Stranger in a strange land

Exodus, continued: Yesterday and today, I have been reading all of the instructions for building the Ark of the Covenant. I will readily admit that I am not planning on building the Ark of the Covenant so my eyes have been glazing over a bit.
Before I started on the Ark of the Covenant, I read these bits of advice:
Exodus 22:20: You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Exodus 23:9: Also you shall not oppress a resident alien, for you know the heart of a resident alien, because you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt.
I find that to be helpful advice on welcoming foreigners. The advice on not mistreating or oppressing strangers and aliens could not be clearer.
Is that advice followed today?
What do you think?
In my opinion, the answer is no. A few days ago, I read in The Buffalo News about Major Jan Mohammad Arash of Afghanistan, who fled a training program in Cape Cod, along with two other Afghan officers. The three were looking to cross the border into Canada and seek political asylum there. They never made it to Canada. They were placed in a federal detention facility in Batavia, New York. Last Friday, Major Arash went to immigration court, where his request to stay in the United States was denied. Major Arash fears that, when he is deported to Afghanistan, he faces torture and persecution. The immigration judge, Steven J. Connelly, ruled that the United Nations' Convention Against Torture does not apply in this case because the Taliban, who would be the likely torturers, is not the official governing body of Afghanistan.
Does the fact that the torturers do not represent the governing body of a country make that particular torture any less of a human rights violation?
Is it a human rights violation to deport someone to a country where he is very likely to be tortured and persecuted?
Is it right to practice justice without any evidence of mercy? Are justice and mercy mutually exclusive? 
By sending someone to a country where he is very likely to be mistreated, is the government of this country (the United States) participating in mistreatment and oppression?
I believe that, in Exodus, the advice is to do otherwise. 
So many questions, so few answers.
I will keep reading.

Exodus, then and now

This week will be all about Exodus. The word "exodus" means, according to Google, "a mass departure of people, especially emigrants." When people leave like that, hastily and in large groups, they are generally leaving something intolerable.
Generally, when we talk about an exodus, we think of the Israelites fleeing the Egyptians, who mistreated them and made them suffer for years and years. The story of the Israelites' exodus is very dramatic and it was made into a movie, featuring Charlton Heston as Moses.
There have, however, been other exoduses. Many people have fled intolerable situations in search of safer havens elsewhere. They could have been fleeing political persecution, hunger, or natural disasters. For example, in 1845 and the years following, Ireland suffered a terrible disaster that resulted in exodus. A plant disease called "potato blight" or Phytophthora Infestans. It is actually an airborne fungus that attacks potatoes, with devastating results. The potatoes turn to mush and are rendered inedible. Sounds disgusting to me. It was actually beyond disgusting. The results were disaster. Somewhere around one million people starved and another million fled Ireland, in search of food.
That exodus was caused by an agricultural disaster. One of the main problems was that the same type of potatoes were grown in the same land, year after year after year. The technical term for that type of agriculture is "monoculture." As I learned in my master gardener classes, growing a variety of crops is always preferable to monoculture. The people of Ireland, at that time, ate mostly potatoes and, when their food supply was attacked by the fungus, the result was disaster.
In more recent years, the countries that people have been fleeing en masse include Syria and Libya, where there have been civil wars and extreme violence. The people who flee these countries are looking for a safe haven in which to live, work, and raise their families.
So back to the Bible. Last time, I talked about dreams and about how Joseph interpreted the Pharaoh's dream as indicating seven years of plenty coming, followed by seven years of famine. The Pharaoh was grateful to Joseph and gave him a good job and hospitality for Joseph's family.
Much time passed, and a new Pharaoh saw that the Israelites were reproducing like rabbits! He was not happy about that, so he decided to treat the Israelites badly so that they would not take over Egypt.
Being treated badly didn't stop the Israelites from reproducing like rabbits.
Eventually, however, the Israelites grew tired of the unpleasant treatment, which included orders to kill newborn babies and other draconian measures.
This is where the story gets dramatic. For all of the details, you can watch "The Ten Commandments" with Charlton Heston as Moses and Yul Brynner as the Pharaoh. It's great entertainment, with good special effects, especially considering that it was filmed in 1956. Of course, you could also read your Bible. You'll find that good, too, although you'll have to imagine the special effects. Your imagined special effects may be even more fun than the movie.
Anyway, Yul Brynner or the Pharaoh was one stubborn dude, and his people endured all sorts of unpleasant ordeals or plagues before the Israelites all departed. They endured the environmental nightmare of water turning to blood, too many frogs, lice crawling on their bodies and on the bodies of their animals, dog flies that bite people, diseased cattle, boils, huge and heavy hail, locusts, complete darkness, and the death of the first born. Ugh! The pharaoh said, please go.
Because the pharaoh was known to change his mind abruptly, however, the Israelites had to be prepared to flee at a moment's notice. They ate unleavened bread while standing up because it takes more time to stand up, especially if you are sitting on the floor.
The Israelites did all flee at one time. Thousands of people departed from Egypt. The Egyptian military went after them. Moses parted the red sea in a very cinematic gesture. Charlton Heston did a grand job with that. When the Egyptians with their chariots and charioteers went after them, it was not too good for the Egyptians. The water went back to where it had been, and the chariots and charioteers got stuck in the mud and drowned.
The Israelites ended up on the other side of the river. They had left the land of persecution, but were they happy?
Maybe or maybe not.
Are people forced into exodus currently happy?
Sometimes they are but sometimes, no, because the conditions that they face in refugee camps can be nightmarish.
More next week, as I continue reading Exodus.

Dreams in the Bible

Last week, I wrote about trees in the Bible. Trees are necessary for the preservation of life and they are important parts of our ecosystem. At some point in the future, I intend to revisit that topic.
Today, I will talk about dreams.
We all dream. Sometimes, people will think that they don't dream because they don't remember their dreams. But they are dreaming, nevertheless. Often though, we remember our dreams. They may be funny, scary, or sad. We may wake up happy, disappointed, terrified, or energized. Dreams can tell us things about ourselves. For example, my sister had a dream that told her that she was watching too much television. Her dream was interrupted by four commercials. If your dreams include advertisements, you are watching way too much television. Plus, since it is unlikely that the advertisers are paying for their spots in your dreams, you are giving businesses free ad space in your head!
I've had a variety of interesting and bizarre dreams. In one dream, I was sky diving. This was quite a unique dream for me because I am afraid of heights. And not just a little afraid. Panic stricken terrified kind of afraid. Well, in this dream, I was free falling in a relaxed sort of way. I was floating through the clouds. The air smelled good and I felt so happy. When I finally pulled the cord to open the parachute, I woke up.
In another dream, I was in a privately owned prison that had been turned into a reality TV show. Some of my protester friends were in the Reality TV show prison with me. The odd thing about this prison was that it was co-ed. So, in the dream, I was standing around, waiting for my opportunity to do some sort of stunt and win a million dollars and a Get Out of Jail Free Card. While I was watching, a man was shown to a motorcycle and instructions were whispered to him. We were told that he was challenged to do stunts on the motorcycle and that, if he did the stunts, he would win a million dollars and a Get Out of Jail Free Card. The man got on the motorcycle and departed. It was announced that the man escaped and that he would not get the money and that the show's goon squad would chase him down and he would undergo Trial by Ordeal! I never knew what the ordeal was because, fortunately, I woke up.
The dream that made me disappointed to wake up was the one in which I went to a conference. Dinner was served and eaten and then, dessert was served. It was chocolate mousse with whipped cream. Just as soon as I got a spoonful of the creamy chocolate to my lips, I woke up! Darn! Not even a little chocolate!
Well, I have to admit that, in my Bible readings this week, there was not even one reference to chocolate. I have been reading about loaves and fishes and milk and honey and even about honey and locusts but no chocolate.
I'll talk about food at some other point.
This time, it's dreams.
Dreams seem to be a way in which God communicates with people. In the book of Matthew, which I have been reading for the past few weeks, an angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, warning him to take Mary and the baby Jesus to Egypt because little Jesus was in terrible peril. Herod intended to destroy the child, whom he saw as a threat to his power.
In the book of Genesis, which I finished yesterday, dreams are extremely significant. Abram had a dream that he would have a son and become the father of nations. He, of course, doubted the veracity of that dream because he was getting old and he and his wife Sarai were still childless.
But God provided. Abram and Sarai did have a son, despite their advanced age. Their names were changed to Abraham and Sarah, and Abraham did become the father of many nations.
The dreamer that I would like to focus on is Joseph. His is a dramatic story that was made into a musical, titled Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice in the 1970s. I have seen this show several times and always find it entertaining, as it is mostly music in a wide variety of styles. It is a good show to present at a boys' school because there are loads of roles for boys!
Joseph was one of twelve brothers and he was his father Jacob's favorite, mainly because he was the first son of Jacob's favorite wife, Rachel. Jacob was not shy about showing that Jacob was his favorite son. He even gave Joseph a tunic of many colors, or an "amazing technicolor dreamcoat."
Joseph had a dream that he shared with his brothers. He said (Genesis 37: 6): "Hear this dream I dreamed: There we were, binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright; and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf."
Later, he told his brothers of another dream. Genesis 37:9: "Look, I have dreamed another dream. And this time, the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me."
These dreams caused the brothers to go into a collective fit of jealous rage. They plotted Joseph's murder. Then they decided to sell Joseph to a group of Ishmaelites. Well, I am guessing that it was ten of the brothers who plotted these deeds, as Joseph's younger brother Benjamin must have been just a little kid at the time.
Joseph ended up by being a slave in Egypt. Apparently, he was a very good slave and he performed his work admirably, which, unfortunately, attracted the attention of the wife of his master, Potiphar. She tried and failed to make Joseph into her lover. After she realized that she could not entice Joseph into her bed, she lied about Joseph and claimed that he tried to take advantage of her. Joseph was then unceremoniously thrown into prison!
But God was always with Joseph, even in that most unpleasant of places. I am guessing that jails at that time were rather gruesome places to be and that the food was inedible and... I'll spare you the details! Anyway, Joseph was in contact with other prisoners because, at least, the unpleasant ancient prisons didn't use the current barbaric technique of long term solitary confinement.
So Joseph was not only a dreamer, he was also an interpreter of dreams. He told a baker and a cup bearer what their dreams meant, which was good news for the cup bearer and bad news for the baker. The cup bearer was freed and the baker was executed. He asked the cup bearer to remember the interpreter of dreams when back at work for the Pharaoh. The cup bearer was so excited about being turned loose that he forgot all about Joseph and Joseph continued to languish in jail, eating yucky food.
Eventually, the Pharaoh had a dream that made no sense to him, having to do with a group of seven fat and good looking cows coming out of the river. After that, ugly and gaunt cows emerged from the river. They then gobbled up healthy cows. Then Pharaoh had a dream about seven stalks of healthy corn being devoured by seven stalks of blighted corn.
The Pharaoh assembled all of his wise men but no one understood his dream. And then, the cup bearer, who had conveniently forgotten Joseph after he got turned loose from the dungeon, suddenly remembered that he met a guy in prison who could interpret dreams.
And so, Joseph was brought out of prison to interpret Pharaoh's dream. It was a prediction of agriculture in the land. The healthy cows and the healthy corn stalks were symbolic of seven years of good times. Things would grow and animals would thrive and all would eat, drink, and be merry. But then, seven bad years lay ahead, after the happy good times. There would be drought and famine and Death would stalk the land. Joseph figured out a technique for storing surplus food during the times of plenty so that no one would starve during the times of famine. Joseph was freed and was then put in charge of food distribution. That was a huge upgrade in status for Joseph, as the only person he had to report to was the Pharaoh.
When the years of famine started, Joseph's brothers were living with their father in Canaan, unaware that Joseph still lived. They were hungry because the land yielded nothing. All of the brothers, except for Benjamin, went to Egypt because they heard that they could buy food there. Their story is beautiful because the brothers were able to acknowledge that they had committed a great wrong against Joseph.
Joseph understood that his dreams came from God and, indeed, everything that he was and did came from God. He told his brothers about his experiences: (Genesis 50:19-21) "So Joseph said to them, 'Do not be afraid, for I belong to God. But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your households.' Thus he comforted them and spoke to their hearts."
I did not relate all of the details of the story of Joseph here. That would take too much space. Feel free to read it. Genesis 37-Genesis 50. It tells you about the power of dreams and the joy of forgiveness.

I anticipate having more dream stories in future entries.

Have a great weekend and thank you for coming on my Biblical journey with me.

Trees in the Bible

Yesterday, I finished my second week of 52 in the Read the Entire Bible in a Year project. Last week, I wrote about creation and about the numerous flood stories that exist around the world. It seems that all religious traditions have a flood story in them.
Today, I am going to write about trees.

In October of 2006, western New York was struck by a disastrous snow storm, called the "October Surprise storm." The result of all of that wet, heavy snow landing on trees that still had their leaves was a disaster. There was much loss of trees during that storm. Branches were breaking everywhere and people who were outside when it was occurring had to be careful to avoid being hit by branches. We are still planting trees to replace the trees that were lost.
We need trees. Human beings would not even exist without trees. There are a variety of reasons as to why trees are essential to life. Here are a few good reasons to appreciate the existence of trees:

• Trees produce oxygen. We need to breathe and mature trees provide the oxygen that we need.
• Trees absorb a lot of water so that the soil doesn't run off in a soaking rainfall. If too many trees are removed from an area, a rainfall will result in a great deal of runoff, resulting in extremely poor soil that will not be capable of supporting any sort of plant growth. 
• Trees help to clean the air of pollutants and they absorb carbon dioxide that would otherwise become greenhouse gases.
• Trees provide shade and they break the wind.

Back in ancient times, people worshiped various types of trees. These included oaks and redwoods and baobab trees. The baobab tree is mentioned in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince. But in that book, the baobab's are seen as a menace: huge trees that could tear apart the Little Prince's tiny planet.

Africans have a different impression of the baobab tree. For them, it is the tree of life. It can provide shelter, clothing, food, and water. Its fruit, which is called "monkey bread," is about the size of a coconut and is very tasty, with a flavor that resembles grapefruit, vanilla, and pear. Medicine can be produced from the leaves.

In the Bible, the Tree of Life is a very important image. Before Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they had access to the Tree of Life and they could eat that fruit whenever they wanted. When Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden of Eden, they were forbidden access to the tree of life.

"Therefore, the Lord God God sent him (Adam) out of the garden of pleasure to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So  He cast out Adam and made him dwell opposite the garden of pleasure. He then stationed cherubim and the fiery sword which turns every way to guard the way to the tree of life." (Genesis 4:23-24)

Another tree that is mentioned in Genesis is the oak tree. There are some questions as to what type of tree is described in chapter eighteen, when God appeared to Abraham. Some versions of the Bible record the tree as a terebinth tree and others record the tree as the "oak of Mamre." The Bible that I am reading, which is the Septugint that I mentioned in last week's entry, described the tree as the "oak of Mamre." It was where Abraham discovered three men who came to visit. Abraham made sure to provide sufficient food and water for the men. 

next week: dreams described in the Bible

Reading through the Bible, 2.0

Two years ago, I began a project of reading the entire Bible, from start to finish, with Father Earle King, of Saint Martin in the Fields Church, here in Grand Island, New York. It was my intention to blog my impressions of that experience. Unfortunately, due to computer problems, I was unable to complete the blogging, although I was able to complete the Bible.
This year, Father Earle announced that he would read the Bible through from start to finish again, and he issued the invitation that anyone who wanted to read along with him could do so.
And so, I saw that as an opportunity to restart the blog and, this time, complete the blogging so that I could share some reflections on my reading.
I have now completed my first week of reading and so, I offer this reflection for the week:

God's Creative Powers

Genesis 1:1-1:5 

The version that I heard in church this morning reads like this: "In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless voice and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness. God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day." (New Revised Standard Version)

The Bible that I read daily has a somewhat different translation. It sounds like this: "In the beginning, God made heaven and earth. The earth was invisible and unfinished; and darkness was over the deep. The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water. Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. God saw the light; it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. God called the light Day; the darkness He called Night; and there was evening and morning, one day." (Saint Athanasius Academy Septuagint)

In today's meditation, I am going to focus on just a few words from the Saint Athanasius Academy Septuagint. 

But first, if you want to read this version along with me, the Bible that I am reading is called The Orthodox Study Bible, and it is published by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

The words that I am focusing on are: "The earth was invisible and unfinished: and darkness was hovering over the deep."

As an artist, I like to think of myself as creative. I set the paper or the canvas down in front of me. It is blank, just a plain white surface. It could represent a blinding snowstorm. But, usually, that's not how I want to leave it. I set up a still life or a go outside and find something interesting to paint. By the end of my painting session, I have an image on the paper or the canvas that was not there before. I feel good about having created a little two-dimensional world where there had been nothing.

But my creativity is so tiny. God created the heaven and the earth. He placed animals and plants and seas and dry lands. He did all that on an earth that was invisible and unfinished, basically an abstract concept because nothing was there. God was happy with His creation. The phrase "it was good" is repeated over and over in the first chapter of Genesis, giving Genesis a poetic effect. 

God created everything in just six days. They are not necessarily six days as we know them. They are six of God's days, which is beyond my understanding. But still, I can imagine. It seems to me that, when God was creating the earth, he was full of joy, putting something in the heavens that wasn't there. He made suns and moons and stars as well. It was a monumental creation.

So... a few more words: "The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water." What a beautiful image. I wonder if that is why, as people, we tend to be drawn to the water. Most cities are built of the banks of some sort of body of water, whether it is an ocean, a lake, or a river. The water feels sort of magical to us. It gives us life and nourishment. We can't live any longer than about three days if we are completely deprived of water. The water also takes life. We have floods and tsunamis and the water overwhelms us and drowns us and we are swept away in the power of the out of control water.

Water is a powerful image in the Bible. God creates the world, but He also wreaks destruction. He uses water, from which all life flows, to take life. In fact, God wonders if He made a mistake. 
Gensis 6:6-6:7. So God was grieved that He had made man on the earth, and He thought this over. Then God said, "I will blot out man whom I created from the face of the earth, from man to cattle, and from the creeping things to the birds of heaven, for I am grieved I made them. It sounds as if God had become depressed over a creation gone awry.
 In chapters six through nine of Genesis, which I read this week, the dramatic tale of the flood, which destroyed nearly all life on earth, is told. The only people who survive are Noah and his family. A selection of animals are saved, as well. I guess that the fish would have, in general, survived a flood because they were in their element. In chapter seven, verses 17 through 21, the flood is described as:

Now the flood was on the earth forty days and forty nights. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. So the waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. The waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and covered all the high mountains. And all flesh died that moves on the earth; birds and cattle, wild animals, and every creeping thing that moves on the earth, and every man."\


Everything. Gone just like that. They died sadly: Thus, all things in whose nostrils was the breath of life, and everything on dry land, died... They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah and those with him in the ark remained alive."

Here is something that I find interesting and I hope that you do, too. There are numerous creation stories throughout the earth, and all of them include the telling of a flood story. The flood was massive and it destroyed all life on earth, except for a few who were seen as righteous, as Noah was.

In Wikipedia, I found this segment from a Masai flood story. The Masai live in Africa.
Once upon a time the rivers began to flood. Then God told two people to get into a ship. He told them to take lots of seed and to take lots of animals. The water of the flood eventually covered the mountains. Finally the flood stopped. Then one of the men, wanting to know if the water had dried up let a dove loose. The dove returned. Later he let loose a hawk which did not return. Then the men left the boat and took the animals and the seeds with them.

Here is a Mayan flood myth, complete with a footnote so you can look up the source:
In the first period of the world lived the Saiyamkoob, "the Adjusters," a dwarf race which built cities now in ruins. They worked in darkness, as the sun had not yet appeared. When it did, they turned to stone, and their images can be found in the ruins. Food for the workers was lowered by rope from the sky, but the rope was cut, the blood ran out of it, and the earth and sky separated. This period ended with water over the earth. The Tsolob, "the Offenders," lived in the second period. These, too were destroyed by a flood. The Maya reigned during the third period, but their period was also ended by flood. The fourth and present age is peopled by a mixture of all previous races. [Alexander, 1920, p. 153]

Here is a telling of the flood story, from Ecuador:

Murato (a branch of the Jivaros):

A Murato was fishing in a lagoon of the Pastaza River when a small crocodile swallowed his bait. The fisherman killed it. The mother of crocodiles was angered and lashed the water with her tail, which flooded the area and drowned all people except one man, who climbed a palm tree. It was dark as night, so he dropped a palm fruit from time to time. When he heard it thud on ground rather than splash, he knew the flood had subsided. He climbed down, built a house, and began tilling a field. Being alone, he cut off a piece of his flesh and planted it; from this grew a woman, whom he married. [Frazer, pp. 261-262]

This is a Celtic version:
Heaven and Earth were great giants, and Heaven lay upon the Earth so that their children were crowded between them, and the children and their mother were unhappy in the darkness. The boldest of the sons led his brothers in cutting up Heaven into many pieces. From his skull they made the firmament. His spilling blood caused a great flood which killed all humans except a single pair, who were saved in a ship made by a beneficent Titan. The waters settled in hollows to become the oceans. The son who led in the mutilation of Heaven was a Titan and became their king, but the Titans and gods hated each other, and the king titan was driven from his throne by his son, who was born a god. That Titan at last went to the land of the departed. The Titan who built the ship, whom some consider to be the same as the king Titan, went there also. [Sproul, pp. 172-173]

Transylvanian Gypsy:

Men once lived forever and knew no troubles. The earth brought forth fine fruits, flesh grew on trees, and milk and wine flowed in many rivers. One day, an old man came to the country and asked for a night's lodging, which a couple gave him in their cottage. When he departed the next day, he said he would return in nine days. He gave his host a small fish in a vessel and said he would reward the host if he did not eat the fish but returned it then. The wife thought the fish must be exceptionally good to eat, but the husband said he had promised the old man to keep it and made the woman swear not to eat it. After two days of thinking about it, though, the wife yielded to temptation and threw the fish on the hot coals. Immediately, she was struck dead by lightning, and it began to rain. The rivers started overflowing the country. On the ninth day, the old man returned and told his host that all living things would be drowned, but since he had kept his oath, he would be saved. The old man told the host to take a wife, gather his kinfolk, and build a boat on which to save them, animals, and seeds of trees and herbs. The man did all this. It rained a year, and the waters covered everything. After a year, the waters sank, and the people and animals disembarked. They now had to labor to gain a living, and sickness and death came also. They multiplied slowly so that many thousands of years passed before people were again as numerous as they were before the flood. [Frazer, pp. 177-178]

The last version that I will share is this one:

Mongolia:

Hailibu, a kind and generous hunter, saved a white snake from a crane which attacked it. Next day, he met the same snake with a retinue of other snakes. The snake told him that she was the Dragon King's daughter, and the Dragon King wished to reward him. She advised Hailibu to ask for the precious stone that the Dragon King keeps in his mouth. With that stone, she told him, he could understand the language of animals, but he would turn to stone if he ever divulged its secret to anyone else. Hailibu went to the Dragon King, turned down his many other treasures, and was given the stone. Years later, Hailibu heard some birds saying that the next day the mountains would erupt and flood the land. He went back home to warn his neighbors, but they didn't believe him. To convince them, he told them how he had learned of the coming flood and told them the full story of the precious stone. When he finished his story, he turned to stone. The villagers, seeing this happen, fled. It rained all the next night, and the mountains erupted, belching forth a great flood of water. When the people returned, they found the stone which Hailibu had turned into and placed it at the top of the mountain. For generations, they have offered sacrifices to the stone in honor of Hailibu's sacrifice. [Elder & Wong, pp. 75-77]

Many thanks to Mark Isaac for compiling so many flood stories. For more flood stories from around the world, take a look at his website at Flood Stories from All Over the World. It makes for fascinating reading.

Check back next week for another Biblical reflection and, until then, have a great week!

The Philistines

The Philistines are mentioned in several books of the Bible as being the nemesis of the Israelites. There were huge battles and casualties listed in the thousands but I was mystified... who were the Philistines?
So I looked up "Philistine" in my online dictionary because I'm lazy and I didn't want to lug the unabridged (and hence, huge) dictionary up the stairs. One of the definitions was this: "A person who is hostile or indifferent to culture and the arts, or who has no understanding of them."
Really? The Israelites were fighting wars against people who are just lacking in taste? That doesn't seem to me to be much of a reason to fight a war. 
I also found out that the Philistines were an ancient people who lived in Philistia. Really? That's not too informative. I also found out that the Philistines no longer exist. Apparently, they are extinct so there are no books telling the dramatic tales of the Philistines from the Philistine perspective.
I found a good deal of information about the Philistines from this website. So, here are some details about the Philistines. They may have come from Crete in the Aegean Sea. They were considered to be sea people. They had enormous sea battles with the Egyptians. In fact, the Philistines were also known to have been very warlike. They were aggressive, like the Klingons in Star Trek, who went into battle announcing, "Today is a good day to die."
The Philistines seemed invincible because they were able to produce swords and all sorts of weapons in great quantities. They were technologically ahead of the Israelites. The Philistines, when not fighting with the Israelites, helped out the Israelites by sharpening their farm tools. Apparently, the Israelites didn't know how to do that.
I also found out that the Philistines were very musical and they celebrated many occurrences of their lives with song.They also celebrated with copious amounts of alcohol. They were culturally more advanced than the Israelites. They were, however, pagans.  So the definition of Philistine as uncultured boor is inaccurate.
But God did not favor the Philistines because they were pagans...
And they are all gone...
without leaving behind any of their folk tales...

The Bible's Superman!

Samson was very strong, but he had one weakness. If he had his hair cut, he would lose his strength. He was very much like Achilles, who was very strong and who also had a weakness (his heel). Then there was Superman. He too was very strong, until he was exposed to Kryptonite. Samson was to be a Nazirite. A Nazirite is not a priest but is someone who makes a special vow, under certain conditions. He is not to consume grapes in any form, including wine, touch a corpse, or cut his hair.

Samson was so strong that he could tear apart an attacking lion with his bare hands. He could be tied up with the strongest rope and escape by breaking the rope as if it were thread.

Unfortunately, Samson was also very naive, especially when it came to women. He was attracted to women who wanted to take advantage of him and use him, probably because of his enormous strength. He had disastrous relations with two women. The first was identified only as a Philistine woman. She was not named. Samson decided to marry her, over the objections of his parents. He probably should have listened to his parents. This lady was not a good match for Samson. She kept trying to get information out of Samson but failed. However, I am not certain that the marriage ever happened.

Well, Samson's second time around in the area of romance turned out to be an even bigger disaster. He fell in love with Delilah. Unfortunately, Delilah was bribed by the Philistines to find out Samson's secret: what would take away his super powers? Samson thought that Delilah was just teasing him when she kept asking him for the secret. Maybe he thought that her goal was something X rated and between the two of them. Who knows? Anyway, Delilah tied Samson up with ropes, which he broke. She braided his hair and tied the braids together, but he was able to remove those without difficulty. But, eventually, Delilah sweet talked Samson into telling her his secret. She had servants shave Samson's head while he was asleep. He became weak immediately and lost his status as a Nazirite because his vow was considered broken, even if it had not been broken voluntarily.

The Philistines wanted revenge because Samson had killed many Philistines. In fact, he struck down 1,000 men with a donkey's jawbone. That was his weapon of choice because he was strong enough to make that jawbone into a deadly weapon.  Anyway, the Philistines did get their revenge. They put Samson into prison and forced him to grind grain. And they put out Samson's eyes, so he was blind.

Samson's fate was tragic but, eventually, his hair grew back and he regained his strength but not his eyesight. He managed to get out of prison to go to the Philistines' temple. There, he leaned on the pillars until they broke, causing the entire building to be structurally unsound. The building then collapsed, killing everyone inside it, including Samson.

After Delilah got her servant to shave Samson's head, she is never mentioned again.

Here is a picture of Delilah cutting Samson's hair: Samson gets an unwanted haircut

The story of Samson and Delilah is very dramatic. In fact, Camille Saint Saens wrote an opera based on this tale. One of the more unusual things about this opera is that the leading lady is a mezzo soprano, not a soprano, although the strong Samson is played by a tenor. Because I am a mezzo soprano, I like the idea of a mezzo soprano leading lady.

More tales later!

More tales from Judges

I have been reading the book of Judges for about the last week. It is interesting, although, in spots, gruesome. In fact, the book started off in an unpleasant way, when the descendants of Judah and Simeon went to fight against the Canaanites and the Perizzites. In the battle, 10,000 men were killed. Not only that, the Israelites managed to capture the fleeing king, Adoni-Bezek. Apparently, he was a tyrant. He was tortured by having his thumbs and big toes cut off. Oddly enough, he wasn't angry about this gruesome action taken against him. He said that he deserved it because he had cut off the thumbs and big toes of seventy kings that he had subjugated.
And, speaking about the number seventy, there was a guy named Abimelech. This seems to be a common name in the Old Testament. In Genesis, Abram was traveling with his wife, Sarai, when they stopped in Schechem to stay for a while. The king there was Abimelech. Abram was afraid that he would be killed because his wife was so beautiful. To avoid an immediate demise, he told a lie by telling Abimelech that Sarai was his sister. Years later, Isaac, the son of Abraham (formerly known as Abram), told exactly the same lie to Abimelech for exactly the same reason. He was afraid that, if anyone knew that Rebekah was his wife, he would be killed. Rebekah was beautiful. In both instances, disaster struck Abimelech and his people because of Abram's and Isaac's lies.
Well, centuries have passed. This new Abimelech was the son of an Israelite judge, Gideon, and a concubine. Therefore, he was illegitimate. Gideon had been a busy man. He won a battle against the Midianites, with 300 men, who were equipped with trumpets, pitchers, and torches. So, anyway, when Gideon wasn't leading his troops, he was busy with family. He had a number of wives. With those wives, he had seventy sons. He also had Abimelech with a concubine.
When Gideon passed away, Abimelech decided that he wanted to be a king. There was only one problem. Or there were seventy problems. They had more of a legitimate claim on the throne than did Abimelech. So Abimelech decided to get rid of those seventy problems permanently. He killed all of his brothers. Then he became the king. After three years, he was assassinated, and, thus, his kingly days came to a halt.
There are numerous incidents of sibling rivalry in the Bible, but this takes sibling rivalry to a new, disgusting extreme.
One of the more interesting characters in Judges is Deborah. She was married to a man named Lappidoth, but she didn't gain her fame or position because of anything that her husband did. Deborah was a prophetess and a judge. She is the first woman to be mentioned in the Bible in the role of a leader. She was described as a wife and a prophetess. She was not a military leader. When she needed a military leader, she called on Barak. He was called on to destroy the Canaanites. But he refused to go alone, and he insisted that Deborah had to accompany him, and she did so. Nevertheless, Barak's victory against King Hazar (the Canaanite king) was impressive and it led to good times for the Israelites. They experienced forty years of peace, under the leadership of Deborah. She was a quiet woman who served God. She was not mean or dominating. She simply was a wife and a prophetess and a good judge. She was considered to be pious and a woman of great wisdom.
And she was rare... a woman who led her people during a time when women rarely, if ever, held that role.
Check out this link for a picture of Deborah
The painting was made in 1901 by Charles Landelle (1821-1908). He was a French painter, who had a variety of specialties, including "orientalist." Here is more information about Charles Landelle
Next time: Samson and Delila!

A Note About Joshua

As I reported yesterday, I was feeling highly disgusted with the detailed descriptions of massacres and total destruction in the book of Joshua. I was wondering how God could order the Israelites to engage in the genocide of the Canaanites. I was also wondering why the Israelites were so willing to comply with this command of God's, when their history would indicate that they were generally a very uncooperative and disobedient bunch. I was appalled and horrified by the senseless violence, which seemed to me to be ethnic cleansing.

Today, I talked with Father Earle about that. He pointed out that the book of Joshua was actually written a number of centuries after the events of the book occurred. In fact, I just took a look at this website: Sun, Stand Still. It gives some interesting information about the book of Joshua. First of all, the book is not objective history. It is not a recording of the facts, as they occurred. The facts, as they occurred, were probably not written at all. They were probably passed down from generation to generation as oral history.

Then, there is the part that is most interesting, at least to me. The book of Joshua was written when the Israelites were once again under the control of a foreign power. They were in exile and they were being oppressed by the Babylonians. They needed encouragement. The stories of God defeating the enemies of the Israelites with hailstones provided an oppressed people with hope that they would not forever be oppressed.

The stories of gruesome massacres, which resulted in the deaths of all living things within a city (men, women, children, babies, animals, and plants), was exaggerated. It may never have occurred, at least not in the way in which the stories were told. The Amorites were not all killed. Many Amorites did survive these nonstop wars.  Here is a little more information.

The book of Joshua is, like the rest of the Bible, a book that expresses faith. In the book of Joshua, it was the faith of a people, who were struggling to claim the land that they had been promised. That the book consists of exaggerated stories is OK. It is called hyperbole, and it is not uncommon for storytellers to engage in that.

Did the Israelites engage in ethnic cleansing in their attempts to claim land in Canaan?

Joshua's scorched earth policy

On Monday, I started reading the book of Joshua, and I must say that it is one war after the other. Once the Israelites crossed the Jordan River, they fought and fought and fought. Lots of fighting, lots of killing, lots of destruction. To say that it's not pleasant would be an understatement.

Ready for battle???

There was the battle of Jericho, made well known by the song, Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho (sung by the great gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson (1911-1972).
So the book of Joshua seems to be a combination of military campaigns, land grabs, and the division of the land among the tribes of Israel. It is unclear as to how long these wars took. What is clear is that many people were killed. There were massacres and cities being burned to the ground. The Israelites took all of the valuables away with them. Kings were executed by hanging. In fact, 31 Amorite kings were executed.
So then, after the battles end, the land is divided. Each tribe received land, where that tribe settled and made its home after many years of wandering.
But oh! All of those wars! This stuff was challenging for me to read. It was violent and gruesome. I wondered about all of those people who were killed. Who were they? How did they live? What did they want out of life? What made them happy? What made them sad? Did they sing to their children at bedtime? What did they like to eat? I know nothing about them. In fact, they are depicted as somewhat anonymous and completely expendable.
So I looked for information about the Amorites. I found out that they were nomads, who wandered through areas that were known as Mesopotamia and Canaan. It was from Canaan that the Israelites sought to dispossess the Amorites. Their language would be placed in the northwestern Semitic family of languages. They had a written language, and they wrote in a dialect of Akkadian. They were ruled by kings. The Amorites were described as very tall. The Israelites described the Amorites as being as tall as cedars. Hmmm.
The fighting and fires and massacres make the book of Joshua a difficult book for me to read. I am horrified by the violence and by what I perceive to be a lack of regard for life. But I cannot begin to understand life in Biblical times.
More later.

Pandora's Box and Deuteronomy

Pandora was Zeus' daughter. Hephaestus, who was the husband of Aphrodite, made her out of clay because Zeus wanted him to make a woman. She was the first woman made out of clay, according to Greek mythology. Pandora was sent to earth to marry Epimetheus because he was sad and lonely.  
Epimetheus was the brother of Prometheus, who angered Zeus by giving people fire without permission. So Epimetheus got a wife. He must have thought that was a pretty good deal. His wife, however, was a curious girl. She was given a box and was told not to open it. It had a huge lock on it. It must have been a very ornate box. I bet that Pandora thought that the box was full of delicious chocolates! Or maybe not. Did ancient Greeks even have chocolate? I don't know. I think that chocolate came from the western hemisphere. 
Anyway, Pandora let her curiosity get the better of her. She stole the key in the middle of the night and opened the box. Out flew unpleasant stuff. Disease, hate, envy, and all of the evils that afflict the world today. Ugly, ugly stuff came flying out of the world, and that stuff flew away. Pandora was sad because she knew that her violating the rules about the box was going to cause so much pain and heartache. But there was no way for Pandora to catch all of that ugly stuff and stuff it back into the box. 
As Pandora was crying, she hear a tiny voice from the bottom of the box. The tiny voice belonged to Hope. It reminded her that, despite her mistake in opening up the box and unleashing all of the evils of the world, all was not lost as long as Hope remained. It is Hope that tells us that our world can be a better place and that it is within us to make it so. It is Hope that tells us that we don't have to be cruel or violent or warlike.
And, speaking of all of the ills of the world, the Bible talks about them in great detail. In Deuteronomy, the ills of the world are mentioned. They are curses that are inflicted upon a disobedient people. When the people are disobedient to God's commandments by worshiping false idols and committing other violations, they are cursed in many ways. These curses include poverty, hunger, consumption, fever, murder, mildew, sores, dust bowls, poor harvests, infertility, nakedness, cannibalism, plagues.
But hope still remains. It is the hope that people can behave as they were supposed to behave. By following God's commandments and by obeying the word of God, many blessings will come. 
Unfortunately, as I have read in the first five books of the Bible (the Pentateuch), there are so many commandments and so many rules and regulations. It is hard to keep them all straight, much less follow them to the letter. 
So I wonder. Were people set up for failure with these massive numbers of rules, regulations, and commandments?  Through these books, it was apparent that no one was able to follow all of the rules well. Moses tried hard but he had issues with his temper that caused him to disobey God's command. As a result, he was not permitted to enter the Promised Land. In fact, at the end of Deuteronomy, Moses passed away. He went to the top of the mountain, and he saw the promised land. He was still in good health and his eyesight was clear... but he died. He was 120 years old. At the end of Deuteronomy that there was never again a prophet like Moses.
But really, all of this started with Adam and Eve. They were too curious for their own good, like Pandora. They were told not to eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They were tricked and they ate the fruit. It was too tempting. An ornate box with a huge lock and mystery contents would be too tempting, too.
But there is always hope for our sad and broken world. 
More later...

Biblical Food!

Let's face it. Food is wonderful. I love food. I love big strawberries and delicious sweet cookies and pretty much all food.

Food is something that is discussed in great detail in the Bible, too.

In the beginning, God gave Adam and Eve all of the food that they needed to enjoy life in the Garden of Eden. They could pick fruit from every tree but one. That one tree was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So, basically, Adam and Eve were vegans. They were happy, well-nourished, easygoing vegans. They had a nice, relaxed life style. All they had to do was to choose their fruit and eat it. They didn't need to plant a garden or harvest it. They didn't have to chop onions. They didn't have to cook and they didn't have to wash dirty dishes. All they had to do was pick fruit and eat it.

Unfortunately, Eve was easily led astray by a serpent. She was talked into eating the forbidden fruit. It seems that food was her downfall. Eve talked Adam into eating the forbidden fruit as well. It didn't take much. Eve gave Adam the fruit and he ate it.

So much for their easy going, happy vegan lifestyle. God didn't take long in figuring out that Adam and Eve broke the rules by eating forbidden fruit. He sent Adam and Eve away from the Garden of Eden and he let them know that life would not be quite as much fun anymore. They had to grow their own food. Unfortunately, God also cursed the soil.

So Adam and Eve worked hard and became parents and they lived and died.

Getting food to grow from the ground became work for generations to come... until after the flood. God told Noah that he would neither destroy all living things nor curse the earth again. He created a covenant with Noah and with all living creatures about that. The sign of the covenant is the rainbow.

But God broke the relationships between humans and animals. He gave all beasts of the earth to humans as food. And so, wild animals became afraid of people. Until that point, people did not eat meat. They just ate the vegetation that they were able to grow in the cursed ground.

Food was an important thing in the Bible. It was an issue between the dueling twins, Jacob and Esau. One day, Esau was out hunting and he returned, famished. Jacob offered Esau a bowl of red stew in exchange for his birthright. Esau was entitled to the birthright (a double share of his an inheritance) but he, apparently, wanted stew more than he wanted the birthright. Later, Jacob tricked his father. He pretended to be his brother and he served Isaac a plate of food that was supposed to be delicious game.  Supposedly, Esau had killed this game on a hunting trip. Actually, it was a domesticated animal that Jacob's mother, Rebekah, had cooked. Isaac was blind so he had no clue that he was giving a blessing to the wrong son. When Esau brought food to his father, he discovered that there was no blessing left for him.

Skip forward a few generations or more. Joseph, who had been sold as a slave to the Egyptians, found in food the answer to his problems. After Joseph's older brothers (actually, they were all half-brothers) sold Joseph to a bunch of Ishmaelites, he ended up in Egypt as a slave. His master's wife tried to get him to have an affair with her, but he rejected her advances. Apparently, she didn't take well to the rejection and she told her husband that Joseph tried to take advantage of her. Joseph ended up in jail! Poor Joseph! He was locked up for a long time, but God was with him so he ended up by running the jail. He just couldn't leave. Joseph was an interpreter of dreams. He interpreted the dreams of other prisoners. Eventually, he interpreted the Pharaoh's nightmare. There would be seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. Because he did this, Joseph was not only released from jail, he was appointed to a high position in the Pharaoh's government. He got perks, too. Good clothing, a nice chariot... and, of course, good food. Joseph made sure that enough food was put aside from the years of plenty so that no one would starve during the years of famine. And it worked, too. The crops were bad but no one died of starvation.

OK. So fast forward about 400 years or so. The Israelites left Egypt and the mean Pharaoh (the one who knew nothing about Joseph) behind. They left a whole bunch of the charioteers at the bottom of the river, where they drowned, chasing the Israelites. The Israelites found themselves with Moses in the desert. No food. They started whining about that and waxing nostalgic about their lives in Egypt. God gave the Israelites manna and quails. At another place, the Israelites whined about no water. So God gave the Israelites water from a rock.

Eventually, in Leviticus, God let Moses know what meats people could eat and which meats were considered unclean. Here are meats that are OK to eat: animals that have cloven hooves and chew cud. These animals are considered unclean and are not to be eaten: camel, rock hydrox, hare, and swine. Here are fish that are OK to eat. They must be from the sea or a river and they must have fins and scales. No lobster or shrimp! Only certain birds are OK for consumption. These are unspecified in both Leviticus and in Deuteronomy, where the listing of clean versus unclean foods is mentioned yet again. Birds of prey, such as vultures and eagles, are not considered clean

Oh, and it is OK to eat certain insects. You can eat grasshoppers and locusts. But don't eat bees, ants, and butterflies. The Bible didn't mention butterflies but I am sure that they were not meant to go on the dinner plate. I don't know if I'd like to eat locusts but John the Baptist ate them, along with wild honey.

It is also against the rules to boil a lamb in his mother's milk.

Here is more information about what it means to maintain a kosher diet.

Jesus made sure that people got food. Once, he made sure that 5,000 people were fed, and another time, 4,o00 were fed. There wasn't much food available... just a few loaves and fishes, but everyone had enough to eat and there were leftovers. Loaves and fishes sound more appetizing than locusts.

More later...

Your Gift from Numbers

Tucked in the Book of Numbers is this delightful gem of blessing and love to all of us from God:

"The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be merciful to you; the Lord lift up his countenance to you and give you peace."

In times of difficulty or sadness, remember that you are blessed. In times of happiness, don't forget that you are blessed.

Here are these words put to music.

The first one is a composition by John Rutter, sung by the men and boys of Westminster Abbey:

Westminster Abbey Choir of Men and Boys

Here is Peter Lutkin's version, with the Stanislaus Chamber Singers:
Stanislaus Chamber Singers

This one is in Hebrew and English! The singer's name is Susanna.
Susanna's sung blessing

Slogging through Leviticus and Numbers

Well, I said in an earlier post that I would write about the New Testament in my next post. OK. So, I lied. I'm going to hold off on that until I've read all four Gospels. Right now, I am about halfway through the Gospel of Luke.

The Bible reading program that I'm on involves reading the Bible six days a week: three chapters of the Old Testament, one psalm, and one chapter of the New Testament.

Anyway, today, I started reading Deuteronomy. Moses is still trying to deal with the Israelites, which is sort of like herding cats. The Israelites are uncooperative, and they spend a lot of time complaining. They believe that they are in terrible peril on a regular basis and they spend a lot of time reminiscing nostalgically about the good old days when they were slaves in Egypt. Of course, nostalgia is an interesting thing. It can make a truly bad experience seem wonderful, especially after several years have passed, and the unpleasant reality has waned away. Several times, the Israelites talk about returning to Egypt. Why? I don't have a clue. But they don't have much confidence in Moses or in God. At times, they go beyond mere complaining to building and worshiping idols. God, through Moses, had warned the Israelites that he would not tolerate them worshiping idols and graven images but... once again... the herding cats image...

So God becomes mad at the Israelites and he punishes them harshly for their disobedience and their ungrateful attitudes. He sends them plagues. Some of them die abruptly and others are swallowed by the earth. It must have been an enormous sinkhole.

When the Israelites aren't whining and worshiping false idols and planning on returning to all of the fun times in Egypt, they fight wars... one war after another. Ugh! Lots of killing. Not too pleasant. It isn't good for their plan to become as numerous as the stars in the sky or the sands on the beach. In the book of Numbers, the Israelites are counted in two censuses. Well, not all Israelites. The women and children are not counted. The twelve tribes of Israel are counted, but the only ones who are counted are the men, ages 20 and over, who could be soldiers in the army. The Levites are counted separately. They are the priestly clan. They aren't going to be soldiers. Only the male Levites are counted, however. But the little boys, age one month and older, are counted, along with the men. Some of the tribes had a dramatic decline in population between the first and second censuses. The tribe of Simeon saw the most dramatic decline in population. They went from 59,300 men to 22,200, a lost of 37,100 men, which accounted for more than half of their adult male population. On the other hand, the tribe of Manasseh, saw an increase in population. They went from 32,200 to 52,700, an increase of 11,900. But, in terms of total population, the Israelites lost 1,993 males (this includes the Levites).

Can you tell that my dad was a demographer? I learned a lot from him about population trends. I can say that wars and getting swallowed up by the earth does not encourage a nation to be fruitful and multiply.

Yet, other nations were afraid of the Israelites because of their large numbers.

As mentioned earlier, the Israelites were not very well behaved. God sent down, though Moses, massive numbers of rules and regulations, covering every situation possible, from what foods people could eat to how they were to what sort of offerings were acceptable in the temple to how the vestments for the priests were to be made. These rules were very detailed and they didn't offer much room for interpretation. Violating these rules could result in serious penalties.

At any rate, I will learn more about the laws and the rules because they are explained in more detail in Deuteronomy.

More later...

The Bible as Instruction Manual

Today, I finished reading Exodus. It was a big adventure for the most part. Moses led his people out of Egypt, where they were being oppressed. He got them across the Red Sea without losing a single one. The Egyptians chased Moses and the Israelites but the Egyptians and their chariots and charioteers drowned in the rushing waters.
Unfortunately, escaping from Egypt turned out to be the easy part of the adventure. There were still many difficulties that lay ahead. The Israelites still faced the prospects that they could die of hunger and thirst. God took care of them and provided them with everything that they needed. The Israelites complained incessantly and even waxed nostalgic about their lives in Egypt, where they had plenty of food, which they needed, because they were being worked to death. Like most nostalgic people, they seemed to have forgotten the worked to death part.
Despite getting manna from heaven and quails to eat and despite the fact that Moses was able to get water from a rock, the Israelites were still cranky. Moses was frustrated. If there had been substitute teachers at the time, they would have been treated in much that same way that Moses was.
Moses went to talk to God, who was behind a pillar of cloud. The Israelites could see the cloud but they were afraid and they wouldn't go anywhere near it. So Moses left and spent a long time away. The Israelites thought that Moses had abandoned them and was never coming back. They forced Moses' brother Aaron to make a deity for them out of gold. Aaron made a golden calf. He melted down all of the women's jewelry. For some reason, there is no record of the women complaining about the fact that their jewelry was confiscated for this dubious enterprise.  When Moses finally returned, he discovered that the Israelites were having a wild party in celebration of their golden calf. Moses was carrying the tablets with the Ten Commandments. The spectacle that awaited him made him mad and he threw down the tablets, causing them to break. Then he grabbed the offending idol and pulverized it.
After the golden calf was destroyed, an enormous battle ensued. It quickly turned into a full-scale civil war, with Israelites killing each other. Brother killed brother and friend killed friend. When it was over, three thousand Israelites were dead. It was very gruesome but it made me wonder: how many Israelites were wandering through the desert? It must have been an enormous number of people. Of course, the Pharaoh was panicky because he perceived the Israelites as mating and reproducing like rabbits.
Well, after this whole sorry episode with the golden calf and the destroyed tablets, Moses went back to God, who was behind the pillar of cloud, as mentioned previously. God was behind the pillar of cloud so that Moses would be unable to see his face because no one could see the face of God and live. God gave Moses new tablets. He also gave Moses a lot of rules and regulations. There were rules for maintaining the Sabbath and for altars and for vestments for priests. There were rules for feasts and fasts. Everything is written very clearly, with a great deal of detail. It is an excellent instructional manual. I will readily admit that this part of the Bible is a bit dry and less than exciting.
But I continue reading and learning.
Tomorrow, I start Leviticus.
I am also reading the New Testament, so, the next time I post, I'll probably discuss the Gospels.

Life in the Desert

Moses must have seemed scary when he lifted his rod and it turned into a serpent. He must have seemed unusually powerful when he lifted his rod and the Red Sea parted. He brought back the Ten Commandments from God.

But there was just one problem. His people had short attention spans. After they were out of Egypt and on the other side of the Red Sea, they discovered that they didn't have enough food. All of a sudden, they were nostalgic for their former lives in Egypt. They had food in Egypt. OK. So they were slaves, but they were well fed, happy slaves. Really? Sometimes, nostalgia provides a bizarrely false image of the past.

The former well fed slaves experienced a miracle. They received bread from heaven and meat (quail). The food must have been delicious. It was called manna and it was white like coriander seed. It looked like wafers made with honey. They were able to store a great deal of the manna. It lasted for years.

These nomadic people kept traveling because they were walking to the promised land. They didn't have a compass and they walked in circles. Before long, they found themselves in a place where there was no water. Since human beings cannot survive long without water, these people were not doing well. Once again, they blamed Moses. They said that he led them into a certain death. Dying of thirst would not be a good way to go. Moses got an earful. He spoke to God about the complaints. He said that the people were ready to stone him. That would be a sad fate for Moses. God told Moses to strike a rock with his rod and water would come out of it. Sure enough, that was what happened, and the Israelites decided that Moses wasn't such a bad guy after all.

But Moses was a tired guy. It seems that he had to judge every last dispute and that he never got a moment's rest. That changed when his father in law, Jethro, arrived. He let Moses know that he had to work on delegating authority. Jethro gave Moses a system for delegating authority. Apparently, it worked. And that was a good thing because it wasn't like Moses could just go off for a nice vacation.

More on Moses later!