Month: March 2010

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Old Testament

Reward and punishment make up the main topic of today’s reading. If the Israelites obey God’s commands, he shall bless them. The rains will come in season, the trees and fields will yield bumper crops, then land will be peaceful, and wild animals will not bother them. If they obey God, the Israelites will defeat their enemies and multiply in number. God will live among them.

God says a lot more about punishment (about three times as much text). Is is pretty terrible. If the Israelites do not obey God’s commands:

• He will bring terrors of disease and fevers upon them and let enemies conquer them (and eat their crops).
• If they still do not obey he will stop the rain and harden the land, making it yield no crops.
• If they still do not obey, he will send wild animals to eat the children and livestock of the Israelites.
• If they still do not obey, he will, send armies to destroy the Israelites and plagues on those who flee. He will also destroy the food supply to the point where rationing is necessary.
• If they still do not obey, he will cause the Israelites to resort to cannibalism, destroy property, destroy cities, take no pleasure in offering, and scatter the people among the nations. This is not an exaggeration:

  If in spite of all this you still refuse to listen and still remain hostile toward me, then I will give full vent to my hostility. I myself will punish you seven times over for your sins. Then you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters. I will destroy your pagan shrines and knock down your places of worship. I will leave your lifeless corpses piled on top of your lifeless idols, and I will despise you. I will make your cities desolate and destroy your places of pagan worship. I will take no pleasure in your offerings that should be a pleasing aroma to me.Yes, I myself will devastate your land, and your enemies who come to occupy it will be appalled at what they see. I will scatter you among the nations and bring out my sword against you. Your land will become desolate, and your cities will lie in ruins. 

• And for anyone who survives that, God will demoralize them to the point where living a normal life is impossible.

New Testament

In today’s reading, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come to ask Jesus if they can sit at his left and right hand in heaven. Jesus says that to do so, they must drink from the bitter cup of death he will drink from, but actually only God can decide that. But what I want to point out is that in the version in Matthew 20:20-23, it was supposedly their mother who made this request.  In this version, they make the request directly. Which version is right? (Answer: probably neither, because most likely the story exists to make a point, not because it was true.)

Today we see another example of what I would call genuine kindness on Jesus’ part. A blind beggar, Bartimaeus, called out to Jesus to heal him. The crowd tried to shush him, but Jesus took mercy on the man and healed him. What amuses me about this story is the crowd. At first they yell at the man, “Be quiet!” But once Jesus tells him to come they yell, “Cheer up. Come on, he’s calling you!” Crowds are so fickle!

Psalms and Proverbs

Today’s psalm contains something different! Instead of going on about how great God is for blessing the psalmist or how terrible he is for neglecting the psalmist, today’s psalm seems to be a tribute to a king in honor of his wedding. Despite the cheery subject matter, the psalm briefly touches on the difficulty of being a woman in these times, even if that woman is a queen.

Listen to me, O royal daughter; take to heart what I say.
Forget your people and your family far away.

How sad it must be to marry and be effectively cut off from your past forever. How grim to grow up knowing that such is likely your destiny.

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Old Testament

The Levites only owned houses in Levitical towns and the fields around them. Because that was all they owned, they got it back every 50 years (as we learn later in the reading, every 50 years is the Jubilee year, a year of rest for people and the land when everyone regains that which belonged to their ancestors).

The Israelites were commanded not to take advantage of those who have come on hard times. Good sentiment!

However, God fails when it comes to slavery. The Israelites may not buy and sell each other as slaves, only as indentured servants to be freed in the Year of Jubilee.

However, you may purchase male and female slaves from among the nations around you. You may also purchase the children of temporary residents who live among you, including those who have been born into your land. You may treat them as your property, passing them on to your children as a permanent inheritance. You may treat them as slaves, but you must never treat your fellow Israelites this way.

Now, if God really inspired the authorship of Leviticus as a book meant to go into his book of instruction for all of humanity for all time, you would think that the one thing he could handle is saying straight out that slavery is wrong. Fail.

Another failure is God’s idea of just punishment. God declares to Moses that a man should be stoned to death for blasphemy. What a terrible way to kill someone! A stoning would be a drawn out, painful death. It counts, in  my opinion, as cruel punishment that only a wicked being would choose as appropriate another. And yet, this is supposedly God’s preferred method of putting blasphemers to death. Perhaps not surprising for a being that murdered all of humanity in the flood and murdered many Egyptians before the Exodus, but still, like those events, sickening. Even if the God of the Bible exists, I do not think I could believe him worthy of worship.

Today’s reading also gives us the famous phrase, “an eye for an eye”.

Anyone who injures another person must be dealt with according to the injury inflicted — a fracture for a fracture, an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Whatever anyone does to injure another person must be paid back in kind.

This is barbaric. Yes, I know Jesus repudiates this when he says to turn the other cheek, but we still have to deal with the original. The original is not barbaric because it claims that punishment should be proportional to the crime. It is barbaric because it implies that it should be like in kind. Imagine, someone causes someone else to lose an eye. Now, the person who committed the crime must have their eye deliberately gouged out by someone else.

New Testament

We see an example of Jesus being nice! Well, kind of. Some parents had brought their children to be blessed by Jesus. The disciples try to shoo them away. Instead of just telling them not too,

When Jesus saw what was happening, he was angry with his disciples.

Hardly a day goes by when the reading does not contain some reference to Jesus’ anger or annoyance. At least he blesses the children.

Actually, today we really do see an example of Jesus acting in a caring manner. A rich man who had always kept the commandments asked Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life.

Looking at the man, Jesus felt genuine love for him. “There is still one thing you haven’t done,” he told him. “God and sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

Wow! No anger, no annoyance, just genuine love. I like this Jesus more than the Jesus we usually see. The disciples discuss the difficulty of getting into heaven by these standards. Jesus tells them,

Humanly speaking, it is impossible. But not with God. Everything is possible with God.

That’s nice. The next bit however, seems a bit callous. Jesus says,

I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News, will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property — along with persecution.

Sorry to break it to you Jesus, but getting a new family does not make up for the one that was lost. Relationships are not fungible like that.

Psalms and Proverbs

We get depressing a reading from Psalms today.

You have butchered us like sheep
and scattered us among the nations.
You sold your precious people for a pittance,
making nothing on the sale.
…
We can’t escape the constant humiliation;
shame is written across our faces.
All we hear are the taunts of our mockers.
All we see are our vengeful enemies.
All this has happened though we have not forgotten you.
We have not violated your covenant.
Our hearts have not deserted you.
We have not strayed from your path.
Yet you have crushed us in the jackal’s desert home.
You have covered us with darkness and death.
…
Wake up, O Lord! Why do you sleep?
Get up! Do not reject us forever.
Why do you look the other way?
Why do you ignore our suffering and oppression?
We collapse in the dust,
lying face down in the dirt.
Rise up! Help us!
Ransom us because of your unfailing love.

2 months in, and we are about 15% of the way done. This month we read through the rest of Exodus and a good bit of Leviticus in the Old Testament and finished Matthew and got a good way through Mark in the New Testament. Leviticus has been surprisingly entertaining, but rather repetitive. In fact, the aspect of the readings which made this month most difficult was their repetitive nature. Leviticus often repeated itself and Exodus. Mark feels very repetitive, which makes sense given that Mark is believed to be one of the sources used by the author of Matthew.

As I mentioned, Leviticus has been surprisingly entertaining. Some of the laws are interesting. Some parts are entertaining. Reading these laws also shows the lack of feasibility of claims that the U.S. system of laws and justice builds off of the Biblical law. Most of the law in Leviticus is based on identifying and maintaining ritual purity. The bits that are reflected in our modern moral and legal beliefs are the claims that are so general as to not really be specific to the Biblical moral code (don’t murder, don’t steal, etc.).

I continue to fail to see examples of God or Jesus’ love for humanity in the Bible. The few claims of that natures we see are weak. Jesus heals some people (but only if they are faithful enough), the psalmists claim that God is loving (usually in the form “God, I know you love me, so why do you let me suffer”).

Proverbs was better this month. Less about immoral women and wicked people, and more good advice. Better, but still sometimes terrible, like the proverbs that imply that wealth can be used as an indicator of someone’s worth).

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Old Testament

Really dull day today. We read a little bit more about offerings (defects are bad), and then we read about a number of festivals that God wants the Israelites to observe. The most entertaining of these festivals is the one labeled “The Festival of Shelters”, which I believe is Sukkot (סוכות).

For seven days you must live outside in little shelters. All native-born Israelites must live in shelters. This will remind each new generation of Israelites that I made their ancestors live in shelters when I rescued them from the land of Egypt.

I want to spend a week living in a little shelter that I build out of branches! Although, given that I do not live in a climate anything Israel’s, the weather in late September to late October might make this rather disagreeable. (Based on my experience, however, this would be delightful in Israel even in November!)

New Testament

Jesus had trouble getting time without the crowds.

Leaving that region, they traveled through Galilee. Jesus didn’t want anyone to know he was there, for he wanted to spend more time with his disciples and teach them.

At least in the days before mass communication, it was easier to hide your location.

Jesus teaches his disciples that to be the greatest in the Kingdom they must be the servant to everyone else. They must be like a little child. We also read Mark’s version of Jesus’ hopefully symbolic self mutilation instructions,

If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell with two hands. If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one foot than to be thrown into hell with two feet. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It’s better to enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where the maggots never die and the fire never goes out.

Jesus does not approve of divorce. God only allowed it in the Mosaic law because the people of the time could not handle not being able to divorce their wives at all. (Must resist making comment about the U.S. legal system and the sanctity of marriage.)

Psalms and Proverbs

Today’s psalm: God is awesome because he destroyed the enemies of the ancient Israelites. Yay for God led genocide?

And Proverbs contains an injunction that God may very well have been meant for bloggers:

Too much talk leads to sin.
Be sensible and keep your mouth shut.