January 17

Good evening. Today has been a nice relaxing day at home with the little lady. Relaxing barring the grocery store and pharmacy fiascos. But it's a rainy night, there is salsa chicken that in a crock pot that I'm about to devour, and I am in the mood for some movies and cuddlin with my wife.

Also, there is a new post on the Papa Blog - talking about the very thing I've been struggling with. Namely, the issue of Haiti in the midst of a loving God. Click that link above if you're interested, its a good read and makes a lot of good points.

Reading for January 17

Genesis 35:1-36:43


The action subsides in this section of reading. The two main things that happen are:
1) Jacob returns to Bethel and sees God again. God once again changes his name to Israel, but the text still addresses him as Jacob.

2) Jacob's wife Rachel dies giving birth to another son. Isaac also dies shortly after.

Then the rest of the text is a long list of names. I have to admit, I skipped most of it. I know this is going against my pursuit for knowledge, but I get so lost in the list of names. Maybe I'll dig more into the names my second time around reading the Bible. I mean, I think the main point of having the lineages in the Bible is to see the path to Jesus, right?

Matthew 12:1-21
There is a disagreement here between Jesus and the Pharisees - or the religious leaders of the time who were obsessed with the law and following it as closely as possible. Here's what happened: Jesus and his disciples were walking through a town on the Sabbath, a day when Jews are traditionally forbidden from working. The disciples get hungry and pick grain and begin to eat it (I didn't even know you could do that...). The Pharisees call them out saying that they're working on the sabbath by 'harvesting grain'.

Jesus quote a book of the Bible that I've never read - Hosea, saying

"‘I want you to show mercy, not offer sacrifices.’"

Then the whole group comes upon a man with a deformed hand. The Pharisees try to trick Jesus into healing this guys hand on the sabbath so they can arrest him. Jesus says, "If one of your sheep fell down a well on the Sabbath, wouldn't you work to get it out?" This is beautiful here - Jesus is comparing this man, and by extension all of humanity, to one of his sheep whom he cares for deeply and would work to get it back if it was lost. He heals the man's hand and then continues on. This is the last straw for the Pharisees and they begin the plot to kill him.

Psalm 15:1-5

 ¹ Who may worship in your sanctuary, Lord?
      Who may enter your presence on your holy hill?
 ² Those who lead blameless lives and do what is right,
      speaking the truth from sincere hearts.
 ³ Those who refuse to gossip
      or harm their neighbors
      or speak evil of their friends.
 ⁴ Those who despise flagrant sinners,
      and honor the faithful followers of the Lord,
      and keep their promises even when it hurts.
 ⁵ Those who lend money without charging interest,
      and who cannot be bribed to lie about the innocent.
   Such people will stand firm forever.

David seems to be drawing lines between "clean and unclean" or the "worthy and unworthy" of God's love. Again, I think the purpose of this is to show that very few (if any) people were worthy to worship in God's temple before Christ and his sacrifice. The phrase "blameless life" has only been applied to one man...I'll give you one guess who that is...


Proverbs 3:21-26

 ²¹ My child, don’t lose sight of common sense and discernment.
      Hang on to them,
 ²² for they will refresh your soul.

It's interesting how this first part of Proverbs doesn't focus exclusively on Biblical knowledge and wisdom. This passage highlights good, plain old common sense. In other words, 'don't be an idiot.'Wise words to live by - I could have used them many a time...

Alright, that salsa chicken and blanket on the couch are calling my name. Thanks for reading, friends.

Dear God. Thank you for giving me the drive to search for answers as I dig into your word. The past week was difficult in trying to justify certain things in my mind, and while I am still not completely satisfied with an answer, the things I read on the Papa Blog were comforting to a degree. Dear God, I pray for a good week this week  for both myself and Jill - we both have a lot of work to do and I just pray that you would keep us both calm. 

I pray  these things in Jesus name. Amen.