Weeping* on Willow

Reading through the Bible in 2020 Bible Recap Day 16 Gen 12-15 Personal notes from reading Gen 12-15: This part of scripture starts off with God giving Abraham (his name is Abram at this point) instructions to leave his home and move to another country, Canaan.  God promises to bless him and make a nation from him. But not only did God tell Abraham that he would be blessed, He lets Abraham know that all families of the earth will be blessed through Abraham.  And Abraham shows great faith when he packs up and leaves immediately. However, pretty quickly, he shows that he’s far from perfect and it doesn’t take much for him to lose confidence. Instead of trusting that God would protect him when he strolls into the new town with a beautiful wife, he pretended that he wasn’t married and let the pharaoh take Sarai.  Even when consequences are scary, its best to trust God. Abraham really thought that if he entered Egypt with a beautiful wife, that they’d kill him to ...

Reading through the Bible in 2020 Bible Recap Day 14 and 15 Job 38-42 Personal notes from reading Job 38-42: Ok, I’m not going to lie, I totally wish I could have been there to see the looks on their faces when God shows up in a whirlwind!  And then, the first thing God says is “Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?”. OH! MY! GOSH!!! Um, didn’t Elihu describe himself as perfect in knowledge like moments before God speaks to them.  And didn’t the friends suggest that they were coming to Job with counsel as if it was an inspired word from God?   For more than 2 chapters God describes the complexity of the universe.  He paints a picture, detail after detail of His most marvelous creation and how the pieces work together to form systems.  Then he starts asking Job question after question about these multiplex details. I can’t imagine the feeling in Job’s stomach when God point blank asked him where he was when He laid th...

Read through the Bible 2020 Bible Recap Days 12 and 13 Job 32-37 Personal notes from reading Job 32-37: Here we’re introduced to someone new.  Elihu has an opinion on the matter, so he joins the debate.  Elihu is young, so he was initially intimidated to join the conversation by the older men giving counsel. But eventually he realized that wisdom is from God, and after enough anger built up, it moved him to join in.  Although we generally connect wisdom with age, I have to agree with Elihu here. Elihu’s beef with Job has to do with his complaints about God.  He goes on for quite a while about the power and righteousness of God. He’s passionate about how inferior man is to God. He continues on about God’s abundant mercies and is quite frustrated that Job seems more concerned with self-righteousness than he does with trusting God’s plan.  Although he seems a bit arrogant in his approach (when he claims to be “perfect in knowledge” I gagged), he makes ...

Read through the Bible 2020 Bible Recap Day 11 Job 29-31 Personal notes from reading Job 29-31: Job speaks so beautifully in this passage of Scripture.  His words are poetic and I really feel his heart as he speaks.  Looking at his current situation is so starkly different than his past situation and he just can’t help but look back on how things used to be and wonder, “Why?”.  He thinks back on his life and reflects on the things he did right. He defended the defenseless. He cared for the poor. He loved the unloved. He lived selflessly and with a desire for genuine goodness.  And he just can’t wrap his mind around how his current situation could be a reflection of justice. It doesn’t seem right and for the life of him, he can’t understand. It’s easy to do what Job did. We like to know why things happen.  But sometimes the answer is beyond our own comprehension. When seasons of sadness or sickness or tragedy enter our lives, it’s difficult not to...

Reading through the Bible in 2020 Bible Recap Day 10 Job 24-28 Personal notes from reading Job 24-28 In this passage of scripture, Job makes his final defense.  He holds fast to righteousness and won’t let go. He certainly doesn’t understand how the wicked could prosper and feels like God ignores much of the wickedness of man.  Bildad’s reply to Job’s discourse is short and to the point. God is mighty (which is absolutely correct) and that man is sinful (which is also absolutely correct). But he is also implying that Job is the one in this group who is the sinner being punished by God. And that is where he is wrong.  Although Job is a sinner, this trial is not the punishment for his sins. This trial was allowed by God for a certain purpose according to His plan. Job’s friends have no insight into God's whole plan, yet they speak to Job as if they do. I just want to say, “Hold up, Buster! Don’t you go preaching as if you know the mind of God or understand Go...

Reading through the Bible in 2020 Bible Recap Day 9 Job 21-23 Personal notes from reading Job 21-23 Again, Job sets his friends straight.  His endurance amazes me. With a weary soul, he’s gone back and forth, back and forth, defending what he knows is right. This is so inspiring to me! I feel like I’m on trial constantly with some who are close to me.  There’s judgement and I’m very aware of it. It can be exhausting. I love being able to read through Job’s account in its entirety and know that God is sovereign over my life. The judgement of others doesn’t change who I am in Him.  Job once again addresses their assumptions and wrongful assertions. And basically starts by saying, “Look here! I’m going to set you straight and when I’m done, you can just continue on with your jeering and teasing”. It might have been Job’s tone here that set Eliphaz off one last time.  Whew, was he mad! Job’s words were an exclamation point on Eliphaz’s pride and anger. H...

Reading through the Bible in 2020 Bible Recap Day 8 Job 17-20 Personal notes from reading Job 17-20: Job felt like he was on trial by his friends and it was a guilty until proven innocent type of ordeal.  He felt like he was being attacked and he was their prey. I’m going to be honest. I feel just awful that after all Job had been through, he had to sit and listen to such toxic words from those who were supposed to love and support him.  Not only did Bildad get ugly with his words, he tries to get Job to give into them by striking him down with fear. Now isn’t that something!? I’m just going to say it. Bildad makes me so mad in his treatment of Job, I feel like I could punch him right in his beard!  I truly don’t understand how any of the friends standing around listening to that bullying mess didn’t stop Bildad right in his tracks. They should have felt moved to say something here, but instead after listening to Job’s defense again, Zophar just continues wi...

Reading through the Bible in 2020 Bible Recap Day 7 Job 14-16 Personal notes from reading Job 14-16: Job seems to have calmed a bit here as he concludes what he has to say, but nevertheless, his soul is weary.  His words are poetic and sometimes hard to know exactly what his heart was feeling. He reflects on life and death and sin.  Life is short and Job is well aware of it (in the blink of an eye, he witnessed almost everyone around him lose their life). He is at a point that he just wants to be hidden from pain and suffering, even if it’s in a grave.  Job’s friend, Eliphaz didn’t take lightly what Job had to say. He was quite offended by Job’s complaint. He felt like Job was disrespecting God and I sort of understand his position here (even though he was wrong).  We are privy to the whole story so we have a much better understanding of where Job is coming from. I think it’s a good reminder that it’s really best to withhold judgment because seldom do ...

Reading through the Bible in 2020 Bible Recap Day 6 Job 10-13 Personal notes from reading Job 10-13 Job’s defense definitely acknowledges his belief in God as his creator and that God is powerful and mighty.  But he is nonetheless confused by his suffering and he doesn’t mind expressing it. He’s upset. He’s hurt. Job is confident in his innocence, but he’s so emotionally fragile.  Unfortunately, instead of having a friend who just listens and supports and prays, he has a friend who is only focused on figuring out what Job did to receive this horrid punishment.  I believe that his friend, Zophar, is well meaning, but oh good gosh, he’s completely out of line in how he’s “supporting” Job. I need to remember never to be a Zophar kind of friend. But this is what I LOVE about this passage: Job, even in a fragile state of being, is able to speak frankly with his friend.  He lets Zophar know that he can’t speak on God’s behalf. Job lets him know that his o...

Read through the Bible 2020 Bible Recap Day 5 Job 6-9 Personal notes from reading Job 6-9 After losing everything including his health, Job is in complete despair.  Friends who see the devastation are convinced that Job has done something and this is surely the punishment.  Hold on a minute there cowboy! Who in the world thinks they can assume that someone’s hardships are being delivered directly from the fierce hand of God as a form of punishment??  This was a test allowed by God, not a cruelty delivered by God. So Job’s friends thought they knew enough about God to give him counsel, confident that it was inspired. Yikes! I think that one of the greatest things I can gain from this part of scripture is to spend time in prayer for my friends rather than to spend time counseling them with “all my knowledge” (I even cringe writing that!!).  Prayer. Continuous prayer. Focused prayer. I have a feeling that Job’s friends weren’t in constant prayer for thei...

Read through the Bible 2020 Bible Recap Day 4 Job 1-5 Personal notes from reading Job 1-5 Honestly, there’s so much in these 5 Chapters that it’s a bit hard to summarize.  I’ll start with this, Job is good. Job is so very good. The term used is blameless.  I don’t completely understand the meeting that was going on with God and the sons of God, but from that meeting, God allowed Satan to take nearly every earthly thing from Job in an effort to show how good Job was, regardless of his circumstances.  Job lost just about everything, yet he still worshiped his Lord. So then, Satan was allowed to take his health. His wife didn’t even understand his commitment to God. His friends were convinced he had done something to deserve what he had received.  Job wished that he would have never been born. But I can say that thousands of years later, people still look to the suffering of Job and find inspiration. Life can be tragic. Life can be completely unfair. ...

Read through the Bible 2020 Bible Recap Day 3 Gen 8-11 Personal notes from reading Gen. 8-11 After 150 days, the waters decreased.  After so much time on the ark (and I imagine it was an extremely stressful and exhausting and smelly! time), Noah opened a window.  Oh my gosh, can you imagine how wonderful that must have been!!! He sent a raven out of the window and he also sent out a dove. And when the dove found no place to rest, she returned.  He sent her out again a week later and this time she returned with an olive branch. Again, I can imagine this was probably one of the most exciting moments of Noah’s life!! So after another week, he sent out the dove again, but this time the dove didn’t return. Noah and his family and all the living creatures began life on earth again.  God blessed Noah, but it didn’t take Noah long to fall short. Noah sinned. Noah’s son, Ham, sinned. And shame ensued.  And so it begins again. Noah’s sons and their wiv...

Reading through the Bible in 2020 Bible Recap Day 2 Gen 4-7 Personal notes from reading Gen. 4-7 The desire for man to do what we want, rears its ugly head in Gen. 4.  Adam and Eve have Cain and Abel. Cain allowed jealousy to rule him and he killed his brother.  And although God showed Cain mercy, there were also consequences. Cain made a choice and had to deal with it.  And that story hasn’t changed. We make choices and when they are the wrong choices, we must live with the consequences.  Cain’s line was wicked. The city built by Cain’s line was one of violence and selfishness and oppression.   The evil of man brought God immense grief and sorrow.  He gave His creation freedom and choice and they had chosen evil.  So in response, He shortened the lifespan of man and washed the earth of every wicked human other than the one good human left, Noah, and his family.  Noah was obedient and he built an ark to save his family and th...