Reading from Wednesday, July 28

It's been a fabulously relaxing weekend. Hopefully I have enough energy to knock out at least two of these posts tonight.

Reading for July 28
2 Chronicles 21:1-23:21
I'm so happy that Chronicles is almost done. Every reading is either really boring or really confusing. The fist part of this reading is actually pretty cool though. We learn about a king that I haven't heard of before: Jehoram - he succeeded Jehoshaphat as king of Judah, but he was a wicked king unlike his father and grandfather Asa. And because he behaved in a way so against God, God told him that he would die by - get ready for this - pooping out his own bowels.

Well this bowel dump doesn't happen right away, first God puts a quarrelsome spirit in the surrounding nations and Jehoram is forced to fight off these armies before he becomes ill, and when he eventually does, he goes out just the way God had promised him:

¹⁸ After all this, the LORD afflicted Jehoram with an incurable disease of the bowels. ¹⁹ In the course of time, at the end of the second year, his bowels came out because of the disease, and he died in great pain.

Ugh - bowel evacuation has made my "top 10 ways not to go" list. 

The second half of this text is really confusing, so I'm just gonna skip over it. Sorry, that's totally lazy, I know.

Romans 11:13-36
OK - whoa whoa whoa:

³²For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

God makes us all behave badly on purpose so he can show us all how great and merciful he is? If that's the case why not make us all immune to the temptation of sin then? I cannot understand this aspect of God, and maybe never will. This is the same part of him that hardened Pharaoh's heart every time he was ready to give in and let is Israelites leave. This is the same part of God that has sent homosexuality into the world to make it more difficult.

I mean I suppose that overcoming adversity and receiving a free gift of grace is more valuable than just living in grace from the start, and I guess that sorta answers my question - but to read that one verse makes it look really messed up.

Psalm 22:1-18
Whoa - total prophecy psalm here:

¹⁴ I am poured out like water,
       and all my bones are out of joint.
       My heart has turned to wax;
       it has melted away within me.
 ¹⁵ My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
       and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
       you lay me  in the dust of death.
 ¹⁶ Dogs have surrounded me;
       a band of evil men has encircled me,
       they have pierced  my hands and my feet.
 ¹⁷ I can count all my bones;
       people stare and gloat over me.
 ¹⁸ They divide my garments among them
       and cast lots for my clothing.

All of that stuff hapened while Jesus was being crucified. Now I don't know if David wrote this with the intent of being prophetic, or if he wrote it concerning himslf or someone else of that time, and Jesus' story just happened to go the same way. 

Proverbs 20:7
 ⁷ The righteous man leads a blameless life;
       blessed are his children after him.

I'm not gonna make it through another post. My eyelids already have those 1 ton weights on them, and when you open my eylid to check if I'm sleeping, my eyes are little Xs. Goodnight.