Leviticus - thoughts

I thought I'd offer my thoughts on what it's been like reading the Bible on my Kindle so far. For those of you who don't know, a Kindle is one of those new electronic book readers. It's about the size of a small book, but it can hold the content of about 500 books. Right now, 66 of them are from the Bible. As I expected, the Kindle is very easy to use for going straight through a text, but is more cumbersome than a paper book at flipping back and forth between pages. Therefore, when I'm in a discussion and we're going all over the place, the Kindle is nearly impossible to use. However, it's been great as I do my initial reading. At first, I really had a hard time, but then I settled in to the discipline of going straight through the text without a lot of doubling back. This is a new way of reading the Bible for me. I'm more used to dodging in and out, back and forth through scripture. Now, I am spending much more time going through it as it is set forth for us. All in all - not a bad thing to do!

I've finally gotten to the end of Leviticus and heading into Numbers. I'm anxious to leave all the confusing rules behind and get back to more of a story format. But as I do, I realize that these rules form the backdrop for so much of the story that follows. Isn't that the truth of life - much of what we struggle with comes in the context of our worldview - the "right" and "wrongness" of what we experience. Guilt, joy, fulfillment and sadness all center on the way that we perceive the expectations upon us. If anything, Leviticus helps us understand some of those expectations.