Exodus - Leadership

It never occurred to me how much the story of Moses is about the trials and tribulations of leadership. At first, Moses is unprepared for the job and doubts his abilities. He can only do it if his older brother comes along with him. Moses doubts not only his own abilities but the wisdom of God's plan. But slowly he gains confidence and soon he's doing a lot of things by himself. He speaks with greater authority and conviction and begins to trust God a bit more. In chapter 18, things are going so well that everyone wants to come to him for help and he experiences... that most 21st century kind of thing - stress! So he has to learn to delegate authority. You can almost feel the strain of leadership within Moses at times. What a great story.

Exodus - I Doubt It

1 book down and 65 to go (thank God Presbyterians don't read the apocrypha). I haven't yet found a good regular time to read the Bible every day, but I'm figuring out a weekly discipline that gets me through all the chapters in a week. I read a lot on Mondays and Tuesdays, then slow down with my reading as the rest of the week speeds up.

As I leave Genesis behind and head into Exodus I was wondering if I would find Moses to be a more towering personality than the rather rascally-looking patriarchs of the other stories. But Moses isn't looking very good in the first few chapters. So far I've listed (another list) 5 times that Moses doubts God's advice including more or less the entire chapter 4. Don't you think these guys would get the picture after awhile? I don't suppose I should expect them to behave any better than myself, but still...I hope Moses starts looking a bit better as we go on.

Genesis 41 - Just Dreaming

What is it with all this dreaming? Joseph gets into trouble with his dreams. Then he gets out of trouble by interpreting others' dreams. I wonder why dreams play such a pivotal role in these stories. Perhaps it's because dreaming is an unconscious act that bypasses our troublesome wills. Even though dreams can be obscure, on the other hand, they can often "cut to the chase" in a way that our conscious thoughts don't. This certainly proved true in the dreams of the Joseph story. Can it be that we think too much about things sometimes? Can we overthink an issue that God is putting in front of us? Maybe we should take the advice that we all got a long time ago and just... "sleep on it."

Genesis 38 - Making Lists

This probably means I have some sort of illness, but when I read the Bible I start making lists. My oldest Bible has a dozen or more lists that I've jotted down and as I've made my way through Genesis, I've started more lists: How often does someone say, "Here I am!" -- so far, 5 times. How often does God restate the covenant -- so far, 11 times. What are the different names of God -- so far, El, El Elyon, El Shaddai, Yahweh, Adonai.

It could be that the way the Bible is written encourages this kind of list-making. The Bible often repeats ideas and images and with each repetition the image/idea gains meaning and importance. I love trying to follow the path of an image as it makes its way through several stories, like the way wind/breath/spirit is found throughout the first few chapters.

So, if you don't share my compulsion for lists, I'll be glad to share mine with you as we keep going. After all, we do have 65 more books to go before we reach Revelation!

Genesis - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

Our God is repeatedly referred to as the "God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" which sounds pretty good until you actually think about what these persons were like. Abraham has some weak moments but seems to make up for it all with his faithfulness on Mount Mora. Isaac just doesn't have that big a part in the Bible, but overall comes out looking alright. But Jacob.....Jacob.....what was God thinking!? His story is just one outrageous thing after another. Only Jacob has the audacity to demand that God do something for him before giving his allegience to God (28:20). When he finally tries to ask forgiveness from his brother I wonder whether I would have been as gracious as Esau.

So, when we pray to the "God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob," I can't help but have this vision in my head of crazy Jacob planning some new scheme and I've gotta believe that if God is there through it all with Jacob, God will stick with me through all my craziness.

Genesis 22 - Sacrifice

This picture is of a George Segal sculpture depicting the sacrifice of Isaac. It was created to commemorate the shootings at Kent State. They refused it because they thought it too controversial. It now resides at Princeton University outside the chapel. I have found it to be extremely powerful for me. This story leaves me almost breathless. I can't read it without being immediately transported to the cross.

Genesis 19 - Too close for comfort

I'm not quite sure how to say this politely. For certain, the Bible doesn't worry too much about being polite. But here it is... this book is full of lots of stuff about sex. Rape, incest, infidelity and lots of begetting. In fact, did you know that the Hebrew word for KNOW is the same as the word for sexual intimacy. So, sometimes our english translation will say that so and so KNEW so and so... and then she had a baby. How interesting that knowledge and intimacy are connected. The Bible knows that sex is interwoven with so much of our lives. We just have a hard time figuring out how to talk about it in public without snickering or being preachy or judgmental. Maybe this story can help us in being real about it. What do you think?

Genesis 11 - Babies!

The beginning of Genesis seems obsessed with babies. Numerous times, including during the creation, we are told to be "fruitful." And then there are all the lists. Lists of who "begot" who...on and on. It's clear that the world is becoming populated and that this is a good thing. But then chapter 11, verse 29 comes along and WHAM!... "...and Sarai was barren, she had no child." It's as if God's plan hits a stone wall.

I know that circumstances are different now than they were in the ancient world, but even today, the news that a couple cannot conceive a child can be difficult. In the ancient world, the survival of the clan was dependant upon children. God's Covenant with Abraham is all dependant upon children. This part of the story provides a real test as to whether or not Abraham and Sarai are going to totally depend on God or not.