Reading from Thursday, December 23

Here we are. Today is January 10 - exactly one year since I started this project. Posting has been sporadic lately because I have strep throat and haven't felt like moving, much less sitting up and typing. I'm starting to feel slightly better, but am still pretty much bed ridden.

Can I bang out nine posts and finish this thing in exactly a year? It would be the most I'd ever done in a single day, but it would also be an epic conclusion to the Adventure.

Let's do it.

Reading for December 23
Zechariah 4:1-5:11
This is immensely confusing. There is a golden lampstand, with an olive tree on either side of it. I remember seeing a golden lampstand in Revelation, but not the olive trees. There's an angel there who explains these visions to Zechariah, but I have no idea what he's talking about. This is what the angel says about the golden lampstands...

⁶ So he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the LORD Almighty.
 ⁷ “What are you, mighty mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become level ground. Then he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘God bless it! God bless it!’”
 ⁸ Then the word of the LORD came to me: ⁹ “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you.
 ¹⁰ “Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the LORD that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone^[a] in the hand of Zerubbabel?”

Uh...yup. Got it.

Revelation 14:1-20
This is fairly disturbing. The first paragraph talks about how there will this group of 144,000 (divisible by 12) who had Jesus and God's name written on their foreheads and they were singing a song that only they could learn. The qualities of these 144,000 are that they are:

A) Men
B) Virgins who "did not defile themselves with women"

First of all, I think this is where the Mormon's derive their belief that only 144,000 people will be allowed into heaven. But secondly, what the heck?!

Only men who remained virgins will be allowed into heaven? Well, maybe I'm being too presumptuous. It says that this group "had been redeemed from the earth". So maybe this is like a test group that goes to heaven before everyone else gets to come? But why punish those who aren't virgins? Jesus condones sex within marriage, right? And why no women? That seems a little unfair...

This chapter ends with an even more disturbing image. Jesus and a couple angels begin to "harvest" the earth, but not in a good way. They have "sharp sickles" and the harvest the ripened grapes and "threw them into the great winepress of God’s wrath." The blood that flows out of that winepress is about four feet high in 180 miles in all directions.

If that doesn't strike the fear of God into ya...

Psalm 142:1-7
You know, I'm often critical of Psalm's overtly positive attitude towards God. But after reading that passage from Revelation, this comes as a breath of fresh air.

 ³ When my spirit grows faint within me,
   it is you who watch over my way.
In the path where I walk
   people have hidden a snare for me.
⁴ Look and see, there is no one at my right hand;
   no one is concerned for me.
I have no refuge;
   no one cares for my life.
 ⁵ I cry to you, LORD;
   I say, “You are my refuge,
   my portion in the land of the living.”

Proverbs 30:21-23
 ²¹ “Under three things the earth trembles,
   under four it cannot bear up:
²² a servant who becomes king,
   a godless fool who gets plenty to eat,
²³ a contemptible woman who gets married,
   and a servant who displaces her mistress. 

Uh...yeah. Right on...