Month: April 2010

Reference links:

Old Testament

Today’s reading describes the blessings and curses the Israelites will receive if they obey the commands God gave them. It is somewhat telling that the text describing the curses takes up about twice as much space as the space describing the blessings.

Essentially, if the Israelites obey God, he will bless them in everything they do. They will have thriving crops and herds and many children. Rain will come to water the crops. The Israelites will lend to other nations and never borrow. The nations of the world will look upon them with awe. In short, nothing will ever go wrong for them.

On the other hand, if they do not obey the Lord’s commands, he will make sure that everything goes wrong. These curses emphasize the point that the Biblical God is not always a God of love and kindness. These curses emphasize the point that it is Biblically invalid to say that good things come from God and bad things come from the Devil. No, in today’s reading, the bad things are coming from God quite directly.

To start, everything that was blessed before will be cursed. The Israelites will be frustrated in everything they do, they will lose in battle, their crops and herds will fail, and the skies will yield no rain. Some of the more striking descriptions,

28:20-22: The Lord himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and abandoning me. The Lord will afflict you with diseases until none of you are left in the land you are about to enter and occupy. The Lord will strike you with wasting diseases, fever, and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew. These disasters will pursue you until you die.

28:29: You will be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will come to save you.

28:32: You will watch as your sons and daughters are taken away as slaves. Your heart will break for them, but you won’t be able to help them.

28:47-48: If you do not serve the Lord your God with joy and enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you have received, you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. You will be left hungry, thirsty, naked, and lacking in everything. The Lord will put an iron yoke on your neck, oppressing you harshly until he has destroyed you.

28:53: The siege and terrible distress of the enemy’s attack will be so severe that you will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you.

28:63: Just as the Lord has found great pleasure in causing you to prosper and multiply, the Lord will find pleasure in destroying you. 

Again, I wonder about those people who can accept both the premise that the God they believe in is a God of love and the premise that the God they believe in is the same as the God of the Old Testament.

New Testament

Jesus explains why it would be silly for him to be casting out demons using power granted by Satan.

Any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed. A family splintered by feuding will fall apart. You say I am empowered by Satan. But if Satan is divided and fighting against himself, how can his kingdom survive? And if I am empowered by Satan, what about your own exorcists? They cast out demons, too, so they will condemn you for what you have said. But if I am casting out demons by the power of God, then the Kingdom of God has arrived among you.

I want to point out to Jesus that while he made a decent appeal as to why he cannot be casting out demons by Satan’s power, he has also cast some doubt on his own powers. In particular, by pointing out that random exorcists can cast out demons, he makes his own ability to do so less special.

Psalms and Proverbs

Another psalm along the lines of “God has abandoned me, it’s so terrible. But God is wonderful because he did all sorts of wonderful things in the distant past.”

Reference links:

Old Testament

Wow, the author of Deuteronomy managed to fit a mini-recap into a discussion of offering a portion of the first harvest of the year. I am impressed. When these first fruits are offered, the one giving the offering is supposed to give a very terse summary of how God made Jacob prosper and eventually the Israelites ended up in Israel.

Every third year, a special tithe of the crops must be given to the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows. That’s nice. I think it is good to help those in need, and I think that it is good to have giving be systematic (whether through a religious/governmental system as for the Israelites or with a personal system). In my experience, regularly scheduled giving, whether it’s an hour a week or $5000 a year, tends to be less likely to be forgotten and, therefore, has a larger impact in the long run.

After that, Moses instructs the Israelites about the blessings and curses they are to give once they reach the promised land. Once they cross the Jordan, they are supposed to set up some stones as an altar at Mount Ebal and cover them with plaster. Some of the tribes give curses and others blessings. Then the Levites tell the people of Israel a bunch of things that will cause them to be cursed.

• Creating idols
• Dishonoring parents
• Stealing property by moving a boundary marker
• Leading a blind person astray on the road
• Denying justice to foreigners, orphans, or widows
• Having sexual intercourse with any of your father’s wives
• Having sex with an animal
• Having sex with your sister
• Having sex with your mother-in-law
• Attacking a neighbor in secret
• Accepting payment to kill an innocent person
• Not affirming and obeying these instructions

New Testament

Jesus visits two sisters, Mary and Martha. When Martha complains that Mary is just sitting listening to Jesus while Martha preps dinner, Jesus remarks that Martha is worrying over details and Mary has found the truly meaningful thing. I agree with the lesson that it is too easy to get caught up in the concerns of day-to-day life and miss out on what is important. On the other hand, knowing how people react under stress, I doubt Martha got much out of the lesson at the time.

The rest of today’s reading is about prayer. Apparently, the key to getting God to answer your prayers is to keep asking until he gets annoyed.

Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this story: “Suppose you went to a friend’s house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You say to him, ‘A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ And suppose he calls out from his bedroom, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is locked for the night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can’t help you.’ But I tell you this—though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence.

“And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

I actually am kind of surprised that Jesus is so blatant about the fact that bugging God until he gives in is a valid prayer technique. Seeing the second passage in context also shows how many people, Christians and atheists alike, often take that passage out of context. I almost never see anyone mention the requirement for persistence when they mention the second part.

The next passage is also rather well known.

“You fathers—if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him.

To this I respond: Would you put your children in a room full of knives? Would you leave them alone with a lion? Well then, what are we to think of a God who creates a world where earthquakes and natural disasters kill so many people? What are we to think of a God who could banish all natural disease but will not? You may say that the world is fallen, but natural causes of so much human suffering can certainly not be part of a reasonable punishment for human sin.

Psalms and Proverbs

At the blast of your breath, O God of Jacob,
their horses and chariots lay still.

The images that came to my mind upon reading this were dragon-like fire or garlic breath.

Also interseting,

Human defiance only enhances your glory,
for you use it as a weapon.

So you see, atheists are helping God.

Two good proverbs today and one nearly tautalogical one. Can you figure out which is which?

Fools think their own way is right,
but the wise listen to others.

A fool is quick-tempered,
but a wise person stays calm when insulted.

An honest witness tells the truth;
a false witness tells lies.

Reference links:

Old Testament

Today’s reading may win the prize for the most downright factual section title. Actually, a quick aside on section titles. They were not part of the original text, and I find them to be rather distracting. They often imply how a passage should be interpreted, which I feel biases my reading. But the section title today just pointed out an inescapable fact about today’s reading: it is full of “Miscellaneous Regulations”.

There are way too many regulations to call out individual to deal with them individually, but I will point out the most interesting ones. Right off the bat, first sentence of the reading, we get,

If a man’s testicles are crushed or his penis is cut off, he may not be admitted to the assembly of the Lord.

Fortunately, as a woman, I do not cringe the way that I guess some of my more masculine readers do when reading such a passage. In any case, this regulation does not seem particularly fair, especially since I am guessing most of those men did not choose to end up in that particular state of injuries.

Much more fair is this regulation on slavery,

If slaves should escape from their masters and take refuge with you, you must not hand them over to their masters. Let them live among you in any town they choose, and do not oppress them.

I rather like this next regulation,

A newly married man must not be drafted into the army or be given any other official responsibilities. He must be free to spend one year at home, bringing happiness to the wife he has married.

Also, to come full circle, anatomically,

If two Israelite men get into a fight and the wife of one tries to rescue her husband by grabbing the testicles of the other man, you must cut off her hand. Show her no pity.

The punishment seems rather extreme, but I do agree that grabbing a man’s testicles should not be considered a reasonable way to help your husband.

On a high level, it seems like the regulations have two main concerns: purity and fairness. These can be further divided into sexual purity and sanitary purity on the one hand and mercy and justice on the other hand. Now, this may not be a complete categorization, but it helps me understand why some of the regulations seem more relevant than others.

The purity regulations, by and large, do not seem particularly interesting. The sexual purity laws seem kind of silly. The sanitary purity laws just seem like common sense.

The fairness laws are more interesting. The justice laws seem harsh, centered around the “eye for an eye” mentality. These laws seem to be focused on making sure the Israelites fear doing wrong (such as yesterday’s regulation that a disobedient son should be stoned). The mercy laws, on the other hand, are rather appealing, and formalized mercy seems like something that we could use more of.

Finaly, today’s reading once again maligns poor Balaam’s reputation.

Instead, they [the Moabites] hired Balaam son of Beor from Pethor in distant Aram-naharaim to curse you. But the Lord your God refused to listen to Balaam. He turned the intended curse into a blessing because the Lord your God loves you.

Now, when we read that story before, it seemed that Balaam was pretty willing to go along with God’s will, whatever that ended up being. He did not seem to particularly want to curse the Israelites. Poor Balaam.

New Testament

Today we are continuing on with the theme of “people who reject Jesus and his disciples will suffer”. I am rather perplexed by one of the examples,

And you people of Capernaum, will you be honored in heaven? No, you will go down to the place of the dead.

Wait, isn’t Capernaum the place where Jesus taught regularly and healed many and healed the servant of the Roman officer? If it was actually such a terrible place, why was that not mentioned any of the times that Jesus’ visits to Capernaum were actually being described?

Jesus thanks God for hiding the truth from those who think themselves wise and clever and revealing it to the childlike. I cannot really understand a mindset that thinks that the truth is something to be hidden, that the truth should only be revealed to those who somehow deserve it. Since I cannot understand such a view point, to me Jesus’ prayer just sounds petty, “Nya, nya! I don’t like you, so God does not reveal the truth to you.”

Today we read the story of the Good Samaritan (apparently, only in Luke). This is one of those stories that contains a good life lesson completely independent of Jesus’ divinity or existence. The setup for this story is a that an expert in religious law asked Jesus which was the most important commandment. Jesus reflects the question back and the man replies that the most important commandments are,

You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.

This part of the story bears a non-trivial resemblance to stories in Matthew and Mark. The man asks, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus responds with the story of the Good Samaritan. A Jewish man was injured by the side of the road. A priest and a temple assistant both walked by and ignored him, but a detested Samaritan came and cared for the injured man. The lesson of this story is that everyone is your neighbor, and so you should show love to everyone.

Psalms and Proverbs

Today’s psalm is a psalm of praise. This stands in start contrast to yesterday’s psalm, which was all about God’s rejection. On the one hand, I know that I should not read a collection of poetry as a coherent narrative. On the other hand, it is sometimes difficult to get my head around the day-to-day mood swings.

But then, I would rather have variety than not. Today’s proverbs continue the theme of praising the godly and condemning the wicked.

March review, only a few days late! =)

Reference links:

Old Testament

Back to our regularly scheduled skepticism! Somebody commented on my Google Buzz for yesterday’s entry and seemed to take it seriously. Ooops!

Today we get a laundry list of regulations. Hurrah! Or something like that. We get off to an exciting start.

When you are in the land the Lord your God is giving you, someone may be found murdered in a field, and you don’t know who committed the murder.

The rest is not nearly exciting. The elders of the nearest town have to break the neck of a young cow to cleanse the guilt of murder from the community. I suppose it is symbolic cleansing, because I do not see how killing a cow actually makes anything better.

Quick commentary on the interesting regulations.

And suppose you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you are attracted to her and want to marry her. If this happens, you may take her to your home, where she must shave her head, cut her nails, and change the clothes she was wearing when she was captured. She will stay in your home, but let her mourn for her father and mother for a full month. Then you may marry her, and you will be her husband and she will be your wife.

The woman, as far as I can tell, gets no say in the matter.

Suppose a man has two wives, but he loves one and not the other, and both have given him sons. And suppose the firstborn son is the son of the wife he does not love. When the man divides his inheritance, he may not give the larger inheritance to his younger son, the son of the wife he loves, as if he were the firstborn son.

Fair enough.

Suppose a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father or mother, even though they discipline him. … Then all the men of his town must stone him to death. In this way, you will purge this evil from among you, and all Israel will hear about it and be afraid.

Okay, stoning is totally not an acceptable form of punishment for rebellious children.

A woman must not put on men’s clothing, and a man must not wear women’s clothing. Anyone who does this is detestable in the sight of the Lord your God.

Do jeans and a button down shirt count  as men’s clothing? And I do sometimes steal my husband’s jeans. Hmmm, God must hate me.

Also,

• Be socially responsible and help your neighbors when they are in trouble or have lost something
• Do not eat a mother bird with chicks or eggs (the chicks and eggs can be eaten though)
• Put railings around flat roofs
• Don’t plant anything with your grapes
• Do not harness oxen with donkeys
• Do not wear clothing made of wool and linen
• Put tassels on your clothing
• If a man accuses a woman of not being a virgin when they marry, he is fined and punished if he is wrong. She is stoned if he is right (or rather, she is stoned if her parents cannot prove he is wrong)
• Adulterers must be killed
• If a man has sex with an engaged woman they must be stoned
• But if a man rapes an engaged woman out in the country, it is assumed that she screamed for help so only he is stoned
• If a man has sex with a woman who is not engaged, he must marry her. There is no comment on whether or not it makes a difference if the the sex was forced.
• A man must not marry his father’s former wife

New Testament

Today we get a random story that I do not remember being in Matthew or Mark:

As the time drew near for him to ascend to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. He sent messengers ahead to a Samaritan village to prepare for his arrival. But the people of the village did not welcome Jesus because he was on his way to Jerusalem. When James and John saw this, they said to Jesus, “Lord, should we call down fire from heaven to burn them up?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them. So they went on to another village.

What a weird story! What did the villagers have against Jesus going to Jerusalem? Did James and John really think they could call fire down from heaven? Were they really willing to do so over something like this? What’s the point of this story?

Jesus tells people that the cost of following him is that they must turn their backs on their friends and family, without saying goodbye. If this is meant purely as a metaphor, then we can understand it as making a new beginning, breaking from the past, etc. If Jesus was actually telling people they could not bury their parents or say goodbye to their families, he was a jerk,

We also read today about how Jesus sent out his disciples. You may be wondering, “Didn’t we just read about that a couple days ago?” You are right! Kind of. In Luke 10:1-6 we read about how Jesus sent out the 12, telling them to carry nothing with them. This is also similar to Matthew and Mark’s versions. However, today’s version is different because Jesus sent out 72 disciples in pairs to preach.

Psalms and Proverbs

Today’s psalm is all about how the psalmist feels that the Israelites have been rejected by God. Maybe, Mr. Psalmist, the real problem is that this God you have heard about never did exist and all of those accounts of past miraculous signs are stories and rationalization of past events.

Reference links:

Thank God for the glory of his grace! I realized that I was the wicked sinner today’s readings were describing. Once I admitted that, the power of the Holy Spirit flowed over me, and I welcomed Jesus Christ into my heart as my one true Lord and Savior! God’s word spoke to me!

For example, never sacrifice your son or daughter as a burnt offering. And do not let your people practice fortune-telling, or use sorcery, or interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord.

This is me! How many times have I wanted to practice fortune telling and use sorcery. I have tried in vain to cast spells and call forth the spirit of the dead! I have longed to have a child that I could sacrifice to the modern pagan God of abortion! I am this sinner!

I have let false prophets live. I have seen them make their failed prophecies and not rebuked them. I have been against war when my Lord teaches that war is just when it is waged in his holy name. I have cried out for justice for our prisoners of war, when my Lord teaches their complete destruction. My sins have been great!

Oh, how today’s psalm speaks to me!

But as for me, I almost lost my footing.
My feet were slipping, and I was almost gone.
For I envied the proud
when I saw them prosper despite their wickedness.
They seem to live such painless lives;
their bodies are so healthy and strong.
They don’t have troubles like other people;
they’re not plagued with problems like everyone else.
They wear pride like a jeweled necklace
and clothe themselves with cruelty.
These fat cats have everything
their hearts could ever wish for!
They scoff and speak only evil;
in their pride they seek to crush others.

That was me! Everything I have done, everything I have said up to this point in my life was evil. All of my prosperity, health, and happiness was nothing but sin! And for those things I was willing to give up my eternal salvation!

The godly care for their animals,
but the wicked are always cruel.

I was always cruel, but now, with the power of Jesus, I can be kind to animals. Oh Lord! Without you, I always wanted to wring their little necks. But now, through your grace and mercy, I know that I should care for them. Thank you Lord for this revelation!

I know that many of you reading this are wicked fools like I once was. I beg you today to let Jesus heal you, just as he healed the boy possessed by demons. I beg you to welcome Jesus into your heart like a little child! The Bible says that Jesus is God’s son, his Chosen One. Believe it!

Reference links:

Old Testament

Today we read, yet again, about the three major festivals: Passover, the Festival of Harvest, and the Festival of Shelters. Since Passover started recently, the information is, at least, timely.

I rather like that the other two major festivals are focused on celebration. For the Festival of Harvest:

Celebrate with your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, the Levites from your towns, and the foreigners, orphans, and widows who live among you.

and for the Festival of Shelters:

This festival will be a happy time of celebrating with your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites, foreigners, orphans, and widows from your towns. … This festival will be a time of great joy for all.

Next we read some legal miscellany. The Israelites should appoint judges over the people. The text recognizes that even a wise judge would be led astray by bribes, and so judges should not accept bribes. Nothing is said about what would happen if a judge did accept bribes.

Never accept a bribe, for bribes blind the eyes of the wise and corrupt the decisions of the godly.

The decrees of the judges are final. Anyone who disputes the decrees of the judges must be put to death.

Anyone arrogant enough to reject the verdict of the judge or of the priest who represents the Lord your God must die. In this way you will purge the evil from Israel. Then everyone else will hear about it and be afraid to act so arrogantly.

I find the reasoning behind this interesting. The purpose behind killing those who dispute a judge’s ruling is to inspire fear. I suppose, in some sense, all legal systems are based on fear (of punishment, ostracism, inability to access resources, etc.), but I think I still prefer systems where the primary basis of the system is principle, not fear.

Finally, we read the guidelines that a king must follow, if the Israelites ever decide that they want a king. This is another one of those passages that reads differently depending on whether you believe it was composed before or after Israel started having kings.

New Testament

I found this passage from today’s reading hilarious. I think because my brain seized on the word “puzzled”, so I read it in a perplexed voice.

When Herod Antipas, the ruler of Galilee, heard about everything Jesus was doing, he was puzzled. Some were saying that John the Baptist had been raised from the dead. Others thought Jesus was Elijah or one of the other prophets risen from the dead.

“I beheaded John,” Herod said, “so who is this man about whom I hear such stories?” And he kept trying to see him.

Beyond that, more repeats. Jesus feeds 5000 with five loaves of bread and two fish, Peter declares Jesus to be the Messiah, and Jesus predicts his death and resurrection.

Psalms and Proverbs

Kings have not been much of a topic in our readings so far, which makes today’s readings stick out. As I mentioned, we read about guidelines a king must follow in Deuteronomy. In today’s psalm we read of a king asking for God’s blessing and guidance.