Exodus 19 (God Dwells Among Men As God)

Before we move on to the 10 Commandments, I thought I’d linger a little on the story of God meeting Moses and his people on Mt. Sinai.

We see other instances where God comes to Earth in human form (Jesus, wrestling with Jacob), we know that the Holy Spirit shows up elsewhere, but God wanted (for a time) to dwell among his people in Godly form.  At first he didn’t have a place that would hold his holiness without destroying everything around him – so he sits on a mountain and calls his people up there (carefully).  Later he gives really, really detailed instructions on how to create the tabernacle.  Still later he gives more detailed instructions on how to build the temple.

I guess this is why it is such an incredible thing that the curtain in the Holy of Hollies was torn upon Christ’s death.  God is setting up the Law and establishing how holy He is and what we would have to do to deserve to be in his presence (a lot).  Once Christ comes, he bridges the gap and gives us free access to God.  The the Holy Spirit takes up residence in hour hearts rather than any particular tabernacle or temple.

God could have cut to the chase and done that from the start, but it seems that he’s telling a story and making a point.  Just like he could have taken the people out of Egypt at the blink of an eye, but he wanted to teach us a lesson.  That lesson seems to be – I’m the all powerful, all loving God.

Exodus 15 – 19 (Manna From Heaven)

I’ve always thought that manna was a wonderful illustration of how we’re to approach our daily walk with God.  All we need for spiritual sustenance is there every day, waiting for us to go out and pick it up.  It requires our action, but at the same time it is freely given and it is more than enough to fill us up.  It is sweet to the taste and can be prepared in many different ways (worship, prayer, meditation, study, community, etc.).  You cannot, however, take more than your fill one day and expect to sit around lazy for the rest of the week.  The Lord requires us to seek him out daily.  Just a wonderful analogy.

Other notes from these passages.

• I always skimmed or forgot this part, but the Lord also provided the Israelites meat in the form of quails.  Sounds like my diet when I was a bachelor – chicken or pasta every night.
• How quickly we forget and start to grumble.  The people have seen so many miracles, yet they start to grumble because they are thirsty.  Of course, that’s easy for me to say, I’m not in the desert with no water.  Still, I’m sure the Lord was hoping for a little more faith than that.
• Who’s Amalek and why is he fighting Moses (seemingly out of nowhere)?  I think I’ve read the background on this somewhere, but it escapes me at the moment.
• Wonderful story about the father in law instructing Moses on delegation.  As the founder and head blogger of a very successful sports blog, I learned the need to delegate long ago and count myself blessed to have several moderators and authors working on the staff to spread out the workload.
• One of the things that you’ll miss if you just watch the movie the Ten Commandments is the pivotal role that Mt. Sinai plays.  It is more than Moses going up there and getting some tablets.  It is the place where Lord dwells among men in his God form instead of his human (Jesus) or Spirit form.  Amazing.

Exodus 1-14 (Deliverance from Egypt)

Image via Wikipedia

Everything I need to know about Exodus I learned in the movie The Ten Commandments.  No, not really, but sometimes it feels that way.  I’m actually pretty impressed with how true to the story Hollywood stayed (despite Charlton Heston playing a Jewish man and a manufactured love story).

I guess that’s a testament to how amazing a tale it really is.  In fact, you could accurately argue that God set everything up that way to purposely display his power.  Why else would he continually harden Pharaoh’s heart?  He could have convinced Pharaoh with one big miracle or just softened his heart and the people would have been free to go.

But he wanted to convince the world (not to mention his own people) of his might and did so in dramatic fashion so that we would remember the story forever (and make movies about it thousands of years later).  Just amazing.

Some other doughnut hole sized thoughts.

• Joseph’s prosperity took him from slavery to jail to the head of Egypt.  As a result, his people prospered to.  So much so that they became a threat to the new king.  Don’t tell me one Godly man can’t make a difference.  Note that I write this on MLK day.
• Moses has some real confidence issues at first.  God is telling him to go, but he gives excuse after excuse as to why he can’t or shouldn’t be the one to carry out God’s plan.  Sounds like all of us at some point in our lives.
• It seems like God knows that Moses needs something he can physically touch to give him the courage to go forward.  So he makes the staff an almost magical instrument.  To wit, Moses will literally lean on the staff for support and encouragement.
• It is somewhat amusing to hear that the Lord’s “anger burned against Moses” when he finally relented and sent Aaron with him.  You can almost hear him say “alright, fine!.”  I can’t imagine how much God has been frustrated with me over the years, but I am thankful for all the Aarons that he’s sent me when I should have been obeying without assistance.
• Interesting that Moses keeps asking for his people to go “celebrate in the wilderness” and “sacrifice to the Lord.”  It almost sounds like he’s asking for a short vacation or sabbatical or something.  Yet everyone seems to understand that if they go, they are gone for good.  Maybe I’m just reading the text wrong.  Still, it is cool that the emphasis isn’t on the people’s freedom so much as it is on celebrating God properly.
• Interesting that the magicians can duplicate or imitate many of the miracles/plagues, but at some point they put their hands up and admit that this guy and his God are legit.
• There’s got to be a good study on what the plagues meant and how devastating they must have been to the Egyptians but I don’t have the time/energy to look that up.  Still, it sure seems like you couldn’t take down a nation any more thoroughly in such a short amount of time without outright bloodshed.
• Amazing how much detail goes into setting up the Passover feast even before the Passover actually happened.  God knew how important it would be, so he set up a celebration and reminder of it and then carried it out.
• God puts a pillar of fire/smoke in front and behind the Israelite people but they still despair when they see the Egyptian chariots.  Part of that must be from the years of slavery but part of it is our own human doubts and lack of faith.
• Only when the Egyptians were washed up dead on the shore did the people fear the Lord and believe in Moses.

Genesis 40 – 50 (Joseph)

Finishing up Genesis before jumping into Exodus.

• Love the way Joseph gives all the credit to God for interpreting the dreams.  Seems like he’s learned to have humility.
• If God wants to help me interpret some dreams about the stock market, I’d be happy to give some tips to the President on getting the country out of debt.
• Interesting from a business standpoint that Joseph didn’t just open up the storehouses to feed the people.  First he sold it to them, which made Egypt rich.  Then when the people couldn’t afford it anymore, they took all the land as payment, thus increasing Egypt’s land wealth.  Pretty shrewd.
• On the other hand, he also essentially makes all the people slaves to Pharaoh.  I realize that this was a different time and perhaps slavery was looked upon differently, but we find out soon that the Egyptians don’t exactly go easy on their slaves.
• God’s people are sparred temporarily, but once the new regime comes into power, all bets are off and God’s people (as He promised) have to endure enslavement.
• Re-reading the account with his brothers strikes me with how long he played out the ruse.  Also with the length of time that the brothers stayed with their father after leaving one of the brothers behind.  Yes, he forgave them, but it wasn’t a quick “all’s forgiven” type of thing.  He wanted to test their hearts and make them sweat a little before he was going to give them a free pass.
• With that said, it is remarkable the way that he pours out the blessings on them after they sold him into slavery.  I wonder how much that served to pour burning coals on their heads.  Maybe that was the ultimate revenge (killing them with kindness).  Clearly they were still worried enough to fear for their lives when their father passed away.

The Curses of Genesis

Iron sharpens iron and one of the joys I’ve enjoyed the last few weeks has been sharing this Bible reading with some great brothers in Christ.  We’ve been discussing the passages and holding each other accountable over email.  One of my friends, Steve, is doing a similar blog discussing his thoughts on our readings here.

Yet another friend, Andy, who came up with the idea for all this, shared some very interesting analysis of the curses of Genesis.  With his permission I’m going to just quote him here.

I tried to map out some of the curses and how they’ve evolved in Genesis, along with some conjecture:

9:20-24 – Noah is offended by his son Ham, and as a result curses Ham’s son, Canaan. Canaan & his offspring would be cursed as a slave to his brothers. His offspring would become the people who reside in the land of Canaan and are long at odds with the nation Israel. The fact that it seems like the cursed nation is a people group and not the land itself (since it later becomes the Promised Land) circles back to what Steve has been noting.

16 – Out of lack of faith & disobedience, Sarai gives Hagar to Abram and Hagar gives birth to Ishmael. Hagar mistreats Sarai, so Abram gives Sarai permission to abuse Hagar. Out of all this faithlessness and strife, Hagar flees. God gives her the blessing that her son Ishmael would have many offspring, but curses him, saying that he would always live in hostility toward others. Later, Abraham begs that God would bless Ishmael, and God promises that Ishmael would become a great nation, but never revokes the curse. As a result- both Isaac (born of Sarah) & Ishmael will bear forth great nations, but Ishmael’s will forever be cursed. He goes to reside in Beersheba, in the land of Canaan (see above). If we peek ahead to Galatians 4, it notes that Hagar & Ishmael represent a nation in slavery, which is similar to the curse on Canaan back in Genesis 9.

25:21-23 – Two nations are in Rebekah’s womb (Jacob & Esau), and the peoples will be separated. The older will serve the younger.

27:39 – Isaac curses Esau after being deceived by Jacob.

28:6-9 – Jacob is told to not take a wife from Canaan. Esau has already married Hittite women, and it has caused strife in the family. Esau is still angry at Jacob and despises his father Isaac, so he goes to Canaan and marries Mahalath, who is the daughter of Ishmael, the cursed son of Abraham.

So in a way, the nation that would always be opposed to Israel has been formed- 1) the promise of a hostile nation borne out of Ishmael, & 2) a profane & subservient nation that would come from Esau, coming out of the people of Canaan. When Esau marries back into the line of Ishmael (Mahalath), the link is complete. In a great sense, Esau becoming son to Ishmael links together the curses on Canaan, Ishmael, and Esau.

If we jump even further ahead (spoiler!) this line subsequently becomes the nation of Edom, which is forever at war with Israel/Judah and is cursed b/c of it. Edom joins with Babylon (later to be overcome by Babylon) to conquer first the 10 tribes of Israel and later the two tribes of Judah, destroying Jerusalem & the temple in the process. The land where Babylon resided (though later conquered by Persia) becomes modern-day Iraq.

Just great stuff.  Thanks Steve and Andy.  You are a big encouragement for me.  Cheers.

Genesis 37 – 39 (Joseph)

After reading through the rest of Genesis and being somewhat unimpressed with many of the characters, Joseph was a breath of fresh air.  Sure, he started out a little spoiled and snitches on his brothers, but he pays his price with humility and responds to adversity with diligent work and God fearing dedication.  He succeeds because of that and is blessed several fold for it.

• Our intro to little Joey is less than complimentary.  He’s the favorite son with the multi-colored cloak that “brought back a bad report” about his brothers to his father.  Then he openly tells his brothers about dreams where they would bow down to him.  What they did was extremely wrong, but you can see why they’d be a little upset.
• You get an early taste of the various brothers personalities in how they handle the situation.  Reuben unsuccessfully tries to save Joseph while Judah moves to make a profit from the situation.
• Joseph finds himself in the household of Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh’s guard.  He does such a good job that he’s put in charge over the whole household.  God blesses the whole household because of Joseph and Potiphar trusts him so much that he doesn’t concern himself with anything except what to eat.  That’s an amazing statement and speaks volumes about Joseph’s character and prosperity because of the Lord’s blessing.
• Potiphar’s wife throws herself at him and Joseph models two forms of resistance to temptation for us.  First he says “How then could I do this great evil and sin against God ?” (not against Potiphar, but against God)  Then he fled the scene – even when she had his garment.  To wit, apparently he was running away from her without a stitch of clothing.  Sometimes that’s what it takes to remain pure.
• For his faithfulness he’s rewarded (Job-like) with prison time.  But does that turn him biter?  Nope.  He responds with the same dedication to the Lord and remains faithful in all that he does.  Thus he’s rewarded once again by the jailers putting him in charge of everything in the jail.
• It is funny how many people admire a “self made man” and give credit to people that bootstrap themselves to success.  If anyone could have taken pride in this it would have been Joseph, but instead he always gives the credit to the right place – God.  There’s a great lesson there as well.

I was going to do this all the way through the end of Genesis but there’s too much to pull out of Joseph’s life to summarize in just a few bullets, so I’ll have to break it up.

Genesis 21 – 36

Desperately trying to catch up with my blogging so I’m not going to bother being too detailed.  I pity anyone else actually reading this and looking for much spiritual substance because at this point I’m just doing this to keep myself accountable and jot down some notes.  That said, I hope to be more “deep thoughts” when I catch up to my readings (next week?).

• I understand the need for the genealogies and I get that families and sons and passing down covenant promises from one generation to the next are very, very important.  But wow, people sure are obsessed in the OT with popping out offspring.  Women will do anything to have sons, including giving their husbands female servants as wives.  Women fight each other over offspring and use the birth of children as a scorecard against each other.  Men have laws they have to abide by when their brothers are widowed without a son.  It goes on and on.  In some cases, it seems like the Bible emphasizes the offspring with greater importance than what the person actually did on the Earth.  This may be true in some cases but it seems like an odd focus.
• Of course, we learn about the birth (literally) of the 12 tribes of Israel from all this, so it does make some sense.  Still, it is an odd sort of foundation for God’s people.
• People are sinners.  The founding fathers (and mothers) of our Faith were people.  Therefore they were sinners.  This is no surprise, but man did they bend some moral rules in the process of doing God’s work.  Obviously the message is that God can use even the most blatant of sinners, but as I read these chapters again, I come away with less respect for the men and women involved, not more.
• Quoting my friend Andy “Another point to touch on (if you jump to Matthew 1) is that you can see that Jesus’ genealogy runs through Lot’s incestuous relationship with his daughter, whose son was named Moab. Moab was the father of the Moabites, one of which was Ruth. Ruth married Boaz (who incidentally was the son of a redeemed Harlot named Rahab). Those two got married and their great grandson was named David.”

All of this is not to say that I’m discouraged in any way.  If anything, I’m more awed by the amazing grace that God gives us imperfect people.  Where we fall short, God exceeds in filling in the gaps.  And for that I’m thankful.

Genesis 11-20

I’m actually up to verse 29 and soon my writing will catch up to my reading, but this is the best I can do with the time I have each morning.

• Babel is a fascinating story.  In part because it shows what a potential we have as a people.  So much so that God actually was worried about it. “”Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them.”  You could argue that with advanced technology and the “shrinking” of the globe, that we now have the ability to communicate almost freely with most people in the world.  However, we are not “one people” and probably won’t be until the end times (if I’m understanding that little bit of prophesy correctly).
• On a similar and simpler note: I think that as individual communities and church groups, we should draw encouragement that we can do much more as a unified group than we could on our own.  We are only limited by the restraints that God has put upon us for our own good.
• The Lord reveals himself to Abraham again and again promising to fulfill his covenant to him.  I wonder if that was because of Abraham’s fears or lack of faith or what.  Not that I’m judging.  I can be guilty of forgetting God’s promise of provision and protection and need reminders from time to time.
• Interesting (as I read on) that Abraham uses the “she’s my sister” routine with his wife twice and Issac uses it as well.  Was this part of God’s protection for them (because in the end it does keep them from being killed, despite undesired consequences)?  Or was it part of Abraham’s lack of faith that God would protect him?  I lean towards the latter and I think it is an example of how God blesses us despite our attempts to take control of those blessings.
• “Melchizedek king of Salem” makes his appearance (seemingly out of nowhere) and Abraham establishes the tithes (repeated later by Issac I believe) of a tenth.
• Despite his occasional acts of panic and self preservation – Abraham is honored for having strong faith “Then he believed in the LORD ; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness” – to the point where later God tests him by asking him to offer up Issac on the alter, and Abraham passes that test.
• Polygamy is reported but not exactly condoned.  On the other hand, if God makes a big deal about some things, why not call out the leaders of his chosen people for this?  I do believe in the sanctity of marriage and God’s plan of one man and one woman joined together.  But it bothers me that it seems like God allows it without rebuke in many instances in the Bible.
• The Lord appeared to Abraham in chapter 18 with 2 other men.  Was this the pre-incarnate Christ (with 2 angels)?  I tend to think so.  What an amazing thing.
• Abraham’s negotiation with the Lord for Sodom and Gommorah is interesting in that it shows how willing the Lord is to listen to our prayer.  On the other hand, it is interesting that not 10 “righteous” men were found there to save the city.  You could argue that nobody is righteous but without looking at the translations I would assume this was the more loose understanding of righteous – meaning a God fearing but still sinful person.
• God’s destruction of the cities is on one hand sad, but on the other hand an interesting foreshadow of the end times.  God promised not to flood the Earth again, but he didn’t say anything about fire and brimstone.  The end will come and Christ is coming back with a sword.
• In chapter 20 Abraham uses the sister trick again and God actually has to intervene with the king in a dream.  I think again God used Abraham’s poor action to bless him despite it.  He becomes rich and prosperous because of this.  I love that God can and does bless us in spite of ourselves.

Genesis 1-10

So I got off to a pretty good head start by getting stuck in a car service waiting room for 3 hours the other day.  With nothing much else to do and armed with my wife’s iPhone, I read the first 20 chapters of Genesis.  That’s a lot to take in all at once, going from the dawn of time to the garden of Eden, to populating the Earth, to the flood, to repopulating the Earth and then to Abraham.  All stories we’ve read and studied countless times, but a wonderful overview as well.  Sticking with the Doughnut Holes theme of this site, I’ll just give you some bullet points and highlights I came away with.  If this works I’ll probably use this for the rest of the year.  This is just the first 10 chapters – I’ll follow up with the rest later.

• Still don’t know what to believe about the literal vs. allegorical interpretation of the account of creation, but I think God could have created the Earth in six 24 hour days if he wanted to.  Don’t know why he’d make the account sound literal if it wasn’t but I also can’t explain away some of the things that science has brought up.  Until I have more time to research, I’ll put it off – perhaps until Jesus can explain it to me himself.
• How is there light, morning, and evening (thus a day) without the sun, moon, and stars?  Does that mean a “day” was simply the Earth rotating around once?  At a minimum this is confusing but some things are beyond our ability to understand (or for the author to perfectly relate with words).
• Find it funny that some find a way to blame Eve (and thus women) for the fall of man.  Sure, she took the initiative to eat the fruit, but Adam was “with her” – which I imagine means he had an opportunity to talk her out of it or prevent it from happening.
• Interesting theme of God not wanting man to “become like one of Us” meaning the Trinity I suppose.  Repeats in the story of the Tower of Babble.  It is beyond my comprehension how we could ever even approach god-like status, but it was enough for God to be worried about and intervene about.
• Cain and Able is the first murder recorded in the Word, but I wonder if it was the first to occur.  It sometimes reads like Cain and Able were the only two young men walking the Earth after Adam and Eve, but then there’s wives and soon after a city was built.  So when he reacts to his punishment that “I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me” that tells me there might have been murders before.  Just food for thought.
• Again, hard to keep up with the genealogies but I think it is clear that the early people lived a long time and had many children that are not mentioned in the Bible – but it is neat that there is a direct line recorded from Adam to Christ – at least that’s what the scholars say.
• And just like that, God got tired of the sinning of Man and decided to wipe them off the face of the Earth and start over with Noah.  Makes you wonder just how quickly people turned away from God after Eden.
• I’ve heard it said that every European ancient culture has some record or mythology about a great flood.  Don’t have a reference for that, but it sounds pretty cool.
• That’s a lot of time to spend on a boat with a bunch of animals.
• God’s first covenant shows his tender heart towards man and perhaps some regret for destroying everyone but Noah.

2011 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,300 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 38 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.