Month: February 2010

Reference links:

Leviticus 20:22-22:16 Mark 9:1-29 Psalm 43:1-5 Proverbs 10:18

Overview of the Book of Leviticus Overview of the Gospel of Mark Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Leviticus repeats itself, again. The Israelites must distinguish between clean and unclean animals and they must put men and women who act as mediums to death. I think this is the third time the author of Leviticus has mentioned those things.

The next injunction does a much better job of showing how repetition can work well. Earlier, in Leviticus 10:6, Moses had instructed Aaron and his sons not to mourn as was traditional after God murdered Nadab and Abihu. Today’s reading repeats those prohibitions, but expands them into general priestly mourning practices. This use of repetition is much more interesting than other, more boring uses. The first repetition contains less detail than the later repetition. Because of this, the second repetition reinforces the teachings of the first repetition while still keeping it interesting with the introduction of new material. As for what the teachings are:

A priest must not make himself ceremonially unclean by touching the dead boy body [oops] of a relative. The only exceptions are his closest relatives … The priests must not shave their heads or trim their beards or cut their bodies. They must be set apart as holy to their God and must never bring shame on the name of God.

A priest can only marry a virgin. Prostitutes, widows, and divorced women may dishonor the descendants of the priest.

God hates imperfections.

No one who has a defect qualifies [to be a priest], whether he is blind, lame, disfigured, deformed, or has a broken foot or arm, or is hunchbacked or dwarfed, or has a defective eye, or skin sores or scabs, or damaged testicles. No descendant of Aaron who has a defect may approach the altar to present special gifts to the Lord.

Clearly, this God of Leviticus is not the same God who cares more for what is in your heart than for outward appearances.

New Testament

Jesus, Moses, and Elijah meet at the top of a hill. Nope, it’s not the start of the bad joke. In today’s reading, Jesus levels up to shiny Jesus and chats with Moses and Elijah. Peter claims he wants to build shelters for them, but supposedly that is just because he had nothing better to say. Before anyone could act on that, God spoke from the clouds calling Jesus his son, and Elijah and Moses disappeared.

While Jesus was talking to dead people, the rest of the disciples were failing to heal a boy possessed by demons. Jesus gets annoyed at… someone. The text makes it unclear whether his annoyance targets the religious teachers, the disciples, or the crowd generally. In any case, he exclaims,

You faithless people! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you?

I know I quoted this the last time we read this story, but it just does such a good job of summing up a common attitude Jesus seems to take toward those around him.

Jesus heals the boy, but only after the chastising the father for expressing some doubt. You have to feel sorry for the father. Demons possess his son. He has brought his son to a man with a reputation for driving out demons. His disciples, who also have been given the power to drive out demons, fail to drive out this one. Then Jesus questions the man’s ever so slight doubt as to whether or not Jesus can drive out the demon. At least his son was healed at the end of it all.

Psalms and Proverbs

Today’s psalm: God, you’re so great! So why do you neglect me?

I kind of like today’s proverb, since it implies that you should not hide you feelings, even if they are negative, while also cautioning against letting that negativity lead to false claims:

Hiding hatred makes you a liar;
slandering others makes you a fool.

Super quick post today, because it’s movie night with friends. =)


Reference links:

Leviticus 19:1-20:21 Mark 8:11-38 Psalm 42:1-11 Proverbs 10:17

Overview of the Book of Leviticus Overview of the Gospel of Mark Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Oooh, big list of things the Israelites were not allowed to do. A lot of it repeats what we have heard already. But there are some interesting bits. I like this one:

When you harvest the crops of your land, do not harvest the grain along the edges of your fields, and do not pick up what the harvesters drop. It is the same with your grape crop — do not strip every last bunch of grapes from the vines, and do not pick up the grapes that fall to the ground. Lave them for the poor and foreigners living among you.

Leaving parts of the harvest for the poor is one good side effect of this command. Another one, perhaps the more important one, is the effect it has on the attitude of the farmer. It encourages an attitude of not squeezing every drop out of their resources. It encourages an attitude of not going for profit maximization. Economic reasoning, without the wisdom of compassion, leads to corruption and, eventually, failure. (Like with today’s economic crisis. Wait, I’m still not talking about modern issues on this blog.)

Another interesting injunction that could conceivably be used to reflect upon modern matters that I am not discussing is

Do not make your hired workers wait until the next day to receive their pay. 

We also learn in today’s reading that God does not like mixing things. The Israelites shall not mate different kinds of animals, plant multiple kinds of seeds in a field, or wear clothing woven from different kinds of thread.

Apparently, dishonoring parents is a capital offense. As are various sexual practices. One sexual practice that leads to banishment, but not death, is having sex with a woman during her period.

If a man has sexual relations with a woman during her menstrual period, both of them must be cut off from the community, for together they have exposed the source of her blood flow.

This seems inconsistent with Leviticus 15:24 which says,

If a man has sexual intercourse with her and her blood touches him, her menstrual impurity will be transmitted to him. He will remain unclean for seven days, and any bed on which he lies will be unclean.

Maybe the banishment is temporary? Maybe it is permanent but, by the way, the man is unclean for a week?

New Testament

I mentioned the other day that Jesus should not lose his temper at the Pharisees. I still think that. However, they must have been annoying to deal with.

When the Pharisees heard that Jesus had arrived, they came and started to argue with him. Testing him, they demanded that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority.

Now, I do think it was reasonable to not believe Jesus’ claims unless he backed them up. That said, who would want to bother showing such a thing to people who came by specifically to argue?

Today’s reading also shows just how stupid the disciples could be. Ignore, for a moment, that the disciples are supposed to be hard of heart. Ignore that they do not understand Jesus’ true nature. Today’s reading shows them to be just plain stupid.

But the disciples had forgotten to bring any food. They had only one loaf of bread with them in the boat. As they were crossing the lake, Jesus warned them, “Watch out! Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod.”

At this they began to argue with each other because they hadn’t brought any bread. Jesus knew what they were saying, so he said, “Why are you arguing about having no bread? Don’t you know or understand even yet? Are your hearts too hard to take it in? ‘You have eyes — can’t you see? You have ears — can’t you hear?’ Don’t you remember anything at all? When I fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread, how many baskets of leftovers did you pick up afterward?”

“Twelve,” they said.

“Don’t you understand yet?” he asked them.

If nothing else, Jesus has demonstrated that he can perform miracles with food. To not remember that is not hard heartedness. It’s just plain dumb.

Peter declares Jesus to be the Messiah. Jesus starts talking about his upcoming death. Peter reprimands him for this. Jesus tells Peter, “Get away from me, Satan!” Again, I think Jesus overreacts here. So far, Jesus really does not come across as a particularly even headed.

Psalms and Proverbs

Another psalm filled with praise. Also, accepting discipline is good, ignoring it is will cause you to be bad.

Reference links:

Leviticus 16:29-18:30 Mark 7:24-8:10 Psalm 41:1-13 Proverbs 10:15-16

Overview of the Book of Leviticus Overview of the Gospel of Mark Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Today’s reading talks about actions bad enough to earn banishment from the community. These include drinking or eating blood and various types of forbidden sexual relationships. What I found interesting, however, what that the primary reasons given for why these things are bad had to do with controlling the Israelite community and separating from the communities around them. I am feeling kind of lazy tonight, so I’ll just quote the passages that stuck out to me.

If any native Israelite sacrifices a bull or a lamb or a goat anywhere inside or outside the camp instead of bringing it to the entrance of the Tabernacle to present it as an offering to the Lord, that person will be as guilty as a murderer. Such a person has shed blood and will be cut off from the community. The purpose of this rule is to stop the Israelites from sacrificing animals in the open fields. It will ensure that they bring their sacrifices to the priest at the entrance of the Tabernacle, so he can present them to the Lord as peace offerings. Then the priest will be able to splatter the blood against the Lord’s altar at the entrance of the Tabernacle, and he will burn the fat as a pleasing aroma to the Lord. The people must no longer be unfaithful to the Lord by offering sacrifices to the goat idols [maybe this is why God hates goats?].

And if any native Israelite or foreigner living among you eats or drinks blood in any form, I will turn against that person and cut him off from the community of your people, for the life of the body is in its blood. I have given you the blood of the altar to purify you, making you right with the Lord. It is the blood, given in exchange for a life, that makes purification possible. [This passage provides an interesting on Jesus’ death. It justifies the validity of the sacrifice as purifying, adds power to the idea of drinking Jesus’ blood, but also make that idea even more repulsive.]

Another, relating to sexual practices shows that part of the motivation in banning them is to differentiate the Israelites from other people.

I am the Lord your God. So do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate this way of life. You must obey all my regulations and be careful to obey my decrees, for I am the Lord you God. If you obey my decrees and regulations, you will find life through them. I am the Lord.

Also,

Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, for the people I am driving out before you have defiled themselves in these ways. Because the entire land has become defiled, I am punishing the people who live there. I will cause the land to vomit them out. You must obey all my decrees and regulations. You must not commit any of these detestable sins.

All these detestable activities are practiced by the people of the land where I am taking you, and this is how the land has become defiled. So do not defile the land and give it a reason to vomit you out, as it will vomit out the people who live there now. [Okay, this passage is not particularly relevant, I just like the imagery of the land vomiting people out.]

In the middle of the restrictions on sexual practices, there is a random tidbit on child sacrifice.

Do not permit any of your children to be offered as a sacrifice to Molech, for you must not bring shame on the name of your God. I am the Lord.

God forbids child sacrifice (or certain kinds of child sacrifice, it’s unclear) because it would bring shame on God? Not because, oh, I don’t know, murdering children is bad? Again, I have a hard time seeing how this God a God of Love.

New Testament

More repeats. Jesus heals the daughter of a Gentile woman because she has faith in him. The interesting aspect of this story is Jesus’ initial hesitation.

Since she was a Gentile, born in Syrian Phoenicia, Jesus told her, “First I should feed the children — my own family, the Jews. It isn’t right to take food from the children and throw it to the dogs.”

Really? This was his excuse? The woman is there. She has faith. He does not even have to visit the child to heal her. Yet Jesus implies that it would be taking something away from the Jews to heal this child. Did he have a limited quota of healings he was allowed to perform? Maybe he was just faking hesitation to test the woman’s faith?

Jesus also heals a deaf man with a speech impediment using some spit. Was the spit really necessary? Jesus feeds four thousand people with seven loaves of bread and a few fish (again).

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing particularly noteworthy.

This video has been making the rounds because it’s insightful and entertaining.

Reference links:

Leviticus 15:1-16:28 Mark 7:1-23 Psalm 40:11-17 Proverbs 10:13-14

Overview of the Book of Leviticus Overview of the Gospel of Mark Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Today’s reading describes the handling of discharges of bodily fluids. Excited yet? Bodily discharge makes one ceremonially unclean. This includes semen (for men), menstrual blood (for women), and random fluids leaking out of the body. Anyone who has a discharge seems to be unclean for the duration of the discharge plus, in most cases, another day. Anyone who touches something that was discharged upon is also considered unclean for a day and must wash. If the discharge was abnormal, a sacrifice must be offered once it has ended. Sex makes you ceremonially unclean for a day, and you must bathe afterward.

The reason for all of this fuss about purity and discharges is because, according to God,

This is how you will guard the people of Israel from ceremonial uncleanness. Otherwise they would die, for their impurity would defile my Tabernacle that stands among them.

Based on the experiences of Nadab and Abihu, I think that we can interpret this as a threat that God will murder anyone who comes near him in an impure state. Now, I think God is perfectly reasonable to ask people to be ceremonially clean in his presence. However, I think murdering those who are not is taking it a bit far.

Then the reading contains some information about the Day of Atonement when Aaron can enter the Most Holy Place (assuming he wears the proper clothing and makes the proper sacrifices). Part of this process involved designating a scapegoat.

When Aaron has finished purifying the Most Holy Place and the Tabernacle and the altar, he must present the live goat. He will lay both of his hands on the goat’s head and confess over it all the wickedness, rebellion, and sins of the people of Israel. In this way, he will transfer the people’s sins to the head of the goat. Then a man specially chosen for the task will drive the goat into the wilderness. As the goat goes into the wilderness, it will carry all the people’s sins upon itself into a desolate land.

Poor goat (although the one in the painting I found does look terrifying).

New Testament

In interesting contrast to our recent readings from Leviticus, today we read what Jesus has to say about purity. But first, we see that Jesus has a tendency to over react to simple questions.

So the Pharisees and teachers of religious law asked him, “Why don’t your disciples follow our age-old tradition? They eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony.”

Jesus replied, “You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you [plus a fair bit more ranting]” 

Now, I know Jesus and the Pharisees have a bad history and, if we take Jesus’ word for it, they were being hypocritical, but does he really think this is a productive way to engage them? I have a temper and lose it regularly, so I can reassure you (and Jesus) that losing one’s temper generally is the worst response to a situation like this.

In any case, after ranting for awhile, Jesus finally gives the teaching on purity.

It’s not what goes into your body that defiles you; you are defiled by what comes from your heart. … It’s It is what comes from inside that defiles you. For from within, out of a person’s heart, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness. All these vile things come from within; they are what defile you.

Given the context, it is reasonable to interpret this saying as implying that the old requirements of purity have been meaningless because they had lost their symbolic representation of inner purity in contemporary Jewish teaching. However, such an interpretation becomes harder to accept after reading in Leviticus today that God will kill anyone who comes near him when they are ceremonially unclean. If God is willing to murder, I think the impurity bestowed by consumption involved more than just symbolism.

That said, I agree with Jesus here. I am just not sure that the God of the Israelites would agree with him.

Psalms and Proverbs

Nothing new or noteworthy in todays Psalms or Proverbs readings.

Reference links:

Leviticus 14:1-57 Mark 6:30-56 Psalm 40:1-10 Proverbs 10:11-12

Overview of the Book of Leviticus Overview of the Gospel of Mark Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

All about skin diseases and mildew again today. In particular, an ancient Israelite, upon having their skin disease heal, could undergo a purification ceremony which, of course, involved sacrificing some animals:

If the priest finds that someone has been healed of a serious skin disease, he will perform a purification ceremony, using two live birds that are ceremonially clean, a stick of cedar, some scarlet yarn, and a hyssop branch. The priest will order that one bird be slaughtered over a clay pot filled with fresh water. He will take the live bird, the cedar stick, the scarlet yarn, and the hyssop branch, and dip them into the blood of the bird that was slaughtered over fresh water. The priest will then sprinkle the blood of the dead bird seven times on the person being purified of the skin disease. When the priest has purified the person, he will release the live bird in the open field to fly away.

At least only one of the birds is killed? Unlike the quarantining and inspections, this part seems to only have ceremonial value. The process of washing oneself and waiting before reentering the camp seems much more useful.

New Testament

We get a repeat of the story where Jesus feeds 5000 people with five loaves of bread and two fish. In this version, we finally learn that the fish were shared with all of the people:

Jesus took the fies loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he kept giving the bread to the disciples so they could distribute it to the people. He also divided the fish for everyone to share.

After all this commotion, Jesus asks for some time alone to pray. Later that night, and Jesus walks on water to calm the story and rescue the disciples from the wind and waves. The disciples

were totally amazed, for they still didn’t understand the significance of the miracle of the loaves. Their hearts were too hard to take it in.

What we do not have in this version is an account of Jesus calling Peter to him. That version of the story, where Peter’s faith allows him to take some steps on water before sinking seems almost inconsistent in intent with this version, where the disciples are described as too hard hearted to understand the miracle.

Psalms and Proverbs

Same old, same old: God rescues people from despair. People will be amazed by what God has done, and those who are favored by the Lord feel joy. We do get one interesting verse though:

You take no delight in sacrifices or offerings.
Now that you have made me listen, I finally understand —
you don’t require burnt offerings or sin offerings.

Now, given that we are in the midst of Leviticus for our Old Testament reading, I can say, with certainty, that someone is confused here. In Leviticus, God seems to take plenty of delight in sacrifices and offerings and seems to demand them with great regularity. This psalm directly contradicts that image of God. Ooops.

One of two verses in today’s Proverbs reading has some useful advice:

Hatred stirs up quarrels,
but love makes up for all offenses.

I am not sure I would go so far as to say that love makes up for all offences, but it can help a lot.

Reference links:

Leviticus 13:1-59 Mark 6:1-29 Psalm 39:1-13 Proverbs 10:10

Overview of the Book of Leviticus Overview of the Gospel of Mark Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Leviticus boring? No! Leviticus is hilarious! Take today’s reading, for example, in between all of the advice about skin diseases and infections we get this gem,

if [a man] loses hair on his forehead, he simply has a bald forehead

I am still giggling over that one. And then there’s this,

Those who suffer from a serious skin disease must tear their clothing and leave their hair uncombed. They must cover their mouth and call out, ‘Unclean! Unclean!’

That said, I do not think I would want to be on the Ancient Israeli health care plan. It seems to be more concerned with keeping infections out of the community at large than helping the infected individual. That is, of course, better than nothing, but thank the God I do not believe in for modern medicine.

New Testament

More familiar stories: The people in Jesus’ hometown reject him. Jesus sends out the twelve disciples to heal and teach and cast out evil spirits. Herod Antipas kills John the Baptist because his daughter dances well.

Psalms and Proverbs

I am silent before you; I won’t say a word,
for my punishment is from you.
But please stop striking me!
I am exhausted by the blows from your hand.
When you discipline us for our sins,
you consume like a moth what is precious to us.
Each of us is but a breath.

Hear my prayer, O Lord!
Listen to my cries for help!
Don’t ignore my tears.
For I am your guest —
a traveler passing through,
as my ancestors were before me.
Leave me alone so I can smile again
before I am gone and exist no more.

David’s psalms vacillate widely in message. One aspect of the message that is neglected by popular quotation is the despair of many of the psalms. David declares repeatedly that he is blessed by God, but just as often, he laments God’s apparent neglect. In today’s reading, David goes even further and asks for God to just leave him alone. I am sure Job would be sympathetic.

Reference links:

Leviticus 11:1-12:8 Mark 5:21-43 Psalm 38:1-22 Proverbs 10:8-9

Overview of the Book of Leviticus Overview of the Gospel of Mark Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Today we learn about unclean animals! Eating or touching the dead carcass of unclean animals does not earn the punishment of being put to death or banished from the community. Instead, the pattern seems to be that those who eat or touch such things become defiled and must clean themselves and avoid interaction with sanctified items for a period of time.

You can read the Wikipedia article if you want a full list of the animals considered clean and unclean, a discussion of how these restrictions translate into modern kosher diets, and a discussion of mistakes in classifying animals. The high level points are

• Animals that have completely split hooves and chew their cud are clean. Animals with split hooves that are not evenly divided or that do not chew their cud are unclean. This includes all animals that have paws and all animals that scurry along the ground.
• Marine animals must have fins and scales are considered clean. 
• Specific types of birds are unclean, but we are not given a general rule.
• Winged insects that walk along the ground are unclean with some exceptions; it is unclear whether the exception is all winged insects that walk along the ground and have jointed legs that allow them to jump or just the specific ones listed.

Women are ceremonially unclean after giving birth. 7 days for a boy and two weeks for a girl. After birth, a woman must wait 33 days (boy) or 66 days (girl) to be considered purified from the bleeding that accompanied the birth. I believe it was in Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent: A Novel where I first heard the idea that the separation of women after childbirth could very well have been welcomed as a sort of maternal leave. Whether or not that was the original intent of the purity laws, I think it not unlikely that women did actually appreciate having time to rest and recover after the birth of a child.

New Testament

In today’s reading, Jesus performs two healings for followers who have faith. The Gospel of Matthew provides more details for both of these healings than the Gospel of Mark did.

Jairus, the leader of the local synagogue, asked Jesus to heal his daughter. Before Jesus could go, the daughter died. Jesus went to Jairus’ home despite that and raised her from the dead.

On the way, a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years touched Jesus’ cloak and was healed. In Matthew, it is unclear how Jesus notices the woman in the midst of a crowd. In Mark we read,

Jesus realized at once that healing power had gone out from him

I have played enough role playing games to know that the proper response to such a statement is to start wondering about Jesus as a character in such a game. He’s definitely your healer, although it sounds like if you level him up enough he will be able to summon armies of angels, so you should not completely neglect his combat skills.

Psalms and Proverbs

Today’s psalm David reverts to asking God to stop torturing and neglecting him. Some of the verses make it sound like David is ill and believes God sent his sickness as punishment.

I will have to admit that today’s first verse from Proverbs reminded me of some denominations of Christianity, and not in a good way:

The wise are glad to be instructed,
but babbling fools fall flat on their faces.

Reference links:

Leviticus 9:7-10:20 Mark 4:26-5:20 Psalm 37:30-40 Proverbs 10:6-7

Overview of the Book of Leviticus Overview of the Gospel of Mark Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Do you have the general process of animal sacrifice memorized yet? If not, you get another chance today! For the sin offering: put blood on the horns of the altar, pour out the rest at the base, burn the fat, kidneys, and long lobe of the liver. Burn the rest outside. For the burnt offering: spatter bloods against the sides of the altar. Burn the pieces of the animal and be sure to wash the internal organs and the legs. For the peace offering: splatter the blood against the sides of the altar. Take all the fat, the kidneys, and the long lobe of the liver and burn all these things on top of the breasts.

This round of sacrifices serves the purpose of purifying the people before God interacts with them directly.

Fire blazed forth from the Lord’s presence and consumed the burnt offering and the fat on the altar. 

Awesome! Who doesn’t like fire? Well, it appears that God is at least picky about what kind of fire is burned in his presence:

Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu put coals of fire in their incense burners and sprinkled incense over them. In this way, they disobeyed the Lord by burning before him the wrong kind of fire, different than he commanded. So fire blazed forth from the Lord’s presence and burned them up, and they died there before the Lord.

Ugh, once again we see that the Biblical God is a primitive, evil, control freak. Aaron stands there in stunned silence while Moses blathers on about God’s holiness. Moses then tells Aaron and his remaining sons that if they mourn for the lost brothers, they will also die and God will strike at the whole community of Israel.

New Testament

More parables today. In most of the parables that involve farmers and seeds, it seems like we are supposed to take the farmer to be God/Jesus. Today we read a parable where such an interpretation is not obvious:

The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, while he’s asleep or awake, the seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens. The earth produces crops on its own. First a leaf blade pushes through, then the heads of wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens. As soon as the grain is ready, the farmer comes and harvests it with a sickle, for the harvest time has come.

This parable supports my standard interpretation in so far as it is the farmer who performs the harvest and plants the seed. However, the bits about the farmer not understanding how the seed grows into plants do not seem consistent with that interpretation. If the parable is supposed to be about spiritual growth and the farmer is supposed to be oneself, the bits about sleeping and lack of understanding make more sense, but the bits about planting and harvesting make less sense. Overall though, the second interpretation makes more sense.

Jesus demonstrates his power to calm storms and freaks out the disciples. I think it is kind of funny that the disciples accept healings as miraculous but acceptable, but affecting the weather leaves them “absolutely terrified”. I would think after seeing the former, the later would be surprising but not that surprising.

Jesus drives the demons into the pigs. In Matthew 8:28-34 Jesus drove demons out of two men. In Mark, there is only one man possessed by many demons. The interaction between the demon possessed man and Jesus is interesting enough that I want to quote it at length:

When Jesus was still some distance away, the man saw him, ran to meet him, and bowed low before him.With a shriek he screamed, “Why are you interfering with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In the name of God, I beg you, don’t torture me!” For Jesus had already said to the spirit, “Come out of the man, you evil spirit.”

Then Jesus demanded, “What is your name?”

And he replied, “My name is Legion, because there are many of us inside this man.” Then the evil spirits begged him again and again not to send them to some distant place.

There happened to be a large herd of pigs feeding on the hillside neraby. “Send us into those pigs,” the spirits begged. “Let us enter them.”

So Jesus gave them permission. The evil spirits came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the entire herd of about 2,000 pigs plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned into the water.

The demons clearly seem to fear Jesus and his power. What is more interesting is that Jesus seems to be willing to listen to their pleas and send them into the pigs instead of sending them wherever he would have sent them otherwise. Also interesting, what happened to the demons after they drowned the pigs they were possessing? Did they just go on to possess someone/something else? Did Jesus even care? Based on this story, it seems to me that Jesus’ main objection to demons is that they reveal that he is the son of God. He does not really care about preventing them from hurting people or causing damage.

Psalms and Proverbs

More of the same from both Psalms and Proverbs. Both can be summarized by two verses from today’s reading from Psalms:

Look at those who are honest and good,
for a wonderful future awaits those who love peace.
But the rebellious will be destroyed;
they have not future.

All of this talk of wickedness leaves me confused though. Some parts of the Bible obviously condemn me as wicked. I do not believe in God, I commit blasphemy against the Holy Spirit whenever I feel like it, I have not made God’s law my own, I do not put my hope in the Lord. According to many of the psalms and proverbs, I should, therefore, be doing a lot of things I do not do. I do not “wait in ambush for the godly, looking for an excuse to kill them.” I do not have violent intentions. I do not think evil thoughts all the time. So, am I wicked or not? I am very confused.

Reference links:

Leviticus 7:28-9:6 Mark 3:31-4:25 Psalm 37:12-29 Proverbs 10:5

Overview of the Book of Leviticus Overview of the Gospel of Mark Overview of the Psalms Overview of the book of Proverbs

Old Testament

Today’s reading informs us that a portion of each peace offering belongs to the priests. The phrasing of this rule supports the view that Leviticus was written long after the time of Moses (emphasis mine):

The special gifts presented to the Lord have been reserved for Aaron and his descendants from the time they were set apart to serve the Lord as priests. On the day they were anointed, the Lord commanded the Israelites to give these portions to the priests as their permanent share from generation to generation.

This passage occurs before the passage in Leviticus where Aaron and his sons are anointed (2 paragraphs before, in fact). The whole community assembled at the Tabernacle entrance for the anointing. Given the alleged adult male population of 600,000, this must have been an incredibly dull event for everyone but the few people who were close to the entrance.

Moses anoints Aaron and his sons. This is the same anointing that was described previously in Exodus 29.

New Testament

As the common source for Matthew and Luke, Mark contains many stories that are redundant with what we have already read. This can make it challenging to find something new to say.

Today we reread the story of how Jesus rejects his real mother and brothers in favor of those who do God’s will. The author of Mark puts this story in a more interesting context. In yesterday’s reading, we read,

When his family heard what was happening, they tried to take him away. “He’s out of his mind,” they said.

Jesus was rejecting his family after they called him mad. Obviously, there were strains in the family relationships. This story also puts Mary in an interesting light. She is obviously much more conflicted about Jesus’ claims to be the Messiah than popular portrayals of her indicate.

Another repeat is the parable of the farmer sowing seeds. Most of the seed does not yield fruit. It is eaten by crows or withers because of shallow roots, or choked by weeds. The disciples are confused by this parable and ask Jesus to explain it. The parable is supposedly confusing to fulfill a prophecy:

When they see what I do,
they will learn nothing.
When they hear what I say,
they will not understand.
Otherwise, they will turn to me
and be forgiven.

I already discussed how this is completely different than the original Hebrew. But Mark introduces some more interest. First, it differs from the fragment in Matthew. Second, it makes no sense! In particular, I cannot think of a reasonable way to interpret the phrase “Otherwise, they will” in the context of the rest of the passage.

I am amused by what Jesus says about the disciples’ lack of understanding:

If you can’t understand the meaning of this parable, how will you understand all the other parables.

I read that as, “Come on guys, this one is easy. If you cannot understand this one, there is no way you’ll get the rest.”

Psalms and Proverbs

Today’s reading from Psalms continues the blame-the-victim theme from yesterday. This idea seems to run counter to the other Psalms where the psalmist complains about how the wicked prosper and the godly suffer.

Day by day the Lord takes care of the innocent,
and they will receive an inheritance that lasts forever.
They will not be disgraced in hard times;
even in famine they will have more than enough.

But the wicked will die.
The Lord’s enemies are like flowers in a field —
they will disappear like smoke.

The wicked borrow and never repay, [no we don’t!]
but the godly are generous givers.

…

Once I was young, and now I am old.
Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned
or their children begging for bread.

Only one verse from Proverbs today. I guess that is what they need to do to get it to span a year.