November 2

OT -- Ezekiel 3:16-6:14
If I thought Jeremiah was bad, I had no idea about Ezekiel. Don't you just love how we only read/study/learn the 'good' parts of the prophets.
I don't think I have ever heard the 'bake with human excrement' side. And truthfully, I am just glad I didn't.
My knowledge of Ezekiel was the visitation of the wheel a.k.a alien visitation and the dry bones arising. That's it. I probably should have stuck to those.

Psalm 104:24-35
A continuation of yesterday's jumbled up pronouns but this part is a little clearer. Again we have God as the sustainer but also as the death knell in the second person. And then the psalmist ends with back to the 'He" as praise is given.


*** We are 5/6 of the way through. 2 months left. I am afraid to say it, but I think these texts are probably the hardest ones as we are stuck in the prophets in the OT, have more letters from Paul, Peter, James and John and then we have Revelation.
You have probably heard the phrase 'gird up your loins'. My friend who is Scottish says this means to tuck all the edges of your kilt in tight as you are fixin' to go into the brambles. This is an apt description of what we have ahead.

So, rather than be scared, I am trying to think positively about what I have learned over the past 10 months.
Here are a few things:
I learned that Joseph was a politician who ended up making the Pharaoh a very,very wealthy man.
I learned that while the Children of Israel were in the desert for 40 years, they weren't moving every day. If Exodus and Numbers tell the complete tale, they moved 7 times.
I learned about Rashi and the rabbis' commentary.
I learned that the reason the Children of Israel finally moved into the Promised Land was because their source of water, Miriam, died. (Along with all the others of her generation except for Joshua, Caleb and the other spy whose name has escaped me.)
I learned not to take the scriptures at face value. There usually is a back story and if you don't know it, you miss a lot.
I learned that so many, many of our watch phrases came from places that if you quote the surrounding scripture passages, you won't get the comforting feeling you have always gotten.
And so many, many other things.
What about you? What have you learned and/or wished you hadn't known?

I am grateful I started this study in January and grateful that I have kept plugging along even though the going has been quite tough here lately.

And that is why I am keeping on.

If you have dropped out of the scriptures, well, maybe this isn't the best place to pop back into but what the heck, suffer with the rest of us.
Much love and peace to each of you.