That's in the Bible?
I'm really enjoying reading the Bible in The Message paraphrase. I'm quite a simple guy and need things to just be told to me straight. I read a lot of books but I usually only get through the ones where the author isn't some dude that thinks he's smarter than he is and uses big words to confuse all of the idiots! So The Message makes sense to me. I know it's not a literal translation and shouldn't be used for studying, but I think it's great to get the general themes. Because the writing is much more simple and uncluttered, I've been noticing some of the stories more, where before, I probably would have just skimmed over it. A few of my favorites so far:
#1:
Genesis 29. Jacob is arriving at his uncles place and comes up to a well where all of the shepherds give their sheep water. Jacob asks why they aren't giving their sheep water and they let him know that the stone is so heavy that they need to wait for all the shepherds to show up and give a hand in order to take the stone off. Well lo and behold, who should walk up, but the hot babe Rachel, who is also his cousin (Yes I know...it's gross...but this was pretty standard at this time) and the shepherd of his uncle Laban's sheep.
Now here's the hilarious part! As soon as Jacob sees Rachel, he single handedly rolls off the stone that would usually take a bunch of shepherds, and waters his uncles sheep that are in Rachel's care. He then kisses Rachel and breaks into tears!
This is just so typical of a macho man - taking on the stone by himself - look at me. I am strong. *Flex* And then he breaks into tears. Mama's boy.
Onto the next story...
#2:
Genesis 34. One of Jacob's daughters, Dinah, goes into town and ends up getting raped by one of the local boys. The guy falls in love with her and wants to marry her. Jacob hears about this and tells Dinah's brothers. They end up telling the sicko pervert rapist that he can marry their sister if every male in their town got circumcised. The guy and his dad agree and convince the rest of the town to follow along...so they all get circumcised. That's some pretty hard core "love" if you ask me!
Here's the hilarious/twisted part! While the whole male population is "healing back up" from having their schmuck chopped off, two Dinah's brothers roll into town with swords, as if they owned the place, and murder every man there! Then when the rest of the brothers show up on the scene of the slaughter, they loot the place and take everything, including wives and kids as captives. Jacob is ticked that his sons would do something like but they reply, "Nobody is going to treat our sister like a whore and get by with it." This is perhaps the craziest story of revenge I've heard of...kill 'em while their down!
Maybe I'll end up seeing the spiritual value of these stories in the future but what I'm excited about is that they are jumping out to me instead of just being read over in an attempt to read the bible. I just love the way The Message is written...it just makes sense to me. I don't really have a strict schedule for when I read or how much I read...I'm just trying to read and learn. God's word doesn't change your life just because you skim read it in order to say you've read it. The principles need to be applied (not sure if killing freshly circumcised dudes is principle to be applied...). Action is required. The Message is helping to bring a new freshness devotional life and I'm looking forward to continuing to read, no matter how slow I may be!
#1:
Genesis 29. Jacob is arriving at his uncles place and comes up to a well where all of the shepherds give their sheep water. Jacob asks why they aren't giving their sheep water and they let him know that the stone is so heavy that they need to wait for all the shepherds to show up and give a hand in order to take the stone off. Well lo and behold, who should walk up, but the hot babe Rachel, who is also his cousin (Yes I know...it's gross...but this was pretty standard at this time) and the shepherd of his uncle Laban's sheep.
Now here's the hilarious part! As soon as Jacob sees Rachel, he single handedly rolls off the stone that would usually take a bunch of shepherds, and waters his uncles sheep that are in Rachel's care. He then kisses Rachel and breaks into tears!
This is just so typical of a macho man - taking on the stone by himself - look at me. I am strong. *Flex* And then he breaks into tears. Mama's boy.
Onto the next story...
#2:
Genesis 34. One of Jacob's daughters, Dinah, goes into town and ends up getting raped by one of the local boys. The guy falls in love with her and wants to marry her. Jacob hears about this and tells Dinah's brothers. They end up telling the sicko pervert rapist that he can marry their sister if every male in their town got circumcised. The guy and his dad agree and convince the rest of the town to follow along...so they all get circumcised. That's some pretty hard core "love" if you ask me!
Here's the hilarious/twisted part! While the whole male population is "healing back up" from having their schmuck chopped off, two Dinah's brothers roll into town with swords, as if they owned the place, and murder every man there! Then when the rest of the brothers show up on the scene of the slaughter, they loot the place and take everything, including wives and kids as captives. Jacob is ticked that his sons would do something like but they reply, "Nobody is going to treat our sister like a whore and get by with it." This is perhaps the craziest story of revenge I've heard of...kill 'em while their down!
Maybe I'll end up seeing the spiritual value of these stories in the future but what I'm excited about is that they are jumping out to me instead of just being read over in an attempt to read the bible. I just love the way The Message is written...it just makes sense to me. I don't really have a strict schedule for when I read or how much I read...I'm just trying to read and learn. God's word doesn't change your life just because you skim read it in order to say you've read it. The principles need to be applied (not sure if killing freshly circumcised dudes is principle to be applied...). Action is required. The Message is helping to bring a new freshness devotional life and I'm looking forward to continuing to read, no matter how slow I may be!
