"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!
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