Monday, January 25

Good evening friendly friends. The craziness at work continues, but I am taking off this week to celebrate my birthday so that should be excellent. Also, Jilly will be taking me to a very special birthday dinner at my favorite restaurant, Friendly's. That's right - Friendly's. I intend to get a sloppy grilled chicken sandwich and that ice cream sundae that looks like a clown.

Reading for January 25
Genesis 50:1 - Exodus 2:10
Genesis Complete!

Wow, I didn't even realize when I started reading tonight, but I just finished Genesis! That's so cool, I don't think I've ever done that. I think I'm going to write an additional entry for each book I finish to give a little summary about what I learned in reading that particular book.

Anyway - In the last few chapters of Genesis, Jacob dies then Joseph dies and its left with a vision of God's people, Abraham's descendants, inhabiting the land of Egypt and growing very large in number and becoming very prosperous.

What that leads into though is the book of Exodus. I always knew that the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, but I never knew it was because of Joseph settling there. And that only happened because his brothers were jealous of him and sold him as a slave. And THAT only happened because Judah was the one who said "hey, I know we don't like Joseph - but we can't kill him!" It's just really amazing to me how one split second decision can have such an enormous impact on humanity and the course of history.

So, here we are in Egypt, several generations after Joseph dies. The current government of Egypt knows nothing about how Joseph helped the Egyptians in the past, and how the Isaelites were considered very special guests in their land. Now they feared their growing numbers and not only enslaved them, but ordered the murder of every Israelite boy born in Egypt. During this time, Moses is born and his mother does not want him killed (obviously). She keeps him hidden for three months and then puts him in the Nile River in a basket. He is found by the princess of Egypt and brought back to the castle. That's where this reading stops, but I know some cool things are about to happen.

Matthew 16:13-17:9
Jesus Goes Crazy!

This section of text is where the disciples must have thought Jesus was losing it. All the germs from the sick people he healed combined forces to make a super, brain eating bacteria that rotted away his sanity. That must have been what they thought was going on.

Jesus tests Simon by asking him who he thinks Jesus is. Simon says that he knows Jesus is the son of God, and the Messiah. Jesus says that Simon is greatly blessed because only God could reveal that wisdom to him, so Jesus changes Simon's name to Peter, meaning Rock, because the church would be built on Peter.

Moments later Jesus says that he will shortly be killed. Peter pulls Jesus aside to say "No way, man. No way would we let that happen to you."

Jesus says, "Get away from me, Satan!" Get. Away. From me. Satan. To the guy he just said is blessed and will build his church. I think what was actually happening here was Jesus was feeling the temptation to just bail on the whole thing. He was terrified! And Peter's comforting, loving message there, only tempted Jesus to bail even more. His guard was up.

Then comes one of the greatest mysteries of the Bible for me: The Transfiguration.

Jesus take three of his disciples up on a hill and transforms into Jesus, Moses and Elijah. And they all talk and have a great time.

WHAT?! He just transforms into three people??! Transfiguration is a class at Hogwarts, and Jesus is bustin it out no problem. Crazy, absolutely crazy. And not only that, but a huge cloud of light comes over all of them and God's voice comes out of it and tells the disciples that Jesus is his son, with whom he is pleased.  The Disciples' minds must have just shut off after this. I mean, Jesus turns into three dudes, and God comes down in cloud form and booms his support for his son right in your face? That's a lot to deal with.

Psalm 21:1-13
Psalm 21 part 2

In my last reading I noted how David was praying for the victory of a specific King. This one reveals that the king won the battle. Yet again this psalm is divided in half between praising God and damning the enemies of David. Nothing too new here, so we'll move on for now...

Proverbs 5:1-6
I think this could be applied to many, if not all carnal temptations in life:

 ³ For the lips of an immoral woman are as sweet as honey,
      and her mouth is smoother than oil.
 ⁴ But in the end she is as bitter as poison,
      as dangerous as a double-edged sword.

That will do it for me this evening. Thanks everyone for reading.  Good night!