Monday, March 8

Work has been pretty light the past week, but there is a looming cloud of destruction...kinda like the looming cloud God resided in I suppose. My looming cloud has to do with way too many projects knocking at the door, and as soon as I open the door, all these projects are going to rush in and be eating all my chips and staying up late partying. Well, I guess I should count my blessings for an easy week last week.

Reading for March 8
Numbers 10:1-11:23
This is very cool. Chapter 10 is pretty boring and uneventful, so I'm just gonna skip that. Chapter 11, however is when the action finally starts...or starts festering under the surface anyway...



The Israelites are now two years removed from Egypt, and the complaining starts again. They begin complaining about how they never have meat to eat, and have been eating bland, plain old manna for the past two years. They once again wish they were never rescued from slavery because at least they had meat in Egypt.

Moses gets tired of all the complaining, so what does he do? He complains to God about his complainers. Moses tells God that the people are constantly crying to him about not having meat and its getting too much for Moses to bear. God is kind to Moses and agrees to lighten the load by splitting up the responsibilities between several other preistly dudes. I was actually shocked to see God react so kindly. Earlier in the chapter he literally burned the people - killing some - for wishing they were back in Egypt. But with Moses he says, sure no problem.

But then the sarcastic God steps in. Maybe his response to Moses was sarcastic too...but God tells Moses that he can tell his people to get ready because they will now have meat to eat. He says that they won't have it for one day or two days, but will have meat for an entire month...

²⁰ You will eat it for a whole month until you gag and are sick of it. For you have rejected the Lord, who is here among you, and you have whined to him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”

Basically, "Here's your effing meat. I hope you choke on it." I gotta admit, as much as I dislike this vengeful God, this is really funny.

Then the last line in this chapter is the big zinger. Moses says to God, "Meat for a month is great, but where the heck are we gonna get meat for 600,000 people? Even if everyone kills all their livestock it might not be enough..." God replies:

“Has my arm lost its power? Now you will see whether or not my word comes true!”

Oh...SNAP! Moses just got served.  I'm excited to see how this turns out...

Mark 14:1-21
This passage has nothing new that wasn't in Matthew. This section tells the story of the woman who pours expensive perfume on Jesus' feet, and then the story of the Last Supper. One interesting thing I've never thought about before: what does Judas do to betray Jesus? Mark especially talks about how often the religious leaders were looking for a reason to arrest Jesus. They tried to trick him into saying the wrong thing most of the time, or tried to catch him in the act of a minor crime, but were never able to do it. This section of text says that Judas goes to the religious leaders, telling them that he has come to betray Jesus. But all I know is that he kisses Jesus in the Garden of Gasteneme to indicate "this is the guy." Two things - 1) Don't they already know who Jesus is and what he looks like? 2) What crime is Jesus being charged with? Or what did Judas tell them that implicated him?

Maybe Mark's got the deets in a later chapter.

Psalm 51:1-19
David is back, baby.
I'm not sure if the Psalms are chronologically presented in the Bible, my guess is probably not. But let's pretend that they are for a minute...The last several psalms have been by different authors, but this one, David returns and returns with one of the best psalms so far. Check out these gems:

⁵ For I was born a sinner—
      yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.
 ⁶ But you desire honesty from the womb,^[b]
      teaching me wisdom even there.

This line really encapsulates the need for God in the Christian faith - that we are sinners the moment we are conceived. I wonder what sins a fetus can commit...lying probably. Those little liars.

¹⁶ You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.
      You do not want a burnt offering.
 ¹⁷ The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit.
      You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.

So even in Psalms, the old way seems to be dying away, and the new way seems to be hinted at. The transitional period between the end of the Old Testament and beginning of the New Testament shows that people, or at least David, beginning to interpret the old scripture to apply to his time. The comparison of a sacrificial animal to sacrificing ourselves and offering our broken spirit to God is - I think - exactly what Jesus calls us to do as well. Nice one, David.


Proverbs 10:31-32
 ³¹ The mouth of the godly person gives wise advice,
      but the tongue that deceives will be cut off.
 ³² The lips of the godly speak helpful words,
      but the mouth of the wicked speaks perverse words.

Geez. Usually its something like "The Godly person does something great, the wicked person does something bad." This time its "Listen to the godly person, the wicked person will be dismembered." Kinda dark...

OK, chums. Sleep tight.