So, my Bible reading brings up lots of thoughts -- I just love to walk through those moments. Some of these I have wondered about before, some just came to me:
- Wouldn't you love to see what Eve looked like the moment God finished forming her? I just think of how much we (being "modern woman" -- whoever she is) have allowed media and society to influence what we believe "the perfect woman's body" should be. I wish I had a photograph of what God considers to be the perfect female body -- the one He made in the garden. I feel certain it is a far cry from the image I have in my head of "the perfect body", that I spend so much time, energy and money trying to achieve.
- What's the deal with circumcision? I've never really questioned it before, but so much of what God requires of his people make perfect sense "in nature" or for health reasons, and I just don't get the deal with circumcision. Why require a covenant of only the men? Why such a PERSONAL covenant? Abraham was 99 years old when God tossed out circumcision as a covenant. (Gen. 17) Wouldn't you have liked to have been a fly on the wall for THAT conversation: "You want me to do WHAT????" In Joshua 5, God tells Joshua to circumcise all of the Israelites that were still wandering with him (Joshua 5:4-8) Yes, the Lord told Joshua to MAKE flint knives in the desert and circumcise all the men. I have to assume that since no deaths due to infection or blood loss are recorded, we can consider that God's Divine Providence.
- When I was a sewing person ("back in the day") I LOVED, and still do, that the first recorded construction of garments is by the Lord Himself. He had just gotten finished chewing out Adam and Eve and telling them the consequences of their disobedience, but Genesis 3:21 says, "The Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them." I love that -- He was completely ticked at them, but took care of their dignity, not just their physical needs. Another sewing friend, Patty, pointed out that this was also the first blood sacrifice for the atonement of sins -- the Lord sacrificed an animal so that Adam and Eve could be covered. (When I read Gen. 3:21 to my family to proclaim how much I loved it, Ashley understood that God made the clothes from THEIR OWN skin -- no, that's what I would do as a parent if I were that angry, but God is merciful! :-)
I'll keep you posted as I ponder more of His word ...
7 comments:
Love to ponder through your ponderings. . .had never thought of those particular ones before.
R--
Concerning the reading of the Bible; it's like exercise. You don't want to do it, but you make yourself do it, until it becomes a habit. As Nike says, "Just Do It".
What works for me is to covenant with myself that I will read at least one chapter every night before going to bed. I start at Genesis and go through to Revelation, in order. Just reading one chapter means you don't read the Bible through in a year (more like three and a half years or so), but you do get it read. Sometimes I get interested and will read five or eight chapters, but so long as I've read at least one, I've fulfilled my covenant.
Also, I've found that for just reading purposes (as opposed to "study" purposes) you need a readable Bible rather than an "accurate" Bible. I've really enjoyed "The Message" for reading, but I have a parallel copy that has the NIV on the side, so that when a passage catches my eye I can compare it with a more "accurate" version. "The Message" is exceptionally readable, and causes me to think about a lot of passages in ways I've never thought of before. Highly recommended (for reading, as I say, not for studying).
I've considered that perhaps before the Fall, Adam and Eve were dressed in light, like how Jesus was "dressed" on the Mount of Transfiguration. When they ate the forbidden fruit, their light dimmed, and they became aware of their nakedness.
Perhaps the remnants of that light are still in us, so that we speak of a glow when someone is happy, or when a woman is pregnant and therefore has the light of two people emanating from her. This also puts an interesting twist on such things as "walking in the light", etc.
But, it's just an idea; I certainly would not want to suggest that's the way it actually was.
Oh, yeah; if you've ever seen the movie "Cocoon", the alien woman in that movie unzipped her human skin and stepped out of her disguise to reveal that she was a being of light (at least, as I remember the movie). That's the sort of idea I have in mind about Adam and Eve being dressed in light.
"Circumcision: It's not Just for Jewish Men Anymore"
http://kentwest.blogspot.com/2006/09/circumcision-its-not-just-for-jewish.html
Honestly, Sarah, I'm not trying to hijack your blog with all these comments. It's just that you raise a lot of interesting ideas.
Not only was the dressing of Adam and Eve from skins the first blood-sacrifice, it was also the first death of nephesh (spirit) creatures (non-plants, non-bacteria, etc). Up until Adam and Eve ruined it for us, death and disease didn't exist in our cosmos (taking the Bible at face value without trying to force billions of years of the "survival of the fittest" into it).
Up until that point, Adam and Eve had never witnessed death; now they realize that Brownie, their pet bear, is now mangled and dead because they refused to believe what God had told them.
By faith (in Satan's word rather than in God's word), death entered into the world by the first Man, and by faith, death has been overcome by the second Man. Praise be to Yeshua, the second Man, who frees the cosmos from our bondage to death and decay. We'll be raised in a new body, similar to Yeshua's, which could be hugged, and touched, and eat, and change into different forms, and pass through solid walls, and fly, and be immune to death. Whoo-hoo!
(Sorry, I get to rambling sometimes....)
Such good thoughts... esp. the one about Eve. I, too, doubt that she looked like one of our models that we hold up as perfection.
I'm adding you to my blog list. I've been enjoying reading your blog, and the name thing is just crazy. I can't not read someone who has a household full of the same names in mine. ;)
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