February 4, 2016

Exodus 16-18

- The desert of Sin- surely not sin as in the actions we do that are contrary to God's commandments? Was this where the term was coined? Did something truly terrible happen in the desert of Sin?

- Seems like the only sin that happened was a bunch of grumbling and complaining, which God took care of. He provided them food, manna. He was very adamant about the 7th day being the Sabbath, and about how the first 5 days of the week they couldn't keep any manna overnight because then it would rot. But I mean... I'd rather have fresh food every day instead of leftovers from the night before, so I can't say that's too bad a deal, really.

- If Moses told Aaron to put an urn of manna in front of the commandments for, what was it, safekeeping for the descendants, where did the commandments come from?! He hasn't proclaimed the tablets from the side of the mountain yet! Is there something I missed by jumping right into Genesis at the end of January (and skipping Job completely), or is it just accepted that by this point everyone just kind of knows/thinks they know what God does and doesn't want them to do?

- I'm sorry, but the name Jethro will always conjure an image of rednecks. In the Bible, though, he's Moses' father in law, and gave him some advice to basically establish a hierarchy of law since Moses was acting as judge to all the Israelites. Hopefully Moses was right in taking this advice, and that it won't backfire on him.

- Also, interestingly, I noticed that the Bible referred to Zipporah's (Moses' wife's) children as her sons, and not necessarily as their sons. I'm assuming the boys are their sons together, and not just her sons, and not Moses' sons. How many times can I say 'sons' in one sentence?

February 3, 2016

Exodus 13-15
- I'm concerned - what does "consecrate" or "redeem" every first-born mean? 'Consecrate' makes it sound like some sort of ritual baptism or rite of passage since they were born, like when a priest anoints the head of those being baptized. 'Redeem' makes it sound downright sacrificial.

- Also, it also seems like they only cared about the first-born males. What if a couples' first-born child was a girl? Does the girl not count, or do they? Do they only go for the first male, even if the male child has an older sister, or do they not do anything about any of the children if the first child is a girl?

- Okay, so it was super cool of God to give the Israelites a constant visual guide out of Egypt (Cloud by day, Fire by night) but did they have time to sleep? I hope so, or you're going to lose a lot of people on the journey from sheer exhaustion.

- The Ancient High Speed Chase is upon us. Pharaoh is still being an asshole, and thinks he can take the Israelites back just because they're camped out by the Red Sea. He shall see. #puns

- Moses divided the Red Sea, then let the Egyptians drown after the Israelites escape as God commanded. For God to add "no killing" to the 10 Commandments, He seems to have a blasé attitude about He Himself killing the very people He created.

- And then the Israelites sang a long song about the glory of God, and the death of the Egyptians, and their rescue. They then walked for 3 days with no water until God had Moses perform a small miracle of purifying water to drink, and they camped in Elim. 12 springs of water and 70 palm trees seems pretty exact.



Fun Fact: Exodus is Book 2 of 5 books that make up The Pentateuch, otherwise known as the Torah or Law. The 5 books are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy (a name I can never hear without thinking about the musical Cats by Andrew Lloyd Webber). As to the author of The Pentateuch, nobody really knows. Some hold that Moses wrote the five books, which originated as one unbroken scroll and was later divided into 5. Yet others hold that there were 4 different sources, the Yahwist, Elohist, Priestly, and Deuteronomic.

February 2, 2016

Exodus 10-12

- Just when I thought the plagues were done with #7...

Plague 8: Locusts.
- Exodus 10:5 suggests that some time has passed since He sent the hail down, long enough for plants to regrow, which makes me think that enough time had passed between the pestilence and the boils and the hail for more livestock to be bought & born in order for the hail to come along and wreck everything.

Plague 9: Darkness.
- Perhaps not perpetual night but a super, bad ass sandstorm that makes it seem like night.

Plague 10: Death of the First-Born.
- What was the point in taking all the gold, silver, and clothes? Especially when Exodus 11 talks about all the first-borns dying & nothing else about the valuables? I'm also assuming that God wasn't talking about just the children,  and that some families lost mothers, fathers, grandparents, or some mixture of everything. What if some families were entirely wiped out because they were comprised of all first-borns?

- And here's the mention of the silver, gold, and clothes. What a thing to do, to make a nation so poor after killing so many to essentially punish its' ruler for being a huge jerk.

- And just like that, the Israelites are gone, and the requirements for celebrating Passover are explained. They're very adamant about the circumcision.

- Also, I realized that Exodus is 40 chapters long, and I'm not even half way yet. Wow...

February 1, 2016

Exodus 7-9

- Okay, so hold on. What was the point in God making Pharaoh so obstinate (aka bull-headed) and deliberately making it 100x harder to free the Israelites, wen He could have just as easily made Pharaoh an agreeable sort of fellow, and thus saving everyone the time, trouble, and pain? Seriously! I feel like there's an upcoming lesson to be had for someone, but then why not keep the fact that He did it on purpose to Himself?

- Okay, so maybe it was so the Israelites truly believe in Him. Also, 80 seems awfully old for a person to take up such a crusade. I feel bad for Moses at this point.

- Staffs into snakes? No, thank you. I hate snakes.

The Plagues
Plague 1: Blood. Bad for humans, good for vampires.
Plague 2: Frogs.

- Did the plagues happen simultaneously or sequentially?

Plague 3: Gnats. Gross.
- "The Finger" is the staff, not an obscene gesture due to Pharaoh being a jerk.

Plague 4: Flies. Again, gross.

-MOSES. He just hopefully learned "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me." He's 80 years old, for crying out loud. He should know better!

Plague 5: Pestilence (a fatal epidemic)
Plague 6: Boils.
- How are there still beasts that the boils effect if the pestilence wiped them all out?

Plague 7: Hail.
- Is hail naturally possible in Egypt? Particularly, was it possible in ancient Egypt?

- Well, at least Moses tried correctly with Pharaoh the third time around, in saying "let us go, then we'll pray the plague gone." Pharaoh is still a jerk.
- Next up- ancient high speed chase? We'll see.

January 31, 2016

Exodus 4-6

- So Moses makes a valid point, saying people may not believe him about what he was sent to do in Egypt, and did God give him some intense signs to prove the truth or what. And Moses sure tried to fight tooth and nail to get out of it. God was having none of it when He told Moses to use Aaron (his brother). This is like a parent versus a petulant child.

- So wait, God was going to kill Moses (after going through all the trouble of convincing him to go to Egypt) until his wife circumcised their son? What sense does that make?
GOD: you are going to Egypt, young man, whether you like it or not!
MOSES: but-
GOD: GO! And take your brother with you!
MOSES: fine!
GOD: (thinks to himself) nevermind, I'm just gonna kill this guy.
MOSES' WIFE: hey, Moses, I circumcised our son.
GOD: hey, I think I'll let Moses and Aaron go to Egypt as planned after all. Go ahead, boys!
MOSES: Hey, I'm 80 years old, and thanks... we'll get going now.

- Note: Jacob being renamed Israel gives me a whole new outlook on who the Israelites are and why they're called that. I used to think the Israelites and the Hebrews were entirely different people. Not so much.

- Pharaoh isn't just a jerk, he's a Class A Asshole, making the Hebrew's slavery harder.

- And now we apparently need a crash course of Moses' & Aaron's genealogy. And based on what this is saying, Jacob was their grandfather, and Joseph was their uncle. Also, if I'm reading this right, Moses & Aaron's parents were nephew and aunt. Gross.

January 30, 2016

Exodus 1-3

- Update: who came first, Joseph or Moses? Joseph did. Evidently, Joseph brought the Israelites into Egypt, and Moses is gonna take them out.

- Jacob's people have been going at it like rabbits, it seems. New Pharaoh said "oh heck no- salve status for all of you." And just to further prove what a jerk he is, he wants all the baby boys drowned. Poor babies. Poor Moms, too. I couldn't imagine having to do that. And thus starts "The Prince of Egypt."

- The Prince of Egypt lied!!!

- Moses knew he was a Hebrew the whole time, and he was not rescued by Pharaoh's wife, but his daughter. This is not the way I expected this story to go. After Moses leaves the royal house, I'm a little fuzzy about what happens in the story until he goes back to Egypt to face the Pharaoh, as per the movie.

- There was a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob... A fellow I work with says they're basically promises between God & the men, and sort-of favors, represented by a physical reminder/representation (marriage rings are similar in that they're a physical reminder of the vows a husband and wife make to each other). Note to self: look up the Arc of the Covenant- does it relate in any way?

- Moses just spoke to God through the burning bush and man, when God wants a thing done, He makes it happen. He also doesn't hold back when passing out punishment, in impoverishing the Egyptians. Also, Moses doesn't feel confidant or worthy of being chosen to do something so great, and isn't that interesting because how many people feel like that daily, constantly? How many times have I felt like I wasn't suited or capable of some task that I had to take up that others knew and had complete faith in my capabilities to complete whatever they gave me to do? How many times has God called me to do something in my life that I didn't think I could face, but He knew that I could, and I did because He wanted me to?

January 29, 2016

Genesis 48-50

- And Genesis ends with the death of Jacob/Israel, followed shortly by Joseph. What in the world was the purpose f the long list Jacob gave his sons before they died? Was it some kind of instruction on what they were to do & where they were to go in their lives after his death? Also, their mourning & funeral process and timeline seems tediously long. I know it's meant to respect and honor the dead, and that the grieving process can take a while but for it to be as such so publicly seemed so dramatic.