The Weakly Sherpa - 1/5/8

I am nursing a twisted ankle and I gained three pounds last week so we are one for three on the New Year's Resolutions. I am glad to now focus on the one resolution I am almost guaranteed to accomplish today!

I don't plan on doing much commentary throughout this reading plan. I think the text can speak for itself. But for the uninitiated, Genesis and Job can seem like a real trip through the looking glass.

So a few words about last week's reading are probably in order (forgive me if I am pointing out a bunch of stuff you already know):

The first five books of the Bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy) are commonly thought to have been written down at the direction of Moses during the Exodus which occurred, as best as we can tell, around 1450BC.

It is thought that, up until that point in time, the stories in Genesis and Job were part of the oral tradition of storytelling passed down through the centuries. When reading through Genesis and Job, it is important to discern the difference between the literal and the truthful.

For instance, Genesis 1 says that God created the world in seven days. The point is not the time-frame. The point is that God created, with a purpose, saw that it was all very good and that we should all take a break once a week.

The point of the Garden of Eden story is not two people and a snake - it is that sin enters the world when we have the knowledge of right and wrong and we choose the wrong.

The point of the Job story is not that he was an unwitting pawn in a supernatural dare between God and the devil. It's that bad things sometimes happen to good people. It doesn't mean that the people deserve it and it doesn't mean that God doesn't care. At times God's purposes are beyond our understanding.

You get the point.

=Begin Artistic Aside=

When I was writing, this piece of art came to mind. It is a fresco on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted by Michelangelo in 1511. It is entitled, "The Creation of Adam". Look at how all of heaven is rushing into the frame. God himself is reaching, straining, to give Adam his touch, his supernatural breath of life. Now look at Adam - it's like God is interrupting him from a television show with another one of God's "lame miracles of creation". You can almost hear the irritation in his voice, "Oh God, what is it NOW?" We really are pathetic wretches sometimes.

=End artistic aside=

Things start to get a little more "factual" (for lack of a better word) once we get to Exodus. I'm not saying Adam and Eve and Noah etc. did not exist as factual persons so let's not get our theological jockey shorts in a twist.

I am saying that Genesis and Job are about eternal truths - if you focus your energy on figuring out what parts are literal - you miss the truth that is the point of the story.

As has already been mentioned this morning, its: "Like walking into a cloud of gnats at the mountaintop, we get too busy swatting to see the view."

On that note, here's is next week's plan:

January 07, 2008 --- Job 14-16
January 08, 2008 --- Job 17-20
January 09, 2008 --- Job 21-23
January 10, 2008 --- Job 24-28
January 11, 2008 --- Job 29-31
January 12, 2008 --- Job 32-34
January 13, 2008 --- Job 35-37