Saturday, February 20

A good Saturday evening to you. I had a bit of an impromptu makeover today. New glasses, jeans and haircut - I feel like a splendid new man! Plus my glasses are totally emo and made me want to start writing songs again. Weird how certain things can trigger action. Anywhoosen, Bible time.

Reading for February 20
Leviticus 9:7-10:20
OK - bold statement time. I can't believe that this is the God the Jews worship. I don't mean that in a derogatory sense at all, either. I mean it out of the utmost respect. This section of text shows Aaron giving the sin offering in the temple along with several other offerings. Quick side note - did you know there was such a thing as a "wave offering"? When someone takes a piece of the slaughtered animal and just waves it around in the air. I gotta admit, I literally laughed out loud when I saw the phrase "wave offering". Anyway, back to Aaron's offerings. So he is doing everything right, just as the LORD had commanded Moses, but then two of his sons screw up by burning the wrong kind of incense in their incense burners, and God strikes them down. Dead. Sorry, Aaron - your two sons are now dead because they put the wrong incense in their incense burners. For Jews, I can't see how following this "version" of God is desirable. There is no margin for error it seems, and you must live in constant fear of somehow messing up...So  like I said, much respect for being able to stick with this, I would have given up long ago if this is what I was up against.

Mark 4:26-5:20
Some extra detail


So, for me, this is the kind of stuff that makes having four gospels interesting. The stories here are repeats of those told in Matthew, but the details are either new or different in Mark. There are two examples.

1) When Jesus and the disciples are in the boat and Jesus calms the storm. In Mark he says "Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?" He says this after he calms the storm, a more passive way of rebuking the disciples for their lack of faith. In Matthew he calls them "ye of little faith" before calming the storm, a more aggressive was of calling them out.

2) When Jesus heals the demon possessed man and sends the demons into a herd of pigs. Matthew doesn't mention how many pigs there were, I always assumed it was about 10 or so pigs, but Mark tells us that it was actually 2000 pigs.

The pig story is interesting too, because after the pigs drowned themselves due to the evil spirits, the people of the region made Jesus leave. However, before he left, he commissioned the guy who was demon possessed to share his good news with the people from his region and tell them "all the LORD has done for [him]".

I like this because it shows that Jesus may not be welcome in some places, but the people's who's lives he's affected can be his hands and feet and share the love of Christ through what he has done for us..

Psalm 37:30-40
So last night I was saying how the psalm was very contradictory to what I've been trying to study about the problem of evil and things like the fact that you don't need to be a Christian to succeed in this world, and honestly what being a Christian won't make you immune to problems. This passage somewhat answers my question.

 ³⁵ I have seen wicked and ruthless people
      flourishing like a tree in its native soil.
 ³⁶ But when I looked again, they were gone!
      Though I searched for them, I could not find them!

So, according to this passage,while its true that wicked and ruthless people flourish for a long time, it is not permanent. And that the frailty of the way in which they've built their "corporate ladder" could crumble at any minute.

Proverbs 10:6-7
Again, here is a "Christianity is all about good things happening to you" verse:

 ⁶ The godly are showered with blessings;
      the words of the wicked conceal violent intentions.

Now, normally one would look up what is meant by "blessings" here, but I'm too tired. Goodnight.