Reading for January 6
Genesis 13:5-15:21
A particularly difficult section of text, mainly because of a lot of Jewish names of Kings and cities. My brain automatically goes into auto pilot when I see these long lists of names, and I'll admit I have skipped a few verses already because they consisted of just names entirely. I'm sure if I knew who they were, it would be much more meaningful.
Anyway, in this section Abraham is getting more and more favor from God. He leads a large battle and ends a war among nine different nations, and then God promises him that his descendants will be quite numerous.
This is kind of cool. Another human aspect of God is seen here if I dig a little...God is very proud of Abraham and his faithfulness to God. So what he's doing is trying to replicate that by making the majority of the Jewish nation spring from Abraham's seed. God is most likely hoping that Abraham's faithfulness is genetic and that he can have a race of people who are inherently good. I know that they don't all turn out that way though...
But He is all knowing...hmmm...I'll need to do some thinking on this one and revisit it later. Feel free to comment to debate this question...
Open Question: Why does it seem God hopes for things and acts uncertain about the future of Humanity if He is all knowing?
Matthew 4:12-25
This is a section of text that I imagine was particulary difficult to hear back when it was preached, and it is equally difficult today...
Thinking lustfully about another person is just as bad as committing the act?
If you marry a divorcee you are committing adultery?
Turn the other cheek?
Love your enemies?
This is so backwards from what I imagine the people of the day thought. This does answer the question I had a couple posts ago from the Psalms where I was wondering if David was right in saying that God hates wrong do-ers. Jesus kind of shook up the religious paradigms and made the faith more about caring for people than worrying whether or not you were screwing up...
Again this is further reinforcing the fact that no one can lead a perfect existence. My mom was divorced before I was born and re-married - so she is committing adultery with my dad...ewww - wrong choice of words there...
Psalm 4:1-8
David switches here from asking God to strike down his enemies, to asking Him for help. David asks for mercy and paints some powerful images of sorrow:
"Oh LORD, heal me, for my bones are in agony"
"I am worn out from groaning; all night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears."
I remember a particularly difficult time when this chapter was some solace for me. I am thankful that I have come so far from that point, but I realize that a lot of people are there right now. I hope this can comfort you as it did me in my time of pain.
Proverbs 1:29-33
This is difficult to read in little chunks like this - I keep forgetting who is speaking here...
Basically it's saying that if you choose to avoid God and knowledge, you get what you pay for...I think...
Cool beans. 6 days down, 5 to go.
Open Question: Why does it seem God hopes for things and acts uncertain about the future of Humanity if He is all knowing?
ReplyDeleteIt's not a clear cut answer, but I do believe it is significant that God has hopes, desires, etc. I also think we all know that we can have hopes and desires even if we know the outcome of something. It shows that God clearly wants to be intimately involved in this world and in our lives, and it saddens and grieves him when we are in pain, especially when we are in pain because of sin.