February 1

OT – I got my new book! This is the Artscroll Stone Chumash. Just to see if it is of any value, I looked up Lisa’s question regarding the circumcision of Moses’ sons by Zipporah from a previous reading. Lisa, you will not be happy to know that Rashi does not speak to this. What he does comment on is that the baby is the cause of the bridegroom (her husband, Moses) and his bloodshed. Humm….. Already I am arguing with the greatest rabbinic commentator. At any rate, I think this book will be of great help to me during the readings.

Just as aside, The Stone Chumash uses the word “HASHEM” in the place of our Bible translation of LORD. The Stone uses God where ours uses God. Many of the orthodox Jews object to the use of capital G-o-d as they think this still names God, God. They print it as G-d. There is a special Orthodox and Hasidic Stone Chumash just for them with the G-d. Accommodation is the name of the game.
HASHEM is literally “The Name”. It represents the Tetragrammaton, the sacred Hebrew Four letter Name of God (Y-H-W-H). (Remember, ancient Hebrew had no vowels.) We sometimes translate this as Yahweh. (In my own mind, this gives God a name and for me, he really has no name. That would imply that I had somehow boxed him in or given him shape. Much like hearing the girl’s name Bambi. It just brings up a certain implication to how she is and how she will act. I remember hearing Yahweh for the first time when we started going to St Andrews Presbyterian when I was 7 and wondering who the heck they were talking about! We were Baptist before the move North.)

But to the reading. Do the miracles trouble you? I remember hearing how the parting could have happened with a hurricane force. Or some other natural phenomena that was explainable. Here is my take on it. God is absolutely capable dropping some bread and birds. Killing a bunch of livestock. Sending frogs. Raising someone from the dead. Why on earth would I question whether or not he could move some water? That one seems pretty easy on the miracle scale, if you ask me. Here is what Rashi says: “God’s reason for bringing the miracle about by means of a wind, rather than through an undeniable, obvious miracle was to allow the Egyptians room for doubt. In their wickedness, they insisted that the waters had been moved by wind ((sound familiar????)), not by God – even though it would be clear to any objective observer that the sea had never before been parted by a wind – therefore, they plunged into the seabed to their eventual doom.”’

Psalm -- Whoever wrote this is much different than I am. I am never blameless and I am afraid that verses 4-7 do not apply to me. The title in my real Bible says this psalm is “Of David”. That made me laugh. Well, okay. If David can say this, maybe there is room in this psalm for me, too?

NT – Even then, the politicians were spinning their words. Look at vs. 25-27. They won’t answer truthfully because to them, the truth doesn’t matter. They were busy trying to trap Jesus. Surely, at least one of them had a belief, a valid, honest true-blue belief as to what John’s baptisms meant and did for people. We read these words and think Jesus is being cryptic. He was just playing their game. His parables clearly indicate that he is anointed one, the son of the landowner.
So, think of today. When today did you come straight up and say what you believe? Or did you dance around, trying to think what would play best in whatever circumstances you happen to be at the time? Are you acting like the Pharisees? How would Jesus have responded to you?

I leave you with the song Moses sang – not to himself – but to the PEOPLE he had brought out of slavery. And you have to remember, *they* didn’t hear God. They only heard Moses and felt Pharaoh’s wrath and the wretchedness of the plagues that they did not escape from.
Vs. 11,13 “Who among the gods is like you, O Lord? Who is like you – majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders? … In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling.”
May HASHEM redeem YOU, and guide YOU to his holy dwelling.

January 31

Proverbs – This is from Matthew Henry’s commentary:
If the slothful are to be condemned, who do nothing, much more those that do all the ill they can. Observe how such a man is described. He says and does every thing artfully, and with design. His ruin shall come without warning, and without relief. Here is a list of things hateful to God. Those sins are in a special manner provoking to God, which are hurtful to the comfort of human life. These things which God hates, we must hate in ourselves; it is nothing to hate them in others. Let us shun all such practices, and watch and pray against them; and avoid, with marked disapproval, all who are guilty of them, whatever may be their rank.

I had to go back and reread yesterday’s proverbs to understand what Henry was talking about. Hebrew poetry and wisdom writing love couplets. Even couplets that are several stanzas long.
Yesterday’s was all about sleeping in and being lazy. Today, we have someone who IS NOT lazy. Far from it! But what he is instead is deceitful. And that is worse to God. “Suddenly destroyed”. Bad news for the scoundrel.
http://bible.cc/proverbs/6-12.htm

NT – Is it hard for you to imagine that we are already at Jerusalem? It really does not seem like that long ago that Jesus was a baby escaping to Egypt with his mom and earthly dad. But Matthew spends almost a quarter of his time with us in Jerusalem and that last week. We will get day by day detail. In a book that just romps along, the pace slows way, way down. And I think this is deliberate on Matthew’s part. He was telling stuff that was important, yes. He had messages like the Sermon on the Mount and messages about what the kingdom of Heaven was about. But what Matthew really thinks is important is the time Jesus spends in Jerusalem. We get to know what he wore, what he wanted to eat, who he spent time with and where, and details about his days that we never got before. And in loving, devoted detail, we get the betrayal, arrest and trial and crucifixion. Prepare yourselves for the way of the King.
Please also take a minute to look at the map I have for you. Print it out and when Matthew says Jesus went to Bethpage, locate that on the map. If we can’t go to Jerusalem physically, we can at least follow his footsteps on the map.

This is the last day of January. I have 31 stickers on my calendar and a really big huge GO ME! for the month of January. I am not sure if I will change anything for February but I encourage you to find what motivates you to STAY IN THE WORD. For me, it is stickers. For you, it might be 2 solid weeks of Bible study and a massage. I don’t know. But think about your goal and your reward. Reading the Bible should be reward enough. But I have been a mom long enough to know that sometimes you need a little push. No matter what you have done in January, be proud of that and look forward to February. You can do it!!

January 30

Proverb – I should go ahead admit that if I lived in a perfect world, I would never have to get up before 7 AM. I am not a morning person. Early on, my children learned that the smaller interaction they had with their mother early in the morning the better. I do try really hard to be nice but it is really best not to talk to me at all until about 8 am. Don, bless him, has never learned this. He is a morning person and gets up, on his own, at 6 AM every day. Ready to go. Me, not so lucky.
So this proverb hit especially close to home. I do get up early. Matthew has to be at school just before 7 AM every day for weight training and this has been true since he entered into high school. I also have chickens to feed, a dog to walk, dog and cat to feed, breakfast to make and some laundry to accomplish before Cole and I get out the door at 7:45. In the summer, I usually have some gardening chores to do as well. Maybe when Cole starts to drive himself to school this will ease a little and definitely when Matt goes to college. But it seems to me that I get more done in the 2.75 hours before I leave for work than I do in the 5 hours after I get home. Is it just that I am on a time restriction or do I really have more energy and enthusiasm (well, not that!) at 6 AM. Our proverb says that sleeping in, or napping as the case may be, is a sure way to poverty. And we should be more ant-like in our storage practices. Maybe in our day and time, it would be load up during the Buy One Get One Free at Publix offers.
If you went into my pantry, what would that tell you about my ‘ant’ qualities? What would yours? If you listen to my friends who are “preppers” – click here for a sampling – they would tell you to have at least 6 months supply of your stuff. Do you? If you do, why? Is it the fear of not having enough? Or being unprepared for the ice storm that is surely to come?
OT – Exodus 12:2, according to Rashi, is where the Torah should have started. It is where the very first commandment that God gave all Jewry resides. And it is about the Passover. The original one. Now, Rashi’s claim that this should have begun Torah here is that the Bible is a book of laws and since this is the first one given to all, this is where it should have begun.
(Rashi was a medieval French rabbi who is famed as the author of commentaries on the Talmud as well as a comprehensive commentary on the Tanakh (which is what the Jewish people call their Bible). If you want to read his commentaries, they are still available in what is called the Artscroll Chumash (Five Books of Moses). Wikipedia says that “his commentary on the Chumash (Five Books of Moses) – is an indispensable aid to students of all levels. The latter commentary alone serves as the basis for more than 300 “supercommentaries” which analyze Rashi’s choice of language and citations, penned by some of the greatest names in rabbinic literature.” I was hooked. I ordered one from Amazon today.)
Having said that, I have pondered for several hours if I agree that the Bible is a book of Laws. Maybe it is my age, maybe it is my rebelliousness, maybe it is just how I perceive the Bible but it is not a book of law to me. True, it contains them. True, if I follow them I live so much better and my relationship with God is so much better. But more than that, it is a continual story of humankind’s reaching for God and God searching for us. Much more of a puzzle book, to me.
NT – Which brings me to the NT passage. Oh, the vineyard story. That one. Madam Fairness here. When I am the first worker, I dislike this story. When I am the last to be rounded up, I LOVE it. If this were laws, wouldn’t this be straight forward? Pay everyone such and such. But I get that this is not how God works. And I get that I do not get to impose my belief system (whether I am #1 worker or the last) on God. After all, it is God’s kingdom of heaven, not Sylvia’s.
And that brings me right back to the Proverb. Because it is so much easier and less trouble and work not to prepare or to sleep in or to not have my lamb ready for Passover. Or at least, I think it is. Until the bad times come and there is nothing I have in reserves. So maybe it is a law book in the sense that you are supposed to live one way and here all these examples of folks who didn’t and this is what can happen. Or, here is how much God loves you that he gave you this structure for your own benefit. Disregard it at your peril. In some cases, your eternal peril.
So, Rashi, I buy your argument. I am however, glad, that we had all the familiar Genesis stories to start our year off reading. It eased us into the daily reading and contemplation of the Word.
We are now officially 1/13 of the way through our study. I hope you are enjoying this as much as I am. Peace to you and yours.

January 29

It is amazing what you think you know. I had somehow assumed that all the plagues happened to all the people of Egypt including the Israelites. I did a chart to figure out what happened to whom.
the Plagues


1. Water to blood Everyone got it The magicians could replicated it Pharaoh's response was hardened hearts
2. frogs Everyone got it The magicians could replicated it Pharaoh's response: if moses took them away, the people could go but after relief, P hardened heart

3. dust gnats Everyone got it The Magicians could not replicate but they said it was the 'finger of God' P has hard heart


4. flies Everyone got it except those who live in Goshen Not recorded as to Magician's response P go sacrifice here in Egypt, then go sacrifice far from here, when removed P hardened his heart

5.terrible plague on livestock Everyone got it except Israelite livestock Magician response not recorded P heart unyielding

6. soot to boils everyone got it The Magicians couldn't replicate it but they couldn't stand for the boils! Lord hardened heart

7. Hail All got it except those who listened to Moses and Goshen Magician response not P said he sinned. Pray for him and go. When it was gone,he hardened his heart to Moses

8. locust everyone got it Magician response not recorded Lord hardened P heart

9. darkness that could be felt everyone except the Israelites got it Magician response not recorded Lord hardened P heart

10. firstborn's death everyone except those with blood on their door got it Magician's response not recorded P said up and leave Bless P also!


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NT – another placement story. I have heard the little children come unto me loads of times. There is even a lovely painting of it as you walk down the stairs to the children’s area at Mt Vernon Presbyterian. I always loved that image of Jesus. I also have heard the story of the rich young man/ruler dozens of times. It is one that always causes problems during pledge time at church.
But what I didn’t realize was that these two little vignettes were placed back to back. That gives the stories an entirely different approach to me. Children, especially the little ones, really have no concept of what money is. As long as they had their Batman pjs, mac n cheese weekly and Pokemon cards and cousin time, my kids were basically set. With Don and me, it was much more complicated. Credit cards, car loans, mortgages, and are we going to have ‘enough’ for retirement. Those were and are grave concerns for us. Every year, we do a budget and every year, we wrangle over line items. I don’t recall us having God talk during any of those budget sessions except where it came to discussions about our church pledge. I guess for me, the question is – do I spend more time worrying and focusing on “me and mine” than I do on following Jesus? How can I become more childlike? (Don’t worry – I won’t be buying the Batman PJ set at Target…)

Proverb – Well, today, we finally move off the sex but land squarely on money. I find it surprising that the very first thing we hear is not to sign for someone else. But in a time where you could be thrown into prison if you didn’t pay your debts or whoever you pledged for, I guess it could truthfully be a life or death situation for giving someone surety.

Have a lovely, rejuvenating Sunday.

January 28

Psalm – You would think by this time, this cradle Christian would know all there is to know about the 23rd Psalm. It is the first thing I memorized on purpose. I memorized it for my mother’s hairdresser and she gave me a gold star (even then, O Lord!) to put on my wall. Her name was Elzaree and my mother went every Friday to get her hair done. (Why, I recently asked? Mother said it was just what nice ladies did. Everyone had a standing weekly appt…)
Almost every Christian funeral I have been to and at least 2 of the Jewish ones have read this Psalm. I have participated in and even taught this Psalm at Sunday School.
Tonight, when I started to study this, it was like I had looked at this with new eyes. I know this is because of the Beatitude study we are doing in Presbyterian Women. I saw this Psalm has 2 stanzas with the coda. Just like the Matthew Beatitudes. See if you agree:
The first stanza is vs 1-4. Here the imagery is all about God being the shepherd and we are the sheep. Okay, classic metaphor and one that Jesus uses all the time. God provides plenty of food, a lovely place to rest, plenty of water that won’t sweep away my babies, and a place to recover from the turbulence of life. He is watching over me so that the ‘wolves’ and ‘lions’ won’t take me down and providing me with the structure I need in my life i.e. the rod and the staff.
Vs 5 is the second stanza. I think here the metaphor changes from shepherd to kingmaking. Kings have feasts, even with their stated enemies to show dominance. Kings get anointed with oil when they are made – even currently. As aside, I recently finished reading Mark Logue’s account of the real Lionel Logue and King George VI (The King’s Speech by Mark Logue) and there is a section there that talks about the placing of oil on the king’s head at coronation. The cup imagery is definitely kingish. We know all about the cupbearers and their responsibilities from the Joseph story. The king’s glass should never be empty and never be poisoned.
The coda wraps it up with a great view of how wonderful life is/will be for God’s own.
Even vs 4, at the end of it has the transition. Shepherds have staffs. Kings have rods. I looked up the Hebrew word that is used here. It is Shebet and it is primarily used in the Psalms to denote ‘scepter’ of a king.
What do you think of my analysis? Agree, disagree? A different viewpoint?
I find it amazing that something I have heard HUNDREDS of time can still teach and inspire me.
OT – this section of Exodus is a conflagration of 2 different sets of translations. This is why it seems confusing and repetitive. Even then, scholars were arguing.
As always, when I read this part of the Bible, I become frustrated with the whole ‘hardening of Pharaoh’s heart’. If you have an idea as to why this is even a remotely good thing, feel free to posit it. I get that God wanted to do something grand and big but it seemed like the hardening part just caused a lot of people and animals to die unnecessarily.

And on a personal note, I covet your prayers. My younger son Cole turns 16 today. When I called my insurance agent earlier this week, Marilyn at State Farm said, “I will add him to my prayer list”. He is not quite finished with all the paperwork for his license but he is close and will probably go next Saturday to do the driving test. He is a good driver but he is 16.

January 27

I read the other readings and was moved by them but the Proverb hit me over the head like a ton of bricks.
Drink your water from your own well.
Last week in Sunday School when we were talking about Joseph, I asked the class if there was anything they couldn't forgive. Being older and wiser than me, they gently reminded me that holding grudges only hurts the holder. But then I asked them if they were either divorced themselves (no, being from the Greatest Generation and for the most part, that just wasn't done) but if they had children who were divorced, were they able to forgive the 'ex-law'. This was so much harder for them, particularly when there were children involved.
And I see that all the time with my friends.
What wise counsel for a man to give his sons. Keep your pants zipped. It is tempting. But the consequences are unbelievably harsh.
Tonight, at the Saint Francis talent show, one of the students sang Garth Brooks' Thunder Rolls. Every time I hear that song, I just want to cry for the people who chose badly and ruined others lives, especially the children.
Jesus spoke to that as well in our NT scripture. he thinks you ought to drown yourself before you go doing things that rip up little kids faith. And for a dad to leave a child's mother, what worse thing could there be in a kid's world.
I have 2 boys. I think I need to put "Drink from your own well" on their bathroom mirrors. Or maybe play a whole lot more country/western songs.

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Answers to the Genesis Quiz

1. The earth was not created prior to God's creation. The very first things God created were the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty.
2&3. Adam and Eve had multiple sons. The first set were Cain and Abel. Cain was a farmer, Abel was a shepherd. Cain killed Abel. To comfort Eve, God gave her Seth. We don't know what he did. Adam had 'other sons and daughters' in his 930 years.
4. Enoch walked with God and then 'he was no more, because God took him away.' No death for God's walking buddy.
5. Noah was chosen because he was righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. All the rest were corrupt.
6. Shem is the ancestor of Jesus. Ham saw his dad naked after drinking and Shem walked a cloak backwards to cover him up. Noah blessed Shem 'Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem. May Canaan (Ham) be the slave of Shem'. There is also conjecture that Melchizedek is actually Shem (the one Abraham gave a 10th of the booty).
7. Names were changed to protect the innocent. Oh wait, that is from Dragnet and The FBI. Sorry. Names were changed when something dramatic happened in their lives. For Abram and Sarai, when they got the word they were going to have a baby at 100 and 90 respectively. For Jacob, well that is murky. Because he really doesn't change his name. The Bible is constantly flipping between Jacob and Israel. I think that God wanted him to be Israel but he just kept being Jacob, the trickster. Makes you think what we would do if God changed our names. Would we live up to the new nature that God is calling us to be or would we slip back into old patterns and behaviors. I think this is why we need Jesus. He truly makes us into a new creation.
8. I have no answer to the barren women issue. I just know that it runs through the whole Bible. We will see this over and over again. The Godly women don't have babies while the not so good ones get pregnant in a flash. Seems to me that God would want babies to be born into houses of faith and loyalty and not so much into the other -- sort of a cosmic weeding out -- but clearly, my way is not God's.
9. Noah got the covenant of not destroying humankind again. Abraham got 2 covenants -- the multitude of descendents and the land. Isaac got reaffirmed this and so did Jacob/Israel.
10. Jacob is the trickster because he just couldn't get things done without wheeling and dealing. He inherited it from his mother, Rebecca, who was barren until God intervened. It has ugly ramifications all the way to present day.
11&12. Jacob was partial to Joseph because he was the son of Rachel, the wife he loved. None of his other children except for Benjamin who was way too little to understand appreciated this and as a consequence, Joseph ended up a slave in Egypt. But while the brothers meant it for evil (to get rid of Joseph), God meant it for good (to save the family during the famine).