Monday, February 22

Interesting day today. Tired now. Bible read. Go.

Reading for February 22
Leviticus 13:1-59
Regulations about skin disease
This is so weird...God is giving instructions on how to deal with skin diseases. Anyone who had any visible skin disease was to be brought to Aaron or his sons who were the only recognized priests of their tribe. The priest was to decide whether or not this person should be deemed clean or unclean based on the specific set of facts that God lays out in this section of text. The 'penalty' for being unclean is a seven-day isolation, and then the person is re-examined. But they also must do this:

 ⁴⁵ "The person with such an infectious disease must wear torn clothes, let his hair be unkempt, cover the lower part of his face and cry out, 'Unclean! Unclean!' ⁴⁶ As long as he has the infection he remains unclean. He must live alone; he must live outside the camp.

Like, I understand the reasoning behind this - everyone is living in tight quarters and God doesn't want infections spreading around like crazy, but still - it sucks that you have to be so humiliated because of it. Imagine if every time you pooped your pants you had to walk around announcing it. What, you guys don't poop your pants every once in a while? Oh...m-me either...

Just thought of something though: Jesus deals with lepers and other 'unclean' people by touching them. Physically touching them and healing them. Showing...what, I'm not sure. Maybe just further proof that the ways of old are no longer valid. In last night's reading it said that the people had to remain 'clean' and eat what was Kosher so they could be holy like God. So I imagine remaining 'clean' from a skin perspective is also to serve the same end. Again, my theory being that it made the human race a little more tolerable for God to be around, so these skin diseases are another casualty of original sin and possibly a constant reminder to God of man's fall from perfection.

Then when Jesus actually comes over  and touches the lepers, it is a physical, tangible sign that Emmanuel - God with us - can and does interact with the people who were considered outcasts before...and not just interacts with, outright loves. Awesome.

Mark 6:1-29
No new info...
This text talks about Jesus giving the authority to his disciples. The second half is the story of how John the Baptist was killed, ordered to happen by King Herod's mistress-turned-wife. Ineteresting thing though is that Herod was the king who was trying to kill Jesus when he heard of his birth, but now he gets the next best thing - John the Baptist. Although he didn't want it to happen, he had to oblige the request for J the B's head on a platter because it was made in front of a huge party of people. Anyway, kinda cool.

Psalm 39:1-13
So insignificant, yet so special to God

 ⁴ "Show me, O LORD, my life's end
       and the number of my days;
       let me know how fleeting is my life.
 ⁵ You have made my days a mere handbreadth;
       the span of my years is as nothing before you.
       Each man's life is but a breath.

I find this verse interesting because if we are indeed just a breath, we are still considered God's children and he goes out of his way to love us. Like, as a comparison, flies live only like 5 days or something like that. Imagine if you were a fly-keeper, with hundreds of thousands of flies in your possession - but you have a name for each one. You care so deeply about each individual fly that you take time to examine each one to make sure its 5 days on earth will be good ones. Not only that, but you sacrifice your son so their lives would be easier. Like if I were God, I would say, what's the point? Thank goodness He loves us.

Proverbs 10:10 
 ¹⁰ He who winks maliciously causes grief,
       and a chattering fool comes to ruin.

If there's one thing this would could do without it's those darn malicious winkers. Always causing grief...OK goodnight.