June 26, 2009

Texts:
Exodus 3 and 4
Matthew 19

Moses gets to talk to God, or has to talk to God. I can't decide. As many questions as I think I'd like to ask God someday, I wonder how I'd feel in the actual moment. Moses says, "really, God? You think I'm the best person you could send to Pharaoh?" (3:11, loosely paraphrased) And "who should I say sent me? What's your name?" (Yet another reason I'm not Moses--I wouldn't have the courage to ask God for God's name.)

4:24 In this odd little scene, God catches up to Moses and is going to kill him. Your guess is as good as mine, but it seems that Moses does not seem to be practicing what he preaches, and God is ready to kill him for it. If Moses' son wasn't circumcised, then he wasn't obeying the covenant. God doesn't kill him once his wife does an emergency circumcision, so they seem to be related. Oddly, wouldn't God kill him before and not after he's assigned him to go to Pharaoh?

Matthew:
For all that Jesus does not say about social behaviors, he is pretty clear in this passage that he's not in favor of divorce. He also says, “Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given." Do you think that provides a loop hole?
What do we do with texts like this? Are there other texts you would put in conversation with this text?

Also, the young man who asks Jesus what to do is given a list of commandments. What do you make of his comment, "I have kept all these." Do you think anyone could keep all of the commandments all of the time? I can usually keep most of them through breakfast.