Esther - maybe not about Esther? Maybe not such a great morality tale...

The readings - Days 150 and 151 - Esther 1-10

Esther is an interesting story. Weighing in at only 10 chapters, it's a pretty easy story to read in one sitting, which is why I thought I'd combine posts to include both halves of it at once.

However, unlike many of the other short, punchy books bearing a specific name throughout the Bible (Ruth, Job, Philemon, etc) it's actually a bit hard to tell whose story Esther really is.

2 Sam 4-12 - David's great! And crappy.

The readings - Days 96-97 - 2 Samuel 4-12

Remember that time when I was in awe of how different our world is from that of the Bible, in terms of the abundance and ubiquitousness of violence on an epic scale?

Yeah, I'm there again. These chapters open up with a hapless and, if we're honest, fairly sniveling/sycophantic pair of guys who sought out and murdered Saul's son Ishbosheth in his sleep, and then brought his head to David's camp, having either never heard, or completely ignored, the story of what happened to the hapless guy who brought the "good news" of Saul's death to David, expecting to be rewarded.

David himself is a little taken aback by the lack of memory or knowledge displayed by these two guys, and he promptly has them killed. And then he cuts off their hands and feet and strings them up by the pool like so many patio lanterns.

Yeah... guess whose voice you're going to be hearing in your head all night now... You're welcome.

1 Sam 15-20 - For tonight's performance, the role of Samuel will be played by Sir Ian McKellen

The readings - Days 90 & 91 - 1 Samuel 15-20

We're rapidly approaching what is (now that we're out of the drudgery of Leviticus/Numbers) becoming one of the hardest types of passage to write about - the "all-too-familiar" story.

Within these five chapters, we encounter what is quite possibly the most famous story in the entire Old Testament: David and Goliath. Its message is one of faith, hope and triumph against seemingly hopeless odds, and two out of three of those have been gladly co-opted by modern society, almost ad nauseum (guess which one tends to get left out?), and with good cause. It's a great story - you've got the enormous, lifelong-trained warrior (a whopping nine-and-a-half feet of him at that) against the puny talks-big-for-his-britches shepherd boy who has rocks and a strip of leather, and the 'underdog' wins. Perfect.

Num 31-34 - what is it good for?

The readings - Days 55-56 - Numbers 31-34

I heard on the radio not too long ago an interview with an author who was expounding on a theory that humans as a species were getting less and less violent as time goes by.

My initial reaction was to think that considering the last century was the bloodiest in history he may not be entirely right about that, but on a deeper level I think he's on to something.

These chapters in Numbers suck, and maybe they do so because I am a product of an inherently less violent age where the idea of a people of God mercilessly slaughtering an entire civilization, and then being told off for sparing the women and children, is one that steadfastly refuses to sit well.

It's interesting what that says about society as I experience it - safe, secure and utterly peaceful. It's not that academically I don't know that war and violence have not, at other times in history and in other places around the world today, been inextricably linked to everyday life. Neither do I necessarily subscribe to a blanket pacifism that writes off any potential need for acts of violence or war.

However, this story just doesn't jive with anything I believe about God. It's this kind of thing that, I think, offers one of the very, very few justifications for the still-weird dualistic belief in an Old-Testament-God and a New-Testament-God.