morning cup of joe

and some scripture. I need to catch up with these guys.




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Genesis 29-30: wtf

As Tommy would say, "what is the function?" Jacob straight-up steals his father's blessing and actually lies to him to do so. Then he has to run away because his brother is going to kill him. Then he gets tricked into marrying Leah, but wait, it's ok because he gets to marry Rachel too. Then this little sister feud ends up with Jacob nailing both wives' serving girls.

Seriously? Oh Jacob, you cad. I wonder how hard his wives had to try to convince him re: maidservants.

The rest of chapter 30 is just as wonky. And, I'm noticing, all these sons are the patriarchs of the twelve tribes of Israel. God has an uncanny ability to use weak material to accomplish his purposes.

Why be righteous?

Job 22:2-3 asks:

²"Can a man be profitable to God?
Surely he who is wise is profitable to himself.
³Is it any pleasure to the Almighty if you are in the right,
or is it gain to him if you make your ways blameless?

This struck me as an important question. I guess what I thought in response to this question is that God doesn't need us. All the teaching, rebuking, discipline, and commandments God gives to us- they're all for our benefit. Righteousness makes our lives better.

I don't know how to think about God "delighting" in our obedience to him. There seems to be some tension here when I try and examine the way we may effect God's attitudes. That doesn't even seem possible though. Can we actually make God happy? Or, is God beyond our influence, and his love for us is why he leads us toward righteousness. I don't know.

Notes from Genesis

8:21 is pretty hard hitting. Side note: also my birthday. But here we are presented with "even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood."

Every?? Wow. And those were direct quotes from God. Also I think it's cool that God was smelling a sacrifice, and thought the aroma pleasing. Makes me want to cook better.

One other thing I don't understand is God's comment in 11:5. "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."

Thoughts, gentleman? Why would God intentionally try to confound us? "then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them.". Is there another context to read this in?

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Genesis 4-7

Day #2 of our reading, and I learned something new.  There was a third son from Adam / Eve, and his name was Seth.

Seth?

That's had a huge resurgence recently in names, right?  There's like a brazillion Seth's out there right now.  But no Abel's?  No Cain's?

*shrug*