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.
Doughnut Holes 