Reading the Bible Through

Deuteronomy 14 - 16   I don't have much to say about this. What it says to me is to worship the Lord God and no other gods. 

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...

Exodus 5-7   The beginning here confuses me. Moses and Aaron are saying that the Lord told them to take the Israelites into the wilderness for a 3 day festival to the Lord or they may be struck with famine or swords. I didn't understand anything about a festival from what I read earlier. Still, I guess they might get farther with that than just 'see ya.' I've always been puzzled as to how the Egyptian wise men and sorcerers also turned their staffs into snakes. Some would say by evil, but I have always wondered about some kind of trickery. Still, Aaron's staff (notice it's now Aaron's staff, not Moses like near the burning bush) eats up all the other snake/staffs. Pretty impressive.  Now the Egyptian magicians were also able to turn water into blood. I still wanna know how. Now, I also want to know were these Egyptian magicians got any water to turn it into blood? It looks like Moses and Aaron were pretty thorough. Maybe from the water people were digging up...

 Today's reading:  Genesis 35 - 37 Jacob settles at Bethel, his wife and his father die, Esau's line, Joseph's dreams, Joseph sold by his brothers Jacob tells his household to get rid of the foreign gods they have with them. This makes me wonder if he learned that Rachel had stolen her father's household gods.  God tells Jacob that kings will come from him. Once we get to the place where Israel wants a king, God is displeased with that desire.  Rueben sleeps with his father's concubine.  Jacob & Esau bury Isaac. Wait a minute, didn't Jacob & Esau's argument get started because Isaac thought he was about to die? And that was at least 20 odd years before because Jacob worked for Laban 7 years +7 years + 6 years or so.  Jacob and Esau could not stay together because their possessions were too great for them to remain together. So, Esau settled in Seir. This reminds me of Abraham and Lot parting. It also looks like there was healing between Jacob and Es...