Kill that spider for me, please!

From Judges 4-6:

1. One thing I forgot to mention in the last post: I wonder what was so special about Ehud being a lefty. I cannot bring myself to believe that he was the only one around at this time. Interesting.

2. It is interesting that Deborah is settling disputes among the Israelites. First of all, this seems unusual because typically the leaders were male. Secondly, she then sends for Barak - a guy from the tribe of Naphtali - to go and make war against Sisera. I wonder what her husband did (occupation) and why she did not ask him. I am guessing it is because God specifically told her to contact Barak. Otherwise she probably would have asked her husband to go and do it. I mean, typically if my wife finds a spider that needs killing, she calls for me to do it, not some guy in another town. (Not that Sisera was a spider or anything, but...)

3. Jael was quite brave in pegging Sisera. If he had woken, things would not have gone well for her. Also, I wonder why she was driven to do this. Was she angry with him? Was she sure she would not experience any retribution after this act, seeing that their clan was friendly with Jabin king of Hazor?

4. Chapter five says that Deborah and Barak sang a song, and it records the words of this song. In this song it talks about the tribes who came to fight or sent representatives to fight. It lists Benjamin, Ephriam, Issachar, Zebulun, and Naphtali as having fought. However, it seems to indicate that the tribes of Reuben, Dan, and Asher, as well as the people of Gilead did not assist in the fighting.

5. It is interesting to note that the people of the town where Gideon lived were going to kill him for destroying an idol, and yet they were not at all concerned about the fact that they were going against the God that had given them the land they were currently living in.

Who's fat ? Thumbs and Toes?

From Judges 1-3:

1. I wonder why the Israelites cut off the thumbs and toes of Adoni-Bezek. Was it because he was legendary in the area for doing so to his adversaries, or for some other reason? It is weird that he is mentioned by name, and also strange that the punishment that they inflict upon him is mentioned. I wonder why they did not just kill him like everyone else. In Deuteronomy 20:16 God commanded them to kill all due to their sinfulness.

2. I also wonder why Caleb promised his daughter to the person who conquered Kiriath Sepher. Was it a more challenging city to take, or what? And why was she interested in the springs of water? I assume that the area that they got was very dry, so they had need of the springs, but it is only a guess.

3. There is a pretty extensive list of areas where the Israelites were not able to drive out the people of other nations. I assumed this was due to the comment made by God in Deuteronomy 7:22. But then when I read further I saw that God really wanted them to be totally driven out. I wonder what he meant in Deuteronomy. It also seems like a self-fulfilling prophecy. God left the other nations there because the people would be unfaithful, and the people were unfaithful, so that is why he left them. Perhaps the issue with the Gibeonites (Joshua 9:14) and the passage about Adoni-Bezek are illustrations of how they were not being entirely faithful.

4. It says that the angel of the Lord went to Bokim and told the Israelites that he would not allow them to drive the nations out completely because they had not followed God's instructions entirely. I wonder, how did the angel appear, and to whom did it appear? It says the people wept aloud. But yet God did not relent. I guess sometimes you have to face the results of your sin even though you are forgiven.

5. The Israelites did not do a very good job of teaching their children to love and follow God. That is why the generation after the conquering generation did not follow God closely, I think.

6. There is only one verse about Shamgar son of Anath, and yet it says that he struck down 600 Philistines with an oxgoad. That sounds like quite a feat! Was this a guy like Samson?

7. Judges 3 has the most graphic and disgusting description I can think of about an assassination of a king. The king was really fat! Gross!

Fell Off The Horse

I have not looked at this blog in almost 9 months, and I need to keep posting. I told everyone to keep an eye on it, but then I did not continue to post. I will again attempt to continue with my posting, but I cannot guarantee that I will be entering a post every day. For that I am truly sorry!

Tuesday: All the earth goes this way

From Joshua 23-24:

1. Joshua reiterated the message that was in Deuteronomy 28 and 31 regarding the blessings and curses. It is amazing, after all the things that the Israelites saw and all the many times that they were warned, that they still did not comply with God's word.

2. All the earth goes this way - Joshua says he is about to go the way of all the earth, meaning he is about to die. I guess I never thought of it that way, but it is true. All the earth is heading towards death - every living thing. It is amazing that I still see articles today that claim that we are getting closer and closer to immortality. Even in bible times, God said that our lives would be seventy or eighty years. So things have not really changed since the time of Moses. So really our lifespans are not getting any longer. In fact, it is becoming more common to see people living a shorter time due to all of the additives in food, or the pollution in the water / air, or whatever else. If one does research, they will likely find that those who live longer lives usually grew up out in the country and were away from all our supposed "high tech" medical advances, etc.

3. One very famous phrase is frequently quoted from this passage. "But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord." Joshua was at the age where he realized he could not influence the Israelites or force them. However, he pretty much said that regardless of what the rest of the Israelite nation did, he was going to follow.

4. One hundred and ten years old! Joshua was one of the few lucky ones to live to such an advanced age. I cannot recall anyone after him who lived much beyond 100.

Monday: Can I go home already?

From Joshua 20-22:

1. I have commented before on the interesting nature of how law was instituted in Israel, such that anyone who accidentally killed someone else was required to flee to a city of refuge. I wonder what happened after the High Priest died. The person accused gets to leave and is free to go back home. But suppose that the avenger is still angry about that situation - what happens if he kills that individual? Does he have to flee, or what?

2. Can I go home already? - Finally, Joshua allowed the "trans-Jordan" tribes to go back to their homes and families, since they had overcome the enemies of Israel on the other side of the Jordan river.

3. It is interesting that the "trans-Jordan" tribes set up the altar by the Jordan. It was a very wise move on their part to do this, and to look ahead thinking about their relationship with their fellow Israelites.

Sunday: Come on - snake eyes!

From Joshua 16-19:

1. Joshua was very wise with his words. When the tribes of the descendants of Joseph came to Joshua and complained about not having enough land, he offered to them some land that had yet to be conquered. They argued some trying to get him to give them (presumably) some of the already conquered and subdued land by using the argument that they were a larger group of people. So Joshua agreed that they were stronger and larger, and therefore had the capacity to be able to subdue those who had yet to be conquered.

2. Come on - snake eyes! - I wonder how Joshua cast lots for these areas of land after the men of Israel had mapped them out. They must have had to first identify a number of tracts of land in order to cast lots for them.

3. I wonder what area the Danites attacked since they could not easily take possession of the territory that was allotted to them.

4. It is nice to see that Joshua got a small town for himself. After all, he led them to conquer all of these foreign kings and such. It seems such a pity that Moses was not able to share in this wonderful joy. (Though I am certain there was quite a bit of work to do owning one's own town.)

Saturday: To this day?

From Joshua 13-15:

1. It is interesting that God lists off some areas that still need to be conquered by the Israelites, but then goes on to say that the area of the Sidonians - that God himself will drive them out before the Israelites.

2. In Chapter 13 it specifically mentions the fact that the Israelites killed Balaam son of Beor.

3. All of the detail as to the exact inheritance given to the Israelite tribes by God ought to identify that this is indeed a historically factual and authentic record. Otherwise there would not likely be as much detail.

4. It is interesting that the land of Hebron was given to Caleb and it says that Joshua blessed Caleb. It also says that the land then had rest from war. I wonder if this is referring to Hebron because now Caleb is the owner, or if this is more of a general statement about the entire land of Canaan. Because it later talks about Caleb going to war for his alloted land.

5. I am not certain why it went into such detail about the one person who won Caleb's daughter and then how Caleb gave her the upper and lower springs. Why do we need to know this? What is significant about it?

6. To this day? - It records in chapter 15 at the end of the chapter that "living in Jerusalem; to this day the Jebusites live there with the people of Judah." This has to mean that this passage was written before David conquered it and made it the capital of the nation.

Friday: Put your feet on their necks

From Joshua 10-12:

1. It must have been amazing to be on Joshua's (God's) side during the battle recorded in chapter 10. Not only the fact that the sun stood still (seems impossible, but it is God we are talking about), but also the fact that God used giant hailstones so that He killed more than the Israelite army in total.

2. Put your feet on their necks - It is interesting that Joshua used the five kings to illustrate how God would help the armies of Israel to defeat their enemies.

3. It states in chapter 11 that God hardened the hearts of all the nations in Canaan so that they would go to war against the Israelites. Thus, the Israelites could fully destroy these other nations.

4. It says that Joshua waged war against these kings for a long time. I wonder, is that referring to the long time that it took to fight all of them totally, or is he saying that each one took a whole lot of time? It sure seems like they are going through pretty quickly to me.

5. Thirty one kings were taken! Wow, that is definitely a gift from God. No nation could possibly do this without God's strength.

Thursday: What a great example!

From Joshua 7-9:

1. It seems unfair that some of the Israelites had to die because of the sin of Achan. It was pretty graphic though. Just think of it: One man takes some stuff that he covets. Then, due to his sin, not only do thirty six brave warriors have to die, but also Achan's entire family (wife, children, etc.) Perhaps we ought to think harder about how many people will be affected by our sinning against God. Many times we just consider what we want, disregarding God's commands. But what we forget is that our sin not only affects us, but also those we love and others around us. Consider a man who murders another due to jealous rage. He must then sit trial and be incarcerated, which not only affects his family profoundly, but also affects all the taxpayers who must pay to keep him incarcerated.

2. I would also imagine that one of the reasons that the family was destroyed along with Achan is that many times the head of the household (apparently he was) has taught his children by his actions as well as his words. Therefore it is very possible that his children would continue in his ways due to his poor example. In our country today many people have lives of crime due to the examples of their parents before them. Why do depressed areas of any city continue to be depressed? Because there continues to be crime, from generation to generation.

3. What a great example! - After capturing Ai, the Israelites had access to Mount Ebal and they built the altar that was supposed to be built there, where some of the tribes were to pronounce the curses of the Lord if the Israelites did not keep the covenant that they had with the Lord. It is neat that after the successes that the Lord was giving Joshua, he did not forget the Lord or his long-standing commands given through Moses earlier in Deuteronomy 27. It says that Joshua followed the instructions just as Moses had given them.

4. Regarding the Gibeonites, the Israelites should have followed their first instinct. They also should have consulted God on it. God had originally commanded them to make no treaties with the nations in Canaan.

5. I guess, if given the choice, I would rather be a woodcutter or water carrier than to be dead. So from the standpoint of the Gibeonites, I can see why they would choose this option.

Wednesday: A promise kept

From Joshua 4-6:

1. It is interesting that the Israelites held Joshua in high esteem from the day that the Israelites crossed the Jordan. This is due to the fact that in chapter three (from yesterday) in verses 5 and verse 9 Joshua gave all the credit to God and very clearly stated to the Israelites that God was going to do great things. (He was not seeking his own glory, and because of this, God exalted him.) This corresponds directly with what it says in James 4 - Humble yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up.

2. It is neat that the Lord had one person from each tribe to collect a rock from the bed of the Jordan River to make a commemorative monument for the Israelites to see. God wanted them to not only remember, but have something to show their descendants to remind them of how powerful the Lord is.

3. In chapter five it talks of the Israelites being circumcised. That must have been painful. I watched my oldest get circumcised, and it was hard to watch. The nurse said that she had seen grown men faint when they saw this done. I can't imagine having to have that done as an adult. The pain!!! It sure is a good thing that God caused all of the nations around to tremble with fear and not go out to fight - otherwise it would have been tough for the Israelites.

4. Joshua must have known that the individual that he encountered was of otherwordly origin, since he did not even question the statement that the guy made about being the commander.

5. A promise kept - It is great to see that the Israelites kept their promise to Rahab. In this day and age, it seems that no one keeps their promises, especially with regard to war-related promises. Mankind becomes more and more ruthless and hateful.

6. After the city was burned, Joshua proclaimed that if the city were rebuilt, it would be at the cost of his firstborn and youngest children. (It seems to indicate that he would lose all of his children through this process.)

Tuesday: The waters piled up!

From Joshua 1-3:

1. Wow! Joshua gets extended a very handsome promise. God said he will be with Joshua all the days of his life and anywhere he sets foot will become the property of the Israelites. No conditions attached. Although he does say he needs to be careful to obey the law in order to be successful. So I guess it is implied conditions.

2. Rahab was a very wise woman. She converted to follow the God of Israel there when the spies were present. She did this by acknowledging that the God of the Israelites was God of heaven above and earth below.

3. The waters piled up! - It is amazing how the Lord stopped up the Jordan. Since I pass over the Ohio River almost every day, I can easily imagine the Jordan River. However, I have trouble imagining the water stopping and piling up somewhere. That is a whole lot of water!!!

4. I like how Joshua states that when they see what God does with the Jordan River, it shows them that He will be with them as they conquer the nations living within Canaan. He does not give any credit to himself. Very nice!

Monday: Keep singing

From Deuteronomy 31-34:

1. Keep singing - Wow! That is a long song. And all the Israelites will learn and remember it? Impressive. I guess this gives credibility to the idea that it is easier to remember something when it is in song form.

2. In Deuteronomy 32:17 it states that they sacrificed to demons. I have always felt that there was some power with the false gods that are worshiped around the world. It is demons that give these false gods their power. After all, Satan only cares that people do not believe in the one true God. He does not care what else one believes in, as long as it is not the truth.

3. It is nice to know that the Lord cares for his servants and will take vengance on those who slaughter his servants.

4. It is interesting that Moses specifically commanded the Israelites to learn the words to the song so that they could command their children regarding these things. It is very important to impress upon one's children the importance of following God.

5. I don't know that I would want to be like Moses, because he was told by God when he would die. I think it would give me a heart-attack just thinking about it! I believe most people are this way. They say that most people who die by falling from a very high height die of a heart-attack before they ever hit the ground. Same idea, I guess.

6. It is interesting that in chapter 33 Moses is referred to as Moses the man of God.

7. King over Jeshurun? What is this referring to?

8. Moses laid his hands on Joshua so that Joshua was filled with the spirit of wisdom. Nice! I wish I had that spirit.

9. The last two verses about Moses in Deuteronomy really extol Moses as exceptional.

Sunday: Don't touch the secret things

From Deuteronomy 28-30:

1. I notice that it states in chapter 28 the stipulation for blessings as "if you fully obey...and carefully follow". That means that it was not to be just a casual kind of 'if I get around to it' or 'I'll try' type of thing.

2. He specifically said in Deuteronomy 28:14 not to turn to other gods. I know that Israel did do that. I wonder how God would view the US in our turning away from God as a nation. We have not chosen to worship other gods in the same sense as Israel, but the nation is now more obsessed with money/wealth and politics than with God.

3. God was very clear that he did not want the Israelites to turn away from Him. It is interesting that the list of curses is far longer than the list of blessings. The blessings sound wonderful, but the curses sound absolutely horrifying.

4. Don't touch the secret things - I wonder what the meaning is of chapter 30 verse 29. What are the secret things? Does this refer to mysteries not yet revealed, like the coming of the Christ and how he will appear, etc.?

5. What must a man do to have the kind of covenant that the Israelites had? If only they had obeyed. Though it does state that when they are again willing to be faithful that God will again bless them.

Saturday: Don't Forget!

From Deuteronomy 25-27:

1. I am not sure that there is anywhere in the bible that tells about how the Amalekites cut off all who were lagging behind in the Israelite group when they were traveling to the promised land. I wonder what happened.

2. It explains more clearly in chapter 26 about the year of tithe. It says it is the third year, and that the tithe is to go to the Levite, the fatherless, the widow and the alien.

3. Deuteronomy 27:5 talks about building an altar to God on Mount Ebal. It is interesting that God tells the Israelites specifically not to use any iron tool on these stones. I believe this was so that the altar would not become a snare and cause the Israelites to worship it more than God himself.

4. Don't Forget! - It is interesting also how the Israelites are split and required to pronounce the blessings on Mount Gerizim and the curses on Mount Ebal. God wants to make sure that they understand and remember the covenant rules.

Friday: You're practically married

From Deuteronomy 22-24:

1. Deuteronomy 22:5 states that men should not wear women's clothing.

2. I like the start of chapter 22 because it is very clear about needing to care for your neighbor's things if they should somehow end up on your property.

3. I did not realize that you should build a parapet around your roof according to the laws of God given to Israel.

4. I wonder how you would prove virginity nowadays. This could be problematic today, since women tend to be a whole lot more active and physical in their activities.

5. You're practically married - If a girl is pledged to be married and she cheats on her fiance, both she and the guy are to be stoned. I guess getting engaged in God's eyes is practically marriage. I know when I was dating, I always used to think that it was okay to try and date someone as long as they did not have a ring.

6. If you want to marry a foreigner, marry an Edomite or an Egyptian. Whatever you do, do not marry an Ammonite or Moabite. (Of course, this is if you were following the old testament law.)

7. If you offer to loan something to someone, do not follow them into their house when they go to get the pledge. Let them bring it out to you.

Thursday: I'm afraid. Can I go home?

From Deuteronomy 19-21:

1. It would sometimes be nice if our law courts had the same rules as the Israelites had. It seems that many times we see stories on the news of some person in jail that was falsely accused of something that he/she did and there was not a single witness. Then there are other accounts of situations where many witnesses saw what happened and yet the person gets to walk free. It does not appear that the laws God set up would allow that to happen very easily.

2. I did not realize that the cities of refuge were to be three as a base number, and then they were to increase this number to six whenever God increased their land.

3. I'm afraid. Can I go home? - In chapter 20:5-9 it states that all of the men that go to war must be asked first if they have unfinished business and also see if they are afraid. If one of these things is true, they can opt out of fighting. I wonder if this means that they have to inquire before each and every battle. I mean, I am sure that sometimes these guys must have been afraid, right? I wonder if they set it up similar to our military, where it is a purely voluntary force of fighting men.

4. I did not realize that they were to offer forced labor to the cities that they fought before they fought them. This was an offer that was only offered to cities that were far away from the land promised to the Israelites. The cities that were in the area where the promised land was God commanded the Israelites to fully destroy.

5. Interesting! God commanded the Israelites not to cut down any fruit trees that were around the cities that they besieged, so that later they could harvest the fruit.

6. Unsolved mysteries were handled a little bit differently in God's plan. The elders of the town closest must take an oath before God that they had nothing to do with the murder of the person and had seen nothing. When they made this oath they were to wash their hands over a heifer whose neck was broken there in that area.

7. No one would want to be considered a stubborn and rebellious son under the laws that God gave. Otherwise that would be instant death penalty.

Wednesday: The Month of Abib

From Deuteronomy 16-18:

1. The month of Abib - According to Wikipedia (yes, I know it is not always 110% accurate, but it does do pretty well in most things I have seen) gives a list of the Hebrew months. Very interesting.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hebrew_calendar

2. Someone once used a reference to the Passover feast like what we find in Deuteronomy 16 to indicate that God likes barbeques. If that were true, does that mean that God would go to Burger King and not McDonalds? It puts a whole new spin on "What Would Jesus Do".

3. It is interesting that in Deuteronomy God calls for all (including the fatherless and widow) to celebrate the Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles. He does not mention the alien in the portion of the passage about the Passover.

4. I remember about the command in chapter 17 about the king not taking many wives, but I did not realize that God also commanded them not to acquire great numbers of horses for themselves. It also says he must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold. Boy, I guess Solomon might have been really wise, but he sure messed up on these.

5. I wonder why it says that the Levites are to have no inheritance among the Israelites, and yet I know that some areas were assigned to the Levites as their lands - certain cities and such. This is from Numbers 35. It must not have been considered an inheritance.

Tuesday: Where did we get that idea?

From Deuteronomy 13-15:

1. God was serious about following Him. If you led the people in following other Gods - death to you. It is too bad that the Israelites did not follow this command. Otherwise there would be no straying from God in the land of Israel.

2. I did not realize that God commanded the Israelites to destroy the towns of those Israelite cities which turned away from God to worship other gods. Not only this, but he also said that they should not try to rebuild the town later.

3. Where did we get that idea? - It is interesting to find that our credit system works similar to the Israelite system in that after seven years your poor credit record is erased. I wonder where we got the idea of seven years?

4. God said that if the Israelites would fully obey Him, there should not be any poor among them (Deuteronomy 15:4-5). I believe that in any nation this is the case. If people work hard and follow God's word closely, God will bless them. Many of the poor that I see today are poor due to the wrong life choices: smoking and drinking excessively, getting into drugs, gambling, and some for just being lazy. I would like to think that they would not be in these situations for nearly as long (or for their whole lives) if they would choose to cling to God and His word. (This is my opinion, but I think that you could argue that the bible holds this up.) However, if one chooses to be poor because they are more interested in other, more valuable things, such as following God like missionaries would - this is different. And there are also a group of fatherless and widows who will be poor because of unfortunate cirumstances. Although I think that possibly one could even argue that some of these cases were because the parents or husband was sinning greatly so God took them. (This is not always the case, but in some cases...)

5. Later God says that there will always be poor among the Israelites. Upon a closer look, I think actually God is saying that although He will bless the Israelites, that some foreigners may live among them who will not be blessed in such a manner as the Israelites are.

6. Why would people ever want to shave the front of their heads for the dead? Sounds weird to me.

7. God commanded that every third year that the people should take their tithes and store them in their towns for the Levites, the widows and the fatherless so that they would have something to eat.

Monday: Do you think that might be important?

From Deuteronomy 10-12:

1. I wonder why it states that the Levites have no share or inheritance among their brothers in Deuteronomy 10:9. I mean, I know that they were given cities by God, so that would seem to me to be an inheritance of theirs. Unless, of course, God is saying that those cities were not the Levites' cities, but rather cities God is loaning to them to use.

2. In Deuteronomy 10:16 God asks the Israelites to circumcise their hearts. I wonder why the religious leaders in Jesus' day could not understand Him when He told them about spiritual things. It is obvious even here that God is more interested in the spiritual aspect than the physical aspect. But to them I suppose it may have been a great mystery.

3. God commands the Israelites to love the aliens among them. I never realized that.

4. Having had a garden in years past, I understand what God is talking about regarding rain. The Israelites had come from Egypt where they had to water things by hand or irrigation, but now they are going into a land where God will provide rain as long as they are faithful to Him. I have planted gardens in years where it was really dry, and I got very little, if any crop.

5. Do you think that might be important? - Deuteronomy 11:18-21 state the same things that Deuteronomy 6:6-9 say. If you want to know what is emphasized in Deuteronomy, I think that repetition should be a pretty good indication.

Sunday: I am so hungry!

From Deuteronomy 7-9:

1. Once God decided that the seven nations living on the land the Israelites were to inherit from God were evil, he did not spare anyone. He commanded them in no uncertain terms to wipe out all of the people and not have pity on them. This was obviously because none of the people would acknowledge Him as the one and only true God. But there was Rahab who did acknowledge Him, and he spared her.

2. It is interesting that there is irrefuteable evidence in Deuteronomy 7:8 that the reason that Israel was the nation that God favored was due to His promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, not due to their faithfulness or any other thing.

3. Deuteronomy 7:9 is another great verse for memory.

4. Deuteronomy 8:3 is where it first talks about not living on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

5. In Deuteronomy 9:4-6 is where it very clearly states that the reason that God is giving the land that the Israelites are about to take to them is because of the wickedness of the nations living in it at the time. It has nothing to do with the Israelites being very righteous or anything like that. In fact, it even states that the Israelites are a stiff-necked people.

6. I am so hungry! - It just dawned on me that Moses went up Mount Horeb and did not eat or drink forty days or nights, just the same as Jesus did before starting his ministry. That must be some sort of a miracle, because I have trouble believing that without divine help someone could go forty days without water. Perhaps they can, but I have never heard of it before (other than these instances in the bible).

7. Moses really sacrificed of himself to save the Israelite people after they sinned against God by making a golden calf. Moses states that he fasted forty days just as he had done on the mountain to persuade God that He should not destroy the Israelites.

Saturday: You are so wise!

From Deuteronomy 4-6:

1. You are so wise! - When you observe God's laws carefully, it will show your wisdom to those around you. See Deuteronomy 4:6 for evidence.

2. The Israelites were instructed to be very careful to observe these commands and to also teach them to their children and even grandchildren.

3. In Deuteronomy 4:15-19 it shows clearly that God is not pleased with any kind of symbolic image of Him. He wants us to worship in Spirit and in Truth, worshiping only Him, without any graven image.

4. If you fear God and keep his commands, it will go well with you and your children forever. He also said to walk in the way that the Lord has commanded you so that you may live and prosper and prolong your days. It sounds like a good deal to me. I believe that the offer still stands today. If we follow God, he will bless us. However, there is nowadays the element of persecution that was absent from the Israelite nation at the time, since they were all supposed to be following Him.

5. Deuteronomy 6:5 is one of my favorite verses. It is also stated in a similar way in Matthew 22:37 and Mark 12:30. But the entire paragraph after that verse emphasizes how the Israelites were to keep God's word in the center of their lives and follow it religiously.

Friday: Me or You?

From Deuteronomy 1-3:

1. It is interesting that Deuteronomy starts out from the first person viewpoint of Moses. I was just reflecting upon what I have read so far and noticed that Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy all cover the same area of time. They all cover from one aspect or another the covenant that God made with the Israelite nation. It is very similar to the four gospels which cover four different angles of Jesus' life and the new covenant that God instituted through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

2. It is interesting to see how God commanded the Israelites to be very careful not to go to war against the Moabites, since he had given them the land that they occupied. He specifically told them that he WILL NOT give them (the Israelites) any of the Moabite land. It tells me that God will do what he feels is right, and he is not a respecter of persons OR nations.

3. Me or You? - I wonder why in Deuteronomy 2:30 that Moses, after talking in the first person, says "...the Lord your God has made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate in order to give him into your hands,..." What does the "your" refer to? It also uses this "you" reference in Deuteronomy 2:37.

4. It appears that when the "you" is in there (this is a guess, by the way) that it may be in the context that Moses is giving this to Joshua, and in this case the "you" could refer to Joshua.

Thursday: An iron rice bowl

From Numbers 35-36:

1. An iron rice bowl - Even the towns among the Israelites had a portion that was allotted to the Levites. They had to work very hard, but God sure did make sure that they were taken care of. Kind of like being a government employee. (Except that the Levites had to work really hard. And I am sure God takes better care of his employees than the government does of theirs.)

2. The six towns of refuge is a setup I have always been very interested in. I think it is a novel idea to solve the problems that arise from having people falsely accused of crimes, or people who have inadvertently caused someone else's death, etc.

3. I did not realize this, but in the Israelite law there was not to be any negotiation on the death penalty for murder. See Numbers 35:31-32.

4. I wonder what the meaning is of Numbers 35:33. Does that mean the land would not be productive, or does it mean in a spiritual sense only? Could there have been a physical correlation?

5. All Israelite daughters who inherited land were to marry within their clans in order to avoid problems with land inheritance. I did not realize this.

Wednesday: Could this be the reason?

From Numbers 32-34:

1. I wonder if the Reubenites and Gadites really intended to go with the rest of the Israelites over the Jordan, or if it was just in response to Moses condemning their actions and reminding them of what happened to the generation before them. And after making this choice, they must have realized that they were isolating themselves from the rest of the nation, making them more vulnerable to attack and occupation by any surrounding hostile nations. Sometimes it is best to wait for the Lord's timing. What may seem good to do at the time may end up being the wrong choice because God has other plans in the future that are better.

2. Could this be the reason? - I also wonder if part of the reason that the Israelites did not run all of the nations out of Canaan was because they had plenty of room already. After all, two tribes were living on the other side of the Jordan. And the Israelites were commanded to drive out all the inhabitants in Numbers 33:55.

3. It is interesting that it says in Numbers 33:4 that the Lord brought judgment on (the Egyptians') gods. In reality, he obviously was not punishing the inanimate objects - idols - that they considered gods, but rather the Egyptians for worshiping these false gods.

4. I wonder why, in the recording of the Israelite journey by stages, it specifically calls out the fact that the Canaanite king of Arad heard that the Israelites were coming. What was the point of mentioning this?

Tuesday: What is the cost?

From Numbers 28-31:

1. What is the cost? - Wow! There were a whole lot of lambs to be sacrificed to God over the course of a year. If I have calculated correctly - based upon Numbers 28:3,9-10,11,19,27 & 29:2,8,13,17,20,23,26,29,32,36 - there are 1029 lambs per year that need to be sacrificed to the Lord. This is just the basic daily, weekly, monthly and festival requirements that God set. And that is just for lambs. God is great in love and abounding in mercy and grace, but you need to do your part too! Or to put it another way, God will protect you and richly bless you and give you success in whatever you do, but you need to give a certain amount to Him. (At least, that is what I take away from that. In the same way, the gift of salvation is freely given, but you must then live for Christ, not for yourself - that is a big price - although definitely worth it.)

2. It is interesting to see that if a guy makes a vow, he is to be held to it. However, if a woman makes a vow, her husband or father can nullify it.

3. I wonder what happened to the 32,000 women who had never slept with a man. Did they automatically become Israelites? Or was anyone who took one as a wife considered a Samaritan? And what did the 16 women do that were given to the Levites? They could not work around the tabernacle, I don't think, because they were not Levites.

Monday: No compromise

From Numbers 25-27:

1. No compromise - It is cool to see how Eleazar was not willing to allow the sin of Israel to go on, and instead was angry against sin just as God was. He took a spear and ran the guy through who was sinning against God while the rest of the Israelites were weeping due to the sin of the nation in prostrating themselves before Baal. Sometimes extraordinary situations require extraordinary actions, and in this case God was very displeased with Israel. Were it not for Eleazar's action, perhaps God might have destroyed most of Israel.

2. It is amazing that of all the people that were of adult age, when the census was performed in Numbers 26, that none of the people counted were still alive except for Joshua and Caleb. God really is powerful!

3. It is wonderful to see that God was concerned about the welfare of Zelophehad's daughters. So although the society was definitely patriarchal in nature, there was still concern for females.

4. Even as Moses was about to die, he was still concerned about the future of the Israelite nation. He asked God to help him pick a successor to help lead the Israelites into the promised land.

5. I am trying to remember if Moses was the last one to have direct communications with God. I notice that from this point God says that he will talk through the Eleazar, not directly to Joshua. So from this point forward, I think that it could be said that in most situations that God chose to speak through the priest instead of directly to the leader(s) of the nation.

Sunday: I heard you, but ...

From Numbers 22-24:

1. I heard you, but... - Balaam just did not get it. First he asked the Lord and the Lord gave him an answer. But he did not like the answer, so when more of Balak's officials appeared, he sought answers from the Lord again. It reminds me of when I tell my children something, and yet they do not like the answer so they ask again. I can see why God would be angry.

2. It is amazing that Balaam never considered the fact that his donkey had never acted the way it did before these three incidents. It is also interesting that he was not shocked when the donkey talked to him (or at least the bible does not mention about him being surprised when it talked to him).

3. Balaam sure did not make any friends when he blessed the Israelites. But it is interesting to see that he said what God wanted him to say the first time, and the message was really one that could have been more of a message to Balak. He said that he would not curse Israel. This should have been sign enough to Balak that he did not need to pursue this course of action. He was not listening though, and so he proceeded to take Balaam to two other places before giving up in disgust.

4. In Numbers 24 it talks about how Balaam did not resort to sorcery as he had before. I wonder what type of sorcery he was using and why.

Saturday: Dead Poet's Society

From Numbers 19-21:

1. I wonder what is the significance of the red heifer for the purification offering that is used to make the water of cleansing. I wonder if the reason for it having to be red relates to the blood of Jesus which cleanses us from all sin.

2. They were to sprinkle the unclean things with the water of cleansing. Interesting. It does not really relate directly, but I wonder if this correlates to baptism in any way. I mean, with the big debate about immersion versus sprinkling - We know that Jesus was baptized using immersion, but it does not appear that sprinkling would be unacceptable, especially in light of this passage. (I could be wrong, though.)

3. I wonder how Aaron felt, knowing that he was going to die on top of the mountain before it ever happened. There is one thing that is a blessing in not being able to tell what the future holds: at least you don't know when you will die. But this blessing can also be a curse if you are not ready when you die.

4. It almost feels like there is something that is not being told on the passage in chapter 20 that talks about what Moses and Aaron did and how they sinned against God. I think this is because God told them to speak to the rock, and instead they hit the rock twice with the staff. (Actually, Moses did that. I wonder how Aaron got in trouble there. See Numbers 20:24)

5. I wonder about the reference that the bible has about the "Book of the Wars of the Lord". What book was this? Is this a book that is only used by the Israelites to this day, or does the book no longer exist? Or is it that it was determined to be inaccurate, due to some embellishments?

6. In Numbers 21:16, it is interesting that the Lord tells Moses to gather the people together so that he can provide water for them. This time they did not complain, but rather God made the decision as to when to give them water.

7. Dead Poet's Society - It also records in chapter 21 about what the poets said. I wonder what kind of poetry they had back in that day. Did they have books of poetry? If so, what were they called?

Friday: No inheritance?

From Numbers 16-18:

1. It is amazing how the Lord revealed Himself to Moses and spoke to Moses instructing him as to what should happen, and yet the people would not accept it. They must have thought that there was some nepotism going on, because Aaron was Moses's brother and got to be high priest. However, they should have realized that it was God making these decisions. And after Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were swallowed by the earth, they really should have been able to see the situation more clearly. Instead, they continued to fight against God. I think that many times we only see what we want to see, and this appears to be exactly what the Israelites did.

2. Moses (and Aaron) constantly were having to be the intercessors between God and the Israelites. It is interesting that even at this point that Moses and Aaron would still be concerned for the welfare of the Israelite people, after all the challenges and complaints that they had received.

3. That would be quite awesome - a staff budding and flowering and producing almonds. Though some would say it is just nuts!!!

4. No inheritance? - In Numbers 18:20 & 23 it says that the Israelites will receive no inheritance, but that rather they will be allowed to partake in what is offered to the Lord. Part of it is still offered, but a portion of it is for the Levites. It makes me wonder - Did the Levites get any land? If not, they truly were like strangers in a strange land, or like travelers just passing through. They would exist for one purpose only - to serve Him.

5. God wants the finest new wine (Numbers 18:12). So I guess the Prohibition would not work at that time.

6. Numbers 18:26 & 28 says that even the Levites had to offer a tithe to the Lord. Interesting.

Thursday: Sticks and stones will break my bones...

From Numbers 13-15:

1. It is interesting how when there is only one way to go and it looks remarkably like a good way to go, some people can still find things to complain about and think that there might have been a better way before at some point...
It seems to me that these 10 spies that spread the bad report were just this type of person. They had no alternative, but insisted that everything was terrible, in spite of the huge cluster of grapes sitting right there and the pillar of cloud that had helped them defeat the Egyptians right near their camp.

2. The Israelite people strike me as people who like to whine about things instead of trusting and trying.

3. In Numbers 15 God tells Moses what the difference is between the sacrifice for sinning unintentionally and the price for sinning intentionally. God is not pleased with those who intentionally sin against Him and His law.

4. Sticks and stones will break my bones... - Numbers 15:32-36 talks about a man who is stoned for gathering sticks on the Sabbath. Is this the precursor to the saying?

Wednesday: Now that is humble!

From Numbers 10-12:

1. It is interesting to see how the two silver trumpets were to be used. I never thought of this detail, but God had it all figured out ahead of time.

2. I am not sure why it talks about Reuel the Midianite as being Moses' father-in-law. According to Exodus 18 it was Jethro, the priest of Midian. The only explanations I can come up with are these; - it was another name that Jethro went by
- Moses was married to more than one person, so he had more than one father-in-law
- the name mentioned is the name of someone else and I am reading the passage wrong

3. Chapter 11 talks about the Lord's anger being aroused and some of the children of the Lord getting burned and some of the outskirts being consumed. I wonder what happened. It sounds kind of like a brush fire or something, but there are no details.

4. Now I see that Moses indeed must have had another wife, because it tells of this Cushite wife in chapter 12.

5. Now that is humble! - Wow!!! It is really special when the bible says that you are the most humble person on the earth. See Numbers 12:3. I suppose that is one of the reasons that God fights for Moses against his brother Aaron and sister Miriam. See Numbers 12:6-10.

Tuesday: Retirement at 50?

From Numbers 7-9:

1. Interesting! The Kohathites had to carry all the items that they were responsible for because they were all items that were holy. This is in contrast to the other Levitical groups that had to transport the settings and such. They did not need to carry it, but rather were given oxen and carts to use for transport.

2. In Numbers 7 it talks about the twelve gifts brought over the twelve days to offer to the Lord. It reminds me of the twelve days of Christmas. I wonder if there is any real correlation.

3. Retirement at 50? - Being a Levite meant that you were forced to retire at the age of fifty after serving twenty five years.

4. The Israelites really got good training on how to follow God. They would wait for the pillar of fire / cloud to move from above the tabernacle, and then they would follow. As it says in Numbers 9, there were times that the Israelites would be in one place for days or weeks, and other times when one night was all the time the pillar stayed still. They were totally following God in every move.

Monday: Pass the grapes

From Numbers 4-6:

1. It is interesting that God puts the Kohathites in charge of carrying certain items, yet they are not allowed to go into the most holy place or they will die. I wonder why they could not go in. I am relatively certain they wondered why also, but if they had gone against God's command, they would die just as Adam and Eve were punished for trying to see why God had commanded them not to eat from the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

2. In Numbers 5:21-22 it talks about the curse that the woman will receive if she is not faithful to her husband and he suspects it and brings her before the priest. It states that her thigh will waste away and her abdomen will swell. I suppose if you ate ice cream every night before bedtime, it would cause both thigh and abdomen to swell.

3. Regarding the above passage, it seems pretty harsh, especially if the woman has been entirely faithful. I mean, if she had a particularly jealous and spiteful husband, he could use this just to torture her or out of a lack of care for her. I don't recall the guys having to do this if they were suspected of being unfaithful.

4. Pass the grapes - It is interesting that Nazirites could not eat anything relating to grapes. I always thought it was just wine or fermented types of things. I did not realize that even grapes, grape juice and raisins were off limits. So it would seem that God would not want anyone to be a Nazirite today. Otherwise, you would be sinning when you partook in Holy Communion!

Sunday: Egad!

From Numbers 1-3:

1. It is interesting to see how God took the entire Levite clan in place of the firstborn from each family. Especially interesting is the fact that he had all the people pay for the difference between the number of Levites and the number of firstborn.

2. I again am amazed at the detail provided about who was over which clan, and the numbers of men in the tribes. These types of details give credence to the fact that the bible cannot have been fabricated. Forget about all of the other proofs that are evident (dead sea scrolls, other historical evidences, etc.). Even if they were not available, the fact that these details are listed so completely and with such minutia points to the fact that this book's content is real and accurate.

3. Egad! - I wonder what these banners and standards looked like for each tribe. I can imagine that Judah's standard included a lion, and it is possible that Benjamin's was a wolf, but what about some of the others? I get Judah's and Benjamin's from Genesis 49, when Jacob blessed his sons. According to that, Dan's would have included a serpent or viper and Naphtali's would have included a doe; however, I am still trying to figure out what Gad's would have been.

Saturday: What's it worth to ya?

From Leviticus 25-27:

1. The year of jubilee is a really neat concept. It allows for those who have become poor through circumstances or even through their own poor management to be able to recover the property that was owned by their families. It also ensures that none of the Israelites who end up as indentured servants don't become slaves for multiple generations, unless they make a conscious effort to do this.

2. I wonder what the frequency is that farmers in the countryside here in the US let the land lie fallow. I wonder how closely this every seventh year is correlated to what farmers do in the US. It makes a whole lot of sense. God knew all the problems that they would run into and provided answers to them.

3. In Leviticus 25:21-22, God says that he will provide such abundance in the sixth year that the Israelites will need of nothing until the eighth year harvest. That is so cool!!

4. The Israelites were instructed to not extract interest from their fellow Israelites in Leviticus 25:35-36. I wish we could get the credit card companies to do this for fellow Americans!!!

5. In chapter 26, it talks in depth about the blessings and curses of the covenant that God is making with the Israelites. It is interesting that it is equally terrible for breaking the covenant as it is good for keeping it. It is too bad that mankind is not known for faithfulness. If you don't believe me, look at wedding vows made these days before God.

6. What's it worth to ya? - If Bill Gates was dedicated to God, in God's eyes he is only worth fifty shekels of silver, the same that my wife or I would be worth (See Leviticus 27:3). That really turns the world's value system on its head.

Friday: Which one?

From Leviticus 22-24:

1. It is interesting to see that sacrifices will not be qualified as pure and without blemish if they have the testicles bruised, crushed, torn or cut. That would mean that no steer would qualify. I wonder if they even raised steer. (For those of you who do not know, a steer is a bull with his testicles removed. It helps keep a strong flavor caused by male chemicals - perhaps testosterone - from pervading the meat.)

2. No one was to eat the sacred offering food, except for the priest and his family. It is nice to know, however, that God made provision for those who would live with the priest on certain occasions, such as slaves or a divorced priest's daughter who had come back home to live.

3. Which one? - I wonder about the son of the Israelite mother and Egyptian father. It states that the son of the Israelite woman blasphemed the Name with a curse. Since there were two people fighting, I assume that this refers to the one with the Egyptian father. However, would it not have been easier to say the one with the Egyptian father to make it clearer? Or was it the other individual? In the second case, it makes me feel happy to see that God was not a respecter of persons, regardless of heritage, if they did not respect His name. However, regardless of the individual, it shows us how grievious it is to God when we use His name in vain or curse His name.

Thursday: You're a what?

From Leviticus 19-21:

1. Leviticus 19:3 - Respect your earthly parents and heavenly Father. I like the way those two are put together.

2. I will mention again (as a did a while back) that I really like how God works out rules so that there is enough for the poor to glean some food from the fields. Note that it does not say "Harvest this and give it to the poor, but rather leave it for the poor." So even those who are less fortunate still have to put forth some effort to get what they need to survive. This is a very different idea from what our government assistance programs do today.

3.I wonder about Leviticus 19:19. Does this mean that we should be against genetically engineered plants and animals?

4. According to the same verse, we are all really in big trouble because we wear clothes every day that are mixes of different fabric types.

5. Leviticus 19:28 - No tatooes! Interesting. I did not realize that it was actually an old testament law.

6. Leviticus 20:21 says that a man must not marry his brother's wife. But at the same time, I know that it was expected that the brother would help the widow to have children if she had not before her husband died. How does this work, I wonder.

7. You're a what? - Leviticus 21:5 says that a priest must not shave his head. This is very different from what monks do today. And according to verse 13 he is to marry a virgin - meaning that he is allowed to marry. Also very different from what is seen typically today.

8. God did not accept those with handicaps or physical malformations to go near the altar. I wonder why. I would guess that they would possibly be one of the only groups that might truly trust in him. As well as being humble and open to God.

Wednesday: Who is the scapegoat?

From Leviticus 16-18:

1. Who is the scapegoat? - It is very interesting that God had Aaron take two goats, one being called the scapegoat. It is in stark contrast to the killing that is typically done to these animals for the sins. In this case it appears to signify that the sin is leaving from among the people.

2. I wonder what the "goat idols" were. Were they in the shape of a goat, supposed to cause them to get more goats, or just named that for some other random reason?

3. In Leviticus 18:22 it makes things very clear about homosexuality. I don't know what the big argument is. It does not get much clearer than that. It is amazing that some churches believe that it is okay.

Tuesday: Bald is beautiful!

From Leviticus 13-15:

1. It is funny to see how rashes and hair turning white were considered unclean. I think that our first child was unclean most of his first couple of months, until we figured out how to keep the diaper rash away!! (And now that I think about it, he really was unclean!)

2. I wonder why the big emphasis on hair turning white. That would not bode well for many people as they get older. Although I assume that this refers to leprosy and is in an effort to keep leprosy out of the general populace of Israel.

3. I wonder what "leprosy" was and if this was describing it. According to wikipedia, leprosy was a pretty vague term in the original biblical text and could have included even such things as dandruff. So it would appear that everyone would be considered unclean at some point in their lives due to a rash of some sort.

4. Regarding mildew, I wonder what the priest would do about some of our bathroom tubs. Not a pretty thought!

5. Bald is beautiful! - Exodus 13:14 says it all.

6. Leviticus 14:9 might explain what Sinead O'Connor was trying to accomplish.

7. Chapter 15 heading ought to be "Eeewwww!"

Monday: Sincere, but sincerely wrong

From Leviticus 9-12:

1. Sincere, but sincerely wrong - Aaron lost two of his sons pretty quickly during the service to the Lord as priests. I wonder if the sons realized they were not following God's orders in offering this unauthorized fire. So the way I take this is that even if your heart is in the right place, that is not enough. You must also do things in the proper way. It reminds me of when King David was having the Ark moved to Jerusalem the first time. They were transporting it on a wagon with two oxen pulling it, and in 2 Samuel 6 it records that Uzziah died because of the improper mode of transport. I am certain that all of their hearts were in the right place, but the way they did it was wrong.

2. The priests could not drink wine when they went into the Tent of Meeting. I did not realize that.

3. It sounds like the two remaining sons of Aaron made some mistake too, but that Aaron said that he had made the same mistake before. See Leviticus 10:19-20

4. See Leviticus 11:22 - Pass the grasshopper and cricket souffle!

5. Just a technicality, but flying insects do not walk on all fours, they walk on six legs. I assume all fours refers to the fact that they do not walk upright.

6. I did not realize it, but the woman, after giving birth, is to wait 33 days to be purified from the birth of a boy, or sixty six days after the birth of a girl. So even in Jewish culture there probably would be preference to have a boy rather than a girl.

Sunday: Viewer Discretion Advised

First of all, I had warned all that Sunday might be a challenge. As I suspected, it ended up being quite a challenge this weekend. I hope everyone had a wonderful day. However, in order to make sure that we accomplish finishing the bible in the one year time period, I will submit an entry, albeit late, for Sunday.

From Leviticus 6-8:

1. It is interesting to see that the priests also had to keep the fire burning on the altar hearth all night. No sleep for them either.

2. I like how reparations are done for someone who is wronged. The person who has wronged someone must perform restitution to the wronged party, plus add one fifth. Then they also need to offer the guilt offering.

3. I did not realize it, but the priests got to keep the skins of the sin and guilt offerings. That would be useful for making clothing and such.

4. I noticed that the right thigh of the fellowship offering belongs to the priest. I know this is not related, and the bible does not say, but I wonder which hip of Jacob was touched by the angel so that he limped.

5. Viewer Discretion Advised! - In Leviticus 8, it says that Moses washed the priests during their ordination and then clothed Aaron with the robe and the ephod. This was in front of all the people. It sounds pretty embarrassing, if it is at all like it sounds!

Saturday: It was an accident

From Leviticus 2-5:

1. I sometimes think it would be good for us to begin to offer sacrifices again, not because the price Jesus paid was not enough or anything like that, but rather because I think we so easily forget that there is no remission of sin without the shedding of blood. That is a high price to pay for sin. Perhaps this reminder though, might inspire us to be more careful about sinning.

2. It was an accident - It is interesting that all of the instances concern the unintentional sin. I wonder what one is supposed to do if they had known something was wrong but they did it anyways. And it also reminds us that there is no way that we can be perfect apart from some type of atonement, because we are bound to sin unintentionally at some point.

3. I wonder about all the blood that must have been shed around the altar. It must have smelled pretty awful after a time with all of that blood around the altar. I would imagine it would attract flies and such.

4. It is interesting to see that God says that someone who takes an oath carelessly is guilty, whether it is an oath of good or evil. That makes sense, since later God says not to take oaths, but rather let your 'Yes' be 'Yes' and your 'No' be 'No' (Matthew 5:37).

Friday: Attention to detail

From Exodus 49 - Leviticus 1:

1. It is interesting that Moses was able to go into the presence of God up on Mount Sinai and see his glory (Exodus 33:18), yet he could not enter the Tent of Meeting because of the glory of the Lord had filled it (Exodus 40:35). I believe this was to show how God ordained this tabernacle to be his dwelling, at least during this time period.

2. Although I read the account of all the details of how the tabernacle was made, and how there was the Holy Place and then the Most Holy Place, I am still not clear as to how the Israelites moved all of this without entering the Most Holy Place to take things down and move everything. I assume that it was a different type of situation packing up than when one entered the presence of the Most Holy Place. Perhaps it can be differentiated by where the cloud was at the time of entrance into this area. If the cloud was overhead, then you were entering the Most Holy Place, but if the cloud was starting to move, you were just packing up.

3. Attention to detail - It was very important that everything was just as God had said. Since the Israelites did everything exactly like the instructions that they were given, Moses blessed them (Exodus 39:43). An interesting thing is that in Chapter 39 of Exodus, the phrase "as the Lord commanded Moses" was stated 8 times!

Leviticus, here we come!!! (I actually covered Leviticus 1 today, but I will not comment on it until tomorrow so that we are focusing on one book at a time.)

Thursday: Why so much detail?

From Exodus 36-38:

1. The Israelites really had trouble staying faithful. They could not remain faithful to God for even forty days while Moses was up on Mount Sinai, and now they give so much for the temple that Moses has to tell them to stop.

2. Why so much detail? - I wonder why, after all the description of how the tabernacle was supposed to be constructed, does the bible go into all the detail about it being done. I mean, it could have just said that the skilled workmen did just as God commanded and built the tabernacle. It would have saved a whole lot of writing.

3. I am amazed at the fact that the Israelites went into Egypt with only 70 people, but came out so much larger - all because of God's blessing on them. God sure does bless wonderfully!!! I wonder how big my family would be if God blessed us like this - after 400 years.

Wednesday: Define face to face

From Exodus 33-35:

1. Define face to face - We see in Exodus 33 that God spoke to Moses face to face. However, later he asks to see God's glory, and God says his face must not be seen. I wonder how this could be true? Was it God the Father versus God the Son, or was it like he spoke face to face, but not really literally face to face?

2. In Exodus 33:11, we see that although Moses would go back into the camp after meeting with God in the tent of meeting, Joshua (Moses' aide) would stay behind in the tent of meeting. He must've really been amazed by seeing God's power there.

3. Exodus 34:13 "...for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." Isn't this redundant? Why would this be stated this way? For emphasis?

4. Moses had a radiant face. Now that is something. I wonder what it looked like.

5. Many of the commands that God provided actually make a whole lot of sense looking back, many for sanitary reasons or other things like that. The Sabbath was to be holy, but it is interesting that God specifically says that they are not to light a fire on the Sabbath day. Does this mean as long as one is already going, you can keep it going, but cannot light it, or does it mean not to have a fire burning on the Sabbath? I assume the first option. If that is the case, I wonder about it, since it is actually almost as easy to start the fire as it is to keep feeding the fire all night just to keep it going for the next day.

Tuesday: Have you forgotten already?

From Exodus 29-32:

1. In Exodus 29:20 it discusses how to consecrate Aaron and his sons. The blood on the thumbs of the right hands made sense, and I suppose perhaps the right ear lobe too, but the right big toe also? And why just these items, and not the whole right hand? Or the right side of the face? Or the right foot?

2. Exodus 29:22 talks about the fat tail. As opposed to what? The skinny tail? It must be a part I am not familiar with. Or perhaps it describes a part that is a portion that is removed during a dressing of a lamb for food.

3. Exodus 29:26 talks about one of the most interesting of the offerings: the wave offering. I wonder why there is a wave offering.

4. Aaron is commanded in these passages to make a drink offering during the morning and evening sacrifices of a lamb, as well as a grain offering. Additionally, every day Aaron is supposed to burn incense on the altar when he tends the lamps in the morning, and then again at night. He is going to be pretty busy!

5. I wonder...why the distinction of the "sanctuary shekel"? As opposed to what?

6. God gave a special recipe for his anointing oil, and also said that the incense offered to him should be created by a perfumer. Neither of these could be used by any other than under God's direction where God deemed it appropriate.

7. It is really neat that God gave certain men like Bezalel and Oholiab special abilities to do some cool stuff for him. Many times we think of God giving abilities as those that are used in a "church" type setting, like preaching, teaching, or singing. But here in this case, God is using abilities that are more like arts, crafts, and skilled trades.

8. Have you forgotten already? - The Israelites were really not very smart! They had just witnessed God's great salvation from the Egyptian armies, and then seen God, and now they want to make idols. That is just crazy. I guess it goes to show that we always need to be on our guard to keep our love for God and our reverence for him strong. Otherwise the enemy will turn us against him very quickly.

Monday: How about a mystery?

From Exodus 25-28:

1. I think that the chapters that are covered today are some of the most compelling arguments that there is no way someone made up what is in the bible. First of all, the details are so minute and specific, it would be hard to just make this up. Secondly, why would you bother to make up all of this stuff when it does not add to the story. If you were trying to convince someone of something, you would not bother with all of this "extra" stuff.

2. In Exodus 25:30, it says that God wanted the bread of the Presence before him at all times. I wonder why. What does this symbolize? And I assume that this means that every day the priests had to make new bread.

3. In Exodus 27:16 it states that an embroiderer is to do some of this work. It also talks about men who are skilled craftsmen and ones who God gave skills in certain areas. It shows me that God uses all of our talents, and he gives them to us in the first place. So even a talent like being able to embroider is something that God has a very important purpose for.

4. I am amazed at the amount of wealth that the Israelites were carrying with them. To be able to create what they were instructed to create, just from their offerings from what they had in their possessions - this is amazing. It must have been quite an ordeal to travel with all of these possessions in tow.

5. How about a mystery? - In Exodus 28:30, it talks about having the Urim and the Thummim in the breastpiece of the outfit that Aaron was to wear. What was this stuff?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thummim
Check it out. Very interesting.

Sunday: Remove my sickness

From Exodus 22-24:

1. It is nice to see that God looks out for the welfare of the widows and orphans. Not only does he care about them, but the way in which he states not to harm them is like saying, "You mess with them, you just messed with me." I love it!

2. In Exodus 23:2 it states that peer pressure can be a bad thing. Interesting...I never realized that there actually was a verse that said it so clearly about how peer pressure can be detrimental.

3. Exodus 23:9 tells us that we should not give Martians a hard time. :-) Seriously, though, it is nice to see that God cares about those who are not native to a land. It definitely is hard to be a foreigner - I know from being in Taiwan for a period of time - getting past the language barrier was really tough.

4. The Israelites were required to celebrate a festival to God. Here in the US we only celebrate two festivals that are dedicated to the Lord: Christmas and Easter. Though I suppose some Americans associate Thanksgiving with God also. Perhaps we should change the name and call it the Feast of Unleavened Turkey, to make sure that all associate it with God.

5. It is interesting that God told the Israelites to let the land lie unplowed and unused on the seventh year. But it was not totally unproductive. He allowed for the poor and the wild animals to glean from what came up there. What a cool way of doing things! It allows the land to replenish its nutrients, while at the same time providing for those who were not as fortunate.

6. Remove my sickness - Exodus 23:25-26 state that if the Israelites follow all of God's commands, that he will bless their food and water and remove sickness from among them. I wonder how long it will take the American people to realize that our relative health and wealth are directly due to our forefathers closely following God's commands. The way things are going now, I would not be surprised to see Avian Flu here in the U.S. (or SARS, or _____ - fill in the blank with your favorite epidemic disease) Also interesting to note is that God says that he will remove sickness, but he does not say that people will not die. The curse of death is still in force due to our original sin.

7. Exodus 23:28 says that God will send the hornet ahead of the Israelites. Sounds like a good premise for a superhero movie. I can just see it now: "God sends The Hornet before the Israelites" - he would probably have a yellow and black striped costume. Actually though, it shows that even at that time hornets were mean little buggers.

8. Wow!!! The leaders of Israel got to see God!!! (It was Jesus that they saw, because no man has seen the Father.) And sapphire under his feet! Cool!!! I bet that was better than any special effects one could ever think up.


Sorry everyone!!!! I just realized that I had been putting the reference as somewhere in Genesis, when in reality, we are actually reading in Exodus. It is fixed now. Sorry for the confusion.

Saturday: Lend me an ear!!!

From Exodus 19-21:

1. It is interesting how God put some conditions on Him valuing Israel as his treasured possession. In Exodus 19:5, he gave them the requirement that they must obey Him fully and keep his covenant.

2. I wonder why God wanted the people and animals that touched the mountain to be stoned or shot with arrows, versus any type of "hand being laid upon him". I also wonder, since no animals were to touch the mountain, what about any wild animals on the mountain. Did they need to shoot the mountain goats off of the mountain, or was it already uninhabited?

3. Consecrating involved the washing of the clothes. Interesting... Does this give credibility to the saying, "Cleanliness is next to godliness"?

4. The people of Israel were afraid to listen to God directly, and were rather willing to have Moses listen and just inform them of everything. They had such a priviledge to hear God speak, and yet were unwilling to bear it. I wonder if that is because none of them were worthy (all had sin and were frightened by God seeing their own sin, perhaps).

5. Lend me an ear!!! It seems somewhat unfair that if the master that you work for provides you with a wife and she has children, they are not your own. The only way you can continue to be with your own children is for you to subject yourself to this master for life. And I don't even want to think about the ear-piercing bit of the deal. Ouch!!!!

Friday: Please drop your weapons and put your hands up.

From Exodus 16-18:

1. The Lord is really patient with the Israelites. It did not take very long at all, and here they are grumbling about food. One would expect that after they had seen God's deliverance in an awesome way from the Egyptian army, they would understand that God would help them when they just call upon him, but they don't. After they begin grumbling about no food, God states that he has heard it and will provide. He says, "Then you will know that I am the Lord your God." Perhaps it is just me, but I feel like them grumbling is already wrong. I mean, they saw the plagues, they saw the great deliverance, and they still can't tell that He is their God?

2. I always thought that it was just Americans that are not so smart. No matter how many times you warn someone of not doing something stupid with a consumer product, there are still those that do it.
http://www.sfidboard.com/showthread.php?t=50108 http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/living/2003343508_warning06.html
We find that the Israelites did similarly stupid things in not following God's directives in collecting manna.

3. God takes note of the Amalekites and declares that in the future he is going to have them destroyed in Exodus 17:14. I wonder why he doesn't have the Israelites do it at this time. After all, he is God.

4. Please drop your weapons and put your hands up. I notice that Moses had to hold both hands up in order to allow the Israelites to win. I have tried to hold something in my hands and hold it up for a long time and I can understand how hard this is. I wonder though, why did God make Moses do this? I mean, God did not need Moses doing this in order to cause the Israelites to win. Perhaps it was to show that it was God that was allowing the victory.

5. Moses's father-in-law comes to visit Moses and gives him some great encouragement and advice. It sure is a blessing to have people who understand, support, and advise when tough times are in store. It is nice to see that even Moses needed support like this.

Thursday: What kinds of diseases?

From Exodus 12-15:

1. In Exodus 12:38 it says that other people went up with them. I wonder, were these people possibly Egyptians who decided to join the Israelites? I wonder if they had any desire to join in the Passover lamb dinner. If they did not, could they still use the blood on the doorframes and still receive mercy? (It appears that they could, but...) Were any of them willing to go through the rite of being circumcised in order to partake in the Passover lamb? (Exodus 12:48) That would have been painfully tough, as after that they were traveling frequently for a while.

2. The Lord commanded the Israelites not to break any of the bones of the Passover lamb (Exodus 12:46) that saved the lives of the firstborn. It is a foreshadowing of Jesus, who would also die in place of all mankind, to satisfy the requirements of God's curse on sin. Jesus also had no bones in his body broken.

3. It is funny to think this way, but I believe that the reason that God had the Israelites wait around so that the Egyptian army could catch up was so that he could "flex his muscle" in front of all the Israelites. I think that some of them still did not realize how powerful God is and what he would do for them. This was their opportunity for a ring-side seat to see a demo.

4. What kinds of diseases? In Exodus 15:26, God tells the Israelites that if they are careful to keep his commands, they will not get any of the diseases that the Egyptians got. I wonder what kind of diseases the Egyptians had. Were these sicknesses due to the environment that the Egyptians created around themselves, or due to God's curse upon their sinful lifestyles, or because of other things?

Wednesday: Now that is powerful!!

From Exodus 9-11:

1. Why did Pharaoh send people to investigate about the cattle? Was there still doubt in his mind about this all being from the Lord? Especially after his magicians had already told him that it was the finger of God? And later, during the boils, it says that the magicians could not stand before Moses. Why did they need to? They had already established that Moses was involved in the "finger of god" doing things, right?

2. Why did God have Moses use soot to demonstrate the plague of boils being made? Why couldn't he just wave his staff or state that it would happen at such and such a time? God must've had his use for Moses doing this. I suspect it was for illustration to Pharaoh and the Egyptians to see where the plagues were coming from. Plus, it gave more credibility to anything Moses might say or do.

3. It is interesting that this plague of boils was not just isolated to man or animal, but both. It is on the scale of a "bird flu" type thing, where it affects all living things.

4. With regard to the hail that God sent, it says that those Egyptians who left their slaves in the field along with the livestock lost them. I wonder, were these slaves Israelites? That would be terrible! I think that I would decide as a slave to ignore my master's request if he had asked me to stay out in the fields when this hailstorm was supposed to commence.

5. Pharaoh was a very stubborn guy. He chased Moses off a number of times and refused to acknowledge that God was in charge, not him. I think he resented that Moses was telling him what to do.

6. It is interesting that Pharaoh kept wanting to make compromises. He was not willing to allow what had been requested. At one point Pharaoh decided that they could all go, but that they must leave their livestock. I think that at this point they had a large amount. Otherwise, it would have been awful easy to just leave the livestock and leave the country.

7. Now that is powerful!!: Many times we wonder why God doesn't do this or that to resolve a situation much easier or more quickly, but God has his own way of doing things. In Exodus 9:15, God stated through Moses that he could have wiped the Egyptians off the face of the earth. The only reason he allowed Pharaoh's insolence was so that he could glorify his own name. He maximized the plagues to give him the most powerful publicity possible. I think that many times he allows people to go through hard times just so that he can show just exactly how awesome he is. If it had been one act in Egypt, many could have explained it away as a coincidence or accident. Also, it built up the Israelites' faith in him (or at least, it should have).

Tuesday: It is darkest just before dawn

From Exodus 5-9:

1.It is darkest just before dawn. In Genesis 6:9, it is interesting that the Israelites reach a point where they are not willing to even listen to Moses and Aaron. I can imagine how pointless and futile it must have seemed for them, because they were being "punished" in a manner of speaking for each time that Moses and Aaron went before Pharaoh. Sometimes God allows situations to get very bad before he steps in, just to test our faith.

2. It is interesting that until the gnats, the Egyptian magicians did a small "trick" and explained away God's work. Then, when the gnats are made from dust, at that point the magicians acknowledge that "this is the finger of God."

3. I wonder why God chose to use blood, frogs, gnats, and then flies. To me, I would have done one flying insects type of plague and then move on to the next large category. Interesting. Of course, if it were me, I probably would have done three or at most four plagues, the fourth being the death of the firstborn. I guess this demonstrates that God is long-suffering and slow to punish. The new testament shows this in 2 Peter 3:9, where it says "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."

I guess I need to learn how to be more long-suffering!



For those of you who are looking for explanations about the reason that OSU would lose to Florida, I can tell you why.

OSU was beat by a coach originally from Ohio - a guy from the county I grew up in: Ashtabula!!! And he is an OSU alumni. (Though I would have much preferred that OSU win.)

Monday: Bridegroom of Blood?

From Exodus 1-4:

1. I wonder why the new king that came to power did not know of Joseph. It was a pretty significant thing that he did. Did they not keep records?

2. It is funny that the thing that the Egyptians were afraid of was that the Israelites might leave the country, and due to this reason they worked them hard. Usually if you don't want someone to leave, you treat them good.

3. In Exodus 3 it talks of Moses's mother seeing that he was a fine child: "When she saw that he was a fine child,..." What does this mean? Would she have ditched him in the Nile if he was not a "fine child"? I am glad my parents didn't ditch me in the Nile, though I am not certain that I was a "fine child".

4. I am surprised that the daughter of Pharaoh was not suspicious when this girl appears out of nowhere (Moses's sister - watching the baby) and offers to go find a nurse for the child. It also seems that this was kind of the plan by the family anyways. Otherwise, why would one put a child that was in danger of being killed into a basket that was left in the water among the weeds of the riverbank.

5. It is nice to see that God hears our groaning when we are in situations like what the Israelites are in. But I would like to believe that even if God had not made the covenant with Abraham, that he would have tried to rescue the Israelites. Perhaps not, and it is only a "what-if", but I still would like to believe this.

6. Moses was not so smart. He did not want to help when God asked him to. God got angry as a result.

7. Bridegroom of Blood? When God was going to kill Moses, Zipporah stepped in and rescued him by circumcising her son and touching the foreskin to his feet. Now that is weird!!! And why was God going to kill Moses? I assume it was because Moses had asked to be exempted from the job God wanted done. I am not sure what the "Bridegroom of Blood" did to resolve that though. The only other explanation that I can think of is that God was going to kill Moses because he had not circumcised his children yet, and that was a command that God had given to the Israelites / Abraham's descendants.

Sunday: Ravenous Wolf?

From Genesis 47-50

1. I wonder how the oldest sons felt about their blessings. They don't appear to be very good. I wonder if this is because Jacob now knows about what the older sons had done in selling Joseph off to the Midianites. He did know before he died because in Chapter 50, the brothers send a message to Joseph about Jacob having supposedly said to forgive them for their past treatment of him.

2. Reuben slept with his father's wife, which is recorded in Chapter 35, and now he does not receive a good blessing due to this fact.

3. Ravenous Wolf? I wonder why there is very little in the way of blessing for Benjamin, because he was one of Rachel's sons and one of Jacob's favorites before he went down to Egypt. One would think that he would get an awesome blessing due to his position in his father's eyes.

4. Although Jacob loved Rachel very much, it is interesting to see that he did not want to be buried where she was buried, but rather where Leah and his ancestors were buried.

5. It is also interesting to see that Jacob switched his hands when he blessed Manasseh and Ephraim. He blessed them opposite what would have been accepted, upsetting Joseph. However, in light of Jacob's own experience, it makes perfect sense. I wonder if the bible will show us how Ephraim's descendants were favored above Manasseh's descendants.

6. It is interesting that Jacob emphasizes the excellence of his blessings when he blesses Joseph. I wonder if he was worried that Joseph would feel that the material goods he had gained in Egypt were better.

7. Joseph's understanding of the big picture is great. He responds wisely to his brothers when they convey to him a supposed message from his father. He could have been spiteful, or he could have made them sweat, but he just says that he is not God and does not have the authority to judge.

Saturday: Show me that you are truly sorry.

From Genesis 43-46

1. After having seen "Passion of the Christ" and "The Nativity", I am certain that I have found another story worthy of a best-seller movie. The story of Joseph is so good that it actually brought tears to my eyes just reading it!! The amazing part about that is I have read it many times before. However, this time I was much more focused on exactly how the events unfolded. (I wonder if, since I have suggested this, that I get any rights to a movie like this.)

2. Show me that you are truly sorry. One of the interesting things about Joseph's story comes in watching exactly who is responsible for different things. Back in Genesis 37 it talks about them planning to sell Joseph to a caravan traveling to Egypt, and it is Judah that is mentioned as coming up with this idea. (Reuben, who is oldest, does not want anything bad to happen to Joseph.) The second oldest is Simeon, and the bible says nothing about him being against it. Some in the group, though the bible does not mention who, originally wanted to kill him.

In Genesis 42:24 it shows that Joseph had Simeon put in prison until they should return. Then we see how Reuben (3rd oldest) promises in Genesis 42:37 that he will ensure Benjamin's safety. When the brothers are finally forced to go back, Judah makes the same type of promise in Genesis 43:9. Then Joseph tests his brothers to see if they have changed their attitudes using the silver cup in Benjamin's sack. In Genesis 44:16 they show that they are changed, but then in Genesis 44:32-34, Judah, who was one of the original guys who sold off Joseph, begs to stay as a slave in place of Benjamin. It is then that Joseph knows that they have indeed changed.

3. I wonder how the other brothers explained to their father about Joseph's original situation. They must have had to, because otherwise they probably would have been concerned that Joseph would tell their father. I wonder what went through Jacob's mind when he heard the story, if he indeed did hear it. I'm surprised that they were not disowned. (Though maybe Jacob never was told.)

4. I wonder why shepherds are detestable to the Egyptians. And I wonder, if they had said that they were of other occupations (other than shepherds), would Pharaoh have put them in other positions?

Friday: Who looks dejected?

From Genesis 40-42

1. Who looks dejected? I wonder how Joseph kept such a bright outlook. First he is a stranger in a strange country where they speak a foreign language and he is a new slave in a very prominent household. Then, after putting a good face on a bad situation, he gets falsely accused and becomes a prisoner. But he continues to keep his positive outlook on life. This is never so evident as when he meets the cupbearer and baker. He notices that both of them are looking dejected, and then he asks, "Why are your faces so sad today?" In my version, it would then say that Joseph says, "You guys have no right to look dejected. You think you've got it bad, but just listen to my story of woe..." Joseph was such a positive force, trusting in God so strongly that not only was his face not downcast, but he even noticed others when they looked dejected! Wow!!

I wish that more people could be like that today. The world would be a better place for it. Just think - people not just thinking of themselves, but being concerned about the welfare of others in spite of their own troubles - sounds like heaven to me!!

2.It is interesting that the bible calls out the type of dreams that both the cupbearer and the baker had: "...each dream had a meaning of its own." It specifically says that these dreams have some special meaning. I also notice that Pharaoh's dream has specific meaning. But it is interesting that the bible calls it out. I think it implies that there are dreams that do not have any particular significance. (I can remember one time I dreamed that I was a team partner with Mr. T for some crime-busting ring. I can tell you with a certainty that the dream had no special meaning, other than perhaps to make me laugh!) In fact, I would suggest that you would be very unlikely to have a dream that did have some significance. I say this because of all the people that are mentioned in the bible, very few have dreams that are mentioned as having some significance. I can think of about ten - fifteen people in the bible who have dreams that turn out to be significant. This number is very few in light of the thousands of years of time that the bible spans. And even these people that do have some dream that ends up being significant - it is one dream in their entire life. I mean, we don't read anything about the Pharaoh continuing to have dreams. Nor does the cupbearer. Scientists tell us that we have dreams every night. But if you are trying to read some spiritual (or other) significance into your dreams - well, I think you are dreaming!!

3. I wonder what it looked like for withered, thin, scorched heads of grain to swallow full heads of grain. Talk about special effects!!! That would probably be better than the goblins in LOTR!!!

4. I like how humble and honest Joseph is. He finally gets a chance to go before the Pharaoh and when the Pharaoh asks him if he can interpret the dream, he immediately says that only God can do that - not him. Wow!! I hope that whenever I am faced with situations that require gifts that God has given me, I can do the same as Joseph by giving God all the glory.

Thursday: Nice family!!

From Genesis 36-39

1. Joseph's father loved him more than his brothers. That is not good! Preferential treatment in families is always bad.

2. I wonder what kind of bad report Joseph brought about his brothers when they were tending the sheep. I can just hear it now - "Dad, they wouldn't help me put the water out for the young lambs." It sounds like Joseph was what we would call a tattle-tale. Although it all depends upon what exactly they were doing. Some things may be extreme enough to deserve an informant.

3. Why didn't Joseph get the idea that telling his brothers about his dreams was not going to help his cause? Did he think they were going to like him more due to this? If it were me, I probably would've kept my mouth shut about it, just to keep the peace. Although I was not in his shoes, so there may be some other circumstances that I am not seeing.

4. Nice family!! It is amazing how people will reason away something bad that they do. Judah says to sell Joseph to the Ishmaelites because "after all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood." Wow!!! This comment should've woken them up right there.

5. If I am not mistaken, Genesis 38:9-10 is where some churches come up with being against any type of birth control. However, God was angry because Onan did not fulfill his duty to his dead brother and his dead brother's wife, not because he "spilled his semen on the ground". I believe this is why it was considered wicked in God's eyes (and selfish).

6. It is interesting to see that Judah was not only the mastermind behind the selling of Joseph to the Midianites, but also was the one who was messing around with what he thought were shrine prostitutes. And until she notified him about him being the father of the child in her womb, he was ready to burn Tamar to death.

Wednesday: Wrestling with God?

From Genesis 32-35

1. Jacob must have read some of The Hobbit before going to meet his brother. If you recall, in The Hobbit, when Gandalf and Bilbo go to visit Beorn, they come two at a time so as to not overwhelm him. Jacob used this same group by group approach to try and appease his brother. (In reality, I wonder if J.R. Tolkien - who was a Christian - came up with this idea in the book from this passage.)

2. Wrestling with God? - It is interesting how Abraham and Isaac have a very different type of interaction with God than Jacob has. I especially find it interesting because Jacob was not exactly totally upright in all of his dealings, and then he still dares to "wrestle with God". What does this say about God? What does it say about Jacob? What does it say about Jacob's relationship with God? Or is there no significance? I wonder...

3. I also wonder: The bible never says how he met up with this "man" and started this wrestling match. How did it start? Where did this "man" come from? Some people "wrestle with God" when they are doubting him, or maybe the idea of God in control of things / their lives / etc. I wonder if this is a similar idea. It is a very real, physical confrontation according to the account in Genesis, but it is odd because of the lack of background details.

4. It is interesting to see how all the past problems that Jacob had caused were forgotten and his brother was happy to see him. It does seem that many times, no matter how significant the offense, usually after some time family members will forgive and forget and accept you again. It reminds me of King David when his son Absalom killed his half-brother Amnon for molesting their sister (Absalom's full sister and Amnon's half-sister - 2 Samuel 13). Eventually King David longs to have his son back, and allows his son to come back, even though he's a murderer.

5. Jacob's boys were deceitful in dealing with the Hivite leaders, Hamor and Shechem. I have always heard two wrongs do not make a right. However, I wonder how God viewed their untruth in light of Dinah being violated.

It is interesting that there is no record of what Dinah's thoughts were. I wonder if she loved this guy. I mean, it goes into great depth to explain how serious Shechem was about caring for her. It says "...he loved the girl and spoke tenderly to her." Her brothers were rightfully angry, but she may have been a willing party. She had a leader of a people (or at least a city) who really valued her, and was willing to do anything for her. Isn't that the type of person one wants in a relationship?
Caring? - Check
Financially Stable? - Check
Willing to do anything for her? - Check
Loves God Almighty? - Good question (This might be the key.)
I wonder if she knew what her brothers were going to do. And afterwards, who did she end up spending her life with? If the bible tells, I do not recall.

One could argue that this people was an idol-worshiping people, but if that were the case, they should have never taken the women and children, but rather all should have been destroyed. So in the end the guys got the plunder and wives and children, while Dinah was violated (could possibly mean - had premarital sex) so her brothers killed her lover. What kind of future could she possibly have in the society of the time after this incident?

Tuesday: God - The Great Equalizer

From Genesis 29 - 31

1. God - The Great Equalizer - It is interesting how God did not allow Sarah to have children for so long. Then God did not allow Rebekah to have children for quite some time, until Isaac prayed to the Lord on Rebekah's behalf (Genesis 25:21). Then Rachel, who the bible says was beautiful (Genesis 29:17) just like Sarah and Rebekah, had the same challenge (Genesis 29:31). But what is most fascinating about this is that God blessed Leah. The bible says it was because she was not loved. (Genesis 29:31)
Does this mean that great beauty comes with a high price? It is neat that when God does not give us one thing, he always blesses us with something else. Sometimes we just need to discover what it is that God has given us as a blessing.

2. After the discussion that Jacob has with his wives and the evidence that he gives for thinking that God has blessed him and judged between him and Laban, it is funny that Rachel would be so stupid as to steal the household gods. They obviously did not help Laban any, so what was she thinking? Why bother?

3. It is interesting that Jacob tells about a dream that indicated that God was giving him the increase, but before that it talked about how Jacob was using the poplar branches to try and fix things in his favor. (I understand that Laban was not being fair either, but...) It just goes to show that it is really hard to act in a manner that is purely upright. Especially when your father and grandfather before you were known to have deceived people (regarding wives). I believe that even if Jacob had not done any of the things he did, there still would have been vindication by God. Suppose he did not try his own little tricks and God did not vindicate him against a jealous father-in-law. I wonder why God allowed him to do these things? I also wonder if that dream was truly a dream, and not just something that he made up to explain his overwhelming success.

4. How does an oath in "the name of the Fear of his father Isaac" work? I wonder if it is like when you don't have enough credit, so you have to get your parents to co-sign. That would be an oath in "the name of the Credit of your father (insert-your-dad's-name-here)".

Tomorrow is back to work day. Craig, Hannah, Sam, Paul, and I played Risk a good portion of the day today. The only bad thing about this is I got almost nothing constructive accomplished. But it was enjoyable!!