1/30/10

Exodus 12-14

In chapter 12, God tells Moses how to prepare for the coming of "the destroyer," that will take all of the firstborn of Egypt while "passing over" the Israelites. He describes how and when they are to prepare a lamb, eat it, dispose of the leftovers and put blood on the tops and sides of the doorframes. He tells them they must prepare a feast with unleavened bread, and clean any yeast out of their houses. These are all instructions for what is still celebrated today as Passover. The LORD tells Moses to "obey these instructions as a lasting ordinance for you and your descendants." The Israelites did what the LORD said, and at midnight, the LORD strick down all the firstborn of Egypt - "there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead."

Pharoah summoned Moses and Aaron and told them to "take your flocks and herds, as you have said, and go." The Israelites did and also "asked the Egyptians for articles of silver and gold," which the Egyptians provided. The Israelites, six hundred thousand men plus women and children, traveled from Rameses to Succoth. They had been 430 years in Israel, "to the day." The Lord gave Moses and Aaron the regulations for the Passover.

In chapter 13, the Lord tells Moses that the Israelites must consecrate every firstborn male to God, and that the "first offspring of every womb...belongs to [God], whether man or animal." The Lord then led them with a pillar of cloud to guide them by day, and a pillar of fire to give them light by night.

In chapter 14, the Lord parts the Red Sea, and the Israelites pass between walls of water. First, they wandered in the Egyptian desert for a time. During htis period, Pharoah and his officials changed their minds, and decided to take their chariots and bring them back. All of Pharoah's horses, chariots, horsemen and troops caught up with the Israelites camped by the sea. The Isrelites were terrified, and cried to Moses, "was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die?" Moses told them that "the Lord will fight for you; you need only be still." So, at the Lord's instruction, Moses reached out his hand over the sea and the wind drove the sea back, "and the Israelites went through the sea on dry ground." As the Egyptians followed, the Lord "made the wheels of their chariots come off." When the Israelites reached the far side, Moses stretched out his hand again, and the waters flowed back, and covered the chariots, "the entire army of Pharaoh that had followed the Israelites into the sea. Not one of them survived."

Thoughts, questions, issues

• It's interesting that the Egyptians are accommodating when the Israelites ask for "silver and gold." If that's really true, it's hard to come up with a legitimate reason other than "the LORD had made the Egyptians favorably disposed toward the people."
• Six hundred thousand seems like an awfully big number. But it also says that they were in Egypt for 430 years. Assuming that a new generation is born at approximately 20 year intervals, we're talking about 69 men growing to 600,000 in 21 and a half generations. Through the miracle of compound interest, we see that that represents growth of about 52% per generation. That works out to just over 1 1/2 procreating sons per man. Which actually seems conservative.
• One of the key components to the bible story is the people of God repeatedly turning away from him, doing what they are not supposed to do and not doing what they are supposed to do. Sometimes, it's more understandable than others. That the Israelites would cry out to God from the edge of the sea is neither surprising nor disparaging. That their first reaction is to blame Moses for getting them in trouble is indicative of a problem. This is a people that has just watched as God has done miracles to free them from bondage. A little bit more faith would have been appropriate. And, as subsequent acts were to show, justified.

Proverbs 17:15-28

It's a modern cliche to say that "better for 10 (or 100 or 1000) guilty to go free than one innocent man to go to jail." Proverbs seems to say otherwise.

Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent—
the LORD detests them both.

Of course, later in the same chapter, it says

It is not good to punish an innocent man,
or to flog officials for their integrity.

Not that anyone would debate it.

01/23/10

Mark 4-6

In chapter four, Mark begins with Jesus preaching at the shore, and he shares with his listeners the parable of the sower.  Later, he expounds on the meaning of the parable for his disciples.  He then relates the parable of the lamp on a stand instead of "under a bowl or a bed."   Also the parable of the seed, and the parable of the mustard seed.  After those parables, he tells of the crossing of the Galilee, with Jesus asleep in the stern as a storm rose up.  His disciples woke him, and he rebuked the storm, and then the disciples - "do you still have no faith?"

Chapter five begin on the other side of the lake in the region of the Gerasenes/Gadarenes.  There, the met a man possessed by demons.  Jesus asks his name, and the demon replies "Legion, for we are many."  Jesus sent the demons out of the man and into a herd of pigs nearby, and the pigs "rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned."  The man wanted to go with them but Jesus instructed the man to go home to his family and "tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you." 

Jesus and his disciples crossed again to the other side of the lake and a large crowd gathered.  Jairus, one of the synagogue rulers fell at his geet and pleaded with him to heal his dying daughter.  As they were walking to Jairus' house, a woman "who had been subject to bleeding for 12 years" reached out and touched his cloak and was healed.  Jesus "realized that power had gone out from him" and turned and asked who had touched him.  When the woman told him, he told her that her faith had healed her. 

When they reached Jairus' house, they were told that his daughter had died, but Jesus said that she was asleep.  He "put them all out" and then took the girl's hand and told her to rise.  And she did.  He told them not to let anyone know, and to feed her.

In chapter six, Jesus returns to Nazareth, where he taught in the synagogue.  But the people there knew him and "he could not do any miracles there," other than some healings.  And then he sent out the 12 apostles to preach repentance.  They drove out demons and performed healings in his name.

John the Baptist, meanwhile is imprisoned by Herod at the request of Herodias, Herod's brother Philip's wife whom he had married.  John had told Herod that marrying his brothers wife was a sin.  At a party, Herod offered anything she wanted to Herodias' daughter and she said that she wanted the head of John the Baptist on a platter.  So Herod had had him executed.

Jesus preached on a mountainside to 5,000 and fed them from five loaves of bread and two fish.  Then he sent the disciples on ahead while he prayed.  He then walked across the water to where they were struggling against the wind, and after boarding the boat, calmed the wind.


Thoughts, questions, issues

• The most striking thing about the Gospel of Mark, at least at this particular time reading it, is how plain it us.  Straightforward, brief, unornamented, this is the Joe Friday "just the facts" version of the story.
• In chapter 4, verses 12-14, Jesus quotes Is 6:9-10, in saying that he teaches in parables so that the listeners "may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'"  I do not understand this.  I've tried to understand it, and failed.  Interestingly, just before Christmas, about four-five weeks ago, Gordon Hugenberger spent about five minutes on Is 6:9-10, and I sort of get his point.  But I do not understand it at all coming from Jesus.
  
  The part that most perplexes me is "otherwise they might turn and be forgiven."  The King James Version puts it "lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them."  In Isaiah's case, God had decided to punish Israel, and the messages were getting more obscure to try to force them to listen harder and work at understanding God.  At least, that's my understanding of Gordon's message on that passage.  But when Jesus echoes it, I do not understand.  Wasn't his teaching meant to, well, teach?  The "otherwise," the "lest," that I don't understand.
• One of my favorite paintings, stolen in 1990 from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, is from Mark chapter 4.
  
  
  
• This section shares some of his teaching but is largely focused on healings.
• There are several miracles in this short section, too.  The calming of the storm, the feeding of the 5,000, the healings, walking on water.

Proverbs 14:1-18

There's a verse in this section that is different than much of what surrounds it.

4  Where no oxen are, the crib is clean: but much increase is by the strength of the ox.

I like it, and it carries a lot of wisdom in it.  It's different in that it is neither praising nor condemning human behaviors or characterics.