Tuesday, May 4

Yes yes. Thanks to everyone who left the encouragement in the comments and on Facebook. I don't know why I'm feeling so 'blah' about this whole thing. It could be the fact that doing this blog is the last thing I do every day, so sometimes when I'm really tired, I just don't feel like opening the laptop. It's become somewhat of a burden I suppose, in that respect. I think it would be ridiculous to give up now - five months into the process. I guess I was just frustrated with the whole staying up late thing. Thanks for sticking with me during my whiny-ness.

Reading for May 4
Judges 19:1-20:48
Holy crap - this is a messed up story. So there are two nameless people - a guy and a girl. They were married, she was unfaithful, she left and he went to bring her back. On their way back they stayed in an old man's house in the town of Ephraim. That night some dudes from the town came to the door. Check out what they say:

"Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him."

Isn't that the exact same thing that happened in Sodom? When the angels of God came down and stayed in Sodom, the soldiers came to the door and said those exact words, I think. Was this a common problem or was this language re-used to make a point.

I have heard that the idea of "hospitality" was very important to the Israelites, and while that's never spelled out, this story has a lot of specific details about people being overly-hospitable. And butt rape is considered pretty in-hospitable, I suppose.

Anyway - the story goes on from there. The owner of the house does not allow the men to take his male guest out to rape him, but instead hands over the man's wife. It says that she is raped and abused for the entire night and then makes her way back to the house and dies on the doorstep. Then the man takes her back home and...are you ready for this?...CUTS HER INTO TWELVE PIECES AND SENDS THEM TO EACH TRIBE OF ISRAEL!

OK - after reading the next chapter in the story, this was done to rile up the men of Israel against the men who did this to her. The men who did this were from the tribe of Benjamin. I'll get to that in a minute...

Something compelling (NOT interesting) about this whole section is the complete lack of God's presence. I don't think there has been this much continuous text thus far in the Bible without God being even mentioned. Maybe that's why things are so damn dark here...

So the Israelites mount an attack against the Benjaminites but they lose - bad. So finally, they turn to God and pray for success, asking if they should go up against the Benjaminites after all. God only replies: "Go up against them."

So they go for a second day of fighting and lose badly again. Now they pray again and God says, "Go, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands." Then they start winning, but it's just a big disaster all around. A lot of soldier die, the Israelites then invade the city of Gileah (where the Benjaminites were living) and kill everything. Then they go on a rampage and just burn down every city in their path.

This reminds me of the scene in Idiocracy where the cops just shoot the crap out of that car until it blows up for no apparent reason other than it's awesome.

John 3:22-4:3
A lot of detail here about John the baptist. I think a lot of people believed that he was the savior they had been waiting for, so when they heard about this Jesus guy, they were all like "Hey John - some other schmo is trying to edge in on your racket. What gives?"

John displays great humility here and states that he must bow out of the way as he was only meant to prepare the way for Jesus. He could have easily accepted all the glory and attention he was receiving and had a big epic battle with Jesus to be the one to save Israel - or the world - but he didn't. He fulfilled his purpose for his cousin, Jesus. This is very pleasurable. Not interesting.

Psalm 104:24-35
²⁴ How many are your works, O LORD!
       In wisdom you made them all;
       the earth is full of your creatures.

 ²⁷ These all look to you
       to give them their food at the proper time.
 ²⁸ When you give it to them,
       they gather it up;
       when you open your hand,
       they are satisfied with good things.

This makes you think about what it would be like if we didn't live in a capitalist society. We could certainly survive without jobs and money and cars and luxury and McDonald's. Jesus says something along these lines as well. He says something like,

"Look at the birds, see how they are fed by God. How much more important are you than birds."

Even if you don't believe in God, this still holds up. People in tribal communities can live off the land without the need for currency or anything else. It can be done - would I want to do it? Would I want to give my my luxuries and video games and my bulldog and chicken sandwiches? No, I'm a carnal jerk who needs this kind of stuff because I was brought up in a society where these things were available and plentiful. Ideally, I think life would be much more rewarding living in a real 'socialist' society. Not the "Oh - Obama's a socialist and the devil" kind of way - but the "Hey, what's mine is yours, neighbor." kind of way. Many of the communities written about in the Bible live this way, and it sounds like real life.

I am able to get a small glimpse of this on retreats with my church, where everyone just lives together for a weekend and shares everything and we all take time to listen to each other and love one another. No TV. No video games. No chicken sandwiches. And it's glorious.


Proverbs 14:22-24
 ²² Do not those who plot evil go astray?
       But those who plan what is good find ^[a] love and faithfulness.
 ²³ All hard work brings a profit,
       but mere talk leads only to poverty.
 ²⁴ The wealth of the wise is their crown,
       but the folly of fools yields folly.

Verse 23 there kind of goes against this "socialist" idea I brought up, but you could interpret it differently. Profit could be any number of things other than monetary. Profit of strong relationships, profit of friendship, profit of community, etc.

I think the point is 'hard work pays off, just talking about hard work doesn't do anything, stupid!'

Alright - I'm excited about this again. Thanks for reading, friends.