Reading from Saturday, May 29

Yo.

Reading for May 29
2 Samuel 14:1-15:22
So let's remember what happened last time. Amnon raped his half sister Tamar. Absalom, Tamar's full brother, finds out and kills Amnon. David is furious and banishes Absalom from Israel. OK, so now a woman comes to David saying that one of her sons killed the other, and that everyone is wanting to take revenge him by stoning him to death. The woman pleads with David, stating she is a widow and that it would be catastrophic for her to lose both sons after losing her husband. David feels for this woman and says that her son will be granted "immunity" - essentially - if he returns to Israel and comes out of exile. The woman reveals that she was talking about Absalom the whole time and that David can't go back  on his word. By the way, that's the second time someone tricked David like that. Gullible guy. Anyway, David agrees to let Absalom come back, but orders that he never see him. A

So Abs does come back and avoids seeing David for two years. Eventually he tries to figure out why he is back in Israel and feels that it would be better for him where  he was in exile. He demands to see King David, his father, and says "If he finds me guilty of anything may he put me to death." when David sees Absalom he kisses him. Forgiving him I suppose.

Abs soon gets a taste for power and wishes to become judge of Israel. He David asks permission to go to a land called Hebron to worship God there, all the while planning to become King of that land and then overthrow Israel. David hears of Absalom's plans and orders and evacuation of his palace - thousands of people fled Israel on that day.

And that's pretty much it. Not too much to interpolate here.

John 18:1-24
Jesus is arrested in this scene, but there is a strange omission here - there is no mention of the Garden of Gastheneme. The G of G is one of the most famous scenes in Jesus' life and it's one where we see him as profoundly human - knowing the pain about to be inflicted upon him, knowing the stakes and being totally petrified about the whole thing. Earnestly praying to God if there is any other way, to let it happen. It's so strange that none of those details are in John.

Then again, John stands out as the gospel with the most unique stories and interpretations of events. As I mentioned before, there is no mention of Jesus telling parables, many of the stories have significantly more or significantly less detail - it's a gospel that stands on it's own. I don't know what that says about its validity or if that makes it more or less accurate than the others, but I think it completes the picture of Jesus. You see almost the super-hero side of him, and yet that same side is humble and kind and generous - John paints the most flattering picture of Jesus - maybe the author and Jesus were besties...

Psalm 119:97-112
This whole psalm, where each line of every stanza starts with the same letter of the Hebrew alphabet, is entirely focused on the goodness of God's laws and decrees. Every line, beautifully expressed through artful language is about following God's rules and being ever so joyful about it. It would be like someone in law school writing a 10 page poem about how much he loves real estate investment law. Why would someone go to such trouble to write an elaborately artful poem about laws?

I think it's because God's laws were created out of love for human kind. They are divine and perfect and designed to give us a fuller, richer life. Now I say that in the most optimistic sense. There are some laws in the OT that I thoroughly disagree with, but I think everything God has done for humanity has come from a place of love.

Proverbs 16:8-9
 ⁸ Better a little with righteousness
       than much gain with injustice.
 ⁹ In his heart a man plans his course,
       but the LORD determines his steps.

One of my newest goals through this project is to be able to quote the Bible as readily as the Simpsons. I think I would like to start with Proverbs. To be able  to bust out something like verse 8 in the flow of a conversation would be so sweet. It would  also probably make me look totally pompous. I need to do it from a place of humility and not try to lord that knowledge over people. Hopefully that will come from reading the Bible and letting it humble me.