Reading from Saturday, April 10

Hey ho. Today was a mighty Sunday. We got some spring cleaning done and our friends Ray and Amanda joined us for dinner. I'm sure everyone reading this cares immensely about that.

Reading for April 10
Deuteronomy 34:1-Joshua 2:24
Deuteronomy: done. Moses climbs the mountain, God shows him the promised land and then he swiftly dies. It also says that God buried Moses on the mountain, which is a little strange to think about, and then the focus moves over to Joshua in the next book - Joshua.

Joshua sends three men to spy on the city of Jericho which was part of the Promised land. The three men end up in a prostitutes home. Her name is Rahab and she tells them that her people have heard of the Israelites and how their God has protected them. She says that they have heard about the parting of the Red Sea and the many nations that they have destroyed. Rahab then tells the three men that the entire nation of Jericho is "melting with fear" of the Israelites. I mean, you commit a genocide or two and people are gonna be afraid of you...

Luke 13:22-14:6
Jesus here is talking about the salvation of the soul. Someone asks him if only a few people will be saved - Jesus responds in this way:

²⁴"Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. ²⁵Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.'

This is similar to the parable of the wedding banquet, where the women came back to the party late and the groom would not let them in. God's patience with humanity grew an immeasurable amount once Christ took away the sins of the world, but it is not limitless - there will be a time when God's new patience with humanity will once again fade away.

Psalm 79:1-13
 ⁶ Pour out your wrath on the nations
       that do not acknowledge you,
       on the kingdoms
       that do not call on your name;

Right there. That is a large problem with Christianity. If a nation or - no, scratch that - if a person does not acknowledge God, they are to feel the wrath of God. Now wrath is a sticky word here. It could mean exactly what it sounds like - pain and suffering. Or, it could mean, in the light of the New Testament, grace. Relentless, neverending grace that would be poured out on a non-believer until he or she believed.

If you asked me this same question a year ago I would have said that the idea of grace representing God's wrath here is absolutely how we should interpret this Psalm, but so far, I have not seen an ounce of grace from God for people who do not worship him. Well, except for Jesus dying on the cross for all of humanity. I suppose that was fairly gracious of him...

Either way, I think this psalm is about literal wrath, and its things like this that spark our rabid, hyper-patriotism. "God bless America" is fine, but how about "God bless Afghanistan" or "God bless third world countries"? Aren't they in need of a lot more blessings than our selfish society? And don't freak, I'm including myself in that selfish statement, its just the culture - we are groomed to be incredibly selfish individuals, and yet there is a subconscious feeling that we are the only nation that matters to God. How is that fair?

Proverbs 12:26
 ²⁶ A righteous man is cautious in friendship, ^[a]
       but the way of the wicked leads them astray.

Hmm...this one is a bit confusing. Cautious in friendship...that little [a] footnote says the alternate of this text is "A righteous man is a guide to his neighbor" which makes a heck of a lot more sense.

OK - back to work tomorrow. Goodnight, chums.