Saturday, April 28, 2012

Exodus

Because I am reading for pleasure and not as an assignment, I just now finished Exodus. Exodus was not nearly as exciting as Genesis.  However I did find a few things interesting.  Still a lot of questions to be answered and a lot more reading to do.  There still seem to be a lot of relations to Agriculture and I like that.

Things that I found interesting:

The plagues and Pharaoh's inability to "get it".  I have to wonder what message God may be saying to the world, our country, our communities, my family and me personally that I may just not be "getting".

We meet Moses and are introduced to the 10 commandments.  These seem like simple rules to abide by.  I then begin to wonder what would happen if these were the only laws we had and just enforced these.  Can we live like that?

I never knew that the punishments for the commandments are right there in Exodus too.  For example Exodus 22:1 Whoever steals an ox or a sheep and slaughters it or sell it must pay back five head of cattle for the ox and four sheep for the sheep. More Agriculture examples.  Does that transfer into cars, computers, IPods, and cell phones today?  I also wonder why it's only four for one on sheep and five for one on cattle. But, who am I to challenge the "Good Book". Exodus 22 explains other punishments for different crimes - very interesting.

The part I have enjoyed the least thus far is the building of the Tabernacle instructions.  The details that are given were very detailed and I need pictures.  I also think it would be helpful if they could have used feet instead of cubits. Jake would probably like reading this.

The verse I end with this evening, is one of Jake and I's biggest arguments.  I have always known that one of the commandments said that  'Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.'  As I was growing up our farm did not operate on Sundays.  Animals were fed and cared for but that was it.  Tractors and equipment rarely moved. Grandpa would not even let Grandma use her sewing machine.  In 1995 when my grandpa passed away, things began to change.  We would many times work, but only after attending church.  After Jake and I married, I often would comment about him working on Sunday.  Although we would go to church he often put in a whole days of work afterwards.  Many times he would spray because when the wind doesn't blow, you spray.  I didn't usually say much about that. One particular Sunday he called to tell me everything was going wrong and things kept breaking.  I laughed and he said What?  I said, maybe it's God speaking to you, it is Sunday.  It is now an inside joke with us, as he continues to work on Sundays.

As I was reading Exodus though I almost jumped out of my skin when I read this.  I had know idea, there it is in black and white.  Exodus 23:12 Six days do your work, but on the seventh day do not work, so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and so that the slave born in your household and the foreigner living among you may be refreshed. This same message was in Exodus several times and enough times to make me uncomfortable.  I'd like to believe that since we don't have a donkey or a slave, he isn't talking to us.  Really we have a pay loader and a animal health supervisor and the Bible doesn't say anything about that.  What do you think?  I think Jake and I will continue "talking" about this until the "end".

3 comments:

  1. Great post Janice. My father always did a great job of not working on Sundays. I've come to realize that taking a Sabbath rest is not only important for our bodies but it is also important for our souls. Taking a day of rest during a busy week, regardless of weather conditions, is a demonstration of one's faith in God and that He'll provide opportunities to get everything done during the other six days of the week. While growing up, I can remember seeing all of the other farmers cultivating their fields on perfect-weather-condition-Sundays. Not my father. Instead of working, he rested peacefully with his family. Such peaceful rest was only possible because of my father's faith in God's provision. Mind you, I constantly find myself struggling to practice this demonstration of faith my father lived and continues to live so well.

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    1. Thank you for sharing this trip down memory lane. What were your dad's "rules". Was mowing the grass allowed? I remember a time were people actually would talk poorly about other people for mowing or being seen working. It's a different world. If I can get Jake to sit down, I may try to move us back towards this way of living. That will be a tough move.

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  2. Great post! We struggle with this. Often Sundays look like this: we go to church, then Joe works the rest of the day, something goes wrong and he says "it's because I worked on a Sunday." I really wish we kept the day as a true Sabbath.

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