Genesis

In May, i started a new Bible-reading plan that takes you through the Bible in chronological order.  Pretty cool.

I found this plan at www.biblestudytools.com.  The site lets you set up your own account, and it has lots of great study tools to use.  One of those tools is an online Bible reading plan where you can check off your progress as you go.  Also, you can pick pretty much any translation of the Bible right there on the screen and read it in a different one to get more understanding.  And if that doesn't do it, you can switch over to the "study" tab and study all the Strong's Concordance references.  It has a lot more tools than that, that i haven't learned to use yet, but i'm enjoying it.  And it makes it very easy for me to be faithful to daily Bible study, sitting right here in my favorite chair, in front of my computer, and i get access to tons of giant books that i don't have to lift.

But this wasn't meant to be a plug for biblestudytools.com.

I have a point.

As i said, i started this chronological Bible reading plan.

So, as you might imagine, it starts with Genesis.  "In the beginning" is a good tip off.

Then it switches to Job for a little while, and then back to the rest of Genesis.

I love Genesis.

I think i have always loved Genesis.

It's so beautiful, and i can spend hours charting interesting time lines and family trees and understanding who was who to whom and how old they were when who else was how old.

For instance, did you ever know that Methuselah (the oldest recorded man to ever live), who was Noah's grandfather, didn't die until the year of the great flood.  I assume he died in the flood.  Doesn't that bring up elements of Noah's task that you never thought about before?

Did you also know that when Noah was born, all of his ancestral line except for Adam, Seth, and Enoch (who walked with God and was no more) were all still alive on the Earth.  Noah could very well have been able to talk to Adam's grandson, Enosh.  That's amazing to think about to me.  Old Enosh, 1000 years old, sits down with all the descendants (from ages 10-900) and tells them the stories about God that he heard straight from Adam.  And they all can imagine what it was like to get to walk with God in the cool of the evening - and how shameful it was to learn about evil and nakedness - and how painful it was to leave Eden and God's presence.

There was no wonder for these people about whether God was real.

This stuff is amazing and wonderful to me!

But that's still not my point.

Yesterday, i finished Genesis.

Exodus is next.

And i'm so disappointed.  I was enjoying Genesis so much, and i know that when i read Exodus, this beautiful family that i just fell in love with (again) is going to wander around in the wilderness for 40 years and make all sorts of mistakes, and i'm just not in the mood for the wilderness right now.

I know it's silly, but i'll feel like i did something wrong if i skip Exodus.

It's not like i made a commitment to anyone that i was going to read the Bible in this order.

But still, i feel obligated.

AND, i know that when i read it, i will learn all sorts of stuff i never saw the other times that i read it.

But still i have to prepare myself.

It would be easier if i didn't know what was coming.  More suspenseful and surprising and edge of your seat.

So, yes, in case you're disappointed, i said all that to tell you that i'm disappointed about finishing Genesis.

What a let down!

Sorry.

That's what i've got today.

I used to tell jokes like that when i was a little kid.  Jokes with tons of details and a ridiculous punchline that had nothing to do with the details.  I loved that.

But i didn't do this on purpose.

Though i love having a blog where i can write whatever ridiculous thing that comes to mind - and y'all love me enough to be interested enough to read it!

Ha!

And i love y'all too.