Pr. 31: A Good Wife

Proverbs 31:10 "A truly good wife is the most precious treasure a man can find!"

Here's some stuff King Lemuel's mother taught him. I don't know who King Lemuel is. He doesn't show up in the list of kings back in Kings and Chronicles. Maybe he is a king of some other country. I don't know. Israel/Judah had allies. Anyway, should I get bogged down in who he was? On to the Proverbs.

It is no place for kings, rulers...people of high esteem to crave drink, and allow themselves to get wasted. For the poor, and those at the end of their lives, I suppose that's understandable. Alcohol gets people crazy, and a person who makes laws doesn't want to drunk-legislate. Bad idea. But these people in poverty, its not good just to forget about them and let them get drunk. Lemuel's mom tells him to stick up for them, to speak for them when they have no voice.

Then, Lemuel's mom offers advice on the right type of woman. The common view of what the bible says about women is that they should shut up, don't make waves, and generally just spit out an army of babies.

Lets take a look. Her noble character is worth more than rubies. Which, I guess are pretty valuable.

Not as valuable as a wife of noble character.

She's basically good at everything she does, she uplifts her husband, she brings him good. She fears the LORD, which is important, because the other things we value, charm and beauty, are deceptive and fleeting. This is no wimpy little housewife. She is smart, wise, careful, and attentive to detail. Diligent and hardworking, generous and giving. I wonder how many women with these characteristics are promoted on TV and in movies. I don't know. I don't see many movies.

But that sounds like my kinda woman.

Pr. 23: Do What I Say, Not What I Do

Proverbs 23:22 "Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old."

This chapter appears to be David (or Solomon, whoever) telling his son not to do some of the things his father has done or experience. Both saw extreme wealth, were tempted sexually, hung out with unsavory characters, dealt with neighboring nations, etc. They want to pass on life experience.

There seems to be an emphasis on wealth. Not the acquisition of it, but not depending on it. Glance at it, and it's gone, the Proverbs say. Show restraint, not wearing yourself out to acquire it. Because there's always more. And more. And you won't have everything.

A few verses are devoted to correcting, disciplining children. As a child, the original intended reader probably experienced "the rod" from his dad. Dad didn't need to explain his actions. Dad wanted his grandson to have the same opportunity his son did.

Avoid prostitutes...yep.

Don't hang out with those who overdrink. It describes drunkenness in verse 33. You won't be yourself, and you could get beat up. What, read it!

Pr. 20: God Knows

Proverbs 20:15 "Gold there is, and rubies in abundance, but lips that speak knowledge are a rare jewel."

Don't overdrink. You become a mocker and a brawler. Note that beer and wine are not forbidden. Just don't be led astray. (v. 1)

So many people fight for honor. Proverbs flips that. Avoiding strife is the honor. Any dope can quarrel. (v. 3)

Didn't plow or plant? Don't expect to harvest. (v. 4)

An understanding man draws his heart's purpose out of deep waters. (v. 5)

Nobody hasn't sinned. But you can be blameless. (v. 7, 9)

Unfair weights and scales are detested by God. You don't want to be a part of any activity God detests. God is well aware of what people are doing. (v. 10-12)

I love sleep. I guess I will be poor. (v. 13) No, this speaks to the sluggard, who does nothing all day.

Lips that speak knowledge are a rare jewel, even compared to gold and rubies. Wow. (v. 15)

Don't make plans on your own, it is wise to seek advice. (v. 18)

If you don't want to become a victim of gossip, avoid those who gossip. (v. 19)

Don't make hasty vows. Can you cash that check? (v. 25)

Discipline purifies. (v. 30)

Ge. 19: The End of Sodomy, and Daddy-Daughter Date Night

Chapter 19 was a page turner as well. You have a midnight run from destruction, and father-daughter incest. Amazing stuff.

Basically, it picks up with the two men from the previous chapter (Three, if you include God. I missed that part.).

Lot is already at the gate of the city, so he must have been warned, or was expecting them? Anyway, he invites them to his house, but they say they'd rather spend the night in the square. But Lot convinces them to come over to his house for some grub. When they get there, they eat some food, but then ALL the men from EVERY part of the city came over and wanted to have sex with the new guys. Not just a couple...I get the image it was a sausage-fest of Biblical proportions.

I wonder if this is why the two men wanted to stay in the square...because they wanted to spare Lot the embarrassment of having a ton of dudes hit on his guests. But Lot insisted. So, there must be a good time to argue with God, and a not so good time to argue with God, a time to leave well enough alone. "Be careful what you wish for..."

Oh, and another thing! Sodom is home to King Bera, who Abraham snubbed after restoring Lot, so maybe these guys had it in for Lot, because of his connection to Abraham. Lot was the whole reason for the season, anyway.

Anyway, Lot is losing his mind, because now these men are banging on the door, trying to get in. Lot offers his daughters to them, as a sort of token diversion, but it doesn't work. These men are not bi. Finally, one of the angel visitors blinds the wave of attacking rapists so they can't find the door. Clearly it is time to leave. The angels tell Lot to go get the people he knows, because God has enough evidence here to destroy the city. And Gomorrah. So Lot tells his future sons-in-law, but they think he's just joking around.

Crazy ol' Lot...you just never know what he's going to say at any given time. It could be that he invented the wheel, or that the LORD is going to annihilate the city. Stay tuned!

Dawn was fast approaching, and time was running out. So Lot grabs his wife and his two daughters and they hit the bricks.

The original instruction was to head for the hills, but Lot whines about it because he's scared of what might happen to him in the mountains, and, acknowledging the favor he has been done by his salvation, Lot instead wants to flee to the nearby tiny settlement of Zoar. I don't know what history, if any, Lot has with the mountains...maybe it goes back to chapter 13, where he and Abram split up, and maybe there was some bad blood with someone's herdsmen...I don't know. I am reading too much into it perhaps. The point is, Lot argued again, and got his way again.

They ran all morning to get to Zoar, and then God rained fire and brimstone on Sodom? What's brimstone? Sulfur. Nasty, nasty stuff. God pours it all over the cities and the plain, just a continuous torrential burning rain of fire.

Lot's wife looks back, against warnings, and turns into a pillar of salt. I'm not sure if there is any meaning yet in my reading as to what a pillar of salt is, but its a big Bible. The point probably is that God takes disobedience to Him very seriously. If its enough to destroy two whole towns, and the vegetation of an entire plain, its enough to turn someone's wife into a pile of salt. Weird. That's about all I can say right now about turning someone into a pillar of salt. I'm guessing no one looked back after that.

So, I'm about 2/5 of the way through the first of 66 books, and God has already wiped out the near entirety of the earth's population once (quantity notwithstanding), and later two complete established cities. God's wrath is powerful. I forget that God does wrath well. A global flood, and fire from heaven. He simply will not abide disobedience.

And in neither display was there joy in God's wrath. What I mean by that is, some people are happy being mad. Not so with God. I believe it was with a heavy heart that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. The previous chapter mentions that there was an outcry by those who had been victimized by Sodomites. This was also about justice.

Verses 27 and 28 are kind of like that "catch your breath" part of an action movie. It describes Abraham surveying the damage of the towns, the plumes of smoke rising...the city probably still burning in some areas...just destruction. I imagine Abraham had feelings similar to how I felt watching Manhatten smolder in mid-September 2001. I imagine Abraham remembered his conversation and bargaining with God...not ten righteous people in the plain...Possibly wondering if Lot made it out alive. So, God spared Lot...who was precious to the man who held the other end of the covenant.

Lot, who was now scared to live in Zoar, moved to the mountains after all. He and his daughters moved into a cave. The daughters, who had just lost their fiances in the destruction, now figured they had no hope of ever conceiving. So, they conspired to get dad drunk, have sex with him, and carry on their line in that way. Now, of course this is detestable, and taboo today, and the fact that they needed to get Lot drunk in order to follow through with their plan suggests it wasn't exactly a good idea at that time in history either. Certainly not the design. Anyway...they got Lot drunk, which was probably easy enough, after all the upheaval, the moving, the destruction, the fear, and then losing his wife...probably figured that maybe the bottle was a good way to escape. 9 months later, the older daughter gives birth to Moab, father of the Moabites, and the youngest has Ben-Ammi, the father of the Ammonites. I wonder if and how Lot put it together just how his daughters became pregnant, and what his reactions were.

Ge. 9: "Hey fellas, Dad's naked again!"

There are a couple of seemingly distinct stories in chapter 9. The first is the blessing and charge bestowed upon Noah and his sons as they left the ark. The second, a rather tawdry tale of what happens when you don't know when to say "When."

What I find most interesting about verse 1 is that it says God "blessed" Noah and his sons when he told them to be fruitful and multiply. He didn't "command" them. He didn't suggest it. What a blessing indeed it must be to know that you will be the root of the entire world's family tree. Also, it is a blessing to be able to do what God tells you to do. Amazing to get a command directly from God's mouth. And just in case Noah and his boys miss the point, God repeats it again in verse seven.

God puts the fear of man into all living creatures. Ah. This must be why birds frantically take flight when I approach to within 200 yards of them, and though I wish them no particular ill will. Maybe this "fear and dread" is similar to how we see God. I think animals in some way recognize just how special we humans are. Encountering humans is an awe-inspiring thing for them...in that they are in awe of God. And maybe this fear and dread comes from that fact that in verse 3, God tells Noah that animals are now food, where they weren't before.

It is with this point, we are shown God's reverence for life, as the command is given not to eat meat still containing the lifeblood. Does it mean that we can't have a steak cooked rare? Does it mean we can't start consuming the flesh of something while it is still alive? I lean toward both. Blood is precious, and is used for life, not for food. If God didn't want us eating something while it was still alive, I'm guessing he would have said something about the breath of life, not merely the blood of life. I still find the idea of biting into a living, breathing, bleeding thing monstrous, but that's not the explicit command here.

God says He (not she) demands an accounting for our lifeblood. Every single life is precious, and is not to be wasted. Not only human life, animal life. Each living creature from man down to...I don't know, fleas...counts for something.

The end of verse 6 could be read as "Whoever sheds the blood of (the image of God), by (the image of God) shall his blood be shed, for in the image of God has God made man. Whenever I see "man" in the Bible, I am being trained to see "the image of God." Even Canadians? Especially Canadians.

Now we get to a covenant...a promise...a vow. Not only is it between God and Noah (man) and his descendants, it includes every living creature on earth. God promised us and them that He would never cut off all life with a flood. A flood would never destroy the earth again. God's in it to win it with the team He has on the field now. How would we be reminded of this covenant? A rainbow. Whenever there is a raincloud, and a rainbow appears, God will remember His covenant. Now we can see reminders in waterfalls and sprinklers too. Scientists for the most part have figured out what physically causes a rainbow. But it doesn't explain away the miracle of or diminish the purpose of its creation.

Verse 18 begins the antics of the house of Noah.

Noah planted a vineyard, and had too much to drink one day. He got drunk and got naked. Some would say he was the first Irishman. Ham came in and saw his dad laying there all wasted. (Whether or not he completely passed out is debatable. At any rate, he would have been primed for a serious chiefing.) He came out and told his brothers. Well, they, appearing to take the high road, walked in backwards and covered Noah with a garment.

When Noah "awoke from his wine" or sobered up (in my estimation), he found out what his youngest son had "done" to him. Whatever Ham did was enough to to bring the curse of inferiority and slavery of his descendants (Canaan) to those of his older brothers. If all Ham did was "see" his father naked, and not do anything about it, it would seem Noah went nuclear over nothing. Cursing one's descendants, who are in actuality your descendants, is big-time. We don't know if Ham wrote all over him with a Sharpie or did something much more...sinister. Moving on...

"Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers."

"Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem!"

"May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave."

My dad has had to scold me before. But never has he wished that my brother Jim's descendants enslave mine.

And Noah lived to the ripe old age of 950. Which means he died circa 1996.

And then he died.

Questions for God:
1. Why do we get to eat animals now?
2. What...never mind, I'm not sure I want to know what happened in verse 22.
3. To what extent are animals sentient in regards to their understanding of who you are? And how advanced are we in comparison to them, if at all...?