Exodus till Section 16

I can not recall hearing the stories of this section as a child or young adult. Up until the ten commandments what the hell kind of acts were the Israelies committing? Were they just heckling each others neighbors and killing at will? I agree with Plotts on this section; the ten commandments are just a list of rules of how to live by a humanisitic set of rules. The commandments have not a drop of morals described in their text. One question I had about this section is why do all the Israelites keep moaning and groaning about starvation and thirst when they know that the Lord will help them? Obviously he saved them from the slavery of the egyptians and killed tons of egyptians in the process. After the ten commandents, the Lord defines the rules of slavery among Moses' people....I don not think that they teach this is in Bible Studies. Even though the rules of slavery are not the same as we would define slavery today, they are still pretty rash. Besides that, there are still many references to multiple Gods in the time of Moses, even by the Lord himself.

Exodus 1-13

The first through the tenth sections of Exodus were pretty similar to how I remembered the story of Moses (except for the whole Moses' son's penis skin being placed on Moses' feet and his wife saving him from an angry Lord). As we discussed in class section four is pretty crazy and out of sync with the previous sections and those to follow. Anyway Joseph's family prospers and Pharaoh comes to destroy and enslave the Israelites. Pharaoh orders the Hebrew midwives to kill the male newborns. They decide it is best not too, because ultimately that would defy J. So because they are strong females, God decides to give them many babies. The feminist wheels are in motion. But before that Moses flees to Midian after killing an Egyptian where he does a good deed and earns a wife. After seeking permission from the father of Zipporah. They have a son named Gersham. Then they live happily ever after...I wish it was that simple for Moses.

Moses then goes to Horeb where God appears to him as a burning bush...classic story so far. God tells Moses to run back to Egypt and save the Israelites (Proving that he did in fact talk to God instead of just hallucinating about a fiery shrub, The Lord gives him a staff that which will then turn to a snake when he strikes it to the ground). Although the snake has mythologically been interpreted as evil and cursed by many, the Lord chooses this animal to be represented as in this scene. One question I had during this scene is based on the fact that Moses seemed to be overly questioning the Lord of how he is to be believed by the Israelites. Every other character who has come in contact with God does not deny that people will question the validity of what there actions/words.

So Moses does this and then we proceed to the plagues... They are pretty standard as far as I remembered them. The only things that really stood out to me was how the Lord kept hardening Pharaoh's heart after he would send Moses out on a limb to spark the plagues. Was this just God maybe having fun or gloating over his own power and ultimatums? Moses and probably everyone else in Egypt knew of God's powers after the third plague.

MAGICIANS!? How could there be magicians in the second book of the bible. Every turning page I am waiting for a zombie or a vampire. I surely do not remember magicians existing in the story of Moses.

One more thing about the plagues; I am still unsure of the importance of unleavened bread. During this time period I can only imagine flat-breads as very very very hard. I kind of understand the whole roasted leg of lamb-blood thing but what the hell does bread have to do with the Lord rescuing the Israelites???

Anyway I will have more as I finish Exodus tomorrow.

Genesis...wow

I am new to the Bible. Even though I grew up next-door to a giantly-oversized christian church. Because of the extreme amount of noise pumping through the blessed walls, our family had no desire to attend.

Upon completion of Genesis, I have come to ponder the kinships that my parents would flock to each week. As I understood kinships were held purposely to evaluate and discuss one book of the bible every week. Lets just say that Genesis must have been a real ice-breaker. After we discuss the gang-rape Bonnie will delight us with her chocolate lava cake.

After we discussed the multiplicity of authors (Which was news to me) in the book of Genesis, I re-read some of the stories I though that were the most interesting.

The story of Joseph was completely different form what I remembered as a child, and I fail to see the lessons imbued upon the Joseph story.

Blog

I am finally able to access this blog. I have been having multiple problems with my gmail accounts. Although I attended bible studies as a child, I have little to no recollection of the actual text of the bible. That being said I am looking forward to reading the testaments and all of the other pieces for this class.