Ex. 13-15 - "...But what have you done for us lately?"

The readings - Day 22 - Exodus 13-15

Remember that thing about the main characters (heroes, sometimes) of the Bible often being so human it hurts just to hear about them? And how that tends to fly in the face of the weird theory that the Bible was written by the people (or their descendants) who "star" in it so that they'll gain something from it?

Yeah, that really starts to pick up here in Exodus. In Genesis, we had flip-flopping, faithless, gutless and/or shameful behaviour on an individual level, because that's the level that, by and large, Genesis worked on. Now that we're in Exodus and we've zoomed out to a more corporate, societal level, we start to get a handle on just how old that axiom about mob mentality ("to determine the overall intelligence of a large group of people, take the IQ of the stupidest people in that group and divide by the number of people present") might be.

Ex. 10-12

The readings - Day 21 - Exodus 10-12

This is a hard chunk of scripture to get through. Not that it's not a good read - if it were a Neil Gaiman novel, there'd be no problem, and it'd be captivating stuff. The problem is that God's still at His "I've made sure he'll say no, now go to the Pharaoh and tell him if he says 'no' you'll do _____" thing, which bugs me - not that that matters particularly, I know...

There are other things that I find somewhat interesting about the interaction between God and Pharaoh (through Moses and Aaron), but this thing with God seemingly forcing Pharaoh to keep Israel in Egypt...

Although now that I think about it, hardening Pharaoh's heart isn't precisely the same as forcing him to say no. It does make it more likely that he will, though. Or, at least, it makes it less likely that he'll feel compassion for the Israelites' plight and have that be the reason for their release.

However, there are loads of other reasons why Pharaoh could have (and probably should have) relented far, far earlier than he did. Even his servants thought so, and eventually actually summon the nerve (or just overflow with exasperation) enough to flat out tell him to let Israel go because this whole thing is destroying Egypt. They're right, of course, but Pharaoh will have none of it, so it comes down to one of the most painful-to-read passages in the Bible, best summed up in a single, horrifying line:

30 Pharaoh arose in the night, he and all his servants and all the Egyptians, and there was a great cry in Egypt, for there was no home where there was not someone dead.

So, 430 years after Joseph welcomes the other sons of Israel to Egypt, they leave in the wake of horror, death and incredible destruction.

Ex. 7-9: Moses' school of witchcraft and wizardry

The readings - Day 20 - Exodus 7-9

You know what I find weird? How many people think that being Christian automatically precludes belief in ghosts, aliens, the paranormal, the occult, witchcraft and all those other things. Well actually, it's not that people think that that confuses me, but rather that people think that because so many Christians will tell them things like it.

Even if I didn't think it was just a waste of time to protest things like Harry Potter or Ouija Boards, and that all that ends up happening is you look a bit silly and are somewhat less likely to be taken seriously next time around, I sort of see it as a sign that Christians who rail against the existence of actual magic and powerful, non-Godly supernatural forces haven't really been paying attention to the Old Testament.

Ex. 4-6 - Moses: the shy murderer

The readings - Day 19 - Exodus 4-6

Rightly or wrongly, there's a certain type of image that pops into your head when you hear about a guy whose on the run, being hunted down for killing a man as vengeance for an injustice.

Being so shy that you become a distinct irritant to the Creator of patience Himself usually doesn't fit in to this picture...

Ex. 1-3 - Zooming out

The readings - Day 18 - Exodus 1-3

Nowhere in the Bible is it as easy to trick yourself into thinking that a cover-to-cover read might just be full of smooth transitions as going from Genesis to Exodus. (Maybe between the Samuels, Kings and Chronicles - we'll find out in a couple of months, I guess...)

But for all the carry-over from Genesis 50 to Exodus 1, there are some fairly significant shifts that happen in these chapters that mark Exodus as an entirely different entity than Genesis.

"Zooming out" is a pun I couldn't resist, but it also just fits with what's going on at the very beginning of the book. In Genesis, one main, overarching theme could be described as God's relationship with people: Adam, Cain, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob...

Exodus seems to be setting itself up, in a very clever way, as a story of God's relationship with a people: the people of Israel. By starting the book with a recap of the basic genealogy of Jacob, the author draws a direct line, without actually tracing direct lines, as it were, from the individual God-human relationships of Genesis to the corporate God-human relationship that will become the theme of... well, the rest of the Bible, really.

Gen. 48-50 - The end of an era

The readings - Day 17 - Genesis 48-50


The account of Jacob's last days is interesting on a number of levels.

Although Isaac and Jacob (especially Isaac) don't really occupy nearly the place of reverence and generally accepted importance that Abraham does, they still represent the completion of the trio of founding generations for the people of Israel (and, by extension, the means of blessing for the whole of humanity), so there's a strong sense of closure when Jacob is finally "gathered to his people" (one of my absolute favourite euphemisms for death, by the way).

Gen. 46-47 - Life as sojourn

The readings - Day 16 - Genesis 46-47.


Figuring out how numbers work in the Bible is tricky, even when things seem like they ought to be fairly straightforward. I'm hoping that when I get to Numbers, some of them start to make more sense, but I've got a feeling that that's not the way it's going to pan out...

When I come to tallies like the one that basically kicks off chapter 46, I always feel like I'm missing some vital puzzle pieces, and that if I had a better grasp on the culture of the time that it'd all come together and make sense.

Gen. 43-45 - "I love them, I love them not..."

The readings - Day 15 - Genesis 43-45.

I've got two sons, and they're currently 3 years old and 4 months old. I wouldn't say that I necessarily lose track of them, but then again, I wouldn't say that I have a particularly large family either.

I can, however, see how letting kids outnumber parents is a risky endeavour at best, and that chaos can't help but ensue at some level, particularly when you get into the double digits.

Jacob had 12 sons. Sons. Daughters didn't count for as much back then, but they definitely would have been there... All this is to say that I have no doubt that the household of Jacob was likely incredibly complex and chaotic, with people running here and there, descendants and ancestors everywhere you look, and I'm sure that  if I were in his position, I'd have a lot of trouble keeping everything straight, too.

However...

Gen. 41-42 - "Has it been two years already?"

The readings - Day 14 - Genesis 41-42.

A note about timing, since it's easy to forget how these things actually go, according to the text. It's a relatively recent phenomenon that people are interested in the mundane, day-to-day aspects of historical figures, and most ancient histories skip vast swaths of time, often without much notice at all, in order to get to the good stuff. Seems the Bible is no exception.

Gen. 38-40 - "Ask not, er, ah, what you can do for your daughter-in-law..."

The readings - Day 14 - Genesis 38-40.

To anyone who is reading this who doesn't know me personally, I have a disclaimer. I'm technically 30 years old, but I'm 76% sure that I'm still 17.

That said, I have a challenge for you.

First, look at this picture:

Day 4 - Genesis 12-15

Every now and then, in an argument about the veracity/relevance/truth of scripture/Christianity, someone will assert that the faith, and particularly the Bible is a collection of wishful thinking and self-congratulatory, self-aggrandizing tales, written to make the protagonists look awesome.

I both like and dislike when this happens. First, it generally means that I'm talking with someone who's never read the Bible, and second, because one of my favourite aspects of the Bible is that it is absolutely nothing if not realistic in its portrayal of people - all people, almost especially the "heroes."

Abram, who will later become Abraham, (shh... spoilers) is one of the Bible's most revered heroes, and is, of course, one of the most important characters in history, since three of the world's most influential religions look at him as a historical father figure.

But, particularly at the beginning, he's sort of a dick, isn't he?