February 3 - Leviticus 8-10:20

I wonder what the people thought when Aaron was lifted up in front of them and ordained as their high priest?  Did they marvel at God's forgiveness?  Or did they whisper and murmur among themselves about his sin?  Isn't this the guy who made us the idol and then came up with the crazy story that it sprang out of the fire?  

What did they think?  What do we think?  

Aaron's sin would be forgiven.  But not that of his sons.  Nadab and Abihu die because they offer unauthorized fire before the Lord.  (Leviticus 10:1-3)  I've heard this story used before to underscore that we must be careful about how we worship -- to support singing without using musical instruments.  But I think there's more going on here.  This was more than just doing what God had said not to do.  I mean, look at what their father had done.  If God follows His nature, it was a matter of the heart.  And what was in their hearts?  Did they not take God seriously because their father had so openly disobeyed with the crafting and worship of the calf?  Did the sin of their father somehow influence their behavior?  Did Aaron wonder the same thing?  And is that why the Bible records after the Lord consumes his sons with fire..."Aaron remained silent"?

As a father, I grieve for Aaron and pray that my sins are not punished to the second and third and fourth generations.

February 2 - Exodus 39:2-40:35

As they construct the tabernacle in Exodus 38:8, the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting donate their mirrors for the bronze basin and bronze stand.

They give up their ability to see themselves for the chance to see and serve God.  And isn't our best reflection seeing ourselves through God's eyes?

February 1 - Exodus 35:4-39:1

Ok, so what is a sea cow really?  And, no, the footnote telling me it's a dugong still doesn't tell me anything.

"Everyone who was willing and whose heart moved him came and brought an offering to the Lord for the work on the Tent of Meeting for all its service...." (Exodus 35:21)

"And all the women who were willing and had the skill spun the goat hair...." (Exodus 35:26)

So even then, at a time when god made his presence so powerfully known, only some were willing to pitch in and help.  I wonder if it was any different then when God was leading them to freedom than it is now?  Did the 80/20 rule apply?  did twenty percent of the people join in while the others watched?

Well, we at least know they were generous.  "And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning."  (Exodus 36:3)

"Then Moses gave an order and they went this word throughout the camp:  'No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.'  And so the people were restrained from bringing more, because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work." (Exodus 36:6-7)

Would we ever give enough that we'd be asked to stop?  Do we have leaders who would ask us to stop?  Let's find out.

January 31 - Exodus 32-34:35

Wow, we're 1/12th the way through.  We can do this 11 more months, right?  

Unfortunately, freeing the Israelites from sin's enslavement will require more plagues.

God visits them with a plague because they worship an idol.  The specifics of the plague go unrecorded.  Was it something new?  Or something they'd witnessed in Egypt and so a reminder?  Boils again?  How cold they have broken the covenant in just 40 days?  How could you get all the way from the plagues and the parting of the Red Sea and manna and quail and the pillar of smoke and the fire and the angel leading the army all the way to "Let's make an idol?"  What tact did Satan take?  Was there a rumor floating around the camp that Moses was dead on Sinai?  What changed their hearts or their minds and then their hearts?  I wish I knew more of the story.  And more of the story about the Levites running through the camp and killing people and being blessed for doing it.  Another strange, strange story.  This is forgiveness?

It's almost as if the writer here laments the destruction of the tablets by Moses.  "They were inscribed on both sides, front and back.  The tablets were the work of God; the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets."  (Exodus 32:15)  Think of it.  God's handwriting.  I wonder what a handwriting expert would have deduced from God's writing?  Was He a lefty?

Oh, and here we're finally let in on an answer to one of the questions I posed a few days ago -- how the Lord speaks when He's not thundering around in a cloud for effect.  

"The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend."  (Exodus 33:11)

January 30 - Exodus 29:31:18

Sin offering.  Burnt offering.  Fellowship offering.  Drink offering.  Wave offering?  Blood on Aaron's right earlobe?

Some times we think as only Jesus being God among us.  But from the very beginning God has been right here and longed to be with us.  Here we hear him say, after his explanation of how to consecrate the priests, "Then I will dwell among the Israelites and be their God."

I'm surprised, but really shouldn't be, that God calls out and recommends specific creative artists and that their artistry is an expression of His Spirit.  I shouldn't be surprised because, after all, we create because we are made in the image of the Creator.

January 29 - Exodus 25-29:9

God the architect, interior decorator and fashion designer.  He certainly knows what He wants.  And He sure likes those cherubim worked into the overall motif.  Maybe it's God-inspired that so much of our art has been dedicated to angels.  They're aesthetically pleasing.  Of course, God has interesting aesthetics.  He wants a breastpiece with twelve different stones on it.  Kind of busy.  But then look at the Earth.  You'll find all things go together in nature.  At least, that's my excuse.

January 28 - Exodus 19-20:26, 23:20-24:18

The people agree to God's leadership.  It's seemingly small but we've always been asked for our, "Yes."  We may choose.

In Exodus 19:9, the Lord tells Moses, "' I'm going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you.'"  Which begs the question, how did God normally speak to Moses?  What was God's voice like and how did he appear when he wasn't trying to awe folks?  When he was just talking to them in the Garden or on Sinai with Moses?  Like everything else about Him, I expect that His voice wasn't at all what we would expect.

It's amazing to me that being less than truthful about your neighbors and wanting what they have makes God's Top Ten.  If we had to pick our own top ten commandments, what would make the list?  Would we even bother with the neighbors?  Most of the rules I hear us discussing and writing about nowadays has less to do with governing lives and more about what's cool to wear.  Fashion rules.  In more ways than one.

Oh, and there's that angel again leading the people (Exodus 23:20-23).  I wonder if he's the same nameless guy from a couple of chapters ago?  Certainly a thankless job.  Or did he beg to remain nameless?  And he's sort of touchy about one particular subject.  God warns the people, "Do not rebel against him; he will not forgive your rebellion...."  

An angel that's bothered by rebellion.  How appropriate.  

January 27 - Exodus 15:22-18:27

[Did you see the typo?  Those of you reading The Daily Bible with commentary by F. LaGard Smith?  First one to find it and let me know where it is wins a prize.]

Anyway, Moses father-in-law, Jethro, suggests to Moses a system of judges that will help him govern the people.  And Moses doesn't say, "Hey, God hasn't said anything about that."  Perhaps we have more latitude in area's where the Bible or God doesn't speak than we think.  As long as we're not in conflict with what God has set down and commanded, we can do things that glorify God and bless people.

Of course, as soon as the judge-thing is instituted..."Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and Jethro returned to his own country"...or "He loaded up the truck and he went to Beverly...Hills that is...[sorry couldn't help it.]  Maybe Jethro wouldn't quit with the suggestions.

January 26 - Exodus 13:17-15:21

As the Israelites leave Egypt, they remember Joseph and their promise to him.  They take his bones with them.  And you're uncomfortable when your grandparents go on vacation with you.  So who did Joseph ride with?

Even though God is leading them in such an obvious fashion -- the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night -- they still question and fear.  And along with the cloud and fire, oh, yeah, the writer seems almost to remember..."the angel of God, who had been traveling in front of Israel's army."  So an angel leads them, too.  I wonder what that was like?  Did anyone talk to him?  What was their conversations about?  Did he sit with them a night around the fire?  Did he tell stories about God and heaven?  About the war that had been fought there?    Did he strike up any friendships?  He or another angel groups up again later.  Did he stay with them all during their wandering?  So how did the angel feel when he finally left them?  Was he sad to go?  We don't even know his name.  Did he volunteer or pull the short straw for duty on Earth?  Did he wonder for a moment why God was so wrapped up with these weak people?  Or is that why he was chosen?  And did he eventual come to understand?

Aaron's sister makes another appearance at the end of the reading, "Miriam the prophetess."  She leads the women in celebration with a tambourine and dancing and song.  She is a leader, enough of a leaser that her name and celebration are recorded.  She will be mentioned again as one of Israel's leaders -- "I brought you up out of Egypt and redeemed you from the land of slavery.  I sent Moses to lead you, also Aaron and Miriam."  (Micah 6:4)  Even in so male-dominated a society, there are women who lead.

Twice now Miraim has seen the Lord use water to save.  Her brother Moses is saved from death as a baby floating in a basket.  And the people are saved from Pharaoh's army.  And so she sings and dances and plays the tambourine.  How sedate our celebrations for what God has done for us are in comparison.

January 25 - Exodus 12-13:16

And now the climax.  The Passover.  The Lord presides over a mass killing.  This is very, very hard for me to comprehend and accept. Certainly He'd been long suffering and given Pharaoh plenty of opportunities to give in to His will.  So many dead and so much suffering by so many people who weren't in a position to have a decision in the matter.  Did any Egyptians hear from a Jewish slave they'd been kind toward about putting the blood of the lamb on the door frame?  Were their Egyptians who knew and obeyed?  We don't know.  

It's so hard to imagine.  Your firstborn child dead.  All of that death is the Lord's will.  I admit this is one of the hard places in the Bible for me.  Here it becomes more than just a story.  These are the lives of beloved children.  I admit I do not have the faith to understand or dismiss this as necessary.  I only have the faith to know there is so much I do not know and to trust in the Lord.  I acknowledge I am not without guilt since I crucify God's firstborn son daily with my sin.  He morns my murder of His son daily.  And so how do I even dare look at this and question?  But I do.  Remember doubting Thomas received his answer.  

Yes, earlier Pharaoh had the Hebrew children slaughtered to manage their growth and Moses had escaped this to see Pharaoh's sin revenged.   But even so.  Evil for evil?  What is it that Tevye says in Fiddler on the Roof when a villager exclaims, "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth"?  He says, "Very good.  That way the whole world will be blind and toothless."

I'm bothered, too, that so much time in this chapter is spent on the Passover ceremony.  It strikes me as insensitive.  All of those lives lost, the pain and the suffering.  I know I'm questioning God.  But how can a creature so small in comparison to God's wisdom and power approach Him without questions?   

January 24 - Exodus 9-11:10

Pharaoh keeps flip-flopping on letting the people go.  Why?  After all of this does he think he can actually win?  His he just trying to out wait God?  His actions don't avoid the inevitable they just increase his people's suffering.

I wonder what would have happened if Pharaoh had gotten down on his needs and just prayed to God himself?  Honestly, genuinely and openly prayed to the God of Moses.  He believed in the power of prayer because he asks Moses to pray to his God to stop the plague.  What if Pharaoh had just prayed?

January 23 - Exodus 5-6:13, 7-8:32

Moses meets with Pharaoh.  And fails.  

Not only does he fail to secure Israel's release but ultimately, because of the meeting, Pharaoh increases the Israelites labor.  Before the Egyptians supplied them with the raw material to make bricks.  Now they have to find their own raw material and still make the same number of bricks as before.  

Moses is doing the Lord's work so why does he fail?  Is this so that Moses realizes he can't do anything without God?  Is it because there is more self-discovery and revelation in labor and failure than in ease and success?  Is it because God's road often (or should that be always?) takes unexpected turns and directions and doesn't always go the way we want it to go?  This could have all been over and the Israelites set free with Moses and Pharaoh's first meeting.  If God had wanted it that way.

Instead, things are elaborately drawn out to accomplish the Lord's purpose.  How could this series of plagues be interpreted as anything but miraculous and God's doing?  If there had just been one plague, it would have been so easily explained away.  But, so varied are the manifestations over all manner of elements and powers, it is difficult to deny God's hand.  He shows his power over nature, over the elements, over disease and death.  Plague after plague after plague lap against the shore of Pharaoh's defiance.  One by one they burn themselves into the collective memory of the people.

So why do Pharaoh's magicians feel obligated to follow Moses' lead and turn the water into blood and produce more frogs?  Weren't Moses' plagues enough?  Did they really need to whip up a whole no herd of frogs?  They didn't want to be outdone.  And so the people suffered even more.  But their ability to match God and Moses is soon over (much to the people's relief).  By the third plague, they're history.  And when the plague of boils descends, humorously, they can't even appear before Moses because of...well, they've got a bad case of the boils.

Why do some of the plagues touch everyone and some only descend on the Egyptians?  The blood and frogs seem to involve everyone.  But others, like darkness, only trouble the Egyptians.  And why does God harden Pharaoh's heart over and over again?  Why when Moses asks Pharaoh when he wants the plague of frogs lifted does Pharaoh say "tomorrow" instead of "right now!"?  Was it more important for Pharaoh to call the shots than to ease the suffering of his people?

This is the progression of Pharaoh's heart:

Moses turns his rod into a snake:  "Pharaoh's heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the Lord had said."

Blood:  "...and Pharaoh's heart became hard..."

Frogs:  "But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said."

Gnats:  "The magicians said to Pharaoh, 'This is the finger of God.' But Pharaoh's heart was hard and he would not listen, just as the Lord had said."

Flies:  "But this time also Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go."

Dead Animals:  "Yet his heart was unyielding and he would not let the people go."

Boils:  "But the Lord had hardened Pharaoh's heart and he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said to Moses."

Hail:  "He and his officials hardened their hearts.  So Pharaoh's heart was hard and he would not let the Israelites go, just as the Lord had said through Moses."

Locusts:  "But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go."

Darkness:  "But the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he was not willing to let them go."

Death of the firstborn:  "The Lord had said to Moses, 'Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you -- so that my wonders may be multiplied in Egypt.'  Moses and Aaron performed all these wonders before Pharaoh, but the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let the Israelites go out of his country."

And after he lets them go?  Well, then Pharaoh changes his mind and has his army pursue them.  So even without God hardening his heart, till the very end, Pharaoh does not want to allow them to go.  

God only hardens Pharaoh's heart four times out of the 11 decisions Pharaoh makes not to let the people go.  Most of the time, Pharaoh hardens his own heart.  Even after the first time the Lord hardens Pharaoh's heart, He leaves it to Pharaoh the next time to make his own choice.  And, again, Pharaoh hardens his own heart.  

There comes a point when we have so completely given ourselves over to Satan that we lose our ability to choose for ourselves.

January 22 - Exodus 1-4:31, 6:14-27

Joseph dies after three generations of Israelites are born in Egypt, according to The Daily Bible commentator F. LaGard Smith.  God's choice for a savior is always unexpected.  Not who the Hebrew's might have picked.  Moses is an abandoned child, a murderer, an outlaw on the run, one of the enemy, a member of the royal family.  

Again, in Moses, there is the curious interweaving of Hebrew and Egyptian.  Moses, like Joseph, will be taken into the home of the Pharaoh and will become a prince of Egypt.  He is willing to give up so much for his people, to sacrifice for them.  What did his mother teach him while she raised him for Pharaoh's daughter?  She taught him something that made him take up the cause of his people.

I'm intrigued, too, that God lets Moses first work for Him fail and bring more suffering to the Hebrews.  But that's coming up in the next reading.

Moses' reluctance is obvious.  Maybe he, too, wondered why God would pick someone who'd murdered, someone who'd run away.  Did he wonder if the Lord knew?  Maybe Moses was really just afraid that his crime would be revealed and punished when he returned to Egypt.  Does he know that God knows?

And what about the signs God gives him -- turning his staff into a snake and making his hand leprous?  We have a record of Moses doing the staff-into-a-snake trick but, to my knowledge, he doesn't do the leprous-hand thing.  Did this trick frighten him?  He draws his hand from out of his cloak the first time at God's direction.  Was he warned about what to expect?  Or did God just tell him to do it as it is recorded?  Imagine Moses' horror.  Leprosy was such a horrible thing.  It removed you from the community, separated you.  You were exiled and forced to live a life apart.  Imagine Moses' horror when he drew his hand from his cloak and he found himself condemned.  The snake trick was safer.  It didn't require him to dishonor himself.  Perhaps he worried that the hand wouldn't change back.  For some reason, Moses isn't eager to perform the leprosy trick again.

Are we willing to lower ourselves, to give in to illness, to become a total outcast for God's glory?

January 21 - Genesis 47:29-50:26

Jacob and Joseph die.  Jacob does an odd thing.  He blesses Joseph's youngest son with his right hand even though Joseph tries to correct the mistake.  But Jacob refuses.  Jacob, the younger, who stole his brother Esau's birthright and blessing now gives his blessing to the younger son of Joseph.  God's ways are not man's ways.  This nice tidy order and sense we try to make God conform to is tossed aside at every turn.  It is the things we think foolish or odd that God makes himself known through.  

Then Jacob in his blessing of all of his sons recorded here seems to take the opportunity to trot out all of their sins.  Did they think they'd gotten away with all of this?  Did they think their elderly and feeble father had forgotten?  And then to hear him haul out all of their sins that they thought long past and secret.  Rueben who had defiled his father's bed (Rueben sleeps with his father's concubine Bilhah and "Israel heard of it.")  Simeon and Levi who'd violently killed (the men of Schechem and Schechem who'd raped their sister Dinah in Genesis 34).

Joseph and his father are embalmed by the Egyptians.  Is their a possibility that we might one day discovered their mummified bodies?

January 20 - Genesis 45:16-47:28

Joseph's family moves to Egypt.  I can't help but imagining the meeting of Israel and the great Pharaoh.  What was it like for this aged Hebrew to meet with this foreign leader?  Did Pharaoh understand and appreciate the presence of God in this man?  I would like to know more about this Pharaoh who knew Joseph.  How did Israel and Pharaoh interact?  Did their meeting foreshadow in any way the later meeting between Moses and Pharaoh?  Were their subtle ironies that only God appreciated?  And Israel blesses Pharaoh instead of condemning his culture.  Interesting.   And who was this Pharaoh that honored Joseph's God and was so respectful of his father and family.  And what will his place in God's kingdom be?  For was he not an agent of God's will?  And wasn't the Pharaoh that will follow him?

January 19 - Genesis 42:6-45:15

It amazes me, stuns me, stupefies me to think that Pharaoh would take someone in prison and make him the ruler of Egypt.  I'm sure Joseph took on the look of his adoptive culture.  It's interesting, too, that two very prominent cultures in the development of civilization will be involved in God's story -- Egypt and Rome.  Of course, Joseph's brothers don't recognize him.  He's Egyptian and has taken on the culture and fashion and customs. 

Joseph schemes and deceives his brothers in this reading.  Is it vindication for what they did to him?  He weeps.  There is no pleasure and peace in this deception.  Does he deceive them because he can't bear yet to reveal who he is?  Is the pain of them abandoning him still so deep?  What is that like?  To be rejected by the ones you love.  Ask Joseph.  Ask Jesus.

His brothers will fear Joseph's reprisal -- a reprisal that will never come.  Their sins are forgiven but like us they continue to live with the guilt and fear.

January 18 - Genesis 39-42:5

Joseph's story is one of such amazing comfort and a remarkable tale of the mysterious work of God's will.  Joseph must have felt so successful ad confident at Potiphar's home.  He must have felt his life was on the right track again.  Then it's all gone again because of an unjust accusation...another unjust accusation.  How does Joseph deal with the blatant unfairness?  First his brothers sell him into slavery out of jealousy.  Then Potiphar's wife unjustly accuses him of attempting to molest her.  How did Joseph face these false accusations that twice took him away from his success and privilege?  Did he give up?  Did he think God had abandoned him?  Even when he interprets the dreams and tells the cupbearer not to forget him, it takes two years for the cupbearer to remember.  What thoughts occupied Joseph's mind during that two years?  Injustice and unfairness are hard for us to deal with.  Being punished for something that isn't our fault is difficult for us to stomach.  We cry out to God and blame Him when we are visited by unfair circumstances.  Yet, this was the road of Joseph and Job and Jesus.

Joseph appears to be learning some humility.  The proud son is now quick to let his fellow prisoners and Pharaoh know that God interprets the dreams.  "'I cannot do it,' Joseph replied to Pharaoh, "but God will give Pharaoh the answer he desires.'"  

January 17 - Genesis 37-38:30

Joseph is, again, one of those problematic Bible heroes.  Why is he beloved and blessed by God?  He is favored by his father, apparently arrogant, so what is it?  

Man's deception will continue to be a theme in the Bible even in the Joseph account.  Joseph's brothers will deceive their father into thinking that Joseph has been killed by a wild animal.  Potiphar's wife will deceive her servants and husband that Joseph was trying to take advantage of her.  Joseph will deceive his brothers and not let them know who he is.  He will also deceive them into thinking his cup was stolen.  Judah will be deceived into sleeping with his daughter-in-law.  Weren't there any other sins these people were guilty of?  Yes.  Then why is deception the only one hammered on again and again?  It appears God has a serious dislike of untruthfulness.  Understandably since He is the embodiment of truth.

Some interesting things as the story of Joseph begins.  Rueben does not want his brother killed or sold into slavery.  Ruben "tried to rescue him from their hands."  And, when he returns to find Joseph sold, "he tore his clothes.  He went back to his brothers and said, 'The boy isn't there?  Where can I turn now?'"

Judah, too, looks for a way to keep Joseph alive.  He proposes they sell Joseph to a traveling band of Ishmaelites.  Ishmael will prove the savior of Joseph.

Then in Chapter 38, we have the story of Judah and Tamar.  Definitely not flannel board material.  It's an odd and brief side story that becomes far more important later in the story of Jesus.  Judah leaves his brothers.  Perhaps he is upset or ashamed by what has happened to Joseph and just wants to get away.  Maybe he can't look at them without feeling the guilt of what they've done.  He marries while he's away and has sons.  "But Er, Judah's firstborn, was wicked in the Lord's sight; so the Lord put him to death."  No more details.  How does the Lord put someone to death?  Was it natural causes?  A quick heart attack or stroke?  Or was it an accident (an act of God)?  A chariot mishap?  Choking on a lump of lamb caught in his throat?  Or was it the result of his own wickedness?  Too much wine and he dies in a bar fight or steps into the way of an oncoming camel.  Or, was the Lord more obvious with Er's death so that it would be recorded that the "Lord put him to death."  Was it the cliche lightning strike?  Did a boulder just drop out of nowhere and crush him?  Did the Earth open up and swallow him whole?  I wonder.  

Ok, so Er dies and Onan, his brother, has to sleep with Tamar to fulfill the law.  Onan dies, too.  And Judah is one of those parents who thinks his children can do no wrong and puts the blame for their death on Tamar.  "Judah then said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, 'Live as a widow in your father's house until my son Shelah grows up.'  For he thought, 'He may die too, just like his brothers.'"

But Judah has a weakness that apparently Tamar is aware of.  How else does she know how to deceive him?  What had she observed as his daughter-in-law?  To Judah's credit, though, when he is faced with his sin, he lives up to the truth and does the right thing.

Tamar will have twins by her father-in-law -- Perez and Zerah.  Again, there's a bit of a firstborn controversy with the younger child receiving all of the public glory.  This happens with Jacob and Joseph and David and Israel's blessing of Ephraim instead of Manasseh.  Jesus will descend through Perez, the child of incest and deception, the child of perhaps man's worst sins who will take on all of man's sins.

January 16 - Genesis 36:1-43

This chapter focuses on Esau's descendants.  So why a whole chapter on Esau's descendants when God's chosen lineage will flow through Jacob?  Maybe God wants us to know that he is attentive to all people.  Esau's family prospers and grows, too.  They weren't ignored by God.  But what did they do with their blessings...that's the real question all of us need to answer.  Not whether we've been blessed but what have we done with His blessings.

January 15 - Genesis 34-35:29

Ah, yet another story of deception.  Dinah he daughter of Jacob and Leah (part of the mandrake deal) is raped and then sought in marriage by her rapist.  Well, Jacob's sons deceive Hamor and Schechem and apparently their whole village into circumcising all of the males and then Simeon and Levi go in and kill every male while they're incapacitated.  They do this because of the disrespect they showed to the family.  But then, Reuben sleeps with one of Jacob's wives, Bilhah, and his father knows...and like that's not going to hurt the family's reputation?

January 14 - Genesis 31-33:20

Jacob leaves Laban secretly.  And Rachel deceives her own father, stealing Laban's household gods.  And why did she steal them?  Their value?  As a rub to her father who tricked her husband into marrying her sister first?

Laban is quite a piece of work.  Tricks Jacob with his own daughters and then has the audacity to ask Jacob why he has deceived him and left in secret.

It's interesting that Laban has used "divination" to determine that the Lord has blessed him because of Jacob (Genesis 30:27).  Divination and household gods -- why didn't Laban just turn and worship the God of his brother Abraham?  Is there some sort of family tension there, too?  Perhaps it's this jealousy between Abraham and Laban that Laban's sons try to exploit claiming "Jacob has taken everything our father owned...."

January 13 - Genesis 29-30:43

If it's not already obvious, I tend to take up the cause of the rejected.  I don't know why.  Hey, and we all come to the Bible with a point of view.  Maybe I take up the cause of the rejected because it's way too easy to dismiss the people and not consider their story.  Hope that doesn't seem overly rebellious on my part.  There's just so much in the Bible that in my mind underscores the inherent unfairness of life on this Earth.  Of course, we really don't want fairness.  We want mercy.

What about Leah?

The Bible's only real description of her is just surface stuff and, even worse, in comparison to her younger sister -- "Leah had weak (or delicate) eyes, but Rachel was lovely in form, and beautiful."  Genesis 29:17.  Try saying that to Leah's face.  

Leah, not Jacob, seems like the real victim of unfairness here.  Her father, Laban, tricks Jacob into taking her as his wife.  True, she must have gone along with it and take part in it.  But still.  How did Laban expect Jacob to treat her after this?  After the week of their marriage, he immediately marries Rachel.

Another sad, sad verse in the Bible:

"When the Lord saw that Leah was not loved...."  Genesis 29:31.  Makes your heart hurt just thinking about it.  And what about when Leah saw that she was not loved?

It's so sad for her to know that she's not loved and for her father to put her in a position where it was unlikely she'd find love.  But God hears her.

As sad as this situation is...the ensuing birthing battle between the two sisters is almost comic.  Almost.  You can almost see Jacob running from tent to tent to tent...Leah, I'll be right there...Just a minute, Rachel...I'm busy at the moment, Bilhah...or is it Zilpah's night?

Also what's up with this naming of the kids in a way that just sort of throws gas on their already fiery domestic disputes.   Rueben for "he has seen my misery."  Simeon for "one who hears" or as his mother explains it -- "because the Lord heard that I am not loved, he gave me this one too."  Levi for "Now, at last my husband will become attached to me, because I have borne him three sons."  Dan for "God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son."  Might as well have named them Whine, Nag and Quarrel.  I how Jacob felt being surrounded by kids whose names were constant reminders of his wives' constant bickering.  What would my kids names be?  "Could you turn off the TV?"  "All you want to do is play"  And, "why don't we ever talk?"

And what's up with the women naming all of the children?  Maybe Jacob just washed his hands of the whole thing and spent all of the time piddling out in the garage.  Or maybe he was just to exhausted to come up with names.

There's also some poetic justice to the fact that the man who bought his birthright is being sold by one wife to the other for a mandrake.  "Swaping for food" should have been Jacob's name.  

January 12 - Genesis 26:34-28:22

Esau -- I wish I knew more about him.  Did he have total disregard for his family and the traditions of his people?  Is that why he sold his birthright?  Out of disregard and/or ignorance?  It couldn't have just been hunger.  Or, at least, literal hunger.  He was empty.  He just didn't care.  But still.  Does that Esau would trade does it make it right for Jacob to steal his blessing along with the birthright?  What Jacob does is wrong.  But God will use it for good.  It's the story of man and God.  In His acknowledgment and use of sin, it almost seems like sin is a necessary part of God's plan.  Or, is it comforting for us to know that God can use our mistakes for His benefit.  I feel for Esau.  I do not want to explain what happens to him away as merely because of sin in his life...because there is certainly sin in Jacob's life, too.  So why is it Jacob is chosen and Esau is not?  Esau will end up forgiving his brother's treachery.  So why?  We can explain it away that we don't know everything because there are so few details recorded here.  But why isn't it recorded?  Wouldn't it be to our benefit to know what God finds acceptable?  He's ok with lying about our wives being our sister.  Hey, you'll even "prosper" from that...and He's not ok with disregard for your birthright, right?  Or can we ever really know God's mind and will and plan?  

At any rate, Esau, out of contempt for his family, marries a Canaanite woman.  This is a sad verse in the Bible for both Isaac and Esau:

Now Esau learned that Isaac had blessed Jacob and had sent him to Paddan Aram to take a wife from there, and that when he blessed him he commanded him, "Do not marry a Canaanite woman," and that Jacob had obeyed his father and mother and had gone to Paddan Aram.  Esau then realized how displeasing the Canaanite women were to his father Isaac; so he went to Ishmael and married Mahalath, the sister of Nebaioth and daughter of Ishmael son of  Abraham, in addition to the wives he already had.

- Genesis 28:6-9

Esau, why take it out on Isaac who loved you and who was deceived?  Maybe the key is right here to unsderstanding what God disapproves of -- blind rebellion.

January 11 - Genesis 25-26:33

Jacob and his mother deceive Esau and Isaac.  There's so much deception in the first book of the Bible.  Abraham lies twice about his wife being his sister.  Then Isaac, the son, tells the very same like to one of the very same guys that Abraham lies to (Abimelech).  So what does Abimelecch think about this God that the liars follow?  Payback will follow later when Laban deceives Jacob into thinking he's geting Rachel after working seven years.  Maybe a little payback for Jacob's deception?  Unfortunately, much more to come.

January 10 - Genesis 24:1-67

If I were Abraham's chief servant, I would have said, "If you don't make me put my hand under your old wrinkled-up thigh, I'll do anything you want!  Yuck!"

Rebekah must have been incredibly impressed by the deal at the well.  Does she see God's hand in all of this?  Is that why she goes with this stranger without waiting the ten days her parents would like her to stay before going?  Or is she just ready to get out of there?

January 9 - Genesis 22-23:20

In the wake of yesterday's comments and Abraham seeming to get away with so many things, I'm heartened and amazed and awed by the events of Genesis 22.

Abraham is willing to sacrifice his only son at God's request.  Without question...or, at least, any question recorded or uttered.  How has the guy who worried about being killed for his wife become the man who is willing to sacrifice the son of promise?  What changed him?  

this is one of the hardest stories for me to comprehend in the Bible.  Abraham gets up early in the morning to sacrifice his son.  There's no stalling.  No lingering and drawing things out in hopes of a stay of execution, a last-minute call from the governor.  He doesn't sleep in late or take time fiddling with the gear or having a second helping of breakfast.  They're up and on their way.  I wonder what Abraham and Isaac talked about as they traveled to the mountaintop?  Getting to the top of a mountain isn't easy or quick.  There's plenty of time to talk and meditate and question.  What is Abraham thinking as they labor up the mountain?  Was he reliving all of the moments he and Isaac had shared growing up?  Thinking about Sarah's laughter when she heard and all the laughter since that moment watching Isaac grow up?  Was he savoring every second with his son on this Earth?  Was he hoping and praying...for what?  Was he screaming out to God inside?  Was he praying that he could take his sons place?  That he would wake up from this nightmare?  Was he looking for a way to escape, a way to run away from God?  Or is this guy, who technically could call his wife his sister, was he trying to figure out a  way to sacrifice his son without really sacrificing him? Or did Abraham know that his God would not let his son die or, that even if He did, He could raise him from the dead.  Did he just know God and the nature of God that well?

And I can't help but think of another Father who prepared to sacrifice His son on a hillside.  The journey to Golgotha was slow and agonizing, too.  What was God thinking?  Was he torn and screaming inside and looking for another way out?  Did He relive every, every moment of His perfect sons life on Earth?  Both fathers had it in their power to do something other than sacrifice their sons.  In both cases it was God who provided for the sacrifice.

As a father of two sons, this is the most amazing story in the Bible.  As a writer, it's also an amazing piece of foreshadowing.

I have a confession to make.  This year I'll be 50 (that's not the confession part -- that's a fact).  One of my weaknesses is that I often don't finish what I set out to do.  There are projects around the house started but not completed, left unfinished, things I wanted to do with my kids that remain undone, ideas and dreams I've wanted to pursue that remain just ideas and dreams, books I've started that I haven't finished writing.  Why?  Part of it is the curse of creativity -- you're always coming up with things.  Part of it is my inherent curiosity with everything -- but once that curiosity has been satisfied, I'm on to the next interesting thing.  And there are so many interesting things in this world to find out about.  My curiosity makes me good at what I do but problematic to live with...even for me.  Part of it is laziness -- it's more fun having ideas.  Seeing things through is hard work.  That's why I have a special admiration for the doers of this world.  Anyway, add to my inability to complete things the fact that, I'm a writer and, therefore, naturally an avid reader.  (Hold on, there's a point here.)  As a writer/reader, I read at least 50 books or more through and the parts of many, many more as well as countless newspaper articles, magazines, websites, blogs, e-zines, etc.  It's almost an addiction for me.  Well, I guess it is an addiction.  I can't seem to go anywhere without a book I'm reading in my possession in case there is a moment to read.  From hiking to hopping trains, I've always had a book with me.  I honestly related better to books than I do to people.  All that...all of that...and I'm ashamed to say that my addiction or faith or curiosity has never, never,never led me to read the Bible from cover to cover.  I'm sure that during a lifetime in the church I've read read most of it.  I've never just sat down and read the whole thing.  That's my confession and not something I'm proud of.  I grew up "in the church" and have gone to church mostly three times a week as far back as memory serves me.  I'm the son of two generations of God-fearing, Bible-reading-and-studying men, a graduate of a Christian university and a former teacher at a Christian school.  And I've never read the Bible through.  Why?  I love to read and I enjoy reading the Bible when I read it.  So why?

Maybe it's the aforementioned laziness.  Maybe it's because I seemed to find that those who read their Bibles religiously in my fellowship were often the folks to use what they read to condemn (in love, of course) the world, other Christians of other denominations and other Church-of-Christers of differing viewpoints.  (That's probably a cop-out reason but still something I think about.)  Maybe it's because I find what God wants and expects of us is very plain and easy to understand.  And so hard to do.  His word is plain to me.  And I've neglected to go back to His word because I still haven't got what I know already right.  (Of course, in truth, that's why you go back to God's word -- not to know more but for the power to do what you know.)  Or maybe it's all of the above, God, forgive me and help me make it through your book...and end up on the other side of this year changed...and without a club.

January 8 - Genesis 20-21:21

Ok, Abraham does it again -- The "Sarah-is-my-sister" line.  He does that thing we do -- it's the truth but not the whole truth.  Knowing what we're doing isn't completely right but doing it as right as we know we can and hoping that suffices.  Abraham does it after spending time in the physical presence of the living God.  God eats with him, pretty much spends most of the afternoon with him, gives him a son and he then Abraham turns around and commits the very same sin all over again.  I've had some people tell me, well, technically he was telling the truth.  C'mon.  Even Pharoah and Abimelech knew what he was doing was wrong.  Curious though, he lies to Abimelech and seemingly gets rewarded.  I don't get it.  And then there's the Hagar and Ishmael thing.  Is any of this their fault?  No.  But God tells Abraham, he was inclined in this case to do the right thing, yeah go with Sarah's plan and send them away.  Yes, God will take care of them.  But I wish I knew what God was thinking here.  Why Abraham is the Father of Faith when he seems so faithful and not trusting God when it comes to his wife.  God sees things differently.  And the end of the story, every story, is not in this life.  Hagar, the guy who puts his hand on the ark, the thief who winds up on the cross at Christ's side, if they all end up in Heaven, what difference does it make that God uses their lives on Earth as part of His story.  Can't we be punished here on Earth and still inherit the riches of Heaven.

January 7 - Genesis 18-19:28

The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day.  Abraham looked up and saw three men standing nearby.  When he saw them, he hurried from the entrance of his tent to meet them and bowed low to the ground.

     He said, "If I have found favor in your eyes, my lord, do not pass your servant by.  Let a little water be brought, and then you may all wash your feet and rest under this tree.  Let me get you something to eat, so you can be refreshed and then go on your way -- now that you have come to your servant."

     "Very well," they answered, "do as you say."

     Genesis 18:1-5

God in the flesh.  He came to Earth and dwelt among us...B.C.  Before Christ.  We tend to give God the role of stern and slightly irritable judge and jury ready to blast us into oblivion for the least offense and Christ the role of all-forgiving, sacrificial brother who's been to Earth and knows all of our struggles first hand.  Hey, this Christ thing was God's idea.  And He, God, too, made the trip to Earth in the form of a man.  I mean close enough to being a man that Abraham offers him water and food and rest, right?  God walked the Earth...at least, enough of it that Abraham suggests He might want His feet washed.  How far do you think God walked that day?  What caught His attention along the way?  How did the wind feel on His face (oops, His beard).  Think He picked up a small smooth stone and rubbed it between His fingers?  Did he step over puddles on the road?  Or step in them?  I think God loves this place.  He made it.  God was and is here.  And not just floating in the clouds doing the standard and accepted Godly kind of stuff.  He eats with his hands at Abraham's table.  He gets sweaty wrestling with Jacob.  He gives Moses a peek at his backside.  

Did God wash his own feet?  Or did one of Abraham's servants do it?  Imagine touching God.  Would you be changed forever?  Would the power flow out of him and into you?  Would you be empowered forever after in a way that only coming into contact with God could empower you?  Maybe everything the servant touched from that day forward was instantly clean.  Dip his finger in the water and it was pure.  Pick up that slice of baloney and it was fresh.  Hang up your dirty clothes and they are clean.  Just because you'd kneeled at the feet of God and washed them.

And think of God resting under the tree.  May have been the first rest he'd enjoyed since day seven.  And what became of the tree that shaded the Maker of the Universe?  Was it cut down to make a boat for a fisherman?  A manager for a child?  The crossbeam of a cross?  Or does it grow still, ancient and forgotten in Israel?

And God eats.  He eats.  Wonder what He had?  A little lamb?  A bit of unleavened bread and cup of wine?  Or perhaps he made his own...with a cup of water?  Did he do anything in the meal that would hint at supper sometime in the future?  Can't imagine that He didn't.  God has a thing for symbolism and foreshadowing have you noticed?  He just can't seem to help Himself.  So what did He help Himself to at the table?  And with what words did He bless his food?  "Well, I made the seeds and the ground and the harvest time.  If I hadn't of created food it wouldn't be here.  But, Abraham, I think you anyway." (Hint:  Jimmy Stewart)

Do you think God enjoyed the experience of being on Earth?  Walking and washing and eating?  All of the things we find a nuisance and look for a way to invent a way around them.  Did He like it here?  Or was He appalled by our lack of hygiene, the dirt and germs and flies?  Since he made all those things, I don't think He'd be put off at the least by any of them.  I think He liked being here.  Because He came back.

January 6 - Genesis 15-17:27

Admit it.  Circumcision seems an odd, odd thing for God to pick as a marker of his people.  Right?  It's so personal and embarrassing and only focusing on the males.  I know, I know it wouldn't have been a foreign concept to the people of Abraham's day and scholars point to the hygienic nature of it.  Still.  Why a marker that nobody is going to see unless you bare yourself?  Isn't a nose a better indicator of whether someone is Jewish or not?  Maybe God wants his mark to be seen only when we bare ourselves...show our underwear as it were.  I'm speaking metaphorically, of course.  It's a very humbling thing this circumcision and, again, a big unexpected of the Lord of the Universe to mark has claim on us in such an intimate and embarrassing way.  Why not a really cool tattoo on our arm or face...or even, well, on the tush if God's mark just has to be somewhere private.   Why not the really cool nose ring that Rebekah has?  (Oops, I'm moving ahead.)  Or a piece of jewelry we can wear around our necks?  A yellow rubber band we can put around our wrists?  It's funny to me how matter-of-factly those of us who "grew up in the church" can talk about circumcision and just accept that "Yep, God wanted 'em to just cut it off"...until we have to explain the whole deal to a third grade Bible class.  

God just wants his mark on us to be intimate, personal, connected to our most private lives.

January 5 - Genesis 12-14:24

Abram is a curious chosen one.  He's uneasy about his wife's beauty and so fearful that he passes her off as his sister, twice.  And, as near as I can figure, he even gets rewarded for this when Pharaoh gives him livestock and wealth.  Then there's the whole thing with Sarah wanting him to sleep with her handmaid and Abraham doing it!  Hey, Abraham, wake up...Sarah was telling you to do it just so you would say, "No, baby, there's no one for me but you."  And then he wonders why there's bad blood between Sarah and Hagar.  Figure it out, Abe.  This Sarah lie and Hagar lay or way to weird for me. 

I wonder what God sees in this guy?  (Answer:  us.)

January 4, Genesis 11:1-9; 10:1-32; 11:10-32

All of these names and nations and genealogies -- Why are they here and how were they passed down until written language was invented?  Was all of this stuff passed down orally, generation after generation?  Sheesssh.  Well, that certainly explains the lack of detail.  Adam lives 930 years on the Earth and yet we have just a few stories about him and the kids.  And if its just the high points, then Adam sure lived a pretty dull existence for most of that millennium he hung around.  Enoch avoids death and all we have is "Enoch walked with God and was no more."  Seems like a guy like that you'd have one or two stories about the cool stuff he did and said.  Unless he didn't say or do many remarkable things.  Except walk with God.  And is that literal or figurative?  I mean it was early on and we know God liked his walks.  Maybe Enoch just walked with God and one day God looked at Enoch and said, "You think this is cool have I got something really awesome to show you today.  C'mon."  Anyway, Enoch's life seems noteworthy enough to have warranted at lest a second sentence.  Even though the details are few, it's still remarkable that so much was remembered and passed down.  But then, I know kids nowadays who can quote every line in all of the Star Wars movies...and without divine inspiration as near as I can tell.   

I wonder if they had a snappy tune they sang all of these names to?

January 3, Genesis 6-9:29

So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.  This how you are to build it:  The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high.  Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top.  Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.

     Genesis 6:14-16

So Noah builds the ark.  Takes all the time and energy to build it according to God's exacting specifications -- the right wood, the right cubits and the right number of flowers.  The he goes to all the trouble to accommodate two every kind of living creature.  He does all of this.  And then....  He can't get the door to the ark shut.  The Bible simply says, "The Lord shut him in."  

did Noah know the Lord was going to take care of closing the door?  Or did he get right up to the point with all of the animals on board and then look at the door and go..."Oh, ah, now how are we going to get that door shut?"  

Had Noah and Sons, Inc. relied on its own know-how and skill to get it all together, to make it all happen, only to discover that...he couldn't get the door shut.  Not all on his own.  Not with the help of his sons.  Not even with sons and daughter-inlaws and the wife.  Then God shut him in.  Was it a last reminder before the rains came that even this great feat of Noah's -- and what an amazing feat it was constructing this huge ship -- didn't mean Noah could go it alone.  In the end, everything requires God.  Even the relatively mundane act of closing a door.  Especially when we're trying to close the door on the world.

The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.  The Lord grieved that he had made man....

     Genesis 6:5-6

It's curious to me that God grieves His creation when He knows and knew.  He knew its fallibility and He knows and knew exactly what it and He will do.  The notion of God's grieving somehow suggests that He thought, hoped, longed for us to do the right thing.  But how could He when He knows.  I'm perplexed by this.  Why give us another 120 years to get it right when He knows we won't?  Why?  For our benefit?  To show his long-suffering nature?  Who knows?  Him.  

And why destroy what He knew would go bad?  What did He expect?

Water.  God's weapon of mass destruction and...mass salvation.

January 2, Genesis 4:1-5:32

Altogether, Adam lived 930 years, and then he died.

     Genesis 5:5

The 930-year-old Adam.  Think of the candles on that cake.  Imagine having a birthday party...and the whole world came.  

I wonder if this great namer of all the animals in the world could remember all the names of his great-great-great-great-great...well, you get the idea.

After 930 years and generations and generations of people on the Earth how much contact does anyone have with Adam?  Do they ever see him around?  How much do they really know about him?  Or has he become more of an urban...well...village legend?  Is he forgotten even within his own lifetime?  I mean, the Children of Israel wandered away from the God that fed them manna and led them as a pillar of fire in far less than 930 years.  "Adam?  Oh, you mean the Adam who was the first person on the Earth and we're all his descendents.  Yeah, right."

Was he revered?  Sought out and listened to?  Given our track record, I think not.  He was just some old guy still talking about the "Good Old Days in the garden...before hamburgers and three-piece suits."

And the Lord God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when  you eat of it  you will surely die."

     Genesis 2:16-17

God says we will surely die.  And everyone does die.  Then Enoch doesn't die.  What's up with that?  I like our God.  He's exceptional.  Some explain it away by saying Enoch didn't sin so he didn't have to die.  Hmmm, a bit legalistic.  My theory is God makes the rules...to break them.  There was only one man that walked the Earth and lived without sinning.  All of the rest of us have sinned.  So I wonder what Enoch's sin was that God let it slide?  Maybe he had a habit of taking the last deviled egg on the plate without asking if anyone else wanted it?  

If I counted correctly, Adam was still alive when Enoch "walked with God and was no more."  Wonder what Adam's reaction was?  Was he hurt?  Jealous?  Angry?  He would follow soon after...but on a much harder road.

January 1, Genesis 1-3:24

And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.  God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." and there was evening, and there was morning -- the first day.

     Genesis 1:3-5

I know we make a big deal about God creating light and dark (v. 3) before He created the Sun and Moon (v. 14) to rule them.  But what he was actually creating was a measure...a measure of time.

So why did he create time first?  

Perhaps time is our most important God-given resource.  It's also the one thing that creates a veil between Creator and created.  He sees all time and we just see the tip of the iceberg and only that of the iceberg we happen to be standing on.

The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone.  I will make a helper suitable for him."

     Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air.  He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.  So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.

     But for Adam no suitable helper was found.

     Genesis 2:18-20

What if one of the animals had proven a suitable mate?  Why not man's best friend.  Or a big ol teddy bear or a 12-point buck?  Hey, don't laugh.  If snakes were talking, I'm sure a dog or a bear or a buck could carry on a worthwhile conversation.  Or, at least, as much of a conversation as a man is looking for.  (Can you imagine the cacophony of a world of talking animals?  I wonder how far the talking thing extended?  Mammals?  Birds?  Reptiles?  Insects?  Glad it came to an end before we began eating meat.  Just think how hard it would be to kill your dinner...if it was begging for mercy.)  Anyway, why not pick an animal?  Something incredibly loyal and lovable and selfless and serving and forgiving.  Something that didn't always argue over thermostat settings or which restaurant or movie to go to and was happy with whatever you decided.  

Hmmmmm.  Maybe our definition of suitable doesn't, well, suit.  Perhaps God wanted us to experience free choice or rather someone else having it.  Maybe suitable means challenging.  Maybe life's not meant to be easy and perfect and without everyday disagreements.   Suitable doesn't necessarily mean entirely compatible.   By nature, I think men and women are essentially incompatible.  And apparently that suited God.

And why didn't God just make Adam a woman without going through all of the animals first?  Can you imagine that audition?

God made two great lights -- the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night.  He also made the stars.  God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness.  And God saw that it was good.

     Gensis 1:16-18

God likes to call things "good."  That's it.  Good.  As a writer, I would have cracked the old thesaurus for something a bolder, more impactful and powerful.  Something with panache.  But God, you gotta love Him, goes with...good.  And when did good stop being good enough for us?  Where did we acquire our love of exaggeration and hyperbole?  Good's just not good enough.  We want awesome, amazing, extra-strength, ultra, extreme, to the max.  Even Pepsi has to come with vitamins (have you tasted the stuff?  It's not...good.)

The man said,

     "this is now bone of my bones

          and flesh of my flesh,

      she shall be called 'woman,'

          for she was taken out of man."

     Genesis 2:23

[21 versus, one snake and two sins later]

Adam named his wife Eve..."

     Genesis 3:20

I'm sure this has all got something to with the chronological shifts in the Genesis account...but have you ever notice that Eve doesn't have a name until after she sins?  The text just calls her woman up until then.  Did Adam just call her woman until after the fall?  Was it like when you got in trouble as a child and your mother yelled at you using your complete and entire name as it appeared on your birth certificate.  "Eve Mother of All the Living, is this your apple?!"

Ok, so much for my armchair theology and hermeneutics.  But, hey, the book is for the common folks, the fisherman, the leaper, the man blind from birth, the woman caught in the act of adultery.  We should all have our own take on the Bible.