Exodus 1-3:22

 I have finished Genesis and I'm starting the book of Exodus. This is another book in the bible that I am very much familiar  with, though I am sure that there are details that I do not know. I must say, I know the big events, but not the smaller events nor the tiny details, so I am very much excited to start this book. I feel like Genesis was very much about Abraham and how God kept His Promise and Abraham's family kept growing and getting bigger and bigger, into the great nation God promised, despite the fact that they were not always the best of people, and made very bad choices. Now, Exodus I feel, is about God being there for them. Genesis taught us that God keeps His promises, and Exodus will now show us that God is always with us and will always help us, and all we need do is trust Him. At least, that is what it seems to me right now.

     In the very first chapter of Exodus, it says: "come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country"(Exodus 1:10). I found this a little bit...confusing. I cannot help but wonder why the Egyptians seem to think that the Hebrews would fight against them. why would they? By this point, this generation has pretty much all been born in Egypt, so why would they fight against the land, the country, they have all been born in and grown in? maybe the Egyptians knew how badly they treated the Hebrews. Still, it seems a bit...confusing to me why they are so quick to supreme that these people would fight against them and leave the country, when this country is all this generation has ever know.  Another point where I was a bit confused, is the part later would Pharaoh's daughter finds Moses, and his sister asked if she should go and get one of the Hebrew women to nurse him for her. my confusion, is that we are told that Moses' sister stood a distance away, so how could she be right there to be able to ask this question? Maybe she walked up, but it seems a little...impolite for a Hebrew slave to just walk up to the daughter of the Pharaoh. Also, when Pharaoh's daughter names him Moses because she drew him up from the water, and the footnote says that the name sounds like the Hebrew word for "draw out", I wonder how she knew that. It means that she must have known Hebrew, and that seems odd to me, that she would know the language of the slaves. I wonder if this was common. Did the Egyptians speak Hebrew, did the Hebrew speak Egyptian? Seems more like that the Hebrew would have to learn Egyptian. After all, why would they bother to learn the language of their slaves?

      "the man said 'who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian? 'then Moses was afraid and thought 'what I did must have become known"(Exodus 2:14). When I read this, I thought about how hard it is when you think you're helping someone, but your really not. Or you do something to help someone, and they don't appreciate it at all or they don't see it as you helping. I don't think I've ever really had this happen(at least that I know of)but I'm sure at some point in all our lives, it will. Just like Moses. He killed that Egyptian to help, to save someone, but they did not see it as helping and he ended up having to flee Egypt into the desert. All for trying to help someone.  However, I do also think it a   tiny bit hypocritical that here was is, having Killed someone, and he's trying to stop two people from fighting? Yes, he was trying to help and I can understand, but still, bit hypocritical.

     " 'and where is he?' he asked his daughters. 'why did you leave him invite him to have something to eat"(Exodus 2:20). This is what Reuel, a priest in the desert who had 7 daughters, whom Moses rescued from shepherds at a well and drew water for them and even watered their flock. This is after Moses flees Egypt. This made me smile because it's so a Dad thing to say: a man saved you? Invite him over to dinner!" especially a father with 7 daughters you know? Made me smile.

     "there the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bus was on fire, it did not burn up"(Exodus 3:2). When I read this most-likely very well known verse, I thought about how God is not always subtle in trying to reach us. A lot of times He is, and we always have to be looking and thinking and feeling very carefully, so that we may be able to understand when He is trying to reach us. Yet often times, like  in the burning bush, God is not subtle. He reaches you in such a way that there is NO WAY you can not know He is trying to reach you. Except for my Southern Hills Bookmark "Event"(for lack of a better word)I don't think I've ever had a  super obvious, no way I could miss, moment of God trying to reach me. I hope someday to have a "burning bush" moment. I must confess, that just like Jamie Sullivan in A Walk To Remember(the movie)I've always wanted to witness a miracle. And having a burning bush moment with and from God, would DEFINETLY count as a miracle.

     The verse in which it says that Moses hid his face because he was afraid to look at God, made me wonder if I would be afraid to look at God. I would looove to be able to at least for a few seconds, listen to His voice or see His face. Yet if given the amazing Blessing and Miracle to do so, would I too be afraid to look at His face? To look at a Being so perfect and Holy and good?

     "but Moses said to God  'who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?' "(Exodus 3:11). I have heard lots of lectures from professors and sermons in church about this, how Moses gives every excuse to God to not go, to send someone else. While not saying that is not a valid point, I could not help but think when I read this verse, that this is a valid question on the part of Moses. Not saying that he shouldn't have trusted God, but it seems like a logical question to ask. By this point, he would have been long gone from Egypt for many years, on the run no less, living in the desert as a mere shepherd. He would not have  felt adequate enough to do this mission that God has chosen for Him. We may...not look down on necessarily but...think that Moses should have responded with more Faith, more Trust, and not saying he shouldn't have, but if we were in that position, if we are being honest, would we not have done and/or said the same thing? Don't we do and say the same thing in our lives today? we feel like God is calling us to do something, and we don't feel good enough, or prepared enough, or old enough, or young enough, or strong enough, or educated enough or loud enough or outgoing enough, etc. to do it?

        "...This is my name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation."(Exodus 3:15). I'm sure that we are all familiar, or at least have heard of, the "I am who I am" response from God to Moses, when Moses asks Him what if the Israelites ask him His name. when I read this part of that response, I thought about how to me, God seemed to be saying that He wont change. That who He is, will never every change, from generation to generation, He will be the same God, He will be unchanged. He will be who He is.  So different from out mindset today. we are encouraged to improve ourselves, even in our relationship with Him we are encouraged and strive to improve it, always strive to make ourselves better, make our lives better, and here is God saying: I wont change. I wont improve nor diminish, because there is nothing to improve on. Who He is always is and has been...perfect and perfectly good. I think I'm starting to understand what the word "Holy" truly signifies, other than being a religious word.

        "but I know that the King of Egypt will not let you go unless a mighty hand compels him"(Exodus 3:19). This verse struck me because I couldn't help but think about how often we ourselves are like the King of Egypt. Oftentimes, we are so unwilling to let something go, whether it be a person, an emotion, our comfort zone,  a material possession, control, anger, etc. that we have to forced by a mighty hand to be compelled to do so. I know this sounds a little bit strange, but it's what I got out of this verse and what I thought. So maybe, we should not necessarily look down on the King of Egypt for being soo unwilling to let them go, until a might hand forces him to. After all, we often are unwilling to let a lot of things go.

       "so I will stretch out my hand and strike the Egyptians  with all the wonders that I will perform among them. after that, he will let you go"(Exodus 3:20). When I read this(including verse 19), I thought about how God knew the whole story. Here, we are foreshadowed about the upcoming 10 plagues. God already knew all that was going to happen. I know that I know this and believe it, but it's nice to be...reminded every so often. God knows the entire story. He still does.

"and I will make the Egyptians favorably disposed toward this people, so that when you leave you will not go empty handed"(Exodus 3:21). This verse made me think about how God knows and thinks and provides all of our needs. God knew that they would need food, supplies, water, etc. when they left Egypt, and He had it worked out. Pretty cool, I think :)

Genesis 37-50:26

 

     The last part of Genesis that I read was the story of Joseph. I know this story, but it was still interesting to read it all the way through, straight.  Joseph's life is usually used to illustrate faithfulness in God, even throughout hard times and forgiveness to those who have wronged you.  While I am not saying those things are not there, because they are, when I read it I...saw for lack of a better word...different things. At the start of chapter 37, it says: "now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons., because he had been born to him in his old age…"(Gen 37:3). When I first read this, all I could think was that the Esau/Jacob past was being repeated. Granted, this time it was one brother being favored by the father, instead of one parent favoring one child, but you would think that Jacob would know better than to favor one child. He knows what can happen when you do that: Favoritism only leads to trouble. I have seen this pattern of mistakes, the same mistakes, being repeated over and over. Abraham lies and says Sarah is his sister, Isaac does the same with Rebekah. Isaac and Rebekah play favorites with their children, one of them favoring one child, diving their family in half and leading to trouble, and Jacob is doing the same thing in his family. It's a wonder God does not lose patience, because watching the same mistakes being made over and over, has got to be frustrating.

     " 'come now, let's kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we'll see what comes of his dreams.' " (Gen 37:20). This is what Joseph's brothers decide to do with Joseph one day, when he comes to where they are grazing their flocks. By this point, he has told them about the dream where they bow down to him. When I read this, it made me wonder what caused them to snap that day. Yeah, there was the dream, and him being their father's favorite, but this was their brother after all. And maybe joseph had had these types of dreams more than once, so what was it that day that caused it all to come to a boil? It had to have been more than they saw him coming. In my teaching English in china book, there is a section on common sayings that have a Chinese equivalent, and one of them is: a frozen river is not the result of one cold day(or something similar to that). And I think it applies here. Favored or not, this was still their brother, and not liking him is one thing, resenting him is one thing, not wanting anything to do with him is one thing, but killing him is something altogether different. So I wonder what the full story was, you know? Why did they snap that day? This thought just occurred to me, I can kind of relate a little to his brothers being jealous of Joseph. Brent Bailey is My Joseph. He can do no wrong. He is favored by all, and if anyone ever has to pick between us, they will always choose and favor him. People like him better than they like me, I know it. and sometimes, I do feel jealous. Its hard not to feel jealous of someone who is always and has always been the favored one, and you are not ignored but...nothing. Even in our study of this story, we all focus on Joseph, on the favored one, and not on his brothers, the unfavored ones. I remenber this one time, last february I think, the bible department at ACU was doing the interviews for summer internships, and I was sitting outside the big hall where they were interviewing people. anyways, most everyone else had left, there were few people around, and I'm sitting there, near the sign-in table, when I hear this man who must be an intervewing talking to the guy from the bible department who is in charge of the whole thing talking about Brent. And of course its all positive things: the interviweing guy was saying/gushing how Brent Bailey came to interview, and how good it went, and what a big heart Brent has, how that was obvious right away, and then the bible department guy completely agreed, and how they did not have to do anything with Brent, they just got out of his way….and im listening to this, and its nothing I don't already know and have known for years, and I was sooo glad to hear that they saw all of that too, same as me, but at the same time...i hated it.listening to them talk about him like that, it made me feel...so...so much...so much less. People will never and have never and do not talk about me like that, and it just made me feel...heartsick. Bad about myself.  I hated that he is always the one favored, always the good boy that can do no wrong. And now, reading Joseph's story, I think how much worse it must have been for his brothers: they had to live with Joseph 24/7. they had to hear all the time, every day, from Jacob about how awesome Joseph was. And they had to see how Jacob preferred Joseph, every day, not escape from it. at least  I can escape it. so I can relate to Joseph's brothers a little. Its tough having a Joseph in your life.

    when Joseph is sold by his brothers, and then sold to the pharaoh's captain of the guard by the people his brothers sold him to, I cant help but wonder, what was going through his mind at this point. What was he thinking? What was he feeling? Did he have any idea why his brothers hated him like that? Did he know that they resented him, or did it just come from left field? Was he angry, scared, both? What was going through his mind? i suppose we'll never know.

     since the story of Joseph is so familiar to me, I did not really have any specially surprising  thoughts while reading it. however, I do have some thoughts on it. the story of Joseph, like I mentioned earlier, is remembered as a story of faithfulness to God, and forgiveness. Those things are in this story, but I saw something else, which I am sure is obvious to everyone, but keep in mind, I was not a bible major, I'm not an M.Div., and I did not grow up with this stuff.

     "when his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the LORD blessed  the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the LORD was on everything potiphar had, both in the house and in the field."(Gen 39:3-5). 

This is when Joseph is first sold into Egypt. Then later, when he ends up in jail: "the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything, under Joseph's care, because the LORD was with Joseph  and give him success in whatever he did."(Gen 39:22-23).  I started to see a pattern to Joseph's life, and the pattern is that he always found favor, and ended up being someone who was given a  position of power and authority, because of the LORD. It seems to me that whether he was at home, running the household of the captain of Pharaoh's guards, or in jail, or in pharaoh's palace, the same thing ended up happening. Seems to me that we can also from Joseph's story that what God wants for our lives, cannot and will not be changed, and despite the circumstances, God will accomplish his desire for us and our lives. So it did not matter where Joseph was. Maybe, the same is true of us. Maybe, it does not matter where we are, or the circumstances. What God wants for us, will come to be, no matter what or how. I wonder if Joseph saw this pattern as well. 

 the part when Joseph says: "do not interpretations belong to God? tell me your dreams."(Gen 40:8), made me think that he was saying that God will interpret the dreams, not Joseph.  "the chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph; he forgot him." (Gen 40:23).this was a verse that stuck out to me as well. We often are guilty of doing this as well. Someone helps us, and we quickly forgot them. do we ever stop to remember the guidance counselor who helped us with college applications? Do we thank the cafeteria ladies who help us stay fed? Or how about the person that approved our application for gradate school? Who hired us as a GA? Who gave us a job? The lady who was the cashier at the store? The boy who bagged our groceries? Or how about quite simply...our friends? Just made me think.  Also, I found it interesting that all the magicians, wise men, etc. in all Egypt, could not interpret Pharaoh's dreams, but Joseph, a prisoner, could. Sometimes help comes from the least like and smallest places doesn't it?

   I know that when Joseph's brothers come, and don't recognize him and he does recognize them but does not let them know who he is but treats them harshly, is often seen as Joseph testing them, seeing if they had changed.  My opinion, as I was reading this, honestly...is that he was having some fun with them with a little bit of payback mixed in. It's like that scene in Sabrina Fair(the movie)when she comes back from Paris after 5 years and the way she dresses, looks, acts, her confidence, is so different, in a good way, that the guy whom she has been in love with for years, who ignored her who had known her for years, did not recognize her at all and she does not tell him its her. if I ran into Anthony soto, and he did not recognize me because I looked so different in a good way, and I was in a good position of authority, I would be lying my teeth out if I said I would not have some fun with him in that situation. Same if It was Trevor. Same with any girl who has ever been hurt by a guy. Same with any person whom has wronged or hurt us in the past, for whatever reason. I think he was paying them back, and having some fun with them. I'm sure that at this point, my bible degree friends are currently cringing at me, and already formulating an email to me letting me know how...not right...i am in this and why, but im not saying im right or wrong, just that that is my opinion as I read it.

 

"it is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father's household."(Gen 41:51). I thought when I read this, that it sounds like God has helped Joseph move on from the troubles in his past.  And now that im writing this, it does sound like he still holds a bit of a grudge, or did anyways, towards his brothers.  One question I do have, that I did not understand, is why his brothers were upset when they discovered on their way back that their silver had been returned in their sacks. I found funny the part where they were talking, and not realizing that Joseph could understand everyword because he was using an interpreter. I can relate to being Joseph in this scenario. Spanish is my native language, but I don't look it and I don't really act like it or speak it a lot outside family, so I cannot tell you how many times people talk Spanish around me, not realizing I can understand every single word. Same thing with my Tattoo#3. not everyone knows I have it, so sometimes they start talking about how girls who get  those type of Tattoos are doing it to get guys to look at them, to get attention, etc, not realizing I have one of those lol.  I guess the lesson here is, don't ever assume.

 I found towards the end of Genesis that God repeated his promise to Jacob, once again promising to bring him back to his Father's lands, making me think that maybe the promise at Jacob's Dream, of bringing him back to that land, might have meant Jacob's descendants, and not Jacob himself. And I could not understand why, why, Jacob would put his right hand on the younger son. History repeating himself. Seriously, this is starting to make me a little mad: do these people NEVER learn their lesson? do they keep repeating the same mistakes over and over, generation to generation? Finally, even towards the end, after Jacob dies, Joseph's brothers are still worried Joseph has not really forgiven them. makes me think that true forginesss is hard to give and feel, but also hard to accept.   finally, when Joseph asks for his bones to be taken out of Egypt when they leave, made me think that even after all the power and authority, and good life there, he knew Egypt was not really home.

And with that, I HAVE FINISHED GENESIS!!!! It was a good book! Annoying, since people kept making the same mistakes over and over, but I had some good thoughts. I learned that even despite repeating the same mistakes, God stays with us and that God always does what He says, so He should always be believed.

       now, on to Exodus! :)

Genesis 27:41-36:43

Genesis 27:41-36:43

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

7:52 PM

     At the end of chapter 27, Rebekah tells Jacob to flee because Esau is going to kill Jacob as soon as their father Isaac is dead, which will be soon. She says, "why should I lose both of you in one day?"(Gen 27:45). While I was reading this, I found this strange. Well, strange because I did not understand it. I get that if Esau killed Jacob, she would lose Jacob, but why would she lose Esau? Throughout this story, we have not been told or hinted at any point that Esau knew Rebekah favored Jacob, or even that he had any kind of anger towards her, to stop talking to her or to harm her. so, why would she lose Esau? This thought just ran through my mind: maybe she knew should not be able to forgive Esau for killing Jacob. Or maybe she knew Esau would leave, would flee, after killing Jacob. Still, does not make a lot of sense.

     Genesis 28, verses 10-22, are about Jacob's Dream at Bethel. The first thing I thought of when I came to this, is ACU. At ACU, we have a...statue/meditation garden...of Jacob's Dream, and it is also where I was first Baptized, so it just took me back to Abilene, Texas, USA. I love Jacob's Dream. It is one of the most beautiful places on ACU's campus. Anyways, I was also excited to read this story because of that. One verse that stuck out to me was when God told Jacob in the dream: "I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land"(Gen 28:15).  This verse stuck out to me because I found it interesting that God is telling Jacob that He will watch over Jacob, that He is with Jacob, wherever Jacob goes, and He is telling Jacob this while Jacob is sleeping. It's almost like God is also saying, even when you are sleeping, I am with you and am watching over you. At least, that's what I think, not saying I'm wrong or right, just that that is my opinion and what I thought of. Also, Jacob has this life changing experience, encounter, with God...while he is sleeping! While he is doing nothing. Not thinking, not worrying, not looking for it, etc. kind of simbolic a little. To me anyways. It seems amazing to me that this life changing experience happened to Jacob while he was sleeping. When he was not awake. When his mind was not...on...so to speak. Makes me realize that God has appeared to  all of these people through different ways and at different points in their lives: Abraham was settled and probably content and happy with where he was, with his life. Isaac was born and grew up knowing God through Abraham most likely, Jacob was on the run for his life, and later, Saul was on the road to go arrest Christians...makes me see that God can appear to you, talk to you, in any and all circumstances, in any and all different stages of your life. I also liked the last part of this verse, where God says to Jacob that He will bring him back to this land. When I read this, I thought of it like God was telling Jacob that someday, He will bring Jacob back home. In all, God is saying that He is with Jacob, will watch over him wherever he goes, but that He will bring him back home. Since I am so far in China, I really can relate a little bit, not that I'm on the run or anything, but I love the idea that God is with me, He is watching over me, that He can reach me wherever I am, even when I am asleep, and that someday, He will bring me home.  You can also think of it in terms of all of us, all Christians: God is with us, is watching over us, but He will bring us Home one day. Again, I know, I tend to think all kind of weird thoughts, but they are my thoughts. However, I could not understand what the ladder, with angels going up and down, represented. It seemed a little...not part of the story somehow to me. could no figure out what it meant.

     "he went over and rolled the stone away from the mouth of the well and watered his uncle's sheep. Then he kissed Rachel and began to weep aloud"(Gen 29:10-11). I found this funny. This is when Jacob arrives In Paddan Aram and sees Rachel for the first time. the first image that came to my mind when I read this verse, is of a guy holding the door open for a girl. In Texas, it's pretty common to hold the door open for people, it's not a big deal. But in New England, at least in Massachusetts, it's not common, so if a guy holds the door open for a girl, it's a romantic type of thing. So I had this image of a guy seeing a beautiful girl, and running to hold the door open for her, saying "let me get that for you." lol. I know, im so weird arent I? lol. Well, I suppose that is why Brent Bailey is the one going for an MA in this stuff, while I am not. Lol. I also thought that today, if you just...kissed a girl like that, the first second you first saw her, you would get slapped. At least in Massachusetts and New York. You would SOOOO get slapped in the face! In fact, there are a lot of things that Jacob does that I find hard to believe unless he literally did not have a brain. Later on in chapter 29, he has worked for 7 years for his uncle Laban so he could marry rachel, and then after the 7 years are up Laban gives a feast, and gives him Leah instead of Rachel, and Jacob does not realize it's not rachel until the next morning! Maybe he drank too much wine at the feast, but how do you not realize you are laying with the wrong girl?!?! Especially when you have worked for 7 years to get her?!?! It makes no sense at all! And I wonder, was Leah in on it? or did Laban trick her as well? Another thing  I don't understand is the last verse is verse 30: "jacob lay with rachel also, and he loved rachel more than leah. And he worked for laban another 7 years"(Gen 29:30). Did Jacob get rachel and then had to work another 7 years, or did he work another 7 years and then get rachel?

 

   in verse 35, Leah has had many sounds and it seems like she is always hoping that now Jacob will love her, with each birth of a son. But in verse 35 it says "she conceived again, and when she gave birth to a son she said 'this time I will praise the LORD'. so she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children"(Gen 29:35). When I read this, it felt to me like at this point, Leah had stopped hoping that Jacob would love her and instead focused her hopes and attention and praise on God instead. It does say she stopped having children, not that God closed her womb, so it seems as if she stopped trying to make Jacob love her. that is what it seems like to me. you know, a lot of girls are Rachel: girls love them, guys fall for them, guys want to marry them. but some of us, are Leah: guys don't love us, no matter what we do, no matter what we do to try and get their attention and affection. I am a Leah. Guys don't love me, guys don't notice me, they don't want to date me or spend time with me or marry me. and just like Leah having sons was almost a consolation prize from God for not being loved, when you are a Leah, you have to make do with consolation prizes. Like being really smart or really funny. Like having lots of friends who love you. Like having lots of guy friends. You get the picture.  And as much as Leah loved her sons, they probably did not make up for the fact that Jacob did not love her. just like I love my life, it still does not truly make up for the fact that I do not have the love of the guy I love.

     in chapter 30, Jacob has finally been given Rachel and is still with Laban. However, when Jacob is ready to leave Laban, Laban does not want him to go because while he has come to believe that he, Laban, has been blessed by God with riches and wealth, because of Jacob. Jacob says: "you know how I have worked for you, and how your livestock has fared under my care. The little you had before I came has increased greatly, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I have been. But now, when may I do something for my own household?"(Gen 30:29-30). This made me think that sometimes, you have to walk away. Sometimes, you have to walk away, despite the fact that somebody needs you, because you have to think of yourself. I know that sounds selfish, but sometimes, you do have to leave, you have to do something for yourself, despite being needed by others. To put it simply, sometimes...you have to go. And he was doing good for Laban. He was helping him with the livestock, his wives were with their father, Laban was gaining wealth and good livestock, so it's not as if Jacob was not doing good where he was. But there came a point when he had to go, when he had to think of himself, and stop taking care of someone else and take care of himself. I know this may sound selfish, and I'm expecting people to disagree with me, but this is my thought. You cant always stay simply because you are needed.  I can't help but think right now, as I write this, that this is where me and Brent Bailey are different. I think that when it comes to relationships, especially committed relationships such as marriage,  you can and should walk away simply because you want to, because you no longer want to be there, while Brent Bailey believes that you don't and shouldn't. that you don't walk away from a relationship simply because you no longer want to be in it. and maybe someday I'll look back on this blog post and no longer feel the same. Who knows?

   one verse that I really liked is what Laban said when he and Jacob were making their covenant after Jacob left and Laban came after him. He said," may the LORD keep watch between you and me when we are away from each other"(Gen 31:49). I loved this verse! Again, I am in China right now, so I am very far from my parents, from my friends, and I miss them, so I love the idea of this. It's a good prayer for when you are apart, I would have to say. I also love  this verse, a little bit further down: "even though no one is with us, remember that God is a witness between you and me"(Gen 31:50). I love this verse! Such a good verse! The context is he is telling Jacob to take care of his daughters, and that even though no one would be there to report to Laban or to stop Jacob, God is there. Such a good prayer and verse for any and all relationships.

   the story where Jacob is wrestling with a man(though the section title says "Jacob wrestles with God", I do not understand. I understand what happens, but not the significance. Also, it seems out of place. like a random story. Like it was just randomly put in the middle of the story of Jacob seeing Esau again. Doesn't seem to have anything to do with that. If you are reading this, feel free to share your thoughts on this!

The story where Jacob sees Esau again is pretty straightforward, and I did not too many thoughts on it. nothing really stuck out to me. although it seems like his actions are cowardly, sending everyone ahead of himself the way he did, can you really blame the guy? I would have turned and run! I would not even have contacted Esau in the first place, which Jacob did. I suppose he did not think Esau had any men or anything, but was alone and then found out Esau had 400 men! I do not understand however, why he lied to Esau and did walk with him or meet up with him later like they had agreed.

      the story where Dinah is dishonored, and then her brothers lie to the guy and say all is forgive, we will join you, give you what we have, and let you marry Dinah,  if you will have all males be circumcised, and then attack the city while the males were all recovering and then kill the man who dishonored Dinah and killed all the males and loot and attack the city I found...disturbing. It does not say whether she was raped or not, but it does say  he violated  her, so that sounds like rape to me. so, as a girl, the idea of rape is terrible and horrible and gives me the creeps just thinking about it. however, the man attacked one girl, and left her alive. Her brothers however, attacked many innocent people, killed lots of innocent people, and stole from and looted the city. It seems...unbalanced somehow. Somehow, it seems like her brothers did the worse crime. However, at the close of the story and the chapter, when Jacob finds out what they did and gets mad, they said "should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?"(Gen 34:31). They do have a point. Still, seems unbalanced to me. seems like the punishment FAR FAR outceaded the crime.

     chapters 35 and chapter 36 I did not have any thoughts or have anything stick out to me. chapter 36 is just the descendants of Esau, which I did not bother reading.

    I basically read the story of Jacob. He is an...interesting character. He is not the most honest person, and even after his encourter with God in Bethel, he does still trick and lie and he never seems to care about Leah, but he works hard, he takes care of his household. If Jacob was the son who was in the women's tent, cooking, then working in the land for 14 years would have been tough on him! And yet he did it, for Rachel. And he does seem to have a good and deep faith in God. So he's...complicated.

   now, I am on to read the story of Joseph, and after that, I will be done with Genesis! :) :)

Genesis 18:10-27:40

 

Genesis 18:10-27:40

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

7:48 PM

In genesis chapter 18, verses 16-33 is when Abraham pleads to God to not destroy  Sodom. I am familiar with Genesis, like I've noted in previous notes on my personal bible study, but while I was reading this, I remembered reading a few chapters back that Abraham's nephew(?)Lot had gone to live in Sodom, because the family had gotten too big so they split, Abraham went one way, Lot wen another. So I think that maybe Abraham was pleading for God to not destroy Lot more than he was pleading to God to not destroy Sodom. After all, Gomorrah  was just as bad as Sodom, and Abraham did not plead for it. imagine, your nephew goes to live in a city because it the family has gotten too big to be able to travel together, and then you get word that God is going to destroy that city for being so wicked and sinful. You would plead to God to not destroy your nephew. This is probably obvious, but I did not grow up reading this, so the super obvious is not always so obvious to me.

 

One verse that I found funny, was chapter 19, verse 5: "where are the men who came to you tonight? bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them." I found this verse funny, because it just sounds...so...wrong you know? However, verse 8 of chapter 19 really stuck out to me: "look, I have two daughters never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. but don't do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof." when I read this verse, which is in the chapter where three visitors(angels sent by God)come to Lot, is that he put God before his own family, before his own daughters. No, actually, he put messengers from God before his own family, his own daughters. How many of us today would do that? I cannot imagine my dad doing this! I cannot imagine my father offering me up like this. My guy friends back home are truly great Christian men, and I admire them so much. They love God, they live Christian lives, and it seems to me that they try to do what they believe God is calling them to do. However, I cannot imagine any of them offering up their daughters over like this. Or even their friends who are girls, they would never just offer them up like this. So it seems to me that Lot must have been a truly awesome man, one worthy of being admired and looked up to. I hope that someday, I come to love God this much.

     "so Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, 'hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!' but his sons-in-law thought he was joking(Gen 19:14)."  when I read this verse, it made me think that people never believe disaster is coming. Never. During the flood, no one believed disaster was coming, that God was going to flood and destroy the entire world. And so you would think that people who had probably grown up hearing about the flood(I assume this)would have taken God seriously. But they did not.  This can also be applied to us. We never believe disaster is coming either. I feel like it's easy to read the bible and say "why did they not believe this was going to happen?" yet  if we are truly honest, would we have believed it? how often do we hear people talking about end of the world coming, etc. and we dismiss it? what if someone came to your city and started saying that God is going to destroy it. we would think they were crazy wouldn't we? I would. Would any of us really take that seriously? in this chapter, there is a section where Lot is told to flee to the mountains, and he says no, that he can't, and could he go to this small nearby town instead? And this is granted to him. Made me think that maybe God compromises sometimes.

 

"but Lot's wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt(Genesis 19:26)."  Lot and his family were told not to look back when they were fleeing the city, but Lot's wife did not obey. She looked back. It might be easy to judge her harshly or say "why would she looked back?!" but maybe it is kind of like when someone tells you not to look down. The first thing you do is look down. Anyways, it stuck out to me. they were running away from something, and because she looked back, she died. She failed because she looked back. Makes me think that this can be applied to moving on from unrequited love, or from a bad situation, etc. if you look back, you are done. You go back, you regress. You lose the progress you have made. I know, a bit of stretch, but there you go lol.

 

In chapter 21, verses 8-10, Sarah has given birth to Isaac, the child God promised Sarah and Abraham they would have. However, in these verses Sarah sends away Hagar and Ishmael. Hagar is one of Sarah's servants and Ishmael is the son that Hagar and Abraham had at Sarah's insistence when she doubted God's promise of a child would be fulfilled.   she created this situation and now that God's promise has been fulfilled, she is getting rid of the very situation she created. God did create another nation through Ishmael, who have been...not getting along with the Jews(the nation God created through Isaac)ever since.  It stuck out to me because it made me think that sometimes, by sending away or ignoring or not dealing with a situation we created, we make it worse and bring on troubles and problems for other people.

 

In chapter 22, verse 7, Abraham and Isaac are going up a mountain(the bible says in the region of Moriah)because Abraham has been asked to sacrice Isaac. Isaac does not know this, or does not appear to. Anyway, in verse 7 he asks Abraham where the lamb is for the sacrifice, because he notices the wood and the fire were there but not the lamb. Abraham says that  God himself will provide the lamb. Then they keep going. When I read this, I thought about Isaac. Did Isaac put up a fight when his father started tying him up the fire and the wood to sacrifice him? Did he struggle? Did he fight? Or did he trust his father the way his father trusted God? Or did Isaac trust God the way his father did? What is Isaac's point of view? I wish that was in there. I did also notice the similaries to Jesus's dying on the cross. I think I remember learning in bible class that it was on the same hill, in the same place.  Also, Abraham had Isaac carried the wood for the sacrifice, the way Jesus would carry his own cross to his crucifixion. It stuck to me most off that God did something what He would never allow Abraham to do: sacrifice his only son. It also stuck to me that Abraham was willing to do what God did for us. So...powerful I think.

 

"so Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said 'on the mountain of the Lord it will be provided'(Genesis 22:14)." for some reason, I love the last part of this verse, the "on the mountain of the Lord it will be provided." I love mountains, and I love mountain imagery, so I love this verse. There is just something about it that I really love.

 

Chapter 24 is when Isaac meets Rebekah. I know this story, but I was stuck by two things, and both of them are when the servant is sent by Abraham to find a bride for Isaac. When he gets to the place, he starts praying to God for success on his mission, and what struck me was that even before he was done with the prayer, Rebekah walks up! I find that amazing and makes me wish that God was that quick at answering my prayers! :) I was also struck and amazed when Rebekah offered to water all 10 of the camels! Now, watering one camel would take you a bit of time, let alone 10 of them! that probably took her hours! That is amazing to me.

 

"two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger(Genesis 25:23)." this is what the Lord said to Rebekah when she was pregnant, and it made me think of what she must have thought when she heard this. Imagine, you are pregnant and yo are told this? Was she fearful? Did she believe it? did she understand what it meant? I am kind of curious.

 

 

Later on in the chapter, when Esau gives away his birthright for some strew, I was just struck by the fact that...jacob was cooking! Back then, I thought that cooking was something women did, not men. So how, why, would jacob have learned to cook?!

 

In verses 6-7 of this chapter, which is chapter 25, Isaac is afraid that he will be killed by the people of gerar so that they can have his beautiful wife. So he lied to them and said she was his sister. Now, this should sound familiar because Abraham did the same thing. Did Isaac know that Abraham had done the same thing and was reproached by God? Did Abraham tell this story to his son, or did he never tell Isaac this. Either way, it shows that mistakes are repeated.

 

When Isaac is fooled by Jacob into giving Jacob Esau's blessing, I was wondering why, if Isaac recognized the voice as Jacob's, did he give him the blessing? Wasn't he...suspicious? even a little? despite the fact that the hair and the food made it seem like it was Esau?

 

"Your dwelling will be away from earth's richness, away from the dew of heaven above. You will live by the sword and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck(Genesis 27:39-40)." I LOVED the last line of this Blessing! It really struck me! it says 'throw his yoke from off your neck." not take of, not put aside, but throw. Very forceful imagery. This last part was saying that someday, this wont bother you. Someday, you will yourself get tired of feeling this way and throw away this burden. i...i so long for that. I love it. I can relate to Esau a bit, because it is sooo hard when someone gets what you want. And this Blessing says that someday, you will be tired and sick and fed up with feeling this way, of carrying this burden, and you will throw it from off your shoulders. I want that. I think this is the better Blessing actually. Because someday, Esau will free himself of this yoke, this burden. But Jacob will always have that yoke of knowing what he did, of having to live with that.

Abram, Part 1

Genesis 10-18:15

At the end of Chapter 10, which talks about the lineage of the sons of Noah, it says: "from these the nations spread out over the earth after the flood"(Gen 10:32). It reminded me of what God told Adam and Eve, to be fruitful and multiply. not exactly the same words, but the message is still the same. God told Adam and Even to multiply, and in this verse we are told that the nations spread out over the earth after the flood. not life altering, but something that struck me.
after this came the story of the Tower of Babel(see picture to the left). the first thing that I am going to say is that I noticed that this story is located in a...weird...location.it's doesn't flow with the rest of the book.  first we learn about the lineage of the sons of Noah, and then we have the Tower of Babel, and then we go on to learn more about the lineage of the songs of Noah. it's almost like the author realized after reading the book that he wanted or needed to put this story in, so he just plucked it down somewhere. if this was a paper, this would be a paragraph that you would get points off because it just doesn't..flow...with the other things surrounding it.
when I started the cultural component of Mandarin Dialektos class, the professor opened it with this story. he said that as a language teacher, he didn't like to think of language as a punishment used by God. I can say that I do kinda agree with that. I love languages and culture, and while it was a punishment(sorta)used by God, it also gave us different cultures and different languages and I can't say I am not glad about that.
while reading this, it seemed to me that it wasn't so much as a punishment but as a...a way for God to stop them from becoming too powerful. in verses 6-7, God says: "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this,then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other"(Gen 11:6-7). God never says anything about it being a punishment, a curse, but a way to stop them. it seems like God knew/realized that unified like the builders(I assume)were, it would mean that nothing would be impossible for them do, and for reasons of His own, God did not want that. maybe God doesn't want us to know everything, maybe He doesn't want everything we do to be possible for us. it just me...if nothing were impossible for them, then they would no longer need God.
one thing that I noticed in the lineage of Noah's son Shem,is that Abram's brother, Nahor, married Milcah, who was the wife of Abram's other brother Haran, who had died in  Ur. so Nahor married his own niece! seemed wrong and yucky to me, but maybe in that culture it was...the norm?
chapter 12:1 "The Lord had said to Abram, "leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.(Gen 12:1). this reminded me of my going to China. I am hesitant to say that God called me to go to China, because it seems that is assuming that I know how and what God is thinking and planning, and I don't. however, I am leaving my country, my people,etc. to go to a land that God has "shown me"(in a way, I do feel like God approves of my going). it just sounded familiar, and I can relate to it in a way. as thrilled as I am to be going to China, it is scary, leaving behind everything. sometimes I worry that I'll come back and I'll be so different or my friends will be so different or so used to my being gone that we wont be friends anymore. that I'll be just a girl that they used to know.
"when the Egyptians see you, they will say 'this is his wife.' then they will kill me but will let you live. say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you"(Gen 12:12-13). when I read this, my first though was that it made sense. he wanted to be kept from being killed by Egyptians so they could have his wife. it seemed kinda romantic actually to me, saving your husband like that. however, as I continued to read the story, it became clear that it seemed like Abram had prostituted his wife to save his own skin and also to profit from it. in verses 18- 19, the Pharaoh says to Abram:"why didn't you tell me she was your wife?why did you say,' she is my sister,' so that I took her to be my wife?(Gen 12:18-19).it seems to be like he kinda prostituted her and exploited her. yet at the same time, maybe they would have killed him if he had told them the truth at the beginning.
in chapter 13, we read about Abram and Lot separating because they had  so many goods by this point that they were fighting, their herdsmen were fighting, so Abram said that it would be better if they parted, and so Lot went and settled near Sodom. this is getting ahead of myself, but I remembered that later when God is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Abram basically asks God to spare righteous people He finds there. In my Message of the Old Testament class, I remember learning that Abram was probably asking God to save Lot. I got to thinking, that maybe Abram felt...guilty. after all, Abram was the one who told Lot they should split up, so that is why Lot was living near Sodom, so maybe Abram felt guilty. just a thought I had.
two small thing I noticed. I noticed that Abram seemed to build a lot of altars to God. and in chapter 15, it was not God who came to Abram, but the word of the Lord.

"Do not be afraid Abram.I am your shield, your very great reward.(Gen 15:1). I really liked this verse. my bible is the letters to God bible, so the comment that the original owner of the bible(his bible was published with his comments on it)wrote was:"God is the prize!" I totally agree and I really liked this verse. it reminded me of what Jesus will say in the New Testament, about storing rewards in Heaven.
"then the Lord said to him,"know for certain that your descendants will will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years.but I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,and afterward they will come out with great possessions"(Gen 15:13-14).when I read this, it seemed to be to foreshadow the Exodus from Egypt. maybe God knew even this early on that they would become slaves in Egypt but He already knew that He would free them.
"every male among you shall be circumcised. you are to undergo circumcision, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and you"(Gen 17:10-11). I cannot believe I am writing this, and I will say that I debated, still am debating even as I write this, about not writing this because it is a little...embarrassing to write about this, however, it is a thought that I had and I don't wanna not write about it because it's a little embarrassing. so circumcision is removing the excess skin(I think), so maybe when god made this the sign of the covenant between Him and Abram(and Abram's decedents) it meant that from now on, they should not hold on to the excess things in life, but only hold on and keep the important things, like God. mainly God. does that make sense? I could go into deeper detail of this analogy, but if your a guy and your reading this, I assume you can handle the images yourself.
"and Abraham said to God," If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!"(Gen 17:18). this verse made me think that we often ask God to use our means, not His means. Ishmael was Sarah not trusting God to give them a child  and  deciding to have Abraham sleep with her maidservant to get a child. that was their means, not God's means. and Abraham is asking God, it seems to me, to use their means and not God's. God still Blesses Ishmael and makes him into a great nation, but it's still not God's means of fulfilling the covenant.
one funny thing I noticed. "Isaac" means "He laughs." and Abraham laughed when God told Him about how God was going to give him and Sarah a son despite their old age. so God's funny sense of humor is that He has Abraham name his son a name that means "He Laughs." every time Abraham sees his son, or thinks about his son, he will remember how He laughed at the idea of God giving him and Sarah the son standing in front of him. God, is not without a sense of humor.
I loved reading the bible cover to cover, though it is taking me forever as you can tell. I love that I can see the whole picture and that helps me to have thoughts and ideas that normally I might not catch,like the idea of Abram feeling guilty about Lot moving to Sodom. reading the stories separately, you don't really catch that, but reading it back to back like I am, you do.

The Flood

Genesis 6-9

once again, this is a part of Genesis that I am very familiar with. I must say that I cannot wait to get to books and stories in the bible that I don't know. which will be soon. still, just reading it as a whole is helping me, because it gives me this sense of being able to...sort of, kinda, see how all the stories are puzzle pieces, and they all fit into the story. its early days but I am really loving this. as dorky as it sounds, whenever I read a chapter (I am doing this super slowly as you can tell)and highlight and write my thought as comments on the side, I feel very excited and I really love when I do that. there's something about reading the bible that...I don't know....makes me...feel good. so dorky. lol. but my dorky side got me into ACU's Master of English program, so that's okay. :) and a Bachelors of Arts degree! :)
     As I said, I am familiar with this story, so there was not too many things surprising about it. I did have lots of thoughts/questions as I was reading this story. one of the first questions I had, is  chapter 6 verse 2: "the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose." my question is, does "sons of God" include Jesus? also, I thought God only had one son. I remember reading this story when I was younger and it was always angels who married the daughters of men. I also did not understand verse 3, where God says: "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal, his days will be a hundred and twenty years." I did not really understand that verse, what it meant. in verses 5-8 of chapter 6, God saw how wicked mankind had become, in deeds and in thoughts, and God says He will wipe mankind because "I am grieved that I have made them."(Gen 6:7). a few verses earlier it says that His heart was filled with pain. reading that, how God was grieved because He made mankind, made me think that even God has regrets. its interesting coz I never really think of God as feeling emotions other than anger, dissapoitment, or love. but maybe He feels regret, jealousy, funny-ness, etc. interesting thought for me.
 In verse 19 of chapter 6 God says to Noah: "you are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you." I had two thoughts concerning this verse. my first thought was that it sounded like God didn't want to destroy His creation but start over. after all, if He wanted to destroy all of creation, why save male and female pairs of all kinds of animals? and why save Noah and his family? it sounds like God just wanted to get rid of the bad, and keep the good. its kinda like when you're working on a project, and you don't like how its turning out so you decide to get rid of it and start over, but you see a few things that you do like, so you keep them. my second thought is that He had Noah save male and female pairs. couples. not families, not life groups, not friends, but pairs. couples. I found that interesting. people keep saying to me that I shouldn't want to have a romantic relationship so badly, that friends and God should be enough and...if I always hate that. God Himself saw that it was not good for Adam to be alone, and Adam was perfect, no sin, perfect intimate one-on-one relationship with God.
When God shuts in Noah and his family and the animals in the ark, it made me see that sometimes God shuts you in to save you, to help you. picture what it must have been like inside that ark: dark. smelly from all the animals. definitely no kitchen to cook in. cold most likely. no beds. no bathroom.they wouldn't have had anything for entertainment but each other and the animals. and also the world was being flooded, so that ark was most likely tossing and turning and going up and down and sideways. doesn't sound like fun. it sounds hard and scary. taken out of content, this sounds like a punishment. yet God was helping them, He was saving them. This was a gift, an honor, that God saw them as being righteous and saved them. now Noah and his family had the advantage of knowing the whole picture, why they were in that ark. us? we don't. we don't always know what God shuts us in, somewhere where we don't really want to be but would rather be elsewhere. even Noah and his family,knowing they were being saved, probably did not truly want to be inside that ark. yet, God knew what He was doing, and just like He had a reason for Noah and his family being inside that ark, He also has a reason when we find ourselves in places we don't want to be.
I noticed while reading this that it is mentioned a lot that Noah found favor with God. I guess the author wanted to really make that point, but I found that interesting. I also thought about how God must have felt, when He chose to flood the earth. sure He saw how evil and sinful mankind had become, yet this was also His creation, that He had created, and destroying it, flooding it, must have been so heartbreaking. imagine having to watch your child be put to death by lethal injection or by the electric chair...painful right? even knowing the awful crime they did, knowing its the only way to protect society....now imagine you are the one who chose that, the one who pushed the button to electrocute them or who gave them the injection. God knows how that feels. hundreds of times over, He knows how that feels.I'm sure this is not what most people think when they read this story, but even at the beginning, God is willing to make the big sacrifices required for His creation. makes me want to say I'm sorry that we are not always willing to do the same for Him.
²¹" The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though^[a] every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done"(Genesis 8:21-22). the thought I had about these verses is that it sounds like God said He wouldn't destroy the earth because of man, and usually what is taught is that He promises not to destroy humans like that again, but its not exactly that, although we are included as living creatures. its not a promise specifically about us, if that makes sense.
when its talking about how the waters started to recede, it once again struck me that God's way of doing things seems to me to be...steady, one step at a time. the waters did not just go away in a day or in one go, but instead God had them recede slowly, bit by bit.  I found that interesting. the flood itself also took several days, it didn't just flood at once.
one last thought. "Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded^[a] to plant a vineyard. ²¹ When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. ²² Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. ²³ But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.

. ^"24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, ²⁵ he said,

   “Cursed be Canaan!
   The lowest of slaves
   will he be to his brothers.”

 ²⁶ He also said,

   “Praise be to the LORD, the God of Shem!
   May Canaan be the slave of Shem.
²⁷ May God extend Japheth’s^[b] territory;
   may Japheth live in the tents of Shem,
   and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”(Gen 9:20-27). in this story, Noah gets drunk and passes out naked in his tent. one of his sons comes in, sees him, and walks out. he tells the other two, and they come in and cover him. this is gonna sound weird, but when I read it, it sounded a lot like the parable of the Good Samaritan.not exactly, but the basics are there. the first son saw Noah and did not do anything, the other two did. they didn't have to go into the tent, but they did. interesting that this is so similar to the Good Samaritan parable Jesus tells later on.
this was an interesting story and I cannot wait to keep reading Genesis.

Disobedience, Murder, and a Family Tree

Genesis 3-Genesis 5

I have said before that Genesis is a bit of an interesting book to blog about since I know a lot of the stories in it, yet I am enjoying reading it from the beginning, in order. I have read all the way up to the The Flood, and it has been interesting. no major life altering discoveries yet, but it's not about that.
The Fall of Man is a story that I am familiar with, so nothing too surprising came to my mind. I did however, have some thoughts/questions, and I thought I would discuss them here.one thing that I noticed concerns what the snake said to Eve: "for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil"(Genesis 3:5). I might be wrong about this, and probably am, but it seems like...the snake did not really lie. when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit, their eyes were opened, and they knew that what they had done was wrong. so they knew about good and evil. so it doesn't seem like the snake lied but rather...told her the truth, just not the whole truth. I know this probably does not make a lot of sense, but  I am not writing a commentary here, just my own thoughts and opinions and that is something that I thought.
another that I had was about Genesis 3:8-9: "then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, "where are you?" my thought came from the word "but." the word "but" is used in sentence to state that what was said in the previous part of the sentence is not...correct for lack of a better word. so with this in mind, when it says that they hid from God among the trees but that God called out to the man, it makes me think...did God know where Adam was hiding? just an interesting thought. the word "but" implies that the first part of the sentence is not true or correct, therefore the "but" so does it mean that God knew where Adam was hiding?did God know exactly what had happened? or was God being sarcastic when He asked Adam where he was?weird thoughts I know but what can I say? I'm kinda...strange.
   I am a romantic. one of the things I want the most, is to find a guy and marry him, and have a family, and teach them about God and learn about God and life from them, etc. so with that, it is no surprise that this verse "your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you"(genesis 3:16) caught my eye. this is part of the curse/consequences that God gives to Eve, and it made me wonder if prior to the Fall, woman's desire was not for romance, not for a guy to love her, or to get married or any of that but for God. not that these desires were not there but maybe God was truly the number 1 desire for woman. that is so hard for me to even imagine, but I wish it was still reality you know? as much as I try...I just cannot do it. another thought that I had from this verse was that maybe when God said "rule over you" He didn't mean it in a controlling, power kind of a way. maybe He meant it in an...emotional, in thoughts, kinda way. I had this thought because  it is no secret that I have been in love with this one guy for about 3 years, and he does rule over me in a way. I do think about him a lot, I do care more about him than about myself, and so many of my emotions and thoughts are devoted to him(I know, I know, I'm working on it). So when I read "rule over you" that is what I thought about.
And the LORD God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” ²³ So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. ²⁴ After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side^[e] of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life." I have written about this thought in a previous post, but when I read this, it did not sound to me like being cast out of the garden or dying were part of the curse. it sounded like God drove them out of the garden so they couldn't eat from the tree of life so they would die. and God wanted man to die because man now knew about good and evil, and it doesn't sound like God wanted man to live forever now that he knew about good and evil(this also kinda supports my earlier theory that what the snake said would happen, did happen). again, really weird theory but I tend to have a lot of those.
"The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, ⁵ but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast"(Genesis 4:4-5). the thought that I had about this passage is that it doesn't sound...fair. it sounds like God is being unfair.it makes God seem like He's playing favorites. I must admit that one of the hardest things about being friends with Brent Bailey is that he is so good at everything, that I know I will never ever be able to measure up. sometimes I feel...inadequate. sometimes I really believe that he is such a better christian than I am. he's compassionate, he loves people, he never gets mad or angry but no matter what you say or do to him, he never gets mad or gets revenge or anything. he reads his bible a lot, he reads christian living books all the time, he goes to life group,etc. and me? i buy christian books but never get around to reading them, I didn't go to life group this past year, and I get mad at people. so basically, he's Abel and I'm Cain. and what this verse says is that God will prefer Brent and not Millie. maybe there is more to the story, but this is one of those stories that doesn't make God look good.
Now Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let’s go out to the field.”^[d] While they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.⁹ Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is your brother Abel?”   “I don’t know,” he replied. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” ¹⁰ The LORD said, “What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground"(Genesis 4:8-10). this verse made me wonder if Cain meant to kill or not. since no human had been killed(assumingly) by another human before, it makes me wonder if Cain meant to kill Abel or not. I guess we'll never know for sure. I also noticed/thought that God always knew what had happened...He knew what Adam and Eve did, He knew what Cain had done...yet he always asked them. it's almost as if He was giving them a chance to confess to Him what they had done.interesting thought huh? I also had some verses that I did not really get.Verse 21:²¹ "His brother’s name was Jubal; he was the father of all who play stringed instruments and pipes." I found weird. just...did not make sense to me. verse 17 says that Cain lay with his wife, but we aren't told beforehand that he had a wife so I wonder where he got one from.
"At that time people began to call on^[i] the name of the LORD"(Genesis 4:26). I think that this is when people began praying for the first time. I am probably wrong, but that what it sounded like to me.
chapter 5 was not very interesting, although this verse did stick out to me:^21" When Enoch had lived 65 years, he became the father of Methuselah. ²² After he became the father of Methuselah, Enoch walked faithfully with God 300 years and had other sons and daughters. ²³ Altogether, Enoch lived a total of 365 years. ²⁴ Enoch walked faithfully with God; then he was no more, because God took him away"(Genesis 5:21-24). This stuck out to me because the description of Enoch is different than the others. none of the others in the line are described as having walked faithfully with the Lord. we are just given the genealogical information.is there a significance to this? Was Enoch different?

I know that my thoughts are weird and crazy and probably do not make much sense. I'm sure Brent would have had a bunch of deep and meaningful thoughts and revelations that would have made for an excellent blog post. but I'm not Brent, and I like my crazy thoughts at least they stand out from the crowd right? I am very excited to be doing this and while I haven't had deep and life changing revelations yet, that's not what it's about for me. I'm excited to be learning God's story better.

Genesis 2

Genesis 2 is considered to be the second creation story. however, while I was reading it, I did not really get a "second creation story vibe." to me, it seemed to be more of a continuation. God has created the universe, the world in the first chapter and in this second chapter it was more like God was putting the finishing touches if you will. for example, it says that "Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth^[a] and no plant had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground (Gen 2:5)." Maybe this doesn't mean that He hadn't created it yet but that He had but He hadn't made it grow yet. and the verses that mention God creating trees from the ground, etc...maybe it doesn't mean He was creating the world but maybe this is God creating the Garden of Eden. maybe this second chapter is the story of the creation of the Garden and God putting Adam into it. it does say in the first chapter of Genesis that God created them Male and Female. Maybe the first chapter is "overall" and this second chapter is more of a focus in on God creating Woman and creating the garden. I am not saying I am right, but that this is what it appeared to me. fair warning, my crazy mind will probably come up with a lot of crazy and wacky things on this journey, so just be prepared for that.

 At the beginning of this chapter, it says "By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. ³ Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done (Gen 2:2-3)." When I read this, I had this thought that maybe God created resting. Maybe rest is part of Creation. God worked and then when He was done He rested, even though He does not have to rest.  He still rested. Was He creating resting?since He doesn't have to rest, then by resting He was, in a way, creating the concept. Maybe we should look at Resting as what God created on the 7th day of Creation and look at resting as part of Creation.

“You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; ¹⁷ but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”(Gen 2:16-17)." I had this thought while reading this chapter. I haven't gotten to The Fall story yet, so I am getting a bit ahead of myself. it's more of a question really. There was a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and there was also the tree of life. Maybe death was not a punishment for sinning, and neither was being cast out of the garden. I heard a professor once talking about this in class, so this was not an idea from my own mind but reading this reminded me of this. maybe being cast out of the garden was because God did not want them to eat of the tree of life anymore, because He did not want them to live forever in this new Fallen state of life.and so God cast them away from the garden, from the tree of life, so they would die and not always have to life in that Fallen state they had created when they disobeyed God. again, not an idea that came from me but from a professor but it makes sense to me and it is something that reading this reminded me of and made me think about. of course this is assuming that the tree of life is what kept them from dying, which brings me to this thought/question I just had: what did the tree of life do? did it keep them from dying? did it help them live the life God created them for?or did it do nothing?what was it?what was its purposes? Moses mentioned it for a reason right?

"The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him(Gen 2: 18)." I have this book that deals with things you can do to prepare yourself for marriage, and one of the things that the author says in it is that when God saw that man was alone, that it was not good for him to be alone, He created a helper, a partner, for him. He did not create friends for man, He did not create a life group, a support group, a bible, a church, etc. for Man. He gave him a partner. the author also said that Adam had the perfect relationship with God, literally, and God still saw that it was not good for Adam to be alone. maybe just because you have a good relationship with God doesn't mean that it is still good for you to be alone. and that's what I feel like my friends are always telling me, and I just don't buy it. at least, at this very moment in time, I don't buy it.

Those are the thoughts that this chapter brought out. most of them aren't ideas that came from me, but that's okay I think. Genesis is an interesting chapter just because I do know the stories, so its hard to just go with the thoughts I had when reading it and not what I've learned in class or from people. still, I'm enjoying it. :) :)

Genesis 1

   I want to begin by saying that I am becoming that person that has a ton of bibles, but the last two that I bought are really good resources. one is King James's Version and it is color coded...not just by chapter but by verse. each verse is highlighted according to the subject matter that it talks about. it also includes a year long plan to read the entire bible and maps, etc. I also bought bible tabs color coded by book type, so the Pentateuch is red, history books are orange,etc.it is a good bible to take with me to China because I will really have to learn to do my own bible studies and my own bible devos since I won't have really have the same type of church in China that I have here, with the campus ministry and events and devos, etc. And since I won't have Brent Bailey around to give my verses or stories in the bible to go to, and since I don't have a lot of in-depth bible knowledge since I'm relatively new to bible studying, I am glad I found a bible where I the verses are color coded and I love the tabs because it completes the color coding. now I will learn which books are what type; I will know the history books, the wisdom and poetry books, the letters, the prophets. going along with that, seeing the color coded tabs shows you how the bible is laid out: the Pentateuch comes first, then history, then wisdom and poetry(which there are not a whole lot of) then the prophets and the the Gospels, and then finally the Letters. it is very...logically laid out. I am really glad I found this resource, it is unique and a good training tool for me to learn the Bible.  the other bible that I bought is also unique. there's this movie and book called "letters to God" which is based on a true story of this little boy with cancer who starts reading his dad's bible and is inspired to start writing letters to God. I haven't seen the movie or read the book, not yet anyway, but I've seen the trailer for the movie. anyways, they are selling the dad's bible, with the dad's notes and comments that he wrote in his bible as a collector's item and/or bible edition. it even has the same cover that his dad's bible had. there are comments written on pretty much every page! it does look like a used bible and in a way it is. I thought it was awesome and I think that its good to have a bible with the comments of someone else so that it helps me think about something in a new way or something that I've never thought of before. it is really cool and I love it! anyways, these are the two bibles I am mainly going to use on this bible reading journey and I think that I picked two good bible editions. I know the King James's version is supposed to not be the best, but for some reason I love that old-fashioned way of speaking.
    Genesis 1 is the story of Creation. It is a chapter that I am familiar with, so no big huge surprises were there for me. however, I did have some thoughts while I was reading it and that's what I am going to share in this post. the first thought I had came in the second verse: "now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."(Gen 1:2). I was truck by this verse. dark. shapeless. empty. Earth doesn't exactly sound like a beautiful paradise. it certainly isn't somewhere that any one of us would enjoy visiting or living in.yet God was still there. I really found that cool and awesome. if God was there when Earth was dark, empty, shapeless, then He will for sure be there when we hit those points in the road that are the same way: dark, empty, without any shape or form. I think it's very fitting that from even before the beginning, God was there. We don't have to be beautiful or lead awesome beautiful lives for God to be there. His presence is constant, regardless of circumstances.
  The other thought I had was reading the story of God creating Creation, it really stuck out to me how God did not create everything at once. He could have. He could have snapped his fingers and everything would have been created, including us, in less than a nano second. yet He did not. He created everything one day(whether or not "day" is 24 hours of not is not important. it's not a crucial thing to be debating: God created Creation in 7 days, or maybe even 7 years or thousands of years. doesn't matter to me. at least not at this point) at a time. He created one thing, and then the next day would build on what He created. one thing led to another. Step-by-Step. it seemed so different that the way we do things today. today, people have TVs that allow them to watch more than more channel at a time, phones that allow us to talk and text and internet surf all at once, students in university major in multiple majors, and I even know a friend that is going to ACU's Graduate of Theology school, and he is doing two of their degrees at the same time. we do all these things at the same time to save time, because it'll save us time. not that there isn't anything wrong with saving time,yet...God did not "save time" when He created Creation. He devoted a day to everything He created. Maybe we should follow God's example and slow down, and focus on thing at a time. after all, I would rather live my life than to live it saving time.
      Whenever He finished creating something, God would see that what he had done was good, and at the end "God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."(Gen 1:31). I found this confidence...good. sometimes I feel that we are all trying so hard to be humble and modest that we sacrifice our confidence. I believe that it is okay to see something you have done, know that you are good at it, and did an awesome job on it. I also believe that its okay to know that you are better at something than most people are. the problem I believe, is when people get arrogant about it and start thinking this makes them superior to other people and/or put people down or brag about it. God saw all that He created and KNEW it was good. so maybe it is okay for us to know that what we have done or do is good. humble and modest does not mean you stifle your confidence.
Those are my thoughts that I had for Genesis 1. Even though I am familiar with it, I still learned from it and I am very much looking forward to continuing!

Introduction

I decided towards  the beginning of 2011 that I wanted to read the bible cover to cover. I have not gotten around to it, mostly because of school, laziness, and other things going on(and that I wanted to read). but now I have graduated and have a whole summer with nothing to do, and a whole year in China with no TV in English and limited movies(limited to DVDs on my laptop) and so I will have time some time, after my teaching job, and relationships work, to do plenty of reading. I know the bible probably was not meant to be read from cover to cover as a cohesive story, but I still think it will help me, especially since there are lots of books and letters that are not very focused on in church or in bible studies. plus, I just really want to! :) :)
My goal is to get through the Old Testament by the end of the summer, and finish the entire bible by January, and then in January I can start the reading plan that my color-coded bible came with, to read the whole bible in a year starting January 1. I'm excited. I read Genesis 1 yesterday and I had some good thoughts. I don't have a specific plan in terms of the posts. sometimes I'll write about a chapter, other times about a whole book, other times about a specific verse, other times  I'll write about where I'm at, what the story is looking like to me up to the point I'm at, etc.
the title for this blog comes from me, and inspired a little by Richard Foster because in his "Life with God" book he said that the bible is God's story of being with us from the beginning. I believe that and I'm looking forward to reading God's story. it is His story, we are merely players and actors and characters in it. He wrote it, He's the author. I'll do a blog post about Genesis 1(and maybe 2) soon!stay tuned! I do want people to stay tuned to this blog and comment on my thoughts, give their opinions, etc.