April 25, 2018 - Day 17 - Genesis 17

I am writing from my desk in Seattle, WA.

PLEASE NOTE:
- I am not a Bible scholar nor do I claim to be.
- I am not trying to give a comprehensive study of the Bible.
- I am just reading the Bible, one day at a time, and talking about it like a normal person who has never read it.
- Regardless of how you approach the Bible, my hope is that we can challenge each other along the way.

Genesis 17:

This chapter starts with God telling Abram to walk with him faithfully and God will make a covenant and increase in numbers and give him a bunch of nice stuff.  God tells Abram he will be the father of many nations and renames him Abraham.  It says that "Abraham" probably means 'father of many.'

God says that Abraham gets to have Canaan and so will his descendants.  Sucks for the people who already live there lol.

So that is God's part of the deal, but in order for Abraham to fulfill his part of the covenant, him and all his descendants must get circumcised.  What a bizarre request from the creator of the universe.  How did they even circumcise people back then!?  Yikes.  God also says that any uncircumcised male will be broken off from his people, because he has broken the covenant.  Hmm.

There's actually a lot of controversy in early Christianity about circumcision.  We'll talk about it more as we continue through.

God changes Sarai's name to Sarah, and promises her a son.  The names are changed without explanation.  God says the son will be named Isaac and he will be blessed, and that Ishmael will be blessed too.  Things are looking good for this family.

Once God left, Abraham took his son Ishmael and all the dudes in the house (even the slaves) and everybody got circumcised together.  What a party!








Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

May 8, 2018 - Day 30 - Genesis 30

I am writing from my desk in Seattle, WA. Genesis 30: So Rachel ain't happy yo; as you could imagine.  She ain't having any kids (and that is how you measure a woman's value), but sis is. She gets all mad and tells Jacob to give her children or she will die.  Jacob gets a bit defensive.  Rachel presents a servant for Jacob that he can impregnate on her behalf.  (not really the same thing ya know, but I guess this can fly) This servant (Bilhah) gets pregnant (and gets to be a wife in the process -- does 'wife' even mean anything??) and gives birth to a son.  Rachel is legit happy about this.  Imagine this happening in modern times lol. So this new dude is named Dan. This servant is fertile yo, and blasts out another one; this dude is Zapthali.  Rachel is going on about how she had a struggle with her sister, and actually Zaphtahil means 'my struggle.' This reminds me of Pulp Fiction.  Bruce Willis' character says, "I'm an American, ...
Read more

March 3, 2019 - Day 329 - 2 Kings 16

I am writing from my hotel in Graz, Austria. 2 Kings 16: This chapter is about Ahaz, the king of Judah at this time. He did a bunch of dumb stuff, including offering his son as sacrifice, which God frowned upon. At one point, Aram and Israel tried to fight against Ahaz, but weren't able to overtake him. Ahaz did reach out to the king of Assyria for help, and complied by taking Damascus. Ahaz saw an altar he really liked in Damascus, so he had one built.  Then he died, and his son Hezekiah took over. And that is about it for this chapter.
Read more

October 1, 2018 - Day 176 - Deuteronomy 23

I am writing from my desk in Seattle, WA. Deuteronomy 23: We've made it, friends.  The wet dream chapter. This has a rough start for the castrated.  No one who has been emasculated by crushing or cutting may enter the assembly of the Lord.  Well that doesn't seem fair lol. Also, no foreign relatives if you want to enter assembly of the Lord.  Gotta keep that incest going!! But if you're third generation or more Egyptian then its okay. OH HERE'S THE FUN PART. If you have a wet dream then you have to stay outside of the camp until evening; and you better wash yourself before you come back. And when you poop outside, you have to dig a hole and cover that shit up! We close with a few random laws. If a slave comes to you, don't return them to their master, let them live wherever they want and don't oppress them. Don't pay any vows to God with prostitution money. Don't charge a fellow Israelite interest, but you can charge a foreigner i...
Read more