Exodus 31 - 33 Aaron seems awful quick to agree to make an idol, the golden calf, in this passage it seems to me. Still, I, too, can be far to quick to put something else in front of the Lord. My human pride of doing it myself for instance. It also reminds me today of clergy who have lost their faith but continue as clergy because they have no other training/trade to pursue. God is about to destroy the Israelites for worshiping the golden calf, when Moses talks God out of it. This speaks to me of the power of talking to God. Joshua hears the sound of war, but Moses says it's the sound of singing. That singing must have been pretty bad, lol. Moses is so angry that he throws the tablets engraved by God and they break! It seems disrespectful to me. Aaron now tells Moses that the golden calf just popped out of the fire, but earlier it clearly says that Aaron shaped it. The story changed. The Levites go and kill 3000 of their own families. Sounds like a massacr...
Today's reading: Genesis 9 - 11 God's covenant with Noah, Noah's drunkenness, the the table of Noah's sons' descendants, the Tower of Babel, Shem's family line, Abram's family Here we see the first rainbow! I have always been puzzled and troubled by Noah's response to Ham's seeing him naked. I don't see it as that big of deal. Is it because Ham told his brothers instead of fixing the situation himself? I can see that it's embarrassing for Noah, but he's still the one who got himself into that situation. I am also deeply saddened to think how these few verses have been used to justify the enslavement of persons of color.
Deuteronomy 23 - 25 Why was all this emasculation going on? So weird from today's cultural world. 23:7 says not to despise an Egyptian because the Israelites had resided as foreigners in Egypt. Yet, the Egyptians had made them slaves and order their sons be killed. To my human way of thinking, despising the Egyptians would be a given. Here we see the protection of an slave seeking refuge from their master. I love the leaving of various foods for the fatherless, the foreigner and the widow. Sounds like a social program with responsibilities The duty of the brother-in-law. Yuck! in my opinion. Very different culturally. If somebody was attacking my man, I might think it worth it to have my hand cut off in order to stop the fight. Probably my modern day cultural thinking.
Comments
Post a Comment