This was a difficult, slow week. I found myself falling back
into my routine of reading fiction until my eyes drooped, instead of capping my
day off with the Word and subsequently playing catch-up on multiple days
throughout the week. In lieu of the incredible length of last week’s entry, I
decided to cut out parts of this one and focus rather on the bigger themes and
observations (rather than everything).
And a song.
Old Testament
(Genesis 28 – 41:16)
Last week I wrote that I thought Isaac was the lamest of the
patriarchs. This theory was compounded this week as I read about Jacob’s
multiple, personal interactions with God. As far as I can remember, the only
time God spoke with Isaac was when he told him that he’d bless him because he’d
made a deal with his father (have fun with those pronouns, kids). Jacob’s first
interaction with God occurs in a dream, in which Jacob sees a stairway to
heaven (with a Led Zeppelin soundtrack, I can imagine). After waking up and
making numerous exclamations of terror and awe, Jacob proclaims that he’ll
allow God to be his God if God will
bless him with a laundry list of things. I can’t help but find this a little
weird and sincerely hope that I wouldn’t be so dense as to make demands from
God after he showed me the gate to the beyond. A little later in the story, God
wrestles with Jacob. I wonder why He did that. Did God get bored and want to
play with someone? Was this story metaphorical? Biblical scholars, help me out.
The story of Leah has always depressed me. For one, it’s a
powerful strong argument against alcohol. Laban gets Jacob so sloshed at his
wedding that he doesn’t even realize he’s knockin boots with some other broad.
Then, as soon as he’s done and kicks the lights on, he runs out powerful mad
and starts shouting at Laban about the trickery! Then he gives Leah a week to be
the only notch on his tentpole before he comes home and marries her sister.
Crappy father, crappy husband. I was talking with Steiney Steinjuice today
about this and he pointed out to me the correlation between OT characters with
multiple wives and the number of problems they have. In Jacob’s defense, he
does utter one of the few sensible lines I’ve heard a character in the OT
speak. Rachel gets all histrionic and tells Jacob to give her a baby or she’ll
die, to which Jacob replies, “What are you telling me for? I’m not God!”
Every coupla weeks, I find myself telling my clients that
they can imagine situations to be much worse than they actually are. I use this
as a method of reducing anxiety – I tell them that even though they could
describe to me in detail what a dragon looks like, it doesn’t change the fact
that dragons aren’t real (except in Westeros). I think the story of Jacob’s
reunion with Esau is a great example of this. Jacob is psyching himself out,
thinking Esau’s going to slaughter him, and he makes all these elaborate preparations
and offerings expecting that – and Esau pulls a Lando and sweeps him off his
feet in a bear hug. I can seriously just imagine Esau saying, “Why you slimy,
double-crossing, no-good swindler. You got a lotta guts comin here… after what
you pulled.” It’s perfect, isn’t it?
Finally, I’ll mention a Bible story that I have never
understood. It’s found in Genesis . Onan’s brother dies for vaguely offending
the Lord and so his dad tells him to get his sister-in-law pregnant to continue
his brother’s line. But Onan doesn’t want to father a child that he has no
claim to, so he pulls out every time and keeps the chick from getting pregnant –
so God strikes him down. Can someone smart PLEASE explain to me why this was a
strikeable offense!?
And instead of writing out my thoughts on Joseph, I’ll just
give you this.
New Testament (Matthew
9:18 – 13:23)
All week, in the bible reading, in church this morning and random
thoughts throughout the week, I kept catching a common theme – simply Jesus. I
imagine that this is going to be a theme that recurs throughout the year, but
it’s something I haven’t concentrated on much lately. In a coupla passages this
week, Jesus talked about how he’s around for the folks who are burned out on
religion and tired of trying to hold up a bar raised higher than they are. Of
course, those meddling Pharisees are the target of most of Jesus’ words here. One
thing that I’ve been continually reminded this week is that my life is not about
what I have done or what I will do or what I’m trying to do to please God – it’s
all about what Jesus did and my
acknowledgement of that. Admittedly, I have a really hard time prioritizing
heaven over earth. I do a lot of triage, and so it’s a lot easier for me to
focus on what’s right in front of me. I love what Jesus says about how he came
to free us from our desires for things, other people and status so that we
would love him over everything.
I also thought it was just plain sad that the Pharisees
would sooner convince themselves that Jesus had met the devil at the crossroads
and struck up a deal for powers, rather than admit that the Messiah had come
and that he wasn’t what their expectations were. God, please forgive me and
smack me in the face when I’d sooner believe a lie than accept reality. Christ’s
statement about the logical impossibility of Satan casting out Satan reminded
me of one of my favorite MLK quotes (that he probably stole from someone else):
“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive
out hate; only love can do that.”
One other thing I caught (that I never have before) was
Jesus’ step-by-step instructions on how to witness. I was struck by how closely
it resembled the model we followed during my trip to Orlando in 2010 to fulfill my class
requirements for some Bible class (and fulfill my pilgrimage to Harry Potter
World). I was also struck by how these instructions in no way resembled the
method of the preachers I’ve seen so frequently on the streets of my town. When
Jesus mentions not seeking out opportunities to make a scene, but rather
capitalizing on the scenes you find yourself in, I thought about Paul (or was
it Stephen? Or both? Haven’t gotten to Acts yet.) when he delivered his
history/testimony in the public square after
having been arrested.
Psalms (11 - 17)
& Proverbs (3:11–35)
Not too much here this week. I think my favorite things I
gathered from Proverbs were the way Solomon connected the basic Creation story
(that I skimmed 2 weeks ago) with the topic of wisdom. To me, it kind of added
a new level to the story, as well as making the Old Testament a bit more
cohesive. I also like the fact that wisdom = no worry. If I make wise choices
and live in wisdom, I got no need to stress while I sleep – and you have no
idea how valuable that proverb is to an anxious insomniac.
