Musings on the Bible & What I am Learning

It is very late for me to be blogging but I'm a little bit wired from coffee so...

I missed my daily Bible reading this morning thanks to grocery deliveries gone wrong. I don't like to start my reading if I know that I will be disturbed. Today was when I had to order groceries for the next 2 weeks and it's usually an hour and a half process. I order, choose a delivery time, get the delivery, put away the groceries, and go about my day. Not today. Aldi's came on time but Hyvee was way behind schedule. But enough whining about that. 

What I wanted to post about is how many little things I am picking up from my daily readings. Things to do with history and culture. I'm telling you, taking your time to read not just the Bible verses but to think about them and then to check various commentaries... It's a whole other level of learning.

I am into Exodus now and I always found it to be one of the drier parts of the Bible. This time around, I am fascinated with learning about the Jewish calendar and the laws. Also, the other random pieces of information that I never gave much thought to before.

One thing I discovered is that although the manna in the Bible was provided divinely, manna today exists as from the sweet juice of the tamarisk.  Wow, right? 

When I read this in Exodus 19:4:

Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself. 

I found the language beautiful, of course, but then I read the commentary of David Guzik:

God’s love and care was shown for Israel already, as He bore you on eagle’s wings. It is said that an eagle does not carry her young in her claws like other birds; the young eagles attach themselves to the back of the mother eagle and are protected as they are carried. Any arrow from a hunter must pass through the mother eagle before it could touch the young eagle on her back.

Now that is beautiful, right? I will never read Exodus 19:4 again without extreme appreciation of God's love for us. 

When I was reading Exodus 10:6 which is part of Moses' speech to Pharoah when he is announcing the plague of locusts, I could almost envision the scene:

And they shall fill thy houses, and the houses of all thy servants, and the houses of all the Egyptians; which neither thy fathers, nor thy fathers' fathers have seen, since the day that they were upon the earth unto this day. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh.

Apparently, the custom of the time was not to turn your back to the ruler. And he turned himself, and went out from Pharaoh. Was that a drop-the-mic moment or what?  

I have also begun to pay attention to the calendar because of how important it is. The feasts and other holy days as set by the Lord have taken on more meaning. Years ago, my mother and I used to watch Zola Levitt on his show and we loved hearing about the feasts and customs. Somehow, I forgot that these things started with the Hebrews' relationship with the Lord. I was able to find a very printable copy of the calendar and have it attached to my whiteboard so I can refer to it during my reading.

One of my nieces visited New York once and she became fascinated with the Orthodox Jews she saw. I remember her asking questions about their attire and customs. After I read Exodus 13:9 and Adam Clarke's commentary (also the notes in my KJV Study Bible mention this) I had to text and tell my niece. This is what the verse reads:

And it shall be for a sign unto thee upon thine hand, and for a memorial between thine eyes, that the LORD'S law may be in thy mouth: for with a strong hand hath the LORD brought thee out of Egypt. 

And this is just part of a long piece of Clarke's commentary:

...and hence they called them תפלין tephillin, prayer, ornaments, oratories, or incitements to prayer. In process of time the spirit of this law was lost in the letter, and when the word was not in their mouth, nor the law in their heart, they had their phylacteries on their heads and on their hands. And the Pharisees, who in our Lord’s time affected extraordinary piety, made their phylacteries very broad, that they might have many sentences written upon them, or the ordinary portions in very large and observable letters.

My niece is about to start Bible reading and I bet this was an encouragement to her.

I suppose that part of my reason for sharing these tidbits of discovery with you is to show how interesting the Bible is. Aside from being the final authority for me as a Christian, it is a beautiful and detailed set of writings that shine a light on history and customs. 

Found this on Pinterest

So many people read and appreciate Shakespeare and other writers of fiction but won't pick up the Bible and read it for life application. I spent too many years making excuses and only paying attention to the so-called "highlights" of the Bible. I am feeling so blessed that I am learning to read and learn from every word of it.

Of course, I will be posting on some of the other notes I have been jotting down as I read. Tomorrow, I will be reading 2 days' worth of Scripture to make up for what I missed today. 

Once again, I want to point out how useful eSword is. From my post today, you can see that I get a lot of use from the various commentaries! 

Peace & goodnight!

--Free

**UPDATE** The Amazing eSword Bible Resource

UPDATE: I am an idiot. I didn't think of showing the screens using the Gamebar recording feature on Windows. If you scroll to the bottom, I have included some video showing the app in action as I use some of the features.

Remember when I was trying to find a good NKJV study Bible? I still haven't found one but I might not need to. Long ago, I had downloaded the free eSword Bible Study Resource. And forgot about it when my old laptop died. 

The other week, I put eSword on the new laptop and, seriously, I can't even tell you what a great resource it is!

I know that a lot of people use the Blue Letter Bible resource and I use it a lot when I am online. The problem with BLB is that I can't find an easy or safe way to download it to my PC. I could order the disc - which I don't think is free - but I don't have a way to use a disc on this computer. eSword is everything I need. Would I still like to have an NKJV study Bible? Yep. But I'm not having a hard time without one for now. 

For those who aren't going to check the eSword link right now, here are some of my favorite features - and keep in mind that, though I will be donating asap, I haven't paid for anything yet:

• I currently am using 6 versions of the Bible and the Parallel and Compare features.
• There are so many commentaries I won't bother the count the ones I am using but here is a screenshot of what I was using recently:
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• I can adjust the screen colors (within limits), change the font settings (with a LOT of options), and more.
• I can easily set up verse lists and copy things right into the Notes feature.
• There are tools for doing searches by parameters such as just the O.T., N.T, specific book, or range of books.
• It is very easy to print. I print a lot of search results. 

Those are just the features I can name off the top of my head because I use them so much.

What I love, love, love are the commentaries. One of the reasons I am so picky about buying a Bible is because I like a lot of notes and commentary included to expand on or help explain certain passages. Now that I am using eSword, I have just about every kind of commentary right there on my PC. 

Here are some screenshots of 

toolbar offerings

I have really gotten a lot from reading the various commentaries. For instance, I happened to be doing my daily reading (in Exodus) and ran across a comment that was credited to Aben Ezra and something called "Targums of Jonathan, Jarchi, and R. Jeshua". What??? Right. I went online to figure out what that was about and was led to the Talmud and other writings and writers. So now I have on my Reading To-Do List Philo the Jew, Targums, the Talmud, and others. This is how a long time ago, I discovered Flavius Josephus and The Antiquities of the Jews (which, by the way, is free via most podcast players).

So, yes, I highly recommend using eSword. I also would encourage people to donate to the project. I was going to pay upwards of forty dollars for a Bible so I can surely scrape together money for eSword.

Now, are there some issues I have with eSword? Sure. Actually, I've only had one problem to date: I tried saving my Notes and they disappeared. I could find the files on my computer but not a program to read the files. I solved that problem by going back into the Notes feature and doing Control-Z and they reappeared. I now copy all notes to a Notepad doc just in case.

You can click on the screenshots I've scattered through this post to enlarge them and see some of the features I mention. Or you can check this page on the eSword site where there are plenty of visuals. In the meantime, here are some additional links I thought you might be interested in. These include some of the things I mentioned in this post and a couple of things I have run across lately:

• I will be visiting the Jewish Virtual Library when I can savor it. I think some of us tend to forget that our Savior was born a Jew.
• Overview Bible is a neat resource for catching some quick facts. I have not looked at a lot of the site but what I glanced through looks solid. As always, be discerning.
• Wikipedia on Philo
• You can read The Targums at Judea Christian Research (JCR). I had a link for a PDF copy but lost it. Got Questions helped me better understand what it is.
• I found this when trying to understand the Talmud and what exactly it is and what it means for Christians. Got Questions is the Google of Christians queries!

I hope this is all a blessing to you.

Peace

--Free

This is using the Graphics viewer. 

I can look at a variety of maps and timelines & control the size with the + and - buttons

This next one shows using the Bible to view commentaries, verse by verse & 

how to select the Editor (for Notes) and pin it to screen or 

move it off screen.

The same can be done with the dictionaries. 

I will add more screen captures when I have more time and brain function!

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