So all Israel was listed in the genealogical records in The Book of the Kings of Israel.Well then, I'm glad we're not reading The Book of the Kings of Israel. This way, we only get a subset of the genealogical records.
Speaking of which, today seems to be the last day of genealogy. We read the genealogy of the exiles who returned from Babylon, and then the narrative leaps back to the past and we read the genealogy of Saul (again) and about his death.
I did not realize until today how much familiarity made the previous readings of genealogies easier to read. Today's genealogy is completely unfamiliar, and it was much more difficult to follow.
But yes, having just yesterday read Saul's genealogy, today we get to read it again. They are exactly the same, including the introduction part which you might have expected to contain some variety of phrasing. Why oh why, oh author of Chronicles, do you feel the need to repeat yourself so soon?
Saul's death, as far as I can remember, is reported pretty much the same as it was in the the books of Samuel.
New Testament
Paul goes on about how everything is going to be okay. Since he is the main character of the story, we know it will be. I find the message from the angel of Paul's vision interesting:
Don’t be afraid, Paul, for you will surely stand trial before Caesar! What’s more, God in his goodness has granted safety to everyone sailing with you.It makes it sound as if the other people on the ship are only being saved because they happen to be on the same ship as Paul, who is special. All of those other people who die in shipwrecks? Whatever! At least in Paul's case, he has a pretty legitimate case for why God would be especially protective of him. Most contemporaries of mine who use the "I was saved because of God." argument and ignore everyone else who suffered do not have that justification.
The ship is wrecked and everyone aboard escapes safely to the shore. Again, this is another great scene for a movie about Paul.
Psalms and Proverbs
Today we have another one of those proverbs that reads less like wisdom and more like a statement of how things are:
The poor plead for mercy;
the rich answer with insults.
No comments:
Post a Comment