Tuesday, January 22, 2013

The Bible Challenge: Day 20

The scriptures read are Exodus 1-3, Psalm 18:1-20, and Matthew 18.

Exodus 1. Fast forward. It's been quite awhile since the famine and Joseph as savior. He is yesterday's news. Meanwhile his relatives and descendants have been getting fruitful and multiplying. And the new Pharaoh is worried about all those foreign workers breeding. So he tries to get the midwives to kill the boys. They don't. And God rewards them for their civil disobedience. So Pharaoh pulls off the gloves. Just drown the Hebrew boys.

Exodus 2. Moses' mom hides him and then puts him in a little boat. Is she technically complying with Pharaoh's genocidal order? Was she sticking him into the reeds so she could reclaim him? Did she know this was the favorite swimming hole of Pharaoh's daughter? Using Moses' sister (Miriam?) as a lookout favors the last idea. She's awfully fast with the "I'll get a Hebrew woman to nurse him for you." So Moses' mom gets him back until he's weaned.

Not sure how good a parent Pharaoh's daughter was. The first thing we see Moses do as an adult is kill an Egyptian for hitting a Hebrew. Word travels fast and Moses goes on the lam from Pharaoh. His fighting skills impress a priest's daughter. That priest, Reuel, AKA Jethro, becomes Moses' father-in-law when his oldest daughter Zipporah becomes his wife. They have a son.

Back in Egypt, Pharaoh dies. The Israelites groan. God hears.

Exodus 3. Moses sees a burning, but not burnt-up, bush and God calls to him. He has heard the cries of his people and seen their suffering. His solution: send Moses. Moses starts thinking of excuses. His first is a beaut: What'd you say your name was again, God? Possessing the true name of another gives you some power over him so God gets cagey. He is simply the verb "to be." This can be interpreted "I am," or "I am who I am," or "I will be what I will be," or "I will be there [for you.]"

God's got a plan to get the Israelites out of Egypt, give them the land of Canaan, and give them hefty parting gifts from their oppressors.

Psalm 18 (part 1). God saved David from his enemy and David expresses his gratitude and paints a picture of God coming to rescue him in very dynamic imagery.

Matthew 18. We are to be like children if we are to enter God's kingdom: trusting, loving, wholehearted. Tripping up kids--or childlike believers, perhaps--is a grave offence to God.

The only section no fundamentalist takes literally: Jesus' command to lop off body parts if they cause you to sin. Still the meaning of the metaphor is just as chilling. Let nothing, no matter how intimate, how much a part of you it feels, come between you and God. It's like a person choosing to save his leg even if it means the cancer will get him. Follow God and you need to make tough choices.

On an up note, we get the verse that assures us that children have guardian angels.

God makes more fuss over a found stray than 99 who stay put. That's what kind of God he is.

We have a couple of sections on reconciling with a fellow believer who actually sins against you. Nothing here about just not liking their ideas or choices. This is about harm done. The principle is, try to involve as few people as necessary. And be prepared to forgive a lot more than you're used to. God keeps track of those who expect his forgiveness but who can't find it in themselves to forgive others.

And wherever and whenever a handful of believers get together, Jesus will be there [for you.]

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