Reading from Monday, May 31

Yup. So I should hopefully have some great news to share with everyone tomorrow. Look forward to that, yo.

I drove into the city today for work and had what I'll call a "cusp of an epiphany". I think I am on the edge of understanding why we're all here. Reading the Bible and seeing the redemption that takes place between people and God and seeing Jesus command us all to love each other, I am getting this sense that we're all here just to make everyone's lives better. Like, my purpose on earth is to have an impact on as many people's lives as possible.

The thing that makes loving people so hard is...well...people. People are jerks. But the people who are jerks are often the ones who have gone through the hardest trials. "Each heart knows it's own bitterness and no one else can share its joy." Seeing people - or at least - trying to see people the way Jesus saw them is an incredibly joyful thing. I had a meeting today with a bunch of people and one of them came across as extremely arrogant and mean. As the meeting went on, I just watched him for a few minutes - I thought I could see a lot of pain in his persona. I felt like he was hiding an immense amount of grief about something. Now I'm not going down the Ms. Cleo road, but my point is - people are buttholes, and a lot of times they have a really good reason that they are buttholes. Our job is to love them. That's the way I see it. I think there's more to it, and I'll keep thinking about it, but that's what I got so far...

Reading for May 31
2 Samuel 17:1-29
OK, once again, there are a lot of people with strange Jewish names and even stranger town names. Basically what happens here is Absalom is trying to get rid of David for good. One of his advisors suggests sneaking into David's camp at night and taking him out. Abs' other  adviser says that David will be well protected so he suggested winning favor over all of Israel and then declaring war on David's people.

Now some messengers go to David and convince him to cross over the Jordan - I'm assuming they crossed the river to leave Israel. Very interesting correlation here - when Israel was finally redeemed, and saved from slavery, they crossed the Jordan river to receive the Promised Land. Now they are being forced out by one of their own, crossing the Jordan back into the desert.

John 19:23-42
There's a lot of focus in John on Jesus fulfilling the prophecy about himself. Now, this is a bit of a mind bender. Some of the stuff is obviously out of Jesus' control like virgin birth, the place of his birth and so on. But most of the stuff he did in his adult life, he could have read and just decided to do it. The triumphal entry, the places he visited and so on. This idea is further enhanced by this section:

²⁸Later, knowing that all was now completed, and so that the Scripture would be fulfilled, Jesus said, "I am thirsty." ²⁹A jar of wine vinegar was there, so they soaked a sponge in it, put the sponge on a stalk of the hyssop plant, and lifted it to Jesus' lips. ³⁰When he had received the drink, Jesus said, "It is finished." With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.

So it doesn't actually sound like Jesus is thirsty here, but rather he is just saying those words because it was foretold that he would. Once he recieved the vinegar, he says "It is finished" and dies. Now, was it necessary that all of the prophecies came to fruition for him to complete his task? Or did he just want to do as many of the prophecies as possible to prove his divinity? I was just about to say "there's nothing supernatural going on here", but I forgot about the whole mircale and raising from the dead thing. I suppose that's pretty supernatural.

What are your thoughts? Was he proving his divinity or was there some requirement that he fulfill all the prophecies before dying on earth?

Psalm 119:129-152
 ¹⁵² Long ago I learned from your statutes
       that you established them to last forever.

Hmm...does that mean that all the laws of the OT are how we should still be living out lives?

Proverbs 16:12-13
 ¹² Kings detest wrongdoing,
       for a throne is established through righteousness.
 ¹³ Kings take pleasure in honest lips;
       they value a man who speaks the truth.

So tired. Good news tomorrow. Nite.