So, my schedule for reading the Bible is great…unless you miss a day or two - then it’s ridiculous to catch up. That said, it will probably take me a bit longer than two months, but I WILL FINISH IT!

Anyways, I just finished Deuteronomy and am now into Joshua. Ten points for finishing the Torah!

So, contrary to popular belief, the torah is actually pretty straight. Yeah, it’s kinda excruciating when talking about all the different kinds of sacrifices and atonements and rules, but among all that is still some really awesome stuff. *understatement of century*

So here are some very brief notes:

Deut 4:2 – do not add or take away from the book of the law

Deut 6:9 – origin of mezuzah

Deut 9:4 – God basically said to the Israelites, “Hey, so here’s this awesome land. Go in and conquer it, but don’t think I’m giving you victory because you in any way deserve it. Pshh. It is because of these nation’s wickedness that they are being destroyed, not your own righteousness.”

9: 24 – Moses says, “Ye have been rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you.”

10:19 – love the stranger, for ye were strangers in Egypt

30:6 – God speaks of circumcising the heart

32: 4, 15, 18, 30 21: God is referred to as the Rock and Rock of salvation.

Also, why can’t I be in Israel right now?

I have never done that! I’m now in Leviticus.

So here are some random notes.

Gen 28:22: Jacob vows to give a tenth of his estate to the Lord. First record of tithing.

Gen 47: 9 – Jacob’s humility: “And Jacob said unto Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are an hundred and thirty years: few and evil have the days of the years of my life been…”

“Esau is Edom” is apparently an important enough fact to be stated several times.

During the famine in Egypt when the people had no more money to buy food, they sold their herds and land to Joseph for food. What stood out to me was that he never gave out the stored up grain for free. So he bought all their land, then when the famine was over, he gave them seed and demanded 1/5th of the portion.

Oh that Jacob, sneaky right up to the end. I still have no idea why he put his right hand on Ephriam, the younger, and his left hand on Manassah the older.

Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebekah, Jacob and Leah are all buried in Hebron.

Ex 2: 22: Moses is “stranger in a strange land.”

So I thought it was amusing when God turns Moses’ staff into a snake on Mt. Sinai and “Moses fled from before it.” Nice.

Exodus 30: 15 – “The rich shall not give more; the poor shall not give less than half a shekel.”

Since Israel was like a theocracy, I guess you could view this as their “taxes.” The rich shall not give more, the poor shall not give less! Good concept.

So, I really want to watch the Ten Commandments after reading through all this. Charlton Heston = epic. THOSE WHO WILL NOT LIVE BY THE LAW SHALL DIE BY THE LAW!

So intense.

So in order to finish reading through my Bible in approx. 60 days, I need to read about 18 pages a day. My Bible = 1081 pages. Today I read to Genesis 23. I noticed something interesting. In Genesis 18: 8 when the three strangers (one of them being God incarnate) visit Abraham, Abraham feeds them butter, milk and meat. At the same time! Isn’t that “unkosher”? According to super-orthodox Judaism it is. They take Exodus 23:19 (Thou shalt not seethe a kid in his mother’s milk.) to mean that you shouldn’t serve meat and dairy together at all. However, maybe they’re taking it a bit out of context, seeing as God ate them together no prob.

And Methusalah lived to be 969 years old. Adam lived to be 950.

I also was thinking…considering Sodom and Gomorrah, God was preparing to spare it from judgment (his wrath) for the sake of 10 righteous. Ten. So I wonder why people (with a mid or post-trib view of the rapture of the church) seem to think that the next time God’s wrath comes around, he’s gonna pour it out on all the righteous as well. Just a thought.

I’m confused though. Is this all Roman mythology? Or Greek mythology? Or Romanized Greek mythology? Or all of the above? Ovid was a Roman after all. Ummm…whatever.

Anyways, a lot of the coolest excerpts came from the poem Metamorphosis. I read about the origins of the myrrh tree (a girl named Myrrha was turned into a tree, and her tears became drops of myrrh) and the river Lethe than ran through the Cave of Sleep (which is where we get the word “lethargy” from. Lethe also ran through the underworld, I believe.) and a brief look at Pythagoras’ (of trignometry fame) philosophy of the “transmigration of the souls,” or reincarnation.

 And Jupiter = worst. king of the gods. ever.

The poetry itself is pretty good too. I want to read the entire Metamorphosis poem now.

I finished it.

FINISHED IT!

And it was amazing. A bit excruciating at times, but overall totally worth it. I learned some new words…like apiary (a collection of managed bee colonies), sated (fed beyond capacity or desire), dilettante (one with superficial interest in the arts), insouciance(carefreeness), and succor (relief or aid in times of trouble).

Man, I love Google.

And here is officially the best quote of the entire book, in my opinion. Maybe top 3 but no others come to mind right now. Again, this pearl is brought to us by Konstantin Dimitrich Levin, who is possibly the best character in all the books I’ve read. And I thought nothing could top John Kelly.

“Was it through reason that I arrived at the necessity of loving my neighbor and not throttling him? I was told it as a child, and I joyfully believed it, because they told me what was in my soul. And who discovered it? Not reason. Reason discovered the struggle for existence and the law which demands that everyone who hinders the satisfaction of my desires should be throttled. That is the conclusion of reason. Reason could not discover love for the other, because it is unreasonable.”

Tolstoy = master.