Thoughts Negligible

In Gen 18.22-33, Abraham demands God to act justly on Sodom and Gomorrah: "Far be it from You to do such a thing, to bring death upon the innocent as well as the guilty, so that innocent and guilty fare alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?"

"I will not destroy, for the sake of ten."

None are righteous, no not one.

"When the LORD had finished speaking to Abraham, He departed; and Abraham returned to his place."

In Auschwitz, there was a group of Jews that put God on trial. All day they debated, back and forth, the prosecution against God. The evidence? Well, that was clear enough. They found God guilty. The Judge, who demanded the Jews to act justly, was judged. They found him guilty and then had evening prayers.

"Don't chastise me in your wrath, O LORD!"

Jacob had wrestled with a man all night, demanding a blessing. To loosen Jacob's hold the man pulled his hip out of socket, but he would not let go. The man said Let me go! The sun's coming up. "I will not let you go, unless you bless me." "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and man and have prevailed." Jacob asked the man's name: "You must not ask my name!" He departed.

Jacob limped away.

My desk usually doesn't look like this until midterm or final weeks.

The Last Kiss
Little Miss Sunshine
Trust the Man
The Celebration
The Inheritance
Caché
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story

It has been suggested that God set up the circumstances that the Children of Israel could not refuse his covenant. For example, before the exodus, God tells Moses that He is going to harden pharaoh's heart (cf. Ex 4.21b). Rather comically, a few chapters later the LORD says, as if in jest, maybe laughing with joy over his own providence, "Pharaoh is stubborn; he refuses to let the people go" (Ex 7.14). He mocks the pharaoh, warming up for the climax.

The covenant between Israel was a mutual understanding, brought about after God told Moses to take his words down to the people and see what they say. They agreed.

But with what motivation?

In Exodus 19.17 we find the Israelites standing below the mountain. This is typically translated or understood as "in the valley" or just at the bottom of the mountain. But the Hebrew paints a different picture. It says that the Israelites stood beneath the mountain!

In Midrashic literature it has been suggested that God held the mountain over the people of Israel and asked them if they would obey his commands. They reply: “All that the Lord has spoken, we will do” (Ex 19.18).

To take a break from studying for a Spanish test.
I'm stressed out man! Applications for grad schools have to be finished; recommendations have to be rounded up; essays have to be written; honors theses topics must be decided upon; capstone research must be decided upon; reading must be completed; presentations must be prepared; the GRE must be prepared for and taken; etc., etc. All taken with the joys of senoritis.

In the Garden, the Serpent whispers to Eve, and for the first time in this story, he used 'Elohim (God) instead of YHWH 'Elohim (the LORD God). This subtle wordplay has an effect on Eve and the reader--or hearer as the story originally came about. What the Serpent has just done is to intimate the existence of other gods, a vast caste system in the cosmos, saying she will become like one. Thus, the Serpent shortens the perceived infinite gap between God and man, hinting the distance isn't so far as what Eve would have thought. The distance between God, gods, and man is not so great.

Go ahead Eve--"Mother-of-all-Living"--, eat up.

The fact that this is the first insight we have into the thoughts of Eve, coupled with the fact that that sneaky snake disappears immediately after this temptation, also joined with the fact that Adam seems to have been standing there all along, unawares--all of this may suggest that this entire event was in Eve's head, or heart. Perhaps this was the first greatest battle, not with Satan, but with ourselves. Furthermore, no other details are given, suggesting that details matter little in our relations with sin. Adam passively accepts.

Go ahead Adam--"Mankind"--, eat up.