Some Final Thoughts on Judges

Things often start a lot better than they end. If there was ever a time when the promise of the future seemed brightest, when hope was the most alive, it would be the beginning of Judges.  When I started reading it, I was rooting for Israel. Come on people! You can do it! You have everything …

Judges 21: This is How it Ends

I’m finished with Judges. And I feel like I need a shower. It’s gross, wrong, sickening, infuriating, confusing and a host of other things unpleasant. I guess the Bible isn’t really afraid of stuff like that. A quick recap for you: Men from the tribe of Benjamin gang-rape and kill the wife of a Levite. …

Judges 19: The Levite’s Concubine

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What do you say about a story like this? A woman, given by her husband to an angry mob, raped all night, left for dead on the front porch, cut into pieces and sent to the tribes as a message. What do you do? Do you try to figure out what the point of the …

“A Year of Biblical Womanhood” by Rachel Held Evans: My Whole Dang Review.

Rachel Held Evans spent a year of her life living out as many of the Bibles commands for women as literally as possible. And this being a blog about, you know, the Bible, I knew it was a must read. Here is why she did it: There is a lot of talk in the American …

Judges 13: Samson’s Mom the Theologian

Samson’s mom has got it goin’ on.  Seriously. She does. Let me give you a few reasons: Reason #1: The Angel of the LORD appears to her This doesn’t happen to just anyone. Hagar, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, Gideon . . . I might be missing a few. These are special people. Or maybe the Angel …

Deuteronomy 22: Women, Virginity, Sex, and Marriage

How’s that for a title? Deuteronomy 22 is a chapter that a lot of people love to hate. Most often it is used to show how backwards and oppressive the Bible is to women. And, in all fairness, I can see why they think that. It’s a tricky chapter. But I do think there is …

Numbers 31: The Cursers Get Cursed

Remember that incident with Midian a little ways back? Well, let’s say that some guys from Israel engaged in some inappropriate hanky-panky with some women from Midian resulting in some rather unfortunate idolatry which resulted in a plague that killed 24,000 people. And do you remember how during that time there were a lot of …

Numbers 30: Vow Vetoes

If you knew that you were legally bound to every word you said, would it change how you spoke? Because that how they rolled in Israel. Ok, to be fair, they we legally bound to vows and pledges. But come on, how many times have you said something like, “If Joey says ‘uve‘ instead of …

Numbers 27: The Status Quo Gets A Beat-Down

I’ll tell you something. There have been a lot of chapters in Numbers that I have been very excited about. But I am pretty sure Numbers 27 is my favorite so far. Why? God decides to give a couple of long standing traditions a kick in the pants. Women’s Rights Zelophehad was a stand-up guy. …

Numbers 5: The Water That Causes Bitterness

Today’s post on Numbers 5 is a mini lesson in why you shouldn’t go with your first impression on confusing texts of the Bible. And let me just say for the record, Numbers 5 is con-FU-sing! We were cruising along just fine counting people and giving them jobs, when BAM! A complete non sequitur of …