Wednesday, January 27

Good evening. Work was a little better today, plus I took off tomorrow, so I am excited to relax and take my mind off work for a little while. It has really been nonstop for a few weeks now. But tomorrow I'll sleep in a little, play some video games, and then my lovely lady is taking me to Friendly's. Oh yeah!


Reading for January 27
Exodus 4:1-5:21
Wow, some serious stuff is goin on here. The scene with the burning bush continues, and God shows Moses that Moses himself is able to perform miracles with God's help. He tells him exactly what to say to Pharaoh and exactly what to do when he gets there. Moses continues to come up with excuses as to why he should not have been picked to do this, and eventually it says that God gets angry and basically says, "Fine, you're brother Aaron will do it then."

Just taking it back a little bit for a minute. There was something in this section that bothered me. God says,

“When you arrive back in Egypt, go to Pharaoh and perform all the miracles I have empowered you to do. But I will harden his heart so he will refuse to let the people go. ²² Then you will tell him, ‘This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son. ²³ I commanded you, “Let my son go, so he can worship me.” But since you have refused, I will now kill your firstborn son!’"

This I don't understand. It seems like God has perfect control over the emotions of the Pharaoh at this point by saying that he will "harden his heart" - isn't that interfering with  his free will? Also, I am not one to question the motives of God, but I have a question about his motives here...Why would he want to influence someone into a decision that would lead to the death of a child? Why couldn't he soften Pharaoh's heart to make the whole process easier? No pain. No child bloodshed. God says "since you have refused, I will now kill your firstborn son!" But Pharaoh didn't refuse, HE MADE THEM REFUSE! That would be like me saying "God, if you want me to go out and steal a car, please give me no sign...Since you gave me no sign, I will now go steal a car."

That is frustrating to read.

The rest of the reading shows Moses and Aaron speaking to Pharaoh and telling him everything God instructed them to tell them. Pharaoh replies by doubling the work the Israelites must do in a day and is ruthless about it. Now the Israelites start to turn on Moses and Aaron because they feel like its their fault for even bringing up this whole "let my people go" thing.

Oh, also. At one point, God does come down in human form, and tries to freaking kill Moses! He backed off when Moses' wife saw was about to happen and immediately circumcised their son. This leads me to two questions:

1) Uh...why?
2) If he wanted to kill him, why did he have to do it as a human? He can cause a plague and kill every boy in Egypt, but has to turn into a human to threaten the life of Moses?

Matthew 18:1-20
All over the place.

Jesus goes back and forth in this section between statements that are very narrow and scary, to very hopeful promises from God. These are perfect verses that people would take out of context - on both sides of the faith. At one point he says "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It's better enter Heaven with only one hand than to be thrown into eternal fire with both hands." But didn't he come and die and come back so we wouldn't have to do that? That being said, I've never met a Christian who cut off their own hand because it was causing them to sin. I believe if someone did that today, they would be sent straight to a mental hospital.

But then later, Jesus says, ¹⁹ “I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you." So if me and my buddy agree that we want chicken sandwiches right now, God will do it for us? Also, I'm sure that a few more than two people would like the situation in Haiti to improve...

Psalm 22:19-31
This one is all praise. Nice to see. Something kind of cool in here - he says, "Honor him, all you descendants of Jacob! Show him reverence, all you descendants of Israel!" Now I  know that the Christian faith has extended beyond the direct descendants of Jacob and Israel, but its kind of cool to be included in the "theoretical family tree". Although, who knows - I could be directly related to them...that would be really cool...

Proverbs 5:15-21
Scanalous...

Solomon - you're gettin a little graphic here, buddy.

¹⁸ Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you.
      Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
 ¹⁹ She is a loving deer, a graceful doe.
      Let her breasts satisfy you always.
      May you always be captivated by her love.
 ²⁰ Why be captivated, my son, by an immoral woman,
      or fondle the breasts of a promiscuous woman?

I know its all giggly now (tee hee - 'breasts'...ok, sorry), but I imagine that this text cuts real deep for someone who actually is cheating on their wife. Again, simple advice - don't cheat on your wife. It seems like that's a hard one for a lot of people though. I am gonna quote verse 19 to Jill tomorrow morning though. Her reaction should be comedic.

Hey its 12:15! I'm now a 27 year old man! I guess its about time I stop giggling at the word 'breast'.

Tee hee.

OK that was the last time.