Today was Joseph's story. He was sold into slavery and bought by an Egyptian official. If I was Joseph, I would be pretty upset by now. I'm a couple hundred miles from home working for some rich guy. But God had his eyes on Joseph, and Joseph probably worked hard too. He prospered and Potiphar was impressed. So, he decided to make Joseph the manager of his estate. Then Potiphar's wife starts hitting on Joseph because he was "well-built and handsome". Wouldn't be nice to be immortalized in history and in biblical text as well-built and handsome? I digress. Joseph refuses many times, and has to run away as she rips his clothes off which she uses to blackmail him. Joseph ran away from temptation, even though it meant leaving behind his expensive cloak leaving him bare. Potiphar's nameless wife uses the cloak as evidence and lies to her husband saying that Joseph tried sleeping with her. So, Potiphar throws Joseph into prison.
He interprets some dreams, and is only let out when the Pharaoh himself (which one, it doesn't say) needs a dream interpreted. I would be really interested to know if there is archeological or written evidence other than the Bible that corroborates this story. It seems to me that a seven year famine is a big deal and would have been written about. It also seems like, if Joseph really was acting as a manager of Egypt, separate sources would corroborate that. I haven't checked yet, but I am curious to know if it is written about elsewhere other than the Jewish texts (the Bible). So, Pharaoh has a dream that needs interpreting. The pharaoh's cup-bearer remembered Joseph because of his predictive success, so Pharaoh gets Joseph who predicts the famine. Joseph is now the big cheese. He institutes a food production and rationing program, where they store grain during the abundant seven years and sell it to people during the famine years. I can't even begin to imagine how much money that generated. When people can't feed their children they will pay almost anything they have to get food for them... or raid others.
Pharaoh had two dreams, which both meant the same thing. I'm assuming this is more like for emphasis. Saying things twice means you really meant to say it.
During the famine Joseph's bros are sent to get grain from Egypt. They meet him and bow down before him to ask for grain. Fulfillment of prophecy? Joseph accuses them of being spies. They deny it, but he throws them in jail for a few days. I figure this is to teach them a lesson, to serve out a little justice, and maybe to have a little fun with them. But after that, he fills their sacks with grain, and orders his people to put his brothers' silver back in their bags without them knowing. Now he shows them grace. He gave them grain, precious and limited grain, for free. He tells them to get his youngest brother, Ben, because Ben was his only full-blooded brother.
They go home, find the silver, are terrified they'll be killed for stealing money, go back with their brother and then bow down really low to the ground and pay him extra. He weeps. I can only imagine he feels some sense of empathy towards them. Sure, they threw him in a hole, sold him to slavery, and faked his death, but they were terrified they would be killed or worse for having stolen money from the Pharaoh. He weeps, but then comes back and throws a feast.
The bros are back in action!
I have found that morning is the best time to read, but probably won't work once I get my job. It took about an hour to read all that stuff and probably another half hour to blog it. I hope I can make this a little bit more routine. Maybe it's time I dragged out the ol' DragonSpeak software and just dictate my blog. No one reads this thing, but I want to make it easier to maintain.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Day 9: Genesis 34:1-38:30
Whew! I still managed to get my reading in, even after a full day of painting, electrical work, dry walling, and carpentry. I'm surprised that I've managed to stay on top of this reading for as long as I have. It's only been eight days, but that's longer than I thought I was going to last. Only 262 days left to go! Today was an interesting read. I'm starting to notice a pattern. I think it is probably a deliberate attempt of the author to point out the way that these women and men slowly turned away from God and put their faith or pleasure in other gods or things like revenge and unholy sex. The other main thing I'm seeing is the consistent pattern of fear and terror that people experience when in the presence of God. God presents him/herself plainly to these people (Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph) just as he/she is. The way they see God is nothing short of terrifying. Granted, these are people that thought the earth was flat, the sun and stars went around the earth, and who would be rendered speechless if they watched a modern-day action movie, but I still think that today, in our ultra-modern, image saturated society, we haven't been terrified by God lately. God hasn't permeated or overwhelmed us; maybe that's his grace at work. If we really met God face to face, what would we do with ourselves?
Chapter 34, One of Jacob's daughters, Dinah is raped by men from Shechem, a competing city nation thing. I get the sense that neighbouring cities were more like warring tribes and less like cooperating economies. Cities seem to be bound more by blood relations and affiliative/religious ties more than economic or residential prospects. So, these guys gang-rape Dinah. In this culture, I learned, laws were based on shame. It is shameful for a woman to be defiled, and the only remedy for shameful acts are cleansing rituals, which in most Ancient Near East cities amounted to either exiling or killing the woman by stoning or burning. So, Israel (Jacob) and his sons are infuriated and grief-stricken by this whole ordeal. So what do they do? They con Shechem. They tell them that they want Shechem to join their tribe. They tell the Shechem men to circumcise themselves so they can live in harmony with the Israelites. It seems to me that circumcision for a grown man (this was in the days before anesthesia) would be an excruciating process. This is confirmed in the text when it says that several days later they were still in pain. That's when Israel's sons attack the city and kill all the men because the men are in too much pain to fight back. Interesting combat strategy. Jacob isn't too impressed because the sons took revenge rather than letting the LORD carry out justice.
Chatper 35, After all the men get back, Israel is told to get rid of all of their idols and rings in their ears, which were both pagan practices. They moved on, but no one attacked them because the "terror of God" fell on the towns. Again, God is presented as absolutely terrifying. I have never read the Bible so closely, but it sure seems like God cannot help strike doom into people's heart when they come face to face with him. This chapter repeats the renaming of Israel. In this situation, Jacob is renamed after he comes back from burying his wife's nurse. He is blessed with the same blessing of Adam, Abraham, and Isaac. Rachel dies in this chapter giving birth to Ben-Oni (later renamed Benjamin). Ben is the last son of Israel, making a total of 12.
Chapter 36 is a huge lineage of Esau.
Chapter 37 is the beginning of the story of Joseph, Jacob and Rachel's second last son. In this chapter, Joseph has two dreams. The first: eleven sheaves of wheat are bowing before one sheave. The second: The sun, moon, and eleven stars are bowing down to him. Translation: I will be more powerful than all of you, and you will be my servants. Prima facie, not a big deal, but upon reflection, that would be a pretty cocky statement if it was just said like, "Hey! Bros! You're all gonna be my lackeys someday. How's about that, eh?" That's assuming, of course, Joseph was Canadian. Perhaps expected, his brothers get pissed and want to kill him. They opt out to sell him into slavery under the Ishmaelites, smear some random blood on his coat, and lie to their parents saying that he was killed by some animal.
Chapter 38, Judah starts sleeping around with Canaanite women, then "accidentally" sleeps with his daughter-in-law, Tamar, after she dressed up like a prostitute. I think the point of this chapter was less about literal history and more like an allegory. It seems like the author was trying to really hound the point that the nation of Israel was very quickly going astray from the calling that God had brought upon them, opting out instead for the hollow pleasures of the world. The author shows how bad this decision is by showing how their decisions turn out. Judah finds out he slept with his daughter-in-law and she gets pregnant, and he is disgraced for a while. There's always a silver lining, though, because Perez and Zerah are born as a result. Perez is Jesus Christ's ancestor. Funny how the Messiah came with such a scandalous lineage. Maybe there's hope for the rest of us after all.
1885 pages to go.
Chapter 34, One of Jacob's daughters, Dinah is raped by men from Shechem, a competing city nation thing. I get the sense that neighbouring cities were more like warring tribes and less like cooperating economies. Cities seem to be bound more by blood relations and affiliative/religious ties more than economic or residential prospects. So, these guys gang-rape Dinah. In this culture, I learned, laws were based on shame. It is shameful for a woman to be defiled, and the only remedy for shameful acts are cleansing rituals, which in most Ancient Near East cities amounted to either exiling or killing the woman by stoning or burning. So, Israel (Jacob) and his sons are infuriated and grief-stricken by this whole ordeal. So what do they do? They con Shechem. They tell them that they want Shechem to join their tribe. They tell the Shechem men to circumcise themselves so they can live in harmony with the Israelites. It seems to me that circumcision for a grown man (this was in the days before anesthesia) would be an excruciating process. This is confirmed in the text when it says that several days later they were still in pain. That's when Israel's sons attack the city and kill all the men because the men are in too much pain to fight back. Interesting combat strategy. Jacob isn't too impressed because the sons took revenge rather than letting the LORD carry out justice.
Chatper 35, After all the men get back, Israel is told to get rid of all of their idols and rings in their ears, which were both pagan practices. They moved on, but no one attacked them because the "terror of God" fell on the towns. Again, God is presented as absolutely terrifying. I have never read the Bible so closely, but it sure seems like God cannot help strike doom into people's heart when they come face to face with him. This chapter repeats the renaming of Israel. In this situation, Jacob is renamed after he comes back from burying his wife's nurse. He is blessed with the same blessing of Adam, Abraham, and Isaac. Rachel dies in this chapter giving birth to Ben-Oni (later renamed Benjamin). Ben is the last son of Israel, making a total of 12.
Chapter 36 is a huge lineage of Esau.
Chapter 37 is the beginning of the story of Joseph, Jacob and Rachel's second last son. In this chapter, Joseph has two dreams. The first: eleven sheaves of wheat are bowing before one sheave. The second: The sun, moon, and eleven stars are bowing down to him. Translation: I will be more powerful than all of you, and you will be my servants. Prima facie, not a big deal, but upon reflection, that would be a pretty cocky statement if it was just said like, "Hey! Bros! You're all gonna be my lackeys someday. How's about that, eh?" That's assuming, of course, Joseph was Canadian. Perhaps expected, his brothers get pissed and want to kill him. They opt out to sell him into slavery under the Ishmaelites, smear some random blood on his coat, and lie to their parents saying that he was killed by some animal.
Chapter 38, Judah starts sleeping around with Canaanite women, then "accidentally" sleeps with his daughter-in-law, Tamar, after she dressed up like a prostitute. I think the point of this chapter was less about literal history and more like an allegory. It seems like the author was trying to really hound the point that the nation of Israel was very quickly going astray from the calling that God had brought upon them, opting out instead for the hollow pleasures of the world. The author shows how bad this decision is by showing how their decisions turn out. Judah finds out he slept with his daughter-in-law and she gets pregnant, and he is disgraced for a while. There's always a silver lining, though, because Perez and Zerah are born as a result. Perez is Jesus Christ's ancestor. Funny how the Messiah came with such a scandalous lineage. Maybe there's hope for the rest of us after all.
1885 pages to go.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Day 8: Genesis 30:1-33:20
Today I finally felt like I was on top of my reading. I know that it's later in the day, but I did eventually read.
Starting in Chapter 30, I really like the line, "Give me children or I'll die!" from Rachel in verse 1. Jacob's response is interesting. "Am I in the place of God?" This is the first marital fight I have come across in the Bible. I can picture it in modern language.
Rachel says, "Dang it, Jacob! I want to have kids!"
Jacob replies, "What am I? Jesus? I can't just make kids appear!" Of course, back then fertility treatments, Viagra, soap, and other hygiene products didn't exist, so perhaps child bearing was a little harder, or easier. I don't know.
From verse 25 to 43, Jacob is given flocks of sheep and goats as a payment for shepherding Laban's flocks for so long. Jacob then goes and breeds animals based on their wool colour. I was impressed. It was like the work of Gregor Mendel (the monk who figured out inheritance), only the ancient Jewish version.
I really like a name for God in today's reading. In chapter 31:53, God is referred to as "the Fear of [Jacob's] father Isaac". God is fear personified. He is the ultimate, and when we are faced with his actually face, we are terrified. I'm noticing a pattern, that ever since the Fall, every encounter a person has with God is an encounter saturated with terror, fear, and dread. People only are calmed at his words, "Do not be afraid." I don't think I fear God enough. I want to. Maybe I need to see God face to face more often.
The only time I have ever been absolutely terrified by God is once, when I was around 16 or 17, I was lying in bed, I was deliberately thinking about all of the people in my life who I loved. I remember seeing, almost like a dream, Portage la Prairie, and everyone I knew, even if they weren't from Portage was walking around the streets. All of a sudden I was gripped with a sense of impending doom and terror. My heart felt like it was about to burst from my chest and it almost felt like my soul was about to rip out from within me. I looked up in what later felt like a dream but felt very real at the time and saw the sky. Within an instant, it felt like the entire earth fell silent and I knew that the Lord was coming. I don't know how I knew, but I just knew. Then I heard this deafening but silent trumpet blast, and the sky above me opened up like French doors revealing a blinding light but pitch black background. All I saw was a figure walk from within the doors to the middle and stand there. I knew at that moment that it was Christ himself. He had come back, and I was petrified. I heard, "Did I not say that I would come?" Then I woke up, terrified. I need to see God more often.
Genesis 32:22-32 is the story of Jacob wrestling with God. I love this story. Jacob has sent his wealth and family out ahead of him. He's alone in the camp, when a man wrestles with him all night long till the morning. They are in a deadlock, so the man touches Jacob's hip, and Jacob's leg gets gimped. He doesn't let go of the man until the man blesses him. The man renames Jacob Israel, which means, "he struggles with God", which I think is a pretty good description of the rest of Israel's history as recorded in the Old Testament. I love verse 30. He names that place "face of God" because he saw the face of God, and yet his life was spared. "Yet his life was spared"? Powerful!
Jacob then meets Esau and they make peace.
Cool reading. I'm on page 57 of my Bible. Only 1894 pages to go.
Starting in Chapter 30, I really like the line, "Give me children or I'll die!" from Rachel in verse 1. Jacob's response is interesting. "Am I in the place of God?" This is the first marital fight I have come across in the Bible. I can picture it in modern language.
Rachel says, "Dang it, Jacob! I want to have kids!"
Jacob replies, "What am I? Jesus? I can't just make kids appear!" Of course, back then fertility treatments, Viagra, soap, and other hygiene products didn't exist, so perhaps child bearing was a little harder, or easier. I don't know.
From verse 25 to 43, Jacob is given flocks of sheep and goats as a payment for shepherding Laban's flocks for so long. Jacob then goes and breeds animals based on their wool colour. I was impressed. It was like the work of Gregor Mendel (the monk who figured out inheritance), only the ancient Jewish version.
I really like a name for God in today's reading. In chapter 31:53, God is referred to as "the Fear of [Jacob's] father Isaac". God is fear personified. He is the ultimate, and when we are faced with his actually face, we are terrified. I'm noticing a pattern, that ever since the Fall, every encounter a person has with God is an encounter saturated with terror, fear, and dread. People only are calmed at his words, "Do not be afraid." I don't think I fear God enough. I want to. Maybe I need to see God face to face more often.
The only time I have ever been absolutely terrified by God is once, when I was around 16 or 17, I was lying in bed, I was deliberately thinking about all of the people in my life who I loved. I remember seeing, almost like a dream, Portage la Prairie, and everyone I knew, even if they weren't from Portage was walking around the streets. All of a sudden I was gripped with a sense of impending doom and terror. My heart felt like it was about to burst from my chest and it almost felt like my soul was about to rip out from within me. I looked up in what later felt like a dream but felt very real at the time and saw the sky. Within an instant, it felt like the entire earth fell silent and I knew that the Lord was coming. I don't know how I knew, but I just knew. Then I heard this deafening but silent trumpet blast, and the sky above me opened up like French doors revealing a blinding light but pitch black background. All I saw was a figure walk from within the doors to the middle and stand there. I knew at that moment that it was Christ himself. He had come back, and I was petrified. I heard, "Did I not say that I would come?" Then I woke up, terrified. I need to see God more often.
Genesis 32:22-32 is the story of Jacob wrestling with God. I love this story. Jacob has sent his wealth and family out ahead of him. He's alone in the camp, when a man wrestles with him all night long till the morning. They are in a deadlock, so the man touches Jacob's hip, and Jacob's leg gets gimped. He doesn't let go of the man until the man blesses him. The man renames Jacob Israel, which means, "he struggles with God", which I think is a pretty good description of the rest of Israel's history as recorded in the Old Testament. I love verse 30. He names that place "face of God" because he saw the face of God, and yet his life was spared. "Yet his life was spared"? Powerful!
Jacob then meets Esau and they make peace.
Cool reading. I'm on page 57 of my Bible. Only 1894 pages to go.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Days 1-5: Genesis 1-30
Thanks to Kalynn for the idea of creating a blog as I journey through the Bible in nine months. I figured that blogging about it would be a good way of staying accountable and would be a good place to post my thoughts and questions as they come up.
So, because I had this idea brought to me a little into the process, let me bring you up to speed. My church has set a goal that we would try to get through the entire Protestant Bible from cover to cover in nine months. No extensive study. No delving into huge theological debates. No lofty interpretation. Just read. Why? Because I've never read this entire book before. Since I base my life on the word it contains, I figure now would be as good a time as any to read this thing. So, I pulled my Bible off the shelf, a few days ago, blew the dust off the cover, and opened up to page one (actually, in my Bible, Genesis 1 starts on page 6). Only 1944 pages to go. That's a little daunting.
The creation story is a little confusing. Genesis 1 is pretty straight forward: six days of creation, people created on the sixth day, male and female, in the image of God. Fun fact: it turns out God gave "man" (and of course woman) dominion over the plants, trees, beasts, birds, and bugs, but not the earth itself. Almost like as if God was saying, "Everything except the foundations of creation, I give to you. All things animate are yours." Make of that what you will.
Then in Chapter 2, God creates Adam from dust. Adam is alone for a while, gardening, naming animals, eating from fruit trees (because there are no shrubs or crop plants, according to verse 5). God sees how lonely Adam is looking at all of the other animals with their partners. So, God puts Adam to sleep. God forms a nameless woman from Adam's rib, and Adam calls her the flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone (Gen 2:23). There is no mention of marriage between Adam and Eve, although Genesis 2:23-24 are often cited at weddings.
People screw up in Chapter 3, because that's when the nameless woman takes the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and eats it, thereby disobeying God's only command (Gen. 2:15-17). What does this Tree symbolize? I'm not sure. Ethics? Freethinking? Morality? Agricultural science? The ability to envision the possibility of doing other than instructed. Maybe it was a literal tree. Anyway, a serpent convinces Eve to eat the fruit, and Eve convinces Adam to eat the fruit. Bad news bears. Humanity is damned after that.
God tells Adam and Eve that they only can eat from the plants of the field. It seems the field/dust/ground symbolizes toil, suffering, and damnation.
Cain and Abel are the first son duality presented. One good. One bad. Cain takes Abel out to the field (the cursed place), and he kills him.
Chapter 5 is a family tree from Adam to Noah. Somewhere I remember someone saying that if you take the literal meaning of the names of each character (Adam [man], Seth [appointed], Enosh [sinned, afflicted], Kenan [acquired], Mahalalel [blessed God], Jared [shall come down], Enoch [dedicated/annointed one], Methuselah [shall be sent], Lamech [bringing those who suffer], Noah [comfort and peace]), you get the Salvation story in a nutshell. People were appointed, but then sinned and became afflicted, but then the blessed God came down in the form of an anointed one who was sent to bring the suffering peace and comfort. Jesus? I think so.
From Chapters 7-9, God kills everything except 7 of every clean animal and 2 of every unclean animal and a handful of people in Noah's family. Bummer. Mass extinction death by flood. After the flood, God blessed Noah with a similar blessing to Adam and Eve when he says to be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth (Gen 9:1). In verse 3, humans are given everything else as food, "Everything that lives and moves will be food for you" (Gen. 3:3). So, for all you vegans and vegetarians out there. I'm sorry.
Chapter 9:20-29 confused me. Noah gets drunk. His son, Ham, sees his dad passed out, naked, and presumably gets a little uncomfortable (understandably) and walks away. Then his other two bros, Shem and Japheth, put a blanket on Noah. The next day, when probably dealing with a hangover, Noah curses Ham and his descendants to be slaves of his other brothers and their descendants. I'm not sure what the significance of that is, but it sure seems a little much.
Chapter 10 is a whole list of names, but what's interesting is that Ham's descendants end up being the Philistines, the long-standing enemies of Israel.
Chapter 11 is confusing too. Here all the people of the world speak one language. They decide to put their collective skill, knowledge, and teamwork together and build an engineering marvel. God sees this and wants to stop it. I assume this is because he wants us as people to rely solely on him for our lives, not on our own understanding and pride. He says that if they have begun to build the tower, then nothing will be impossible for them. So, he scatters the people and creates different languages so people are divided and confused, and they spread across the planet.
Chapter 11 is another lineage chapter.
Chapter 12, YHWH calls Abram to bless him, to make a great name for him. Name apparently means something more like reputation or wealth, and prestige and descendants, according to my study bible. Cool. Abram was going to be a rich, blessed, family man of God. Then in Egypt, he tells his wife Sarai to pretend to be his sister so they don't kill him and steal his wife. The Pharaoh thinks Sarai is beautiful, and he gives them lots of gifts. I think he was trying to take on Sarai as his wife. But then the LORD afflicts the Pharaoh with boils and disease until he gave Abram and Sarai safe passage through Egypt. It's almost like a mini version of Moses and God sending the Ten Plagues to free Israel from Egypt and Pharaoh in Exodus.
Chapter 13, Abram and Lot go their separate ways. Lot picks the plain of Jordan, where the Dead Sea is now apparently. According to this passage it used to be lush and well watered for agriculture, but after Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, it became barren and the Dead Sea.
Chapter 16, Abram's wife tells him to sleep with their servant Hagar because they want a son. So, he does, and they have Ishmael. I love that name. It means something like, "God hears," because God heard Hagar's desire for a son. I love verse 16. She calls God, the God who sees me, the One who sees me. Beautiful.
Chapter 17, God tells Abraham about circumcision. Yikes!
Chapter 18, "Three visitors" meet Abraham, one of which is apparently God in human form. He tells Abraham that he is going to destroy Sodom. Abraham is not too happy about that. I know that, historically, the major "sin" here was male homosexuality. I'm not so sure. But let's read on.
Chapter 19, Angels come to Sodom to visit Lot. They want to stay in the city square, but Lot wants them to come into his house. In verse 4, men "both young and old" surround the house and (verse 5) yell that they want the men to come outside so they can have sex with them. Is Sodom cursed because of homosexual acts or just extra- or pre-marital sexual acts? I don't know. Then, in verse 30 to 38, Lot's daughters have sex with him while he's drunk forming the two nations of Moab and the Ammonites. Whether this is true or just Jewish propaganda, I don't know.
In chapter 20, I think Abraham says that Sarah really is his sister, but I could be wrong. See verse 12.
In chapter 21, Isaac is born to Abraham and Sarah. This is just a really cool part of Scripture. Here Sarah thought she would never have a lineage, and God moves in and makes things possible. Beautiful. Abraham sends Hagar and Ishmael off, but not before God blesses Hagar and Ishmael with a smaller version of his blessing to Abraham. I find it really interesting that several times so far, God says, "Do not be afraid," when he talks to people. I think if God confronted me in all of his glory, I would be terrified. I would probably either fall and huddle in the fetal position or feel like I had to run away. But just when we feel like we're about to die, he says, "do not be afraid." When the most terrifying being says that he will not harm you, that he loves you, and wants to bless you, like he wanted to bless Noah, Abraham, and then Jacob, it's almost like you now have that terrifying power watching out for your best interest. Loving but terrifying.
Chapter 22 is theologically dense, and forests of manuscripts have been written on it. I like the interpretation of Sufjan Steven's song, "Abraham" the best. It seems to sum up the entire story best than I ever could. The song is the feeling I get when I read the passage.
In Chapter 23, Sarah dies and is buried in the royal tomb of Ephron the Hittite, which is where Abraham is buried too, I think. It's interesting that both Abraham and Christ were laid to rest in the tomb of king.
Chapter 24 to 27 aren't that eventful for me. Jacob steals Esau's birthright and blessing. I learned that Jacob literally means, "pulling the heel" because he was a trickster. It's sort of like when we say, "Oh, you're pulling my leg." The story of his birth alludes to his craftiness later on.
Chapter 28 mentions Stairway to Heaven in verse 12.
Chapter 29 has the beautiful love (and confusing) love story of Jacob and Rachel. Jacob met Rachel at a well while shepherding. He wanted to marry her, so he asked her father Laban. Laban says, "Name your price!" Jacob says, "How's about seven years' labour?" Deal! I love verse 20, "So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her." Nuff said. After a wedding mix up with Leah, Jacob finally gets his Bella... I mean, Rachel.
Jacob then has 11 kids with 4 women over the next while. Leah gives him Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. He sleeps with Bilbah, Rachel's maidservant, and they have Dan and Naphtali. Then he sleeps with Leah's maidservant and has Gad and Asher. Then he sleeps with Leah and has Iscaar and Zebulan. Then finally he sleeps with Leah and has Joseph. 11 of the 12 sons are born at this point. 11 kids, four women. All normal... different times, I guess. Oppressive times, but different times, nonetheless. Jacob then does some Mendel-style breeding work with his sheep breeding the strong speckled sheep for himself and the weak non-speckled sheep for his master after having agreed to only take the speckled sheep. Clever fellow.
So, that brings us up to speed. Next blog will continue from here. God bless!
So, because I had this idea brought to me a little into the process, let me bring you up to speed. My church has set a goal that we would try to get through the entire Protestant Bible from cover to cover in nine months. No extensive study. No delving into huge theological debates. No lofty interpretation. Just read. Why? Because I've never read this entire book before. Since I base my life on the word it contains, I figure now would be as good a time as any to read this thing. So, I pulled my Bible off the shelf, a few days ago, blew the dust off the cover, and opened up to page one (actually, in my Bible, Genesis 1 starts on page 6). Only 1944 pages to go. That's a little daunting.
The creation story is a little confusing. Genesis 1 is pretty straight forward: six days of creation, people created on the sixth day, male and female, in the image of God. Fun fact: it turns out God gave "man" (and of course woman) dominion over the plants, trees, beasts, birds, and bugs, but not the earth itself. Almost like as if God was saying, "Everything except the foundations of creation, I give to you. All things animate are yours." Make of that what you will.
Then in Chapter 2, God creates Adam from dust. Adam is alone for a while, gardening, naming animals, eating from fruit trees (because there are no shrubs or crop plants, according to verse 5). God sees how lonely Adam is looking at all of the other animals with their partners. So, God puts Adam to sleep. God forms a nameless woman from Adam's rib, and Adam calls her the flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone (Gen 2:23). There is no mention of marriage between Adam and Eve, although Genesis 2:23-24 are often cited at weddings.
People screw up in Chapter 3, because that's when the nameless woman takes the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and eats it, thereby disobeying God's only command (Gen. 2:15-17). What does this Tree symbolize? I'm not sure. Ethics? Freethinking? Morality? Agricultural science? The ability to envision the possibility of doing other than instructed. Maybe it was a literal tree. Anyway, a serpent convinces Eve to eat the fruit, and Eve convinces Adam to eat the fruit. Bad news bears. Humanity is damned after that.
God tells Adam and Eve that they only can eat from the plants of the field. It seems the field/dust/ground symbolizes toil, suffering, and damnation.
Cain and Abel are the first son duality presented. One good. One bad. Cain takes Abel out to the field (the cursed place), and he kills him.
Chapter 5 is a family tree from Adam to Noah. Somewhere I remember someone saying that if you take the literal meaning of the names of each character (Adam [man], Seth [appointed], Enosh [sinned, afflicted], Kenan [acquired], Mahalalel [blessed God], Jared [shall come down], Enoch [dedicated/annointed one], Methuselah [shall be sent], Lamech [bringing those who suffer], Noah [comfort and peace]), you get the Salvation story in a nutshell. People were appointed, but then sinned and became afflicted, but then the blessed God came down in the form of an anointed one who was sent to bring the suffering peace and comfort. Jesus? I think so.
From Chapters 7-9, God kills everything except 7 of every clean animal and 2 of every unclean animal and a handful of people in Noah's family. Bummer. Mass extinction death by flood. After the flood, God blessed Noah with a similar blessing to Adam and Eve when he says to be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth (Gen 9:1). In verse 3, humans are given everything else as food, "Everything that lives and moves will be food for you" (Gen. 3:3). So, for all you vegans and vegetarians out there. I'm sorry.
Chapter 9:20-29 confused me. Noah gets drunk. His son, Ham, sees his dad passed out, naked, and presumably gets a little uncomfortable (understandably) and walks away. Then his other two bros, Shem and Japheth, put a blanket on Noah. The next day, when probably dealing with a hangover, Noah curses Ham and his descendants to be slaves of his other brothers and their descendants. I'm not sure what the significance of that is, but it sure seems a little much.
Chapter 10 is a whole list of names, but what's interesting is that Ham's descendants end up being the Philistines, the long-standing enemies of Israel.
Chapter 11 is confusing too. Here all the people of the world speak one language. They decide to put their collective skill, knowledge, and teamwork together and build an engineering marvel. God sees this and wants to stop it. I assume this is because he wants us as people to rely solely on him for our lives, not on our own understanding and pride. He says that if they have begun to build the tower, then nothing will be impossible for them. So, he scatters the people and creates different languages so people are divided and confused, and they spread across the planet.
Chapter 11 is another lineage chapter.
Chapter 12, YHWH calls Abram to bless him, to make a great name for him. Name apparently means something more like reputation or wealth, and prestige and descendants, according to my study bible. Cool. Abram was going to be a rich, blessed, family man of God. Then in Egypt, he tells his wife Sarai to pretend to be his sister so they don't kill him and steal his wife. The Pharaoh thinks Sarai is beautiful, and he gives them lots of gifts. I think he was trying to take on Sarai as his wife. But then the LORD afflicts the Pharaoh with boils and disease until he gave Abram and Sarai safe passage through Egypt. It's almost like a mini version of Moses and God sending the Ten Plagues to free Israel from Egypt and Pharaoh in Exodus.
Chapter 13, Abram and Lot go their separate ways. Lot picks the plain of Jordan, where the Dead Sea is now apparently. According to this passage it used to be lush and well watered for agriculture, but after Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, it became barren and the Dead Sea.
Chapter 16, Abram's wife tells him to sleep with their servant Hagar because they want a son. So, he does, and they have Ishmael. I love that name. It means something like, "God hears," because God heard Hagar's desire for a son. I love verse 16. She calls God, the God who sees me, the One who sees me. Beautiful.
Chapter 17, God tells Abraham about circumcision. Yikes!
Chapter 18, "Three visitors" meet Abraham, one of which is apparently God in human form. He tells Abraham that he is going to destroy Sodom. Abraham is not too happy about that. I know that, historically, the major "sin" here was male homosexuality. I'm not so sure. But let's read on.
Chapter 19, Angels come to Sodom to visit Lot. They want to stay in the city square, but Lot wants them to come into his house. In verse 4, men "both young and old" surround the house and (verse 5) yell that they want the men to come outside so they can have sex with them. Is Sodom cursed because of homosexual acts or just extra- or pre-marital sexual acts? I don't know. Then, in verse 30 to 38, Lot's daughters have sex with him while he's drunk forming the two nations of Moab and the Ammonites. Whether this is true or just Jewish propaganda, I don't know.
In chapter 20, I think Abraham says that Sarah really is his sister, but I could be wrong. See verse 12.
In chapter 21, Isaac is born to Abraham and Sarah. This is just a really cool part of Scripture. Here Sarah thought she would never have a lineage, and God moves in and makes things possible. Beautiful. Abraham sends Hagar and Ishmael off, but not before God blesses Hagar and Ishmael with a smaller version of his blessing to Abraham. I find it really interesting that several times so far, God says, "Do not be afraid," when he talks to people. I think if God confronted me in all of his glory, I would be terrified. I would probably either fall and huddle in the fetal position or feel like I had to run away. But just when we feel like we're about to die, he says, "do not be afraid." When the most terrifying being says that he will not harm you, that he loves you, and wants to bless you, like he wanted to bless Noah, Abraham, and then Jacob, it's almost like you now have that terrifying power watching out for your best interest. Loving but terrifying.
Chapter 22 is theologically dense, and forests of manuscripts have been written on it. I like the interpretation of Sufjan Steven's song, "Abraham" the best. It seems to sum up the entire story best than I ever could. The song is the feeling I get when I read the passage.
In Chapter 23, Sarah dies and is buried in the royal tomb of Ephron the Hittite, which is where Abraham is buried too, I think. It's interesting that both Abraham and Christ were laid to rest in the tomb of king.
Chapter 24 to 27 aren't that eventful for me. Jacob steals Esau's birthright and blessing. I learned that Jacob literally means, "pulling the heel" because he was a trickster. It's sort of like when we say, "Oh, you're pulling my leg." The story of his birth alludes to his craftiness later on.
Chapter 28 mentions Stairway to Heaven in verse 12.
Chapter 29 has the beautiful love (and confusing) love story of Jacob and Rachel. Jacob met Rachel at a well while shepherding. He wanted to marry her, so he asked her father Laban. Laban says, "Name your price!" Jacob says, "How's about seven years' labour?" Deal! I love verse 20, "So Jacob served seven years to get Rachel, but they seemed like only a few days to him because of his love for her." Nuff said. After a wedding mix up with Leah, Jacob finally gets his Bella... I mean, Rachel.
Jacob then has 11 kids with 4 women over the next while. Leah gives him Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah. He sleeps with Bilbah, Rachel's maidservant, and they have Dan and Naphtali. Then he sleeps with Leah's maidservant and has Gad and Asher. Then he sleeps with Leah and has Iscaar and Zebulan. Then finally he sleeps with Leah and has Joseph. 11 of the 12 sons are born at this point. 11 kids, four women. All normal... different times, I guess. Oppressive times, but different times, nonetheless. Jacob then does some Mendel-style breeding work with his sheep breeding the strong speckled sheep for himself and the weak non-speckled sheep for his master after having agreed to only take the speckled sheep. Clever fellow.
So, that brings us up to speed. Next blog will continue from here. God bless!
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