Picture the Bible's Relatability

 Without being irreverent, I have caught a case of the giggles while doing my Bible study this past week. 

The more I study the Bible, the more I am able to get in the swing of the Ye Olde English language of the KJV. Because I am more engaged and interested as I read lately, I sometimes can't help but picture some of the events as scenes in my head.

The first time I realized how humorous the Bible could be was when reading about Joseph's brothers' jealousy. A while after Joseph has shared his dreams about his brothers bowing down to him - and you know how his brothers had to love that - Jacob sends him to find and check on them one day when they are out feeding the flocks.

Now, I know how most siblings today are. I have had 4 brothers and a sister and, being the second youngest, I was sometimes a tattletale. In general, I could be annoying. So, as I read about Joseph and his brothers, I am just picturing in my head how they might have felt about the young boy telling how they will bow to him someday. It's when I got this part that my giggles started:

 And they said one to another, Behold, this dreamer cometh. (Genesis 37:19)

If you have any imagination and can translate that to a modern scenario among siblings, that is funny stuff.

I admit that the part about slaying Jospeh isn't funny in the least but that one line was comical and very relatable to me.

Just when I calmed my funny bone down, I got to the part of Potiphar's wife trying to seduce poor Joseph. That woman was what I think the kids today would call "thirsty". Whatever you call it in slang, she was after Joseph without an ounce of shame or subtlety. I was picturing the scene in my head and when I got to this part, I was so tickled, I just about broke a rib laughing:

And she caught him by his robe, saying, Lie with me. And he left his robe in her hand and fled, and got out. (Genesis 39:12)

Dude was noping out of there like Wile E. Coyote and there she is left holding his robe. Talk about not being able to take "No" gracefully!

There are several other places in the Bible that are so vivid to me that I find myself reacting as I would to an opera. I'm either laughing or crying or nodding my head in complete empathy. 

I think what I have learned during the recent re-reading of the Bible is that every part of it is relevant to life today. It's 66 chapters of history and poetry and the sort of "Roots" of humanity. 

In the past, I struggled with some parts - including genealogies and census records. But I am learning that those parts just take a different type of understanding that I haven't yet learned to vibe with. 

I owe a big thanks to Chuck Missler's encouragements to look deeper at the Bible. I've always tried to read the Bible as a citizen of the world; I am learning to read it as a child of God and a future citizen of Heaven.

I will leave you with something that I find very interesting. Chuck Missler posed a sort of "challenge" once during one of his videos and I couldn't find it again until the other day. I shared it on Reddit and got the usual Redditor arguments and self-congratulatory brilliance about how not to dabble in such things. That's Reddit for you: Redditor's rarely comment for substance but usually are trying to show off their humor, sarcasm or "smarts". Still, the challenge is to "Try designing a genealogy—even from fiction—that meets the following criteria":

• The number of words in it must be divisible by 7 evenly, (in each of these constraints, it is assumed that the divisions are without remainders.)
• The number of letters must also be divisible by 7.
• The number of vowels and the number of consonants must also each be divisible by 7.
• The number of words that begin with a vowel must be divisible by 7.
• The number of words that begin with a consonant must be divisible by 7.
• The number of words that occur more than once must be divisible by 7.
• The number of words that occur in more than one form shall be divisible by 7.
• The number of words that occur in only one form shall be divisible by 7.
• The number of nouns shall be divisible by 7.
• Only 7 words shall NOT be nouns.
• The number of names in the genealogy shall be divisible by 7.
• Only 7 other kinds of nouns are permitted.
• The number of male names shall be divisible by 7.
• The number of generations shall be 21, also divisible by 7.

"A remarkable evidence of the numerical structure of Scripture: These are met in the first 11 verses (in Greek) found in Matthew Chapter 1. Based on the insights of Dr. Ivan Panin (1855 - 1942)."  (Apparently, Missler got it from Panin.)

I don't think that the point is numerology but the idea of how intricately the Bible is designed - with "design" being the important part. 

Peace

--Free