Month: January 2022

Week 5  Exodus & Psalm

Today David said something about the Lord’s anger: his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime…
Then twenty minutes later Moses said the Lord was: a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.
These are a couple of useful things to know about the Lord’s anger. First it’s relatively brief. Second it takes quite a while before the Lord transitions to anger.
But useful or not my sense is that plenty of reader’s don’t like thinking about a God who is angry. So Moses and David take a kind of unwieldy emotion and begin adding some substance to it.
But substance or not some people prefer totally eliminating the idea of divine anger…to think of God exclusively as a non-angry God.
That’s a pretty appealing option. A better approach for me is to try to fit anger into the framework of a Total Bible System. Once I figure out what-all pieces I’ve got to work with then I can ask: can the system function if I eliminate that particular piece? Because if I find out that divine anger is a functional necessity in the Bible System then the question isn’t: am I willing to tolerate divine anger? It’s: will I accept the system as I find it?

Note: quotes from Psalm 30:5 & Exodus 34:6-7 (NIV). January reading update: Genesis + Exodus + Psalms 1-30 = 120 chapters (out of 1189 total).

Week 4  Exodus 25-28

Reading through the plans and designs for the Tabernacle I get a pretty strong impression there’s a huge load of detail.
But I also get a pretty strong impression there’s a huge lack of detail.
I’m thinking about it from the perspective of a contractor reading these plans. Questions left unanswered. For example how long are the acacia wood poles? What’s the design of the cherubim? How thick is the gold plating? What’s the load-bearing capacity of the rings? What are the designs & capacities of the platters and bowls? What shape are the petals on the lampstand? What’s the thread count of the curtains? What thickness are the tabernacle boards? What are the designs & dimensions of the horns on the altar? What fashion are the priests’ clothes and the specifications of the ephod and all its extras? Which tribal name gets engraved on which gem? What’s the size of the gold medallion on the turban?
Three times there are references to patterns that Moses was shown on the mountain. So it’s possible that he had specific design ideas in his head that he didn’t write down (and I guess other details might show up later in the book).
But there’s also those occasional references to builders: carpenters, engravers, weavers, metal-workers, artisans and like that. People inspired with individual talent. It’s possible that uniquely gifted people were given freedom to design and craft items of unique & individual beauty…just as long as they complied with the plans’ specified conditions.

Week 4  Exodus 20

The Ten Commandments (10Cs) are interesting because they’re really the keystone feature of a plan the Lord had for re-engineering Israel.
Israel had lived in perpetual servitude as Egypt’s under-class and had no resources for building a successful nation so the Lord gave them the 10Cs as the foundational handbook charting the route forward.
On the surface they seem to be a straightforward list of dos & don’ts. It looks like if I slavishly and robotically don’t do the don’ts and do do the dos then I’m in compliance. But it turns out that robotic compliance is pretty much just a First Level Success. A success for sure…but a fleeting one. More like a rest stop on the way to the next level. I think people figure the 10Cs are dumb and legalistic but the laws are only dumb and legalistic if I stop at the Dumb Legalism Stage.
That’s because one of the (unwritten) rules of the 10Cs is that they start on the outside of me and then they can either stay out on the surface or – over time – they can begin to percolate (a gradual process of leaching from outside to inside).
That’s likely what the Lord was getting at in the NT when he said it was good not to murder some guy. But on the other hand if I hated him being alive then there was more percolating in need of doing. Successful 10C assimilation seems to assume a kind of transformative osmotic diffusion.

Week 4  Psalm 24

David asks: who may climb the mountain of the Lord?
There’s no actual physical Mountain of the Lord to climb so I figure David is trying to freeze a pretty fluid idea for me– solidifying-for-manageability’s-sake.
I draw an inverted-V on a sheet of paper (the mountain) & a squiggle at the apex (the Lord) & a stick figure at the bottom (me). He’s there and I’m here…so how do I close that gap…climb the mountain? That’s the question.
David’s answer is that I have to become a certain kind of person. He names three qualities I need…
My hands and heart have to be pure
I can’t worship idols
I can’t lie.
I’m guessing this is an abbreviated list but even if it isn’t there’s still three things to do/not do and a certain kind of person to become before I get into the vicinity of the Lord.
I look at my sketch and wonder how things unrelated to climbing get me up the mountain. The answer seems to be: indirectly. Work on things I can work on so I can make progress on the thing I can’t.
So…for instance what happens if I quit lying to myself and to other people?
David lists four results:
…the Lord will bless me
…I’ll be in good standing with him
…I’ll be able to approach him
…and I’ll be able to worship him.
Doing something hard to achieve something impossible.

Note: see Psalm 24:3-6

Week 3  Exodus 14

While I’m reading about the exodus today I’m still thinking about David’s comment: some nations boast of their armies and weapons but we boast in the Lord our God. Which means – roughly – that a difference of opinion will emerge when people have different assumptions about what they can or can’t rely on.
That difference of opinion comes to life in the story of Israel’s escape from Egypt. It’s a case study of an event where a man with a numerically superior force assumed that numerical superiority would ensure a predictable outcome.
The only hard data I can discover is that Pharaoh had 600 top-of-the-line chariots (plus all the other chariots in the country) and had officers in each of them. Things that I don’t know are the ratio of officers to soldiers & the size of the cavalry & the number of infantry & if there were mercenaries and like that. Comprehensive numbers are tough to land on.
But Egypt was fighting an unarmed ragtag bunch of slaves. Sure…there were a lot of them – 600,000 men – but the contest really shaped up to be like shooting fish in a barrel. On paper the Egyptian army should have massacred the Hebrews.
So…question: if I had total material dominance over a foe would it be possible for that enemy to defeat me?
Answer #1: Not very likely.
Answer #2 (David’s answer): Wrong question! You should be asking: who or what can the enemy count on for help?

Note: quote from Psalm 20:7 (NLT). And see Exodus 14:7 & 12:37.

Week 3  Psalm 20

Last night in the news I saw where a big country is threatening a small country. Let’s call them Red Country & Blue Country. Red Country is powerful and parks 100,000+ troops – plus tanks artillery jets and like that – on Blue Country’s border. It there’s a war Reds will beat Blues because of pure numerical superiority. That’s how numbers work.
It’s hard not to think about the Reds & the Blues while I read verse 7: some nations boast of their armies and weapons. Today’s application of this verse would read something like this: Red Country can boast & strut & rattle around because they have more soldiers and materiel than Blue Country and so they’ll win a war.
I keep reading to the end of verse 7: some nations boast of their armies and weapons but we boast in the Lord our God. So for David another uncounted factor was in the mix.
I can’t say with any precision how this non-numerical element works out in real day-to-day life – like for instance with the Reds and the Blues. My guess is that it’s a bit unpredictable and dependent on other factors. But that’s not the real point…which is that a Basic Principle in Bible World is that there’s a world I can see and I world I can’t see.
Reds and Blues run their numbers assessing tangible-material-visible assets. Meanwhile – if David is right – a pretty crucial wild-card isn’t getting factored into the spread sheets.

Note: quote from Psalm 20:7 (NLT)

Week 3  Psalm 19

I read Exodus 10 today. The book is absorbing right now but I know that in a couple of days I’ll be getting into bible-reader’s deep water – a long block of laws regulations directions and like that. So it was a pretty nice coincidence that I also read psalm 19 today.
The reason 19 jumped out was because – with the last half of Exodus and then Leviticus staring me in the face – David surprises with his enthusiasm for the law.
He describes the law with about eight specific words. Because of time I was mostly interested in the first four…the law is: Perfect Trustworthy Right & Clear (helpful reminders because the law is sometimes described as: imperfect untrustworthy wrong & fuzzy).
Anyway I also noticed a value-added feature – the four descriptor-words include what I’d call Personal Outcome Statements…
…the perfection revives my soul
…trustworthiness helps me shift away from simplicity and towards wisdom
…rightness brings joy to my heart
…clarity gives me insight into life.
Even if I’m not sure how the connections work this information changes things up for me.
Am I interested in reading the law? Not really.
But do I want to:
…have my soul revivified?
…move toward wisdom?
…have more joy in my heart?
…have my life come into better focus?
Well…yeah, for sure.

Note: quotes from Psalm 19:7-8 (NLT). Added: I haven’t put together a list of My Top Ten Psalms but if I did I think 19 would be in the mix.

Week 3  Psalm 17

David starts out by asking the Lord to: pay attention to my prayer, for it comes from an honest heart. David seems to be saying “I know you won’t pay attention to a dishonest heart but it’s okay to listen to mine”.
And he doesn’t just leave it there. He says: you have tested my thoughts and examined my heart…You have scrutinized me and found nothing amiss, for I am determined not to sin in what I say. I have followed your commands, which have kept me from going along with cruel and evil people. My steps have stayed on your path; I have not wavered from following you.
I’m really impressed. Maybe a bit jealous. David’s probing interior self-examination resulted in emphatic personal affirmation. (Probably the very best example of this kind of I-know-that-I’m-ok testimonial is Job. He was: blameless, a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil… And he knew it.)
Anyway the thing I notice is that David then right away asks the Lord for help because he’s under attack from murderous enemies. Even though he has a clean sheet.
This is a good bible-reader’s reminder that being a good guy doesn’t insulate me from trouble. Whatever-all are the results of following the Lord it looks like having a trouble-free life isn’t one of them.

Note: quotes from Psalm 17:1, 3-5, Job 1:1 (NLT)

Week 3  Genesis 49

I finished Genesis and started Exodus today.
The second last chapter of Genesis is the passage where Jacob blesses his twelve sons. Some of the blessings make better & clearer sense to me than others and I sit thinking about them for a little bit. So I’ve got them in mind when I start Exodus and see the boys’ names listed again (except for Joseph who was already in Egypt).
The list in Exodus 1 says:
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher.
I turn back a page. The list in Genesis 49 says:
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph, Benjamin.
The order is different. I look back to the long birth-of-the-boys narrative in Genesis 29 & 30:
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin.
There’s another short list in chapter 35 that I cross-check:
Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher.
I don’t think any of the lists are exactly the same. As far as I can tell the Genesis 29-30 list is the strict chronological sequence. The other lists look like they group the sons by their mothers – so Dan & Naphtali are back-to-back in three lists because they had the same mother. Ditto for Gad & Asher.
Even though I can make some sense of a couple of differences the order is still a bit curious & perplexing to me and I wonder if I’m missing something. But for now I’ll keep these in mind.

Week 2  Genesis 47

Jacob’s family had emigrated to Egypt in the middle of a devastating multi-year famine and against all odds they prospered and thrived in Egypt (thanks to their connection with Joseph).
The really interesting & disturbing part of the story is how this national emergency was used by the Egyptian state to a) gain absolute despotic control and to b) totally subjugate the country’s entire working class (illustrating that there’s nothing more useful to powerful people than a good emergency).
It’s hard to know how much or little the people of Egypt knew about Joseph’s forecast of troubles that were coming. But either way they didn’t prepare for famine. By contrast the government had been busy for years stockpiling millions of tons of grain. And then the hammer fell.
First the people spent all their money buying government-supplied food
…when their money ran out they traded livestock-for-food
…then they sold their land-for-food
…and finally with nothing left but their bodies they became slaves of the state.
So in the end they-had-nothing.
I’m not sure why this story is included in Genesis. Maybe to contrast the suffering of the Egyptians with the Hebrew’s unexpected prosperity.
But for me the story is dominated by how quickly a powerful country’s fortune can turn and especially how quickly citizens can be pauperized by the actions of their state.

Note: the story of the awesome power of state power is in Genesis 47:13-25. The prosperity of the Hebrews is told briefly in 47:11-12 & 27.