As I mentioned before, I'm reading the Bible in one year. Starting with this post, I'm going to write about what I read. Today's entry covers several days worth because I was behind on my reading. My One Year Bible carves out a daily helping of "Bread" from the Old and New Testaments, Psalms, and Proverbs (everyone's favorite).
I've been in the book of Joshua for the past few weeks, and I'm actually quite disturbed by it. It is filled with battles that are extremely violent. Hangings, beheading, slaughtering, and such. I'm just glad it's never been made into a movie.
Parts of the Old Testament I feel completely justified in rapidly skimming over. Take Joshua 15:21-20:46 for example. It is just a list of names of cities and possibly people (I don't remember at the moment). If you're looking for a unique baby name such as Ziddim, Kadesh, Kesil, or Ziph, this is a wealth of ideas. Also, I recognized the name Beth Shemesh in Joshua 15:10 and 20:38. An Israeli archaeologist spoke at William Jewell College a few years ago, and that is his main dig site. He said, "No I'm not as cool as Indiana Jones", and I instantly liked him. I interviewed him for the school newspaper and told him I was going to come over to dig. Still a life goal by the way.
I really liked reading Luke 18:6-8. "And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones, who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice, and quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes , will he find faith on the earth?"
Finally, I was reading in Psalms and saw the word Selah for about the 100Th time. I decided to look it up. I found this: It is probably either a liturgico-musical mark or an instruction on the reading of the text, something like "stop and listen". "Let those with eyes see and with ears hear" is most concise. "Selah" can also be used to indicate that there is to be a musical interlude at that point in the Psalm. The Psalms were sung accompanied by musical instruments and there are references to this in many chapters. Thirty-one of the thirty-nine psalms with the caption "To the choir-master" include the word "Selah".
1 comment:
That is a sweet picture. Are those two naked women on the Ark of the Covenant? And do those fish have swords?
Anywho, I remember being really bored when we studied books like Joshua in youth group back in the day. None of it is familiar and it almost all doesn't seem relevant. I think it's kind of amazing how important their history was to them. I kind of wonder how many of them could list of their own "so and so begat so and so" list back then. Now hardly anyone even knows their great-grandfather's name. At least I don't.
Funny fact about finding obscure names in the Bible: original Oprah was going to be name Orpah after a woman in Ruth, but her family couldn't pronounce it so they changed it to Oprah. Fun fact for the day
Post a Comment