Reading from Thursday, April 29

Hey ho. I fell asleep last night before I even got a chance to open my laptop. So once again, I'm playing catch up.

Reading for April 29
Judges 9:22-10:18
Again, this is an extremely hard section of text to follow. All of the old names of people and towns just bleed together and make it hard to focus on who's doing what with where and when. And also how.

The majority of this text focuses on a guy named Abilemech. He was the leader of Israel for a little while and then God made it so the citizens of Shechem didn't like him any more and wanted to rebel against him. So they came up with a plan to take him out but the governor of the Shechem was not about to let his people attack Abilemech, so he warned Abilemech about what was going on. This allowed him to launch a counter attack and forced them to flee the city.

Then Abilemech started looking for them and found them in these high towers. He set fire to the towers and killed them all. Before they were all killed though, a woman in the tower dropped a huge stone on Abilemech's head, fracturing his skull. Abilemech asked his servant to run him through with a sword so he wouldn't die at the hands of a woman.

Abilemech had 70 brothers which God murdered after all of this took place because of Abilemech's awfulness.

I'm sure I'm missing a huge amount of detail here, but that's the story of Abilemech as best as I can retell it.

Luke 24:13-53
This is the last chapter of Luke and his account has by far the most details about the resurrected Jesus.

The first story is about two men walking along a road to a town called Emmaus. As they were talking, a third man came and began talking with them. This was Jesus, but they didn't recognize him. They said something that I think is often over looked - in fact I have overlooked it this whole time:

²⁰The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; ²¹but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.

Since the fall of Adam, which we can agree is essentially the beginning of time, Israel has been mud in the eyes of God because of their sin. Generation after generation after generation they had hoped for a savior - someone to redeem them from their fallen nature. Then - "Woah, here's this Jesus guy and he fits a lot of the prophecy about the savior God promised us, could it be him?" All this hope was surrounding Jesus as the man who could finally make the Israelites right in the site of God.

Put yourself in that position for a minute. Imagine growing up with a God who demands absolute perfection all the time. Imagine being so afraid of messing up that you walk on eggshells with everything you do. And when you do mess up - as everyone will - you have to sacrifice animals to atone for your sins - in an extremely ritualistic fashion - and if you mess that up, well now it's double atonement.

Now a glimmer of hope - Jesus. All your hope is pinned on this one man saving you and your people. You may finally be free of the bindings of sin. And then - he dies. He dies the death of a lowlife criminal. The worst type of punishment one could receive - only given to the worst people in the world.

He is dead. Your hopes are gone.

I think those three days of uncertainty - or perhaps complete certainty that we're all doomed - are very often overlooked in the story of Jesus. It's always about his crucifixion on Friday and then his resurrection on Sunday, but we're never told about Saturday. The pain and anguish everyone must have been going through must have been impossible to deal with.

But then he is resurrected and the stories that are told in this last chapter of Luke are simply gorgeous.

Psalm 100:1-5
 ¹ Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.
 ² Worship the LORD with gladness;
       come before him with joyful songs.
 ³ Know that the LORD is God.
       It is he who made us, and we are his ^[a] ;
       we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
 ⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
       and his courts with praise;
       give thanks to him and praise his name.
 ⁵ For the LORD is good and his love endures forever;
       his faithfulness continues through all generations.


Proverbs 14:11-12
 ¹¹ The house of the wicked will be destroyed,
       but the tent of the upright will flourish.
 ¹² There is a way that seems right to a man,
       but in the end it leads to death.

Verse 12 is very interesting. My thoughts, and by extension, everyone's thoughts about the Bible and what is viewed as "wrong" may actually be right. Then again, this would be a pretty big cop-out way of just avoiding the responsibility of genocide...