Lamentations

I decided that trying to read the Bible from Genesis to Malachi straight through was really hard and just the idea is kinda daunting so I decided to skip around a bit. I'm not sure if this is the right way but hey if my preacher can do it so can I!

I went to one the the shortest books I could find and that happened to be Lamentations.
I thoroughly enjoyed Lamentations. It was like listening to the Blues but a lot more whinny. The five songs of Lamentations are sort of poetic and fun to read. Jeremiah changes his attitude quite a bit. In the beginning he is sad his land has been delivered into slavery, then he praises God forgiveness and mercy in a few uplifting verses them begins to cry again, then he wished this curse on someone else, then asks for forgiveness. It ends with a final plea to God to bring them back into their good graces. I guess God really does follow through with his promises.

I was searching songs with Biblical phrases and I found that U2 uses quite a few!

Avenged Sevenfold also has a song about Cain and Able that was pretty cool

(give me your hand,
blood is spilt and man will follow
infernal man, punishment too great to bear)
Conceived and born was one of light
Rain and dark, the other born black night.

Raise your head and taste the courage
(the one of light)
Fall from grace, unholy night
I've come here to kill you,
won't leave until you've died
Murder born of vengeance,
I closed my brothers eyes tonight...

(give me your hand,
blood is spilt and man will follow
infernal man, punishment too great to bear)
Conceived and born was one of light
Rain and dark, the other born black night.

Raise your head and taste the courage
(the one of light)
Fall from grace, unholy night
I've come here to kill you,
won't leave until you've died
Murder born of vengeance,
I closed my brothers eyes tonight...

Its cold tonight as the clouds turn grey
and from my hands to my brothers grave
You took his side, you took his gift,
feel the power of a fallen man, crestfallen man...

Far away in this land I must go,
out of the sight of The One.
A punishment sent from his hands
a hardship that no one should know
Now go out of the site of The One,
away in this land you must go.

Where has he gone? What have you done?

A voice commands from high above this earth.
From the soil his blood cries out to me,
Murder, liar, vengeance, deceit.

Far away in this land I must go,
out of the sight of The One.
A punishment sent from his hands
a hardship that no one should know
Now go out of the site of The One,
away in this land you must go.

So throughout my reading of "The Slave" I came across quite a few strange traditions that the peasants practiced. They mentioned them for only a few sentences but they were mentioned quite a few times so I decided to look a few of them up and see what they were about.
One that I found that was pretty interesting was the story of Baba.
As much as I looked for who exactly was Baba the only Baba that I was able to find was Baba Yaga. She is this really old crazy witch like lady who supposedly eats small children and lives in a house on chicken legs. I don't know if its the same but I still thought it was pretty cool

I also tried to find out what a Dziad was but all I found was a story of an old Man.

The most interesting story I stumbled upon during my search was a Polish legend of a Polish princess named Wanda.

Apparently Wanda was so beautiful that a Prince traveled from Germany to seek her hand in marriage. He had heard of her beauty and the beauty of Poland and decided that he wanted her and her land. When he traveled to Poland the Princess thought he was barbaric and decided she would not marry him. He was so upset he told her if she didn't marry him he would wage war against her people and all would be lost. Wanda knew if her people fought the Germans they would loose, so instead of accepting his offer she walked into the River and committed suicide in order to free her people.

Singer

Well I'm about 100 pages into The Slave and I absolutely love it. I love the love story between Wanda and Jacob I think its so romantic the idea of the forbidden love.
I also think the relationship between Jacob and God is extremely interesting. Its quite a transition from reading the Bible to reading The Slave. In the Bible, God is an ever present character who speaks directly to many of his followers. God is always talking to Abraham and Moses and laying down the law. So its weird to read a book where God is everywhere to a story where God is lost. Its seems like in the Slave, Jacob has to try extremely hard to find God, not only was Jacob separated from his family but from God as well. As a Jewish book, God, to me, seems to be really absent. I read in Wiki that Singer said that God was "completely unknown and eternally silent" Which I can definitely see in The Slave. But I think as Jacob's relationship with Wanda grows so does his relationship with God. Jacob is so torn between his desire for Wanda that he begins to try and find God to balance everything out.

What I also think is strange about the Singer is the way the Christians are portrayed. They are NASTY Jacob seems like royalty compared to these dirty stinky people. Some of the things they do are so disgusting, peeing in the house, flashing the privates, vomiting on the floor, picking lice from the breasts. They are just repulsive. I dont know if its just the time period or if its the people but I'm pretty sure its the people.

David's view of Samson

David Plotz

Action Packed Exodus!

Exodus is my favorite book in the old testament.

I was watching a movie called the Reaping a few months ago and an interesting view of the ten plagues was given.

Genesis 36-50

Joseph and the King of Dreams!

This is one of the most popular stories in the Bible and was definitely a favorite during Sunday school and felt boards.

What I didn't know was that it was Simeon and Levi (Josephs brothers) who were responsible for killing and entire village of men in chapter 34. This was definitely bypassed in the dream works cartoon and Sunday school. Joseph was pretty luck that he was only sold into slavery, I'm pretty sure some of his older brothers wouldn't have thought twice about killing him.

Genesis 28-36

Jacob's life.

Jacob the sly little devil.

My Bad Day

My bad day happened sometime while was in middle school at the end of July during the Grand Stampede Rodeo in Helena, MT. It was just an average day during the fair and my friends and I decided to take our horses out for a little ride. Because I had a competition later that day I borrowed my dads saddle so I wouldn't get mine dirty. My dad's saddle was a little big and the stirrups didn't quit fit but I decided my ride wasn't going to be that long so I wasn't going to spend time and fix them. So, I grabbed my Thoroughbred horse Ben, saddled him up and joined my friends, but before I was even able to start on my ride my foot fell out of one of the stirrups and hit Ben. He took that hit as a cue to trotting, this caused my other foot to fall out of the other stirrup which Ben took that as a cue to RUN. Now both my feet were out of the Stirrups and they were hitting him harder and harder and he was runnin faster and faster. Another mistake I made was not putting a bit on Ben. I decided to put a hackamore bridle (which only puts pressure on his chin) and doesn't give me much control of his head. So with combination of empty stirrups and lack of control Ben didn't stop. He ran and ran as fast as he could and the only thing I could think of was to bail. I jumped off tucked and rolled and hit the ground. My parents came running frantically to see if I was OK. I got up, dusted my self...and put Ben away.

Later that day my friend Jade and I decided we were going to try to riding tandem on a small pony. We started off great then all of a sudden I started to slip off the pony. Since we were trotting pretty fast I grabbed on to Jade to hang on but instead of holding me up I ended up pulling her off with me. We hit the ground pretty hard, but since we were only on a pony it didn't hurt as bad. We were laughing so hard we didn't even notice Jade was bleeding and we were covered in the soda we were holding before we fell. It was then I turned around and collided head on with a crazy brown horse. The girl riding the horse didn't even try and move around me, she just ran right over the top of me and went on her way. I couldn't believe I had just gotten ran over by this girls horse and she didn't even stop to see if I was OK. I had bruises all over my body and even a great horse-hoof sized one in the middle of my stomach.

This was the worst day at the fair I had ever had. The only lucky part of the day was the horse that ran me over wasn't very big, and the girl who so rudely ran me over was asked to leave the arena for the remainder of the fair.

So I just finished reading the Dinah story and decided to see what my Teen Study Bible would say about it. I turned to chapter 34 under the title "The Dinah Incident" Incident? I guess thats one way to soften up rape and murder. Its just an Incident its not that big of a deal.

My Teen Study Bible that I have also has small sections that help explain things that may be a little confusing or tell us what it meant historically called "what's it mean" and as I was reading "The Dinah Incident" one of the "What's it Means" talked about abstinence. Their explanation for abstinence was survival. It said,
" Why wait? To stay alive. In Old Testament times, it was against the law for a woman to lose her virginity, the woman faced a possible death penalty. This punishment did not apply to women who had been raped. In the case of sexual assault, the rapist was required to pay the woman's father as though he were going to marry the woman. The father, then, had the choice of accepting or rejecting the offer of marriage."
Uh I don't see how they can combine rape and abstinence in one sentence. I know that they were trying to tie the history together but those are two topics that have nothing to do with each other.

Plotz

Well what can I say about Plotz. When I first started reading Plotz I was looking forward to reading the book yet as I read after the first few pages I started to become extremely annoyed with him. Yes I understand that this is only David's one sided view of the Bible so I cant completely hate him but he really pushes my buttons.

I was just reading Plotz and talking about in class the curse of Cain. Plotz thinks that the curse of Cain is not a curse at all. He thinks that the mark is a sign of safety but I definitely think that its a curse. Yes it does protect people from killing Cain but I think its so Cain will always be forced to live with the knowledge that he killed his brother and was dismissed from God.

Genesis

Genesis ch.1

So from about a lifetime of Bible school I assumed I completely understood the creation story. If this is something I am suppose to believe in completely without a doubt then how in the world did I not notice that there were two different stories by two different authors. I never knew that in chapter one God created man, "male and female He created them." How is it that in all my Sunday school classes and Wednesday youth groups did they not discuss this. Its seems a pretty important thing to forget.

I always loved this Poem by Aemilia Lanyer on Eves apology. So I decided to add it.

Now Pontius Pilate is to judge the Cause
Of faultlesse Jesus, who before him stands;
Who neither hath offended Prince, nor Lawes,
Although he now be brought in woefull bands:
O noble Governour, make thou yet a pause,
Doe not in innocent blood imbrue thy hands;
But heare the words of thy most worthy wife,
Who sends to thee, to beg her Saviours life.

Let barb'rous crueltie farre depart from thee,
And in true Justice take afflictions part;
Open thine eies, that thou the truth mai'st see,
Doe not the thing that goes against thy heart,
Condemne not him that must thy Saviour be;
But view his holy Life, his good desert.
Let not us Women glory in Mens fall,
Who had power given to over-rule us all.

'Till now your indiscretion sets us free,
And makes our former fault much lesse appeare;
Our Mother Eve, who tasted of the Tree,
Giving to Adam what shee held most deare,
Was simply good, and had no powre to see,
The after-comming harme did not appeare:
The subtile Serpent that our Sex betraide,
Before our fall so sure a plot had laide.

That undiscerning Ignorance perceav'd
No guile, or craft that was by him intended;
For had she knowne, of what we were bereav'd,
To his request she had not condiscended.
But she (poore soule) by cunning was deceav'd,
No hurt therein her harmelesse Heart intended:
For she alleadg'd Gods word, which he denies,
That they should die, but even as Gods, be wise.

But surely Adam can not be excusde,
Her fault though great, yet hee was most too blame;
What Weaknesse offerd, Strength might have refusde,
Being Lord of all, the greater was his shame:
Although the Serpents craft had her abusde,
Gods holy word ought all his actions frame,
For he was Lord and King of all the earth,
Before poore Eve had either life or breath.

Genesis ch. 9

Ok so I read the story of Noah and the arc and the animals coming two by two but what in the world is with Noah getting drunk and cursing his son and his servants to be weaker then his older brothers. Uh that is definitily not the kinda Noah I remember learning about.

I'm not going to lie reading the genealogy of Noah was not fun.

The Tower of Babel!

This was amost my favorite story in the Bible! I loved it again!

Sodam and Gomorrah

For some reason this also was one of my favorite stories. I loved how God was willing to spare the entire city of wicked people for only a handful of rightious ones. I definitily dont remember about the two angels coming to Lot and him offering up his virgin daughters to a mob full of angry gay rapists. That seems a little messed up. I do remember him and his daughters going into the mountains and his daughters getting him drunk to seduce him in order to continue the family heritage. I always thought his daughters were crazy for doing this but I can maybe see why they would assume they had to do this but I dont think that I ever could.

Well as much as I am excited to study Biblical Literature I am hardly excited to read the entire Old Testament. I cam from a pretty religious family, my Grandfather was a preacher, my mom was a teacher at a Christian Academy which I attended for four years and our family attended church every Sunday and Wednesday. I loved church, I loved being involved in the youth group and having a different family at church but I reading the Bible was definitely a challenge. I was pretty young so when given the choice of reading the King James Bible or reading Harry Potter you can probably guess which won. I remember being around around eleven or twelve and attending Cornerstone Christian Academy for sixth grade and having to read the New Testament for Bible Class. Our assignment was to read the book of Luke, I of course being 12 had no interest in who Luke was or what he had to say. So I procrastinated reading till the day before school and sat in my closet until around 3 in the morning and completely forgot everything I read the night before and ended up cheating on my Bible test. Ya I'm not proud that I cheated in Bible class, mainly because I got caught but I still feel bad. So as you can tell my history with the Bible is limited to late night closet readings and years of Sunday school and youth groups. So I am excited now that I'm an adult I'll be able to read the Bible and not be as confused by the language as I was when I was younger and be able to see the Bible in a new way.