Reading from Sunday, April 18

So as I mentioned, I'm watching hockey again after a long hiatus. It's a weird kind of thing that goes on when you're invested in a team. If I wasn't watching these games I would have no dissapointment when the Devils lost, but on the other hand, I wouldn't have any excitement when they won. Unfortunately they've been losing a lot lately and it's been giving me this horrible anger and stress during the games that I wouldn't have had if I wasn't following it. Anyway - it's Bible time.

Reading for April 18
Joshua 16:1-18:28
So this continues the chronicling of the allotment of land to the Israelites. It is extremely boring. There is one little bit in here though that caught my attention. The Manassites were given a number of areas to occupy, but here's what happened:

¹² Yet the Manassites were not able to occupy these towns, for the Canaanites were determined to live in that region. ¹³ However, when the Israelites grew stronger, they subjected the Canaanites to forced labor but did not drive them out completely.

Instituting the ol' slave labor when the Israelites themselves were slaves - in fact many of the people there were alive when they were in Egypt as slaves - so they know what its like. It doesn't say how they treated the the Canaanites while they were enslaved, but it was probably not great - see that word "forced" up there? That means "against one's will".

Well, then again - this is when "an eye for an eye" was the MO of most actions.

Luke 19:1-27
There is a large emphasis on the tax collectors in Luke. Here in this text we see the story of Zacchaeus. A short little tax man who was interested in what Jesus was doing. He followed Jesus' teachings and gave away half of what he owned, and promised to pay back 4X any money he was dishonest with. Jesus says that he is redeemed and good to go!

The big deal about this, again, is that the tax collectors were among the most hated people of that time - universally despised among all people and religions. So when Jesus started hanging out with these people, others - especially the Pharisees - were offended that Jesus would even acknowledge them, much less hang out with them. It's almost like in high school - the risk of social suicide of sitting with the fat, foreign kid at lunch.

Psalm 87:1-7

Asaph references Zion here a bunch of times, which I always thought was another word for heaven, or the second coming of Christ. Turns out it's just another word for Jerusalem and Israel in general.

Proverbs 13:11
 ¹¹ Dishonest money dwindles away,
       but he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.


Have that. Good night.