The readings - Day241 - Lamentations 3-5
I guess I should have known that grief like Lamentation have a limited run - as it should - but I didn't expect/remember/whatever that it was such a short book. Shows how much I've been paying attention, I suppose.
Anyway, here in the second bit of Lamentations we get another "alternate view" of something we often hear about, but (I think) usually fail to grasp the actual horror of: the siege.
I was really struck in Jeremiah when it talks about the eventual conquest of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, in that it was far from a quick slash-and-burn affair, but rather a 2-year siege. It's a tactic that's been used for millennia, and continued well into the modern era, with shocking stories of what people went through in WWII in the Siege of Leningrad and others.
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Friday, June 22, 2012
Job 40-42 - With a pink ribbon...
The readings - Day 164 - Job 40-42
Although Job has spent dozens of chapters moaning and whining and making all manner of wild accusations about God's character, there is the silver lining that shows up at the end.
Job, unlike some other books so far, actually has a fairly satisfying and summarized ending. After God's awesome summary of His own rad-ness, Job actually does as God says, mans up (God actually said to do this - it's awesome!) and just admits that he was wrong all along, he doesn't know everything, God's still the best and he's very sorry for being such a twit.
It's good stuff.
Then God takes a second to tell Job's friends that they're a bunch of jerks, restores all of Job's wealth (gives him new kids, too!) and land and livestock, and everyone lives happily ever after.
I still don't quite know what to make of God's willingness to just give Satan free reign over Job's life, or what exactly Satan was doing at a Heaven's Council meeting in the first place, but at least Job's story ends on an up note, and everything's back the way it was.
Although Job has spent dozens of chapters moaning and whining and making all manner of wild accusations about God's character, there is the silver lining that shows up at the end.
Job, unlike some other books so far, actually has a fairly satisfying and summarized ending. After God's awesome summary of His own rad-ness, Job actually does as God says, mans up (God actually said to do this - it's awesome!) and just admits that he was wrong all along, he doesn't know everything, God's still the best and he's very sorry for being such a twit.
It's good stuff.
Then God takes a second to tell Job's friends that they're a bunch of jerks, restores all of Job's wealth (gives him new kids, too!) and land and livestock, and everyone lives happily ever after.
I still don't quite know what to make of God's willingness to just give Satan free reign over Job's life, or what exactly Satan was doing at a Heaven's Council meeting in the first place, but at least Job's story ends on an up note, and everything's back the way it was.
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Job 24-39 - God pays a visit...
The readings - Days 159-163 - Job 24-39
Job is a pretty great book, but it just got a whole lot better once I hit chapter 38.
You know those scenes in movies/TV shows where somebody (usually an underling of either a major superhero or a major supervillain) is ranting on and on about their superior only to eventually be confronted by their incredible bad-assness and look utterly, miserably foolish? Well, when that superior is God, it's a good show.
Job is a pretty great book, but it just got a whole lot better once I hit chapter 38.
You know those scenes in movies/TV shows where somebody (usually an underling of either a major superhero or a major supervillain) is ranting on and on about their superior only to eventually be confronted by their incredible bad-assness and look utterly, miserably foolish? Well, when that superior is God, it's a good show.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Job 1-16 - How does this keep happening?
The readings - days 152-156 - Job 1-16
I'm not at all sure how this keeps happening, but here we are with another whopping 'catch-up' post.
I'm actually very surprised by Job. I really thought it was just a tiny little book, and now that I actually look at it, it's immense. I'm pretty excited to work my way through it, since it's obviously a much more in-depth piece of work than popular summaries would lead/have led me to believe.
It's still a very weird book, though. Satan showing up at God's angelic council meeting, God bragging about one of his best buds and then granting Satan permission to destroy his life (without actually destroying his life, mind you)... It's a bit of a trip, to say the least.
I'm not at all sure how this keeps happening, but here we are with another whopping 'catch-up' post.
I'm actually very surprised by Job. I really thought it was just a tiny little book, and now that I actually look at it, it's immense. I'm pretty excited to work my way through it, since it's obviously a much more in-depth piece of work than popular summaries would lead/have led me to believe.
It's still a very weird book, though. Satan showing up at God's angelic council meeting, God bragging about one of his best buds and then granting Satan permission to destroy his life (without actually destroying his life, mind you)... It's a bit of a trip, to say the least.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
2 Chron 1-36 - yup: one whole book...
The readings - days 130-140 - 2 Chronicles 1-36
So this post, once again, will be far too short, and more than a little meta.
I thought for sure that I was caught up, or at least very far along to road to being caught up, but Chronicles had other plans, so here we are - first post in ten days and a full book behind me.
Chronicles, part deux, was better than the first, but only slightly. It had more ups than the last one did in terms of kings actually behaving themselves, and there were a few points that, while I was reading them, did actually leap out at me as being interesting. However, since I was reading through the entire book in a matter of days, and desperately trying to catch up, they were sacrificed to the god of necessary expediency, and were lost.
Speaking of idolatry, these Israelites sure were good at it. Even kings that were mostly good at not worshipping small wooden statues didn't often go all the way and disassemble other temples, home shrines, and "the high places," like they were supposed to.
Whether it's intentional or not, the Bible sure is setting up a repetitive, cyclical rhythm of Israel screwing up and then waking up, then repeating over and over again.
And then Babylon comes, destroys the Temple, along with Jerusalem, and takes everybody into captivity.
And then Persia destroys Babylon and Cyrus says to the Israelites, "yeah - you guys should probably just go ahead and head home to rebuild your temple and your city. Sorry about Nebuchadnezzar..."
Reading the closing bits of 2 Chronicles is a little like spending an hour looking through a microscope, and then to have the room bulldozed around you. The story is so wrapped up in the goings on of these two comparatively minuscule kingdoms that when a few real local superpowers come barreling through it's a pretty harsh reminder that even at the best of times, the kingdom of Israel was in a pretty precarious spot. Shame they didn't seem to really grasp that either...
And that brings us to Ezra, which will have us caught up on posts and readings by tomorrow.
So this post, once again, will be far too short, and more than a little meta.
I thought for sure that I was caught up, or at least very far along to road to being caught up, but Chronicles had other plans, so here we are - first post in ten days and a full book behind me.
Chronicles, part deux, was better than the first, but only slightly. It had more ups than the last one did in terms of kings actually behaving themselves, and there were a few points that, while I was reading them, did actually leap out at me as being interesting. However, since I was reading through the entire book in a matter of days, and desperately trying to catch up, they were sacrificed to the god of necessary expediency, and were lost.
Speaking of idolatry, these Israelites sure were good at it. Even kings that were mostly good at not worshipping small wooden statues didn't often go all the way and disassemble other temples, home shrines, and "the high places," like they were supposed to.
Whether it's intentional or not, the Bible sure is setting up a repetitive, cyclical rhythm of Israel screwing up and then waking up, then repeating over and over again.
And then Babylon comes, destroys the Temple, along with Jerusalem, and takes everybody into captivity.
And then Persia destroys Babylon and Cyrus says to the Israelites, "yeah - you guys should probably just go ahead and head home to rebuild your temple and your city. Sorry about Nebuchadnezzar..."
Reading the closing bits of 2 Chronicles is a little like spending an hour looking through a microscope, and then to have the room bulldozed around you. The story is so wrapped up in the goings on of these two comparatively minuscule kingdoms that when a few real local superpowers come barreling through it's a pretty harsh reminder that even at the best of times, the kingdom of Israel was in a pretty precarious spot. Shame they didn't seem to really grasp that either...
And that brings us to Ezra, which will have us caught up on posts and readings by tomorrow.
Saturday, May 19, 2012
1 Chronicles 18-29 - I really can't believe how boring Chronicles is...
The readings - Days 127-130 - 1 Chronicles 18-29
This is unbelievable. I was really within a day of actually getting caught up, but Chronicles is (so far, anyway) so abjectly uninspiring that it's very, very difficult to muster the motivation to post something, since I'm essentially (as I said before) trying to find something interesting to write about a boring recap of stuff that's already happened.
*sigh*
HOWEVER, there is something that shows up in the latter half of 1 Chronicles that hinges on the fact that this is a re-run.
This is unbelievable. I was really within a day of actually getting caught up, but Chronicles is (so far, anyway) so abjectly uninspiring that it's very, very difficult to muster the motivation to post something, since I'm essentially (as I said before) trying to find something interesting to write about a boring recap of stuff that's already happened.
*sigh*
HOWEVER, there is something that shows up in the latter half of 1 Chronicles that hinges on the fact that this is a re-run.
Saturday, March 24, 2012
Joshua 9-15 - Take my Worf... please!
The readings - days 72 and 73 - Joshua 9-15
Allow me to begin, as many good things do, with Worf talking.
Now, I'm not wanting to sound too over-the-top or anything, but in this clip, Worf reminds me a lot of God.
Allow me to begin, as many good things do, with Worf talking.
Now, I'm not wanting to sound too over-the-top or anything, but in this clip, Worf reminds me a lot of God.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Deut 24-34 - And that, as they say in France, is that
The readings - Days 66-69 - Deuteronomy 24-34
Is it fair to just clump the entire last 10 chapters of Deuteronomy - indeed, the closing chapters of the epic Pentateuch - into one post, and a comparatively short one at that?
Probably not.
But, as I tell myself to further justify the decision that has already been made to do just that, that's the way it is. I have never been overly concerning myself with the notion of making exhaustive commentary on every little thing in each reading, so I feel like giving a cursory nod to the conclusion of a book that has been itself largely focused on reiterating the message and details of previous books is probably acceptable.
Is it fair to just clump the entire last 10 chapters of Deuteronomy - indeed, the closing chapters of the epic Pentateuch - into one post, and a comparatively short one at that?
Probably not.
But, as I tell myself to further justify the decision that has already been made to do just that, that's the way it is. I have never been overly concerning myself with the notion of making exhaustive commentary on every little thing in each reading, so I feel like giving a cursory nod to the conclusion of a book that has been itself largely focused on reiterating the message and details of previous books is probably acceptable.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Num. 23-25 - So about Balaam...
The readings - Day 52 - Numbers 23-25
In the early days of this particular scriptural adventure, one of the things that kept leaping out at me was the difficulties I saw in attempting to fit the Bible into a box that seems to be particularly favoured by the more fundamentalist gatherings of Christians.
I know I'm not making them up, because I grew up with some of them. I knew people growing up who steadfastly refused to believe that dinosaurs existed because they weren't specifically mentioned in the Bible.
In the early days of this particular scriptural adventure, one of the things that kept leaping out at me was the difficulties I saw in attempting to fit the Bible into a box that seems to be particularly favoured by the more fundamentalist gatherings of Christians.
I know I'm not making them up, because I grew up with some of them. I knew people growing up who steadfastly refused to believe that dinosaurs existed because they weren't specifically mentioned in the Bible.
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Ex. 33-35 - making up
The readings - Day 29 - Exodus 33-35
I had a fair number of expectations going in to this project, but needing to set aside the reading for a while until I stopped laughing was, if I'm honest, not on my list.
Then I started Exodus, chapter 33. Specifically, I arrived at verse 3.
That is how annoying the Israelites are. God doesn't trust Himself not to just destroy them all out of sheer frustration before He's carried out His own plan for them.
Amazing.
Turns out, the Israelites didn't find it all that funny, which I suppose is to their credit - they knew, sort of, what they'd done by this point, and seem to have had the glimmer of understanding regarding just how they'd manage to survive in the desert without a constant supply of food materializing in front of them every morning.
Luckily, here's another example of the sort of unique relationship featured in the Old Testament. Moses is in such a close relationship with God that the two regularly speak "as friends" according to the text.
From this relationship we get Moses directly interceding and changing God's mind, convincing Him to continue to be a physical presence with the Israelites,
I recently was involved in a discussion on Facebook about God, the existence of God, the ridiculousness of some attempts at disproving that existence and other things, when someone piped up with a series of random, unrelated and blatantly wrong points he felt it necessary to make, starting with the notion that the relational aspect of the Christian faith was a later innovation and wasn't actually part of the Bible.
As this passage, and the vast majority of the rest of scripture as well, proves, this is mercifully not the case.
I had a fair number of expectations going in to this project, but needing to set aside the reading for a while until I stopped laughing was, if I'm honest, not on my list.
Then I started Exodus, chapter 33. Specifically, I arrived at verse 3.
1 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, "Depart, go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up from the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, 'To your descendants I will give it.' 2 "I will send an angel before you and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, the Hittite, the Perizzite, the Hivite and the Jebusite. 3 "Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey; for I will not go up in your midst, because you are an obstinate people, and I might destroy you on the way."
That is how annoying the Israelites are. God doesn't trust Himself not to just destroy them all out of sheer frustration before He's carried out His own plan for them.
Amazing.
Turns out, the Israelites didn't find it all that funny, which I suppose is to their credit - they knew, sort of, what they'd done by this point, and seem to have had the glimmer of understanding regarding just how they'd manage to survive in the desert without a constant supply of food materializing in front of them every morning.
Luckily, here's another example of the sort of unique relationship featured in the Old Testament. Moses is in such a close relationship with God that the two regularly speak "as friends" according to the text.
From this relationship we get Moses directly interceding and changing God's mind, convincing Him to continue to be a physical presence with the Israelites,
I recently was involved in a discussion on Facebook about God, the existence of God, the ridiculousness of some attempts at disproving that existence and other things, when someone piped up with a series of random, unrelated and blatantly wrong points he felt it necessary to make, starting with the notion that the relational aspect of the Christian faith was a later innovation and wasn't actually part of the Bible.
As this passage, and the vast majority of the rest of scripture as well, proves, this is mercifully not the case.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Ex. 19-21 - woman, mountain... it's all the... same?
The readings - Day 24 - Exodus 19-21
Well, it had to happen. I'm not sure that I realized it started this early, but I guess we are halfway through Exodus now, so the law had to come in at some point.
We were all having such a nice time, too, what with our adultery, idol-collecting, mass murder, etc, etc...
Oddly enough (or maybe not even remotely oddly...) before we actually get codified law, we get an example of very bizarre interpretation of law by a judge (Moses, in this case).
Well, it had to happen. I'm not sure that I realized it started this early, but I guess we are halfway through Exodus now, so the law had to come in at some point.
We were all having such a nice time, too, what with our adultery, idol-collecting, mass murder, etc, etc...
Oddly enough (or maybe not even remotely oddly...) before we actually get codified law, we get an example of very bizarre interpretation of law by a judge (Moses, in this case).
Friday, January 27, 2012
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...
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...
Friday, January 13, 2012
Day 5 - Genesis 16-18
Names are interesting things in the Bible.
These days, apart from souvenir key chains and schmaltzy plaques/posters, people (North Americans, at any rate) don't really ascribe too much significance to names, but names – of people or places – tend to be incredibly important in the Bible, so much so that God Himself, now and then, lays down the law and throws a name out there, as a promise or a signifier of some larger plan.
Ishmael, for example. "God will hear." What a promise to a pregnant woman who has run away into the desert after being used in perhaps the most profound way, only to be reviled and, in all likelihood, severely beaten for her trouble.
These days, apart from souvenir key chains and schmaltzy plaques/posters, people (North Americans, at any rate) don't really ascribe too much significance to names, but names – of people or places – tend to be incredibly important in the Bible, so much so that God Himself, now and then, lays down the law and throws a name out there, as a promise or a signifier of some larger plan.
Ishmael, for example. "God will hear." What a promise to a pregnant woman who has run away into the desert after being used in perhaps the most profound way, only to be reviled and, in all likelihood, severely beaten for her trouble.
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