals left over to eat and breed.  I guess they got to eat the blemished animals.  We've already seen how the Israelites couldn't seem to behave and I couldn't help but think that there must have been a ton of sacrificing going on.

Sadly, I also have to say that the descriptions of the sacrifices are also a bit, well, barbaric.  I know that I need to look at this in a historic perspective and I know that some of the laws on what can and cannot be eaten were most likely set to help protect the people from sickness, but there was such a roman-god quality to the sacrifices that it just seemed odd. 

The uncleanness of childbirth (Chapter 12) just blew my mind.  OK...you're unclean for 7 days for a boy and 14 for a girl...'cuz those girls are just so damned dirty.  Yeah, yeah...before women's liberation.  Got it.  What really got to me was the going in to sacrifice a lamb and a pigeon/turtledove for a sin offering.  Really?  She sins by bringing a child into the world?  What about the dude that put it there?  Would it be better if she didn't bear the child.  Yeah...women are such sinners.  When I was back home in Pennsylvania this summer my mother told me about something called "churching".  Now I've looked it up and the modern day versions that I've found don't put it in a negative light (of course), but my mother told me that when she was in the hospital after giving birth to one of us, a nun came in and asked if she wanted to be churched.  She asked what it was and was told that it was to cleanse her of the sin of childbirth.  You've seen my posts so far.  I'm a lot like my mom. so you can probably imagine what she said to that nun about churching.  I suppose it's not done anymore though because no one tried to church me after sinfully having my two children.

Chapter 13 talked about leprosy.  Something we don't hear about too frequently nowadays.  The chapter didn't bother me at all.  I'm sure it was to help protect the majority from sickness, but I feel for those poor people with eczema!  If it spreads, they consider it leprosy?  Yikes!  I really didn't get the whole leprosy covering his entire body means he's clean unless there is "raw skin" thing.  Glad I live today.  Seriously, though it can be a bit interesting to see how the Israelis had to protect themselves against something that was much more prevalent back then.

Sacrifice what?!?!

And what happened after a person with leprosy was declared "clean".  You guessed it.  Sacrifices and lots of them!  But how poor the leper was, was taken into consideration too.  They had to give less, but to be sure there was still sacrificing to be done for the leper's sins.  Of course, the person must have sinned to have been stricken with leprosy.

I suppose that pregnancy happened a lot more frequently with the whole period of uncleanness.  Menstruate for 7 days, unclean for 7 days, then what do you think?  A man is going to want to have sex with his wife.  Guess what?...14 days after a woman's menstruation begins is egg-dropping time!  See God knows what he's talking about!

This is where we start hearing some other Laws from God, including incest...Lot's daughters should be ashamed of themselves!  A pretty good rehash of the 10 Commandments is in here too.  Oh, and I liked this bit, "You shall not curse the deaf, or put a stumbling block in front of the blind, but you shall fear your God." (Ch 19, v14)  Now I'm not all about fearing God.  I'm certainly not wanting to tick him off, but I'm more of a lover.  I just like the whole not being a jackass to those less fortunate.

Well, that's what you get, I suppose when you've got a Catholic chick educated religiously during the late 70s-early 80s.  I've been told that the quality of the religious education of that time for Catholics wasn't the best (and it wasn't our CCD teachers' collective faults...they were following their guidance).  So I'll continue on getting through the Old Testament, but I think that after the Old and New Testaments I'm going to get in on one of the adult CCD classes at my church.  I want to wait until I read both testaments first without anyone trying to sway my views.

Some of my favorite quotes,

"You shall not bear hatred for your brother in your heart.  Though you may have to reprove your fellow man, do not incur sin because of him.  Take no revenge and cherish no grudge against your fellow countrymen.  You shall love your neighbor as yourself.  I am the Lord." (Ch 19, v17-18)

 "Stand up in the presence of the aged, and show respect for the old..." (Ch 19, v32)

And last but certainly not least (and words of wisdom and law that people in this country should abide), "When an alien resides with you in your land, do not molest him.  You shall treat the alien who resides with you no differently than the natives born among you; have the same love for him as for yourself; for you too were once aliens in the land of Egypt." (Ch 19, v 33-34)

Getting a Glimpse of Exodus

Thanks to Jessica for sharing the following link!  It's from BiblePlaces.com and this link in particular shows a reconstruction of all that is described in the Book of Exodus (minus the precious jewels and metals, of course).  I don't know about you, but I was having one heck of a time picturing it.  You can view the images by clicking here.

Assignment 3 - The Book of Leviticus

Third week into reading the Old Testament.  Are you keeping up?  School starting and all the daily trials of life go on, but we must push forward!  A bit about Leviticus from my Old Testament (Bible in my case):

   "The name 'Leviticus' was bestowed on the third book of the Pentateuch by the ancient Greek translators because a good part of this book consists of sacrificial and other ritual laws prescribed for the priests of the tribe of Levi. 
   Continuing the legislation given by God to Moses at Mount Sinai, Leviticus is almost entirely legislative in character; the rare narrative portions are subordinate to the main legislative theme.  Generally speaking, the laws contained in this book serve to teach the Israelites that they should always keep themselves in a state of legal purity, or external sanctity, as a sign of their intimate union with the Lord.  Accordingly, the central idea of Leviticus is contained in its oft-repeated injunction: "You shall be holy, because I, the Lord, am holy.'"

Oh, good.  More laws to read about.  I mean, oh GOOD!  More laws to read about!  Actually, I hope that there is a little more than just what we've already seen in Exodus, repeated in Leviticus.  Either way, it will be read.

Remember to check the Old Testament in a Year group out on Facebook!

Exodus - The Book of the Whiny

I was much more pleased in reading Exodus than I had been with Genesis.   It was interesting and comforting to read the stories of the plagues of Egypt and the flight of the Israelites from Egypt, but I've got to say, DAMN!  Those Israelites were whiny little buggers!

You would think after all the plagues cast down on the Egyptians by God, while sparing them, that they wouldn't turn from him so easily.  People, I'm sure, claim miracles and acts of God even today, but nothing compared with the acts of God in Exodus.  Moses spoke what would happen before each plague.  So does this merely make him a good fortune teller?  Perhaps, some may have viewed him as so.  The Pharaoh's magicians attempted (and somehow succeeded) at recreating many of these plagues, but even they couldn't perform them all and well before the plague of the first-born came they had given up trying and feared the God of Moses.

When Moses prayed to the Lord for the plagues to end, to disperse, they did.  More magic?  The Israelites did not think so.  They eventually believed Moses (and stopped complaining about him standing up to Pharaoh in the name of the Lord) and after the last plague (Death of the 1st-born and the celebration of Passover) they all left Egypt.  They hadn't gotten far before the plague of the whiny set in (this, however, was not one sent by God, but by the ungrateful people he had just saved from slavery...harsh, I know) and when Pharaoh and his men arrived they reverted back to the old, "Why didn't you just let us be back in Egypt" nonsense.  Terribly ungrateful.

So, again, God works his miraculous acts through Moses and the Red Sea is parted, the Israelites pass through, and (for good measure) God washes the Egyptians away by closing the Red Sea as they attempted to pass.  I know this would be enough to convince me.  Cool walls of water, Lord!

Alas, the whining continued..."we're thirsty...why did you bring us out here to die...blah, blah, blah, BLAH!".  Moses strikes the rock with his staff....WATER!  There you go you ungrateful little gits...it really only seemed to tide them over for awhile...sheesh!

Mount Sinai.  Moses warned the people what to do regardless of how long he was gone...and do you think they listened?  NO!  Moses goes up to get the stone tablets with the Ten Commandments on them from the Lord and to hang out a bit.  He's gone a mere 40 days and 40 nights and what do they do?  They get all nervous and crap and urge Aaron (who was left in charge) to use the gold they had gathered and make a god for them to worship.  And Aaron does!  "This is your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt." (Exodus, Ch 32, 1-6).  So much for Commandment #2.  Aaron needed a serious time out!

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Upon seeing this, God looks to destroy his own people (again...snore!), but is persuaded by Moses not to.  So Moses goes down, chews some booty and then throws the 10 Commandments on the ground breaking them for effect.  Hmmm, perhaps in retrospect not such a good idea?  I mean these people apparently needed some commandments going on.

After a good old fashioned butt chewing we see Moses returning to the Mountain to chill out with the Lord.  We get a bit of a repeat here.  You see, in Exodus it went over the laws the Lord gave Moses, then he goes down the mountain and yells at the whiny, goes back up and we get to hear them all again..yay!  We get lots of laws that I'm delighted are NOT followed today (ahem...slavery....), the description of the Ark of the Covenant (Woohoo...Indiana Jones!), religious rites, priest, and last but not least, the Lord's dwelling, and BOY did he want his crib pimped out!  Not that he doesn't deserve it...he is the Creator of the universe and all...

I've got to admit that I was practically drooling on myself by the time I got through the description of all this.  I'm sure I glossed over what some people would really dig on.  Trying to imagine what all this would look like.  My brain doesn't work that way.  I am rather impressed at the detail of it all.  But let me touch on some of these laws...

No great surprise that women were looked upon as second class citizens in almost every way.  Men can earn freedom...women...suck it!  Sweet!  Glad I'm alive today!  What I did find surprising considering the amount of anti-abortion people that are out there is this:

"When men have a fight and hurt a pregnant woman, so that she suffers a miscarriage, but no further injury, the guilty one shall be fined as much as the woman's husband demands of him, and he shall pay in the presence of the judges.  But if injury ensues, you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe."  

Well, you get the idea.  Time to get even.  It actually surprised me that nothing was mentioned about killing the person responsible for the death of the child.  Nope.  I'm not encouraging abortion, I'm just a student of the hypocritical.  I suppose that morality comes later or via the New Testament, but I was surprised to not find it here.  Hmmmm....

Another favorite of mine...

"When a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed, and lies with her, he shall pay her marriage price and marry her.  If her father refuses to give her to him, he must still pay him the customary marriage price for virgins."

There's lots of good stuff in there too.  Stuff that people should pay attention to today, for instance:

"You shall not molest or oppress an alien, for you were once aliens yourselves in the land of Egypt. You shall not wrong any widow or orphan.  If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry.  My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword; then your own wives will be widows, and your children orphans."

If only people would remember this today in our country.  There's far too much molesting of aliens and not giving two hoots for widows and orphans.  Lots of lip service but little by way of actual care.  It's so easy to tell someone, "Sorry, 'bout your damn luck," and another to do what God would have wanted.  Perhaps there should be some crying out to God, although I'm not really down with the whole killing those who are being insensitive bastards.

Now I know I can be a bit sarcastic when reviewing the Books at times, but to be sure, I don't view them with distaste.  No, I just find the ridiculousness of people believing that this is how we should be now a bit silly.  Times change and I'm sure these were all proper at the time.  Very acceptable.  As a genealogist I can look at things in historical perspective, but slavery has ended (at least what most people think of and we won't go into trafficking) so why would we need to follow that bit?  Polygamy...Pah-leez!

The bottom line is that there is plenty good in Exodus (and I'm sure the entire Old Testament...well, OK, maybe not much in Genesis...) and more people should take a peek.  I won't go into the hypocritical slave owners in this country and ask why they would do what they did if they were God-fearing Christians.  It's hard to imagine, but they were stupid...er, I mean, didn't view their black slaves as being human beings and therefore they could do with them as they chose.  I could say some more about that, but why?  The past is past and most people acknowledge that it was wrong.  Those that don't, well, they don't  need to be engaged in conversation...period.

I'd love to hear other people's views on Exodus.  I know that we've got a small group going on the Facebook page, but not everyone has Facebook, and some people may yet join us, so don't forget to comment on the blogsite here too.

Assignment 2 - The Book of Exodus

No surprises here.  A bit about the Book taken from my Bible:

    "The second book of the Pentateuch is called Exodus from the Greek word for, 'departure,' because the central event narrated in it is the departure of the Israelites from Egypt.  It continues the history of the chosen people from the point where the Book of Genesis leaves off.  It recounts the oppression by the Egyptians of the ever-increasing descendants of Jacob and their miraculous deliverance by God through Moses, who led them across the Red Sea to Mount Sinai where they entered into a special covenant with the Lord.
     These events were of prime importance to the chosen people, for the became thereby an independent nation and enjoyed a unique relationship with God.  Through Moses God gave to the Israelites at Mount Sinai the 'law': the moral, civil and ritual legislation by which they were to become a holy people, in whom the promise of a Savior for all mankind would be fulfilled."

So it looks like they'll be getting a talk from God about morality.  Shall I say, "Thank God!"  Pun intended.

Breaking News!

Breaking News!...Local crowd attempts to break down door to get at newcomer.  Homeowner acknowledges that when told to send out the visitors so the crowd can have their way with them he instead begged for their protection and offered up his virgin daughters to appease their perverse appetite...After escaping the complete destruction of their hometown daughters fear that they are the only surviving people on the planet and therefore get their father drunk and have sex with him...A son who found his naked, drunk father passed out in a field is cursed by father when he discovers he has been covered.

OK...taking it a bit out of context, but geepers!  If you were looking for any morality in the book of Genesis you would still be looking...and still...yep still looking...

Perhaps I'm being a bit cynical.  I began reading the Old Testament, not only so I would become more knowledgeable when confronted by someone spewing gospel and verse from their mouths, but also (hopefully) to become closer and more centered on my faith.  Instead, I find myself asking, "What is it that I believe?"

I still don't know the answer to that.  OK, I can take the whole people living to be 8-gajillion years old...seriously...I can take that.  Who can really do the best job with time references that far back anyway?  So seriously, this didn't bother me at all.  The morality, or lack thereof, did.  Adam and Eve.  OK.  Eve was tempted by the snake/devil and ate the apple and then brought it to her husband to eat.  God discovers them and like any good parent, asks them if they ate from the tree.  Yes...but she made me do it!  Yeah, buddy, she just shoved that thing in your maw and said CHEW!

But I look at some of the die hard lunatics out there and finally realized where they got some of the justification for their behavior.  Multiple wives.  Women who can't get pregnant offering their slaves to their husbands feeling that if the slave gave birth at their knee that they would be considered to have had a child through them.  Really?  Wow.  Then there's the whole, "your brother died, so take his wife so he may have descendants" nonsense makes this genealogist's jaw drop.

I got it...I know...it was a different time.  As a genealogist I do understand that you must look at things through historic perspective, but I'm having trouble with this.

I guess I can say that it's a good story.  Who needs Percy Jackson and the Olympians when you've got the Book of Genesis.  Granted it's the seedier version.  I mean they even mention "heroes" in the Old Testament.  No seriously.  Right after the generations of Adam to Noah and before the warning of the flood there is this random "thing" just hanging out there.  Genesis, Chapter 6, verse 1-4, "When men began to multiply on earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of heaven saw how beautiful the daughters of man were, and so they took for their wives as many of them as they chose.  The the LORD said: "My spirit shall not remain in man forever, since he is but flesh. His days shall comprise one hundred and twenty years."  At that time the Nephilim appeared on earth (as well as later), after the sons of heaven had intercourse with the daughters of man, who bore them sons.  They were the heroes of old, the men of renown."

You want me to take that with any amount of seriousness?  Mythology in the Old Testament.  It seems instead of bringing me closer to my faith it is making me a cynic.  I don't really like that.

Sadly, I realized that I was already familiar with the stories of Genesis, but I suppose when it's only read piecemeal in mass you miss out on the lack of morals.  What does Genesis try to teach us?  Apparently one of the lessons is that you should try to be as deceptive as possible in order to get what you want.  Just look at Esau and Jacob.  Esau comes in hungry and asks his brother for some food and gets in return, "First give me your birthright in exchange for it."  Hungry, idiot Esau does just that.  So much for the great hunter, Esau.  Was he such a miserable hunter that he couldn't kill something to eat?  Really?   So now Jacob (the 2nd born son) has his brother's birthright because he took advantage of him in an hour of need (Chapter 26, v22-34).  But he doesn't stop there. Oh no.  He takes advantage (with his mother's help) to deceive his father into believing that he is Esau and to pass on his blessing to him, thus cheating Esau of pretty much all that was his right (Chapter 27).

I guess there was a touch of morality in that Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt and his master's wife tried to get Joseph to sleep with her, he said no, she cried attempted rape, and he gets thrown in jail.  Sweet! (Chapter 39, v6-20).

There are morals, if not morality, in the chapters of Genesis.  For instance, Joseph suffered at the hands of his brothers and to an extent by his captors. He remained faithful to God and was protected.  Despite his enslavement and misfortunes they were a part of a larger plan.  Joseph did not lose faith despite all that he encountered and in the end, he became trusted and powerful within Egypt.  He saved the people of Egypt from famine and in doing so his own family.

Hmmm...so I guess as I type this blog post I realize that maybe there were some redeeming characteristics in my reading (and to be fair, more than just Joseph), but they are steeped in what we would consider today to be improper behavior.

Assignment 1 - The Book of Genesis

Shocker, I know!  I think the only surprises in assignments will be if we split a long assignment up into 2 weeks or add something new if we get ahead of the game!

Feel free to read ahead, but please don't post on future books until that book's reading assignment is posted.  We don't want to confuse anyone...and I get confused so easily!

The Date is Set

Well, there's little point in putting it off anymore.  Every time one of my children ask me a question about the bible (Old or New Testament) and I can only give a vague answer, it reminds me that I've got to get this started.

I don't know who or how many may join me reading, but that's not really the point.  I'm reading the Old Testament to read it.  For me.  For my children.  To reduce my ignorance.

I'm sure much will be familiar to me from 39 years of going to mass, but I'm sure there will be much that is new as well.  This is how it'll work...

The first reading assignment for The Old Testament in a Year will be posted on Sunday, August 21st.   I will post my personal thoughts on the reading assignment on the following Saturday and then post new assignments the next day (Sunday).  Should be simple enough.  If anyone wants to post their own thoughts on a reading they can do so either after my Saturday post, or beneath the reading assignment in case anyone is just excited to get posting!

Don't expect deep thoughts.  I mean I'm not really sure what to expect.  We'll see.  It's new to me and I'm no self proclaimed expert.

There is also a Facebook group for this blog which you can access by clicking here.  Remember to check out the above tabs for information on posting, books, expectation and courtesy (yes, I had to go there).

Until Sunday!

In The Beginning...

In 2010 I joined a group called "Shakespeare in a Year" which was, in a way, the inspiration for this group.  I always loved "The Bard" so finding a manageable way to tackle the entire works of Shakespeare sounded great.  Sadly the PTA and Cub Scouts has made me drop behind a bit in my reading, but both are working out nicely and I'll be having much more reading time soon.

What all this means is that while the Shakespeare group should be ending by Memorial Day 2011, I may be a bit behind (although I'm trying very hard to play catch up).  So I'm looking to begin The Old Testament In A Year sometime in July 2011.  No date yet, but as it draws closer, I'll be sure to post it.  So if you're interested in reading or, for some, rereading the Old Testament make sure you subscribe/become a follower so you'll be in the know when the time comes!

Feel free to explore the tabs at the top of the blog which explain a bit about me, about posting guidelines, what books I will personally be using this year, etc.  If you have any ideas on how to make the blog better, please feel free to contact me!

I am striving to make this a comfortable environment for all, whether this is your first reading of the Old Testament or not, and regardless of your faith, you should feel welcome to join and comment without fear of attack from a fellow participant.  It is in learning that we better understand each other. Healthy discussion is encouraged, but there will be no attacks/insults on any person, group, or religion.  To ensure this, all comments will be moderated by me before being posted.  If a comment doesn't make it, well, you can figure out why!

There are 46 books in my version of the Old Testament (please check the "Books of the Old Testament" tab at the top for further explanation), which means there will be 6 weeks left to our year.  Some of the books are longer than others and will most likely be split into more manageable chunks.  The purpose of it all is to make it a fun, manageable experience for anyone that joins me!  If we have weeks left at the end, I'm open to suggestions for additional reading (perhaps some of the Orthodox books missing from my list).

After The Old Testament In A Year ends, I will be continuing on with The New Testament In A Year (blogsite under construction right now!) for anyone wishing to join me.