Genesis 29:1-30:24; Psalm 10:3-10; Proverbs 2:7-9; Matthew 11:1-24

Gen 29:9-12 - This is awesome! Jacob sees Rachel and then he kisses her and then weeps. That must have been one great kiss. Then my favorite is his sweet pickup line… “Hey baby, I’m a relative of your father…” And it worked. Crazy. Jacob was a stud.

In verse 17, it says that "Leah had weak eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful." Interesting comparison. I wonder if the Hebrew phrase that is translated "had weak eyes" is more like the oposite of the english saying, "she is easy on the eyes." In other words, is the Bible saying that Leah was ugly? I am no Hebrew scholar and I am sure that I could look this up somewhere to see if it were true. But it just sounds great.

Gen 29:31-30:24 is the most messed up disfunctional story of a family that I have ever heard. And this is the story of the birth of the 12 tribes of Israel. Wow!

Genesis 27:1-28:22; Psalm 9:15-10:2; Proverbs 2:4-6; Matthew 10:16-42

Gen 28:18 says, “Jacob rose…” that is my nephew’s name. What a Biblical name (cf Joshua 3:1 in NASB).

Genesis 25:1-26:35; Psalm 9:7-14; Proverbs 2:1-3; Matthew 10:1-15

Gen 26:35 – Esau marries two women who “brought much sorrow to Isaac and Rebekah." That is a bummer. Parents will give the best advise about a spouse. Thanks mom & dad. Thank the Lord that I didn’t marry a woman like that!

Genesis 21:8-23:20; Psalm 7:17-8:7; Proverbs 1:28-30; Matthew 8:23-9:13

Matt. 9:12-13, Jesus says:
“It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Maybe we all need to go and learn what this means. Why is it that we think that church is supposed to be for the righteous and not the sinners. Could our Lord be any more clear.

Genesis 17:1-18:33; Psalm 7:1-8; Proverbs 1:22-24; Matthew 7:7-29

So in Psalm 7:8, David prays a strange prayer... He says, "Judge me, O LORD, according to my righteousness..." Judge me?? I am amazed by this. Maybe I shouldn't be. Maybe I should be excited about God judging me, or maybe I should be asking him to. But the problem is that I know myself. I would fail. Did David think that he would be found righteous? If so, he was a much better person than anyone I have ever known. David seemed like he could have been arrogant at times, but I don't think that he was being arrogant here. But I do think that David spoke his mind. He must have been saying that in the moment, in this circumstance, he had been the righteous one. But the truth of the matter is, that I should feel more ready for God's judgement at any time.

On a slightly different note about this same verse. I think that I understand Martin Luther's fear of the word "righteousness" in Romans 1. It is said that he feared the idea of God judging his righteousness because he knew that he would come up short. This is when he had the breakthrough that came to be known as "Sola Fides" (or only through faith). This makes me think that we have to understand our lack of righteousness before we can really value the "righteousness that comes by faith." Thank God!

Genesis 11:1-13:18; Psalm 5:7-6:2; Proverbs 1:16-18; Matthew 5:38-6:15

Okay, so I have to admit that this Genesis passage is a bit of a tough one. I really don't know what is going on with Babel. In this passage God seems to be worried about people being doing too much, so he separates them. It seems a little too anthropomorphic. This story is obviously written from a human's perspective. Maybe the author of this pericope was simply telling us what he thought God was doing with the whole separating the peoples. To be honest, I really don't get this at all. And I have studied it, and I don't know if I really like any of the answers I have heard. But you know what? That is okay. Obviously the Holy Spirit wanted this here and it is inspired by God. But that doesn't mean that we can't posit some sort of literary reason behind the writing of the passage other than pure history. Why not?

After Babel, Abram's call is beautiful. It just shows once again why God calls anybody... for the sake of others. He called Abram, so that he could be a blessing to others. That is why he called me, and that is why he is calling you.

Finally, at the end of Gen 12, I never realized how long that Sarai must have lived as Pharoah's wife. Actually, I don't think that I had realized that she lived as his "wife." We can only assume what that entails... That couldn't have been great for their marriage. Also, she lives with Pharoah long enough for Abram to become very wealthy. Wow.

Genesis 6:1-8:22; Psalm 3:7-4:6; Proverbs 1:10-12; Matthew 4:12-5:12

I think I have a new favorit verse... Psalm 3:6 says, "Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked." That is an awesome prayer. That is one of the things that I love most about the Bible. It is real. David was a real guy who had real emotions, real fears, and real feelings. He just wanted God to punch his enemies in the face. Why don't I pray like this? Why don't I pray with real, raw emotions? I pray theologically and "accurate." David really prayed, and his prayers were to a close Friend who he could rely on. I don't have too many friends that I could ask to fight someone for me. That takes a very close friend.
Then in the same reading, I also read the first part of Matthew 5, the Beatittudes. Okay, I can't think of a bigger contrast. David just asked God to punch someone in the teeth, and now Jesus says, "Blessed are the peacemakers..." That is awesome. Jesus might not have said to David, "Yeah, lets go get them and I'll punch them in the face with you." Then again who knows... he did take a whip to some folks in the temple. What we do know is that he would have listened and he would have been there for David even though his raw emotion wasn't perfect. This is why that Psalm is in the Bible. To let us know that it is okay to pray like that. It is okay to let it out to God. That is why the next Psalm in 4:4 says, "In your anger do not sin." It must not be a sin to pray "angry" prayers to God. I'm gonna do that more often.