Day 4 ~ Desperate Housewife

I was able to read through without any distractions this afternoon for a change of pace. The entire passage for today recounts Joseph, the son of Israel (Jacob) and his relationship with his brothers. Here are my observations for day four.

• In spite of the actions of Er and Onan (which cost them their lives), God is determined to fulfill the lineage to the Messiah thorugh Tamar.
• Judah reminds me of the old joke about plummers at a convention and their extra-curricular activities when they are out of sight and out of mind. (38:12ff)
• Our "desperate housewife" is Potipher's wife, who tried to seduce Joseph, then lied and had him imprisoned.
• I don't recall in my reading of these passages any description that Joseph, a Hebrew, would be recognized as such by his physical appearance. When Moses is in Egypt many years later, he is recognized as being non-Egyptian by his appearance. 45:12 seems to draw attention to how Benjamin and Joseph, born of the same mother and father, shared common physical characteristics.
• Joseph is blessed with the gift of dream interpretation, which he clearly gave God credit for providing the solution in at least two circumstances. He interprets two of his own dreams, the dream of the Butler, the Baker, and of the Pharoah.
• Are repeated dreams always from God? (41:32) If so, then I need someone to explain the recurring dream I had as a teenager being chased around the top of the State Fair Coliseum by a really big snake. I had that dream several times. Does the pork tent have anything to do with this old dream?!
• Let's review the sons of Jacob who will be the tribes of Israel that will become a great nation (35:21, from yesterday). 1) Reuben, 2) Simeon, 3) Levi, 4) Judah, 5) Issachar, 6) Zebulun, 7) Dan, 8) Naphtali, 9) Gad, 10) Asher, 11) Joseph, 12) Benjamin. The ones listed in bold will later receive an inheritance in the promise land. As will two other names: Manessah & Ephraim, who are introduced as Joseph's sons from his Egyptian wife in 41:50. Presumably, they will take their father's inheritance. So what happened to Reuben and Levi? Levi's tribe becomes priests and they are provided for from each of the tribes, but Reuben? Remember when Israel found out about Reuben and Bilhah in 35:23? That looks like it will be even more significant (Reuben's inheritance is technically outside the promised land on the east of the Jordan; Gad eventually loses his western land to others). See a map of the tribes here: www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/tribemap.html
  
• Joseph's brothers deceptively describe themselves as "honest men" (42:1) to the one person who knew the truth. In what ways do we elaborate on the truth when we describe ourselves?
• Guess they didn't care enough about getting Simeon back from Egypt until the food ran out (43:2).
• Egyptians think it is an abomination to eat with the Hebrews. Again, Joseph's physical appearance did not keep him from eating with the Egyptians.
• Where does "Hebrew" come from, and what does it mean? It was used one time before, in describing "Abram the Hebrew" (14:13) and then several times in the description of Joseph in Egypt.
• Joseph's silver cup was used for divination. Was that bad? Was that how God talked to him, or was it an ungodly practice? He describes himself as using divination to find things out, but to us it is obvious that he didn't need divination to know who had the cup, because he had instructed it to be placed in Benjamin's bag. Laban used the term divination in 30:27 as a way of finding out that the Lord had blessed him. I guess I've always considered divination to be aligned with satanic rituals. Divination would be an interesting word study. For another day. or year.
• Joseph knew his greater task with all his power was to save his family God's promise of a so a great nation would be the fulfilled (45:7). The promise is reiterated again in 45:12.
• Is the Job of 46:13 the same Job we know from the later OT book?
• Why so precise a count of the lineage of Israel that traveled into Egypt?
• The Egyptians also hated shepherds, and sent the new Hebrew arrivals off to Goshen.

Enjoy your long weekend, those of you fortunate enough for three days in a row off work - the weather promises to be absolutely wonderful. Take time to see God in his creation!

Day 3 ~ Jacob & Esau

For those 50 or so of you who attended the worship ministry kickoff last evening, I did not wake up with my cup full. I was in a foul mood. After some prayer and following some advice from my husband, I finally shook the majority of the "badittude" by noon. On Thursdays, I go help teach the first grade computer class, and I whipped thru McD (chastise me later), and went the cheap route with a snack wrap. Easy to eat and drive with. I decided to try the "pay it forward" thing that the speaker from last night's video suggested to further improve my coutenance. After all, I was entering a computer lab with 24 six year olds, and would need to keep my composure. My total was about $3. The hungry guy behind me was $11.10. Geez, what did he order. Oh well, bet he was surprised. I wish I would have had one of those "simple act of kindess" cards from the KIP table on me to pass via window #3 to the guy in the black truck.

Ah, my favorite verse so far, as it is very applicable to my daily conversation with my daughter: Genesis 27:8 "Now therefore my son [daughter], obey my voice according to what I commanded you." That is priceless. I was tempted to stop there, but I need to get through chapter 36.
Here we go with my observations:

• Doesn't the story of Jacob stealing the blessing remind you of Little Red Riding Hood?


• Esau tries to gain a bit of favor by marrying from the family line (instead of the foreigners, confirmed in 36:1).


• Promise of a great nation passed on to Jacob by God


• I find it interesting that the children of the "unloved" wife, Leah, become the most prominent in the twelve tribes. It appears that the order in which God favored the mother of Jacob's children was Leah, Rachel, then the maids.


• Leah's offspring Levi's tribe became the intercessors for the entire nation; Judah would be the branch to bring forth the "Lion of Judah," Jesus. Rachel may have been pretty, but God favored Leah.


• If I remember correctly, the tribe of Gad, who's name means "troop comes" was given land on the east of the Jordan river, made to fight with everyone else on the west side of the Jordan, then able to return to their territory. Guess he was well named.


• Speaking of names...many more choice ones to chose from!


• 11 kids in 14 years by four women. I'm still not grasping the "rules of engagement" so to speak. I appears to be okay for Jacob to have kids with two wives and two servants of his wives, but apparently it is out of bounds for a son to canoodle with his father's baby mamma (Bilhal, 35:22). I wonder how this might show up as a consequence later. It seems a bit weird just to drop it in and then have no follow up.


• Jacob knew a thing or two about genetics. And possibly aphrodesiacs (mandrake and almond tree rods? do they run really tacky commercials about this stuff on late-night cable?)


• Idols. Rachel stole some from her dad. Jacob made the family clean them out in chapter 35. He wasn't doing a very good job ~ and this is before the chosen people starting mixing much with the uncircumcised.


• Jacob knew that God spoke to Laban (31:42). How? If he was so close to God (who spoke to Jacob many times) why were there issues with household idols in Jacob's family.


• Now, why was it that Jacob stayed with Laban if he kept getting ripped off? Oh yeah, his brother had said he would kill him because of the two-time double crosser's trickery. Now that he's flown the coop, Jacob starts singing a very sweet, subservient tune to Esau. Which seems to work. For now. Not long from now, Israel and Edom would butt heads many times as enemies.


• Did you know that Jews didn't eat hip meat because of Jacob wrestling with a "Man" and getting his hip dislocated? One of may really odd rules to follow...numbers more to come. Numbers...get it?


• Was the "Man" God? Jesus? Jacob thought it was God (32:30). God renames him Israel. But it doesn't look like Jacob got it, because God had to remind him of his new name again in 35:9.

Okay, the distractions are getting to me. Grace - you know that is gonna happen. The neighbor's stray cat that has taken to living on my back porch sanctuary, where I am trying to read tonight because the weather is so pleasant. A squirt gun unloaded on him during the course of about 5 minutes has held him at bay. Thanks to neighbor "Dr. Julie" for deworming/defleaing and giving the varmit a vaccination. But now, believe it or not, a chainsaw. Give me strength, Lord.

imagine me wet and running away

Note to self #3: keep a squirt gun on the table on the back porch.

• The man who defiled Dinah was more honorable than all in the house of his [uncircumcised] father (34:19). Doesn't say much for that clan. Did you see that coming? (34:25) I wonder if Dinah knew about it or if she was freaking out because they already handed her over to them (34:26). God confirms that they better get out of dodge, and puts a shield around them as they - yet again - wander from place to place.
• A somewhat lengthy lineage of the Edomites, decendants of Esau, is recounted in chapter 36. The brothers' lines will become perpetual enemies. Edomites lived south of the Dead Sea along the chief trade route to the gulf of Agaba, where Eqypt, Israel, Jordan and Saudia Arabia come together. Archaeologist will/have probably found stuff with these names of Chiefs on them, which will further prove the truth of the Bible.

Maybe tomorrow I'll wake up with my cup at least half full. I'm irritated (but not surprised) that I got in such foul spirits only 2-1/2 days into a spiritual challenge. Tomorrow is another day, and then a three-day weekend!! Hope it stays under 90 degrees, and you are keeping up with the challenge, or ready to begin on September 2.

Day 2 ~ Promise of a Nation

We're all familiar with the account Abram and Sarai, and the covenant that God makes with them promising the renamed Abraham he would be the father of many nations. Our reading on day two takes us through Abram/Abraham and Sarai/Sarah, their son Isaac and Rebekah, and their grandchildren Jacob and Esau. Here are a few thoughts I jotted down as I read through the day two passage.

• I'd like to have an understanding of marriage and multiple wives from this time period, not to mention marrying your half-sister. It seems obvious that the children of Adam and Eve would have had to bear children with their sisters (Answers in Genesis has some interesting insight into this as well). Was it okay with God for multiple wives/concubines. It seems so foreign in this day and age. In Gen 25:6, apparently Hagar wasn't the only concubine that Abraham had children with. The nation that would come from Abram's son with his servant Hagar will later rule over the children of the promised son with Sarah. Is this because Abram's and Sarai doubted God's promise and took matters into their own hands, or because Hagar wasn't his wife. I would think the doubt was the reason.
• From men living to be 800 and 900 years old, Abraham is considered to have lived a good old age when he died at 175. I'm assuming that disease and sin increasingly reduced the life span as time went on. Two big famines have been mentioned as well, about 125 years apart.
• Even though Abraham scoffed at being too old to have his first son when he was told at the age of 99, apparently he went on to have at least 6 more children after the age of 136 (25:2).
• There was no such thing as fast food when you had company (18:6). Make our guests some bread and bake it, and kill that goat after you milk it for something to drink. Dinner will be ready in about 8 hours.
• In 18:21, God says He will go down and check on Sodom. In 19:1, two angels appear. Does He go in the form of an angel, and maybe Jesus with him (note the "we" passages used in the creation account), or does he just send someone?
• Lot appears to be a weak loser. Why would he stay in Sodom when he knew it was so bad. The sin was well known and not hidden, and the men of Sodom considered Lot an outsider (19:9). How could he offer up his daughters to these awful men. It doesn't seem like he know the strangers are angels, and he takes his time heeding their warning to get out and then complains he can't go as far as the mountains. He was only rememebered and saved because God remembered Abraham. A character study on Lot would be interesting.
• It was mighty big of Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael off with a bit of bread and a container of water into the desert. Sarah must have really put her foot down and shown her jealous streak. Hagar returns to Egypt and finds an Egyptian wife for Abraham's son. Payback is coming.
• God promises several times that Abraham's decendants will become a great nation. This is a glimpse of the stubbornness of the chosen nation to come and how they have to be continually reminded.
• Why did God send Abraham out from his father to basically be a wanderer without land of his own? He didn't even have land to bury Sarah.
• I'll have to try the "thigh oath" (ch 24) with someone.
• God will provide the Lamb. Does the song from "Behold the Lamb" instantly enter your mind?
• Rebekah must have been gifted as a giver and a servant. Can you imagine how long it would have taken to water 10 camels with a jar until they would stop drinking. This was no passing comment, and a sure sign that God had answered the servant's prayer. This servant showed great thanks to the Lord in the passages in which he is involved.
• Sometimes you'll do almost anything for a good bowl of stew.
• Esau's wives (again more than one) were a grief of mind to his parents. Interesting. Also interesting that they were Hittites. Surely a quick answer to God's promise that one people would serve the other (25:23).

Gotta go - time to take my goodies to the worship ministry pitch-in and see what Pastor Doug has in store for us this coming season.

Day 1 ~ Four Minutes

My first attempt to complete the remaining 4 chapters of day one lasted four minutes. I had a small window of time while my six-year-old daughter got her jammies on, brushed her teeth, then played for a short time (in that order ~ jammies, teeth, play ~ repeat back to me for clarification, please Grace). This short time to myself will allow me to knock it out of the park for day one. I got comfortable in my rocking chair in the corner of my living room, adjusted the table lamp and began reading.

"And children were born also to Shem, the father of..." ...Ring, ...Ring, ...Ring. I'm tempted not to answer it, but I know it is my husband calling from the fire station as he does every night at this time when he is on duty. For the record, I read 21 verses. I also go sidetracked noting on a map where the decendents of Noah were thought to have settled. (I didn't heed my note to self about using a Bible with no notes). My husband asked me what I was doing, and when I replied "trying to read my first day of the Bible challenge when you called and interrupted me," to which he chuckled and stated that he was just fulfilling his duty as my accountability partner.

Note to self #2: don't try to start reading before Jeff calls.

Now, up to see if Grace is playing with her jammies on, or if she has some 'splainin to do. Jammies on. Good. We have a short discussion about increasing the consequences for her disrespectful tone and failure to follow our instructions the first time (okay, you all can quit laughing now). I know I hit a primo consequence when the floodgate of tears were opened at the mention of doll "baby Sarah" being taken away for a night if our warnings for misbehavior aren't heeded.

I completed day one's reading a short 15 minutes after the completion of 2 chapters of "Junie B Jones is Almost a Flower Girl." Straying from the direct read to jot a few notes, I completed in about 45 minutes.

If you don't think you can absorb much in a quick read through of the Bible, I offer my following observations from day one (plus the ones from my maiden blog). Now, when am I going to have time to delve into the answers?

• Have you seen modern day Iraq/Iran - the most commonly referred to area for the Garden of Eden? I've seen pictures; Joe Wilson could probably fill us in on how hot and sandy it is after his tour of duty last year. Not much of a garden now. Nor is the "valley of Jordan" - basically the area around the Dead Sea. I have seen that in person, and it is desolate, and hot. NO vegetation. According to Genesis 13:10-12, this area was well watered everywhere before the fall of Sodom and Gomorrah. Later it will be described as the land of milk and honey. It's hard to picture how tempting the promised land was.


• Reading through the ages of the decendants of Adam in Genesis 5, it seems Enoch got short-changes with only 365 years. But the caveat is that "he was no more, because God took him away." Lucky Enoch.


• It is amazing to me to think how quickly civilizations developed. I did the math on Egypt, where Abram traveled and gained some favor with the Pharoah. Starting with the flood, Noah's son Shem was 100 when Araphaxad was born, 35 more years to Salah, 30 years to Eber, 34 to Peleg, 32 to Reu, 30 to Serug, 29 to Nahor, 70 to Terah, and then Abram was at least 75 but less than 100 (when Isaac was born) when he visited Egypt. That is 462 years for the Egyption civilization to have a political system of pharoahs and storehouses that could feed many during famine. I wonder if the name of the Pharoah that Abram would have known has been discovered. It would be interesting to compared the time lines from those records and the Bible. Just one small detail: I can't deciper hierglyphics very well. [By the way: Grace has a thing about Egypt, so we've read a bit and it has made me curious. She also has an odd curiosity with President Lincoln. She's been to many of his homes, including his boyhood home, the White House, and his final resting place in Springfield. It was quite a site to see her burst into tears and blubber "my favorite president is dead!" at the Lincoln Museum in Springfield. Grandpa Mike, the history buff, is so proud.]


• These people were very busy populating the earth - Genesis 4:14 states 318 servants had been born to Abram's house (in less than 50-75 years). And these people lived hundreds of years. That's alot of babies. Perhaps that is why the names seem so bizarre. Once you get past the easy ones like Joe, Mike, Tom, Bill, you have to get creative. Bonus: some excellent names for boys are presented for your consideration.
  
• Wonder when it became an no-no to have multiple wives? It was discouraged for church leaders by the letters to Timothy. Why was it acceptable then?


• A timeline question occurs for me concerning multiple languages. In Gen. 10:31, Shem's family are described broken down by "languages" and "nations." But in 11:1, the Tower of Babel account, it describes everyone with one language. It looks like the clue is in the geneologies of Shem back in 10:25 when it says the earth was divided with Peleg. Maybe that is when Babel occurred.


• Back to the Egyptian timeline - from Peleg to Abram (at 75) is 236 years; could the Egyptian civilization be that far along in 236 years? Point of reference: the United States just celebrated 231 years as a nation. Want an idea of how much the US has changed in 400 years? Read and article on the Jamestown settlers from National Geographic magazine http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0705/feature1/index.html. (I cancelled my subscription to this magazine years ago because the million years theories permeates at a level that is nauseating to me. This article is no exception. Grace's teachers are going to think her parents are wacko when they talk about dinosaurs later this year.)

By the way, it takes me longer to do this blog than read the passages. Sorry that you're going to hear much more about my family that you really care about. Everyone thinks their own brats are so cute, and I'm no exception. Except the next time she defies my command (perceived as barked at her like a drill sgt) isn't going to be so cute when baby Sarah spends the night away from Grace in the extra bedroom. I'm sure this will get shorter. I guess I'm just excited ~ I actually have a desire to read more. Thank you, Lord!

In the beginning...

As part of the team at Cicero Christian Church that brings you the 90 Day Bible Reading Challenge, I'm going to attempt to send out email encouragement to those of you who signed up for the challenge and provided your email addresses. I thought I would send a verse from the selected reading for the day and try to get prepared in advance (there is a novel idea, wonder if I can pull it off?). So, I started my reading today.

I went to Subway for lunch with Bible in hand (I did not go to McDonald's, for those of you in my Sunday school class). I was irritated by the loud music, and strolled down to the ice cream place down the strip mall and plunked myself up on a stool at the table in front of the sign that told me not to sit there if I was not a customer. They were closed, so I didn't see any real issue. I would pick up my trash.

I started with a prayer ~ admitting what God already knows ~ that I'm basically lazy, and the only way I was going to get through the 90 Day Challenge (in 90 Days!) and encourage others in their challenge was for Him to prompt me pretty regularly through His Holy Spirit to choose the narrow path and just get it done. I'm thankful that I'm a fast reader.

Note to self: pick up my Bible without all the extra notes in it for tomorrow! I picked the wrong Bible to start with ~ The Word in Life Study Bible was on the back seat of my car. It has way too many distractions (great information for a slow read...but I'm on a mission here). I got about 2 chapters in when the owner of the ice cream shop came out and berated me for not heeding the sign. Only kidding - he wanted to know if I got in on the fight at Subway that spilled out into the street. Fortunately, I didn't. He was friendly enough. I got through chapter 9. I need to get through chapter 14. Lucky for me, TV is in reruns and there is nothing on to watch, so after my daughter Grace gets to bed, I should have ample opportunity to finish up. Meanwhile, how do I put a half a check mark on my go deeper laminated chart?

I have to put a plug in for one of my favorite organizations - Answers in Genesis (http://www.answersingenesis.org/). Have you been to their new Creation Museum yet? I highly suggest you go, and familiarize yourself with their excellent approach to a literal 6 day creation.

Being familiar with alot of the AIG stuff, and having done the math of the geneologies years ago to see how beautifully it works out that the oldest of the ancestors of Noah died the year of the flood, I could skip through alot of the questions. Questions like "who was Cain's wife" and "were dinosaurs on the ark." I also read an article in their Answers magazine that, through simple math, demonstrated that if the world was only 10s of thousands of years old (not millions), we would have a population problem now that would be astronomical, but at a moderate birth rate since the flood (about 4400 years ago, remember we started over with only 8 people), calculations would show us about where in population of our world today. Don't even get me started on the million year stuff.

I'm making a note to follow up (in about 100 days) on the following:

• Did Adam and Eve have children while they were in the garden? How else would Eve have known about painless childbirth?


• Why did God really not like Cain's sacrifice? Was it the product, or the attitude?


• What does it mean in Gen 6:1 about Sons of God and daughters of men?


• Who were these giants?

I can't be this long on my other posts or I'll never get done, but I hope you enjoy what you read and comment as you see fit. God bless you for your acceptance of this challenge!