Navigating the Worlds of Science and Religion
One thing Iāve learned during this experience is that itās challenging to reflect on individual chapters in each book. Sometimes itās more appropriate to reflect on the three readings from the OT as one statement. Thatās what I will do from time to time.
Continue reading “10/5 Reading (Ruth 1-4; 1 Corinthians 10)”
I was running earlier today with a good friend of mine and we were talking about the Bible study. We started talking about what people believe when it comes to the Bible. I mentioned how most in the Episcopal Church view the Bible (not as a literal document) and he said something along the lines of I didn’t have to just believe what the Episcopal Church says I should believe. That got me thinking and led to this post: What do I believe? I anticipate that my answers to this question will change throughout this experience, but I thought I’d take a crack at it now.
Judges 19: Just as with Judges 18, this chapter starts with the same phrase: āIn those days there was no king in Israelā (Judges 19.1). This chapter was disturbing. We see a Levite who marries a second woman (heās already married), who then gets mad and heads to her fatherās house. The man goes to her and brings her home after several days. On the way they have to stay in a town. They are taken in by a foreigner. While there, the men of this town surround the house demanding to have sex with the Levite. He ends up sending his wife out and they proceed to rape and abuse her all night. She dies from this treatment. The husband sees her the next morning, throws her over his donkey, gets back home, cuts up her body into twelve pieces, and sends the pieces of her body into all of the areas of Israel. Um…what!!!!!!!!!!!
Continue reading “10/4 Reading (Judges 19-21; 1 Corinthians 9)”
Judges 16: Now we get to the story of Samson and Delilah. Delilah was a Philistine woman. The leaders get her to seduce him and see how they can overpower his strength. He gives her three different explanations and each fails: tie him up with 7 fresh bowstrings, tie him up with new ropes, and weave the 7 braids of his hair into one. After the third failure, Delilah says āāHow can you say, āI love you,ā when you wonāt trust meāā (CEB Study Bible; Judges 16.15)? Wait, what? That makes no sense. Finally he tells her that if his hair is shaved off, he will be weak. That works! Idiot! The Philistines take him captive and poke out his eyes. But…his hair starts to grow back while in captivity.
Continue reading “10/3 Reading (Judges 16-18; 1 Corinthians 8)”
NOTE: I had a lot to say about this reading.
Judges 13: Now we get to the Israelites again doing bad things. Dang, youād think they learn from their mistakes. Although when I said that to a friend of mine, he said it kinda reminds him of society now. Iām not going to go there today, but thatās an interesting perspective. I digress. This time the Israelites are ruled for 40 years by the Philistines.
Continue reading “10/2 Reading (Judges 13-15; 1 Corinthians 7)”
Judges 10: Some more information about other judges who helped the Israelites. After two judges, Tola and Jair, led the people for 45 years total, the Israelites fell back into their routine of worshipping other gods. The initial difference this time is when they called out to God for help after many years of living under the rule of the Philistines and the Ammonites, God says he doesnāt want to help them because they keep doing the same thing over and over again. Eventually God relented and provided a ruler who could defeat the Ammonites.
Continue reading “9/30 Reading (Judges 10-12; Psalms 38-40)”
Judges 7: The battle with the Midianites. Initially Gideon approaches the battle with an extremely large army. God says that Gideon needs to reduce the size of the army because God wants the people to realize that they are successful in battle because he intervened, not because they had the numbers. So the army is shrunk down to 300 people. With this number God explains how Gideon will lead them into battle and destroy the Midianites. And they were successful at the end.
Continue reading “9/29 Reading (Judges 7-9; 1 Corinthians 6)”
Judges 4: Again, the people did bad things once Ehud died. So, in this chapter we get the story of Deborah, Barak, and Jael, who together destroy Sisera and his army. This chapter is the prose version of this story.
Continue reading “9/28 Reading (Judges 4-6; 1 Corinthians 5)”
Judges 1: We see a general overview of the conquests of the tribe of Judah against the people who originally lived in the area. There are several instances where the Israelites didnāt drive out the Canaanites, directly violating Godās directive from earlier books in the Bible.
Continue reading “9/27 Reading (Judges 1-3; 1 Corinthians 4)”
Joshua 22: The Eastern tribes go home here. They are accused of building an altar to a different God and confronted by the army. It pretty much ends up being a misunderstanding.
Continue reading “9/26 Reading (Joshua 22-24; 1 Corinthians 3)”