Navigating the Worlds of Science and Religion
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)”
Joshua 19: We learn about the land given to Simeon, Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, and finally Dan. This chapter ends by sharing that the people gave Joshua the city Timnath-serah in the highlands of Ephraim as was commanded by God.
Continue reading “9/25 Reading (Joshua 19-21; 1 Corinthians 1 & 2)”
I wanted to take a moment to just reflect on the experience up to this point. We are in the 14th week of our year long study and I’ve experienced a range of emotions throughout this time. I thought it would be helpful for me to just write about how I’ve felt throughout this process. Kind of like a little reset and kick in the butt moment. Overall I’ve really enjoyed the experience and I’ve learned a lot. I’ve learned that this is really challenging. I knew it would be tough, but I didn’t realize that it would be this tough. I’ve learned the Bible has a lot more in it than I expected. The Bible addresses some interesting topics. I’ve also learned some things about myself that I never anticipated.
Joshua 16: Chapter focuses on the land given to the tribe of Joseph, specifically Ephraim.
Joshua 17: Chapter focuses on the land given to another part of the tribe of Joseph, specifically Manasseh. Actually, the land described here is given to the half of this group who didnāt get land on the other side of the Jordan river by Moses.
Joshua 18: Chapter begins with discussion of representatives from the seven remaining tribes to pretty much do a survey of the land that is still available and do a report for Joshua. The remaining of the chapter focuses on what was given to Benjamin.
Psalm 36: This psalm is a prayer for help from the wicked. The psalmist asks God to help them.
Psalm 37: According to the notes from the CEB study bible, this psalm is āusually identified as a wisdom psalm, and may have been what we might call today a teaching sermonā (CEB Study Bible, p. 879 OT). We learn about the importance of not getting angry or upset when wicked people appear to prosper. I find this challenging since this seems to happen all the time. We are supposed to trust in God that all will be ok in the end. This is definitely tough and something that I want to discuss further with others.
Joshua 13: This chapter is the start of the process of distributing land to the 12 tribes of Israel. We first learn what land is still unconquered. The text then reminds us what land was already allotted by Moses before they crossed the Jordan river (east of the river).
Joshua 14: Now we get into the allotment of land west of the river. The first to get land is Caleb, of the tribe of Judah, who was one of the original 12 spies sent to Canaan by Moses in Numbers.
Joshua 15: Chapter describes in detail the borders of the land that the tribe of Judah was given. I thought this last verse was interesting: āBut the people of Judah couldnāt remove the Jebusites who lived in Jerusalem. So today the Jebusites still live along with the people of Judah in Jerusalemā (Joshua 15.63; CEB study bible). According to the notes in the NRSV bible, this was here to point out that the people failed to conquer Jerusalem.
2 Thessalonians 3: Paul asks the people to pray for them as they continue doing their ministry. He also āconfronts the issue of those who refuse to work and urges the readers to shun those who refuse to follow his teachingā (NRSV version, p. 2083).