I'd already listened to a sermon or two from Hebrews at various times during the day. Sometimes the listening gets broken up into segments, which is really nice, especially since you can't click on the pause button when you're listening to your husband or the preacher preach. *grin* I had listended to the sermons in Hebrews 11 on Abraham. And I thought to myself - Genesis! I want to listen to Genesis.
I discovered that if I want to start somewhere not at the beginning of a book, I have to download the mp3 file onto my computer, then open the file, highlight the chapter I want to start at and then click the Play All button at the top of the screen. I did all that, starting at chapter 9.
Sometimes you notice more in a passage when you read it after you've heard it preached!
I listened all the way through to, hmmmm - where did I stop? Don't remember the chapter number because I never saw it, just heard it while I was creating. It was during the "This is all your fault, Abraham, that I gave you my maid servant to have sex with so I could become a surrogat mother
and now she's thumbing her nose at me" part. I think. It was late by then, well after midnight and I was tired. (Fortunately I was not tied, which is what I typed first and had to correct. With my eyesight, thread and needle in hand, and at that hour, I easily could have indeed been 'tied' as well as tired.)Listening to the passage, after the sermons earlier, brought lots of non-Biblically answered questions to mind.
- I wonder what the valley looked like before God rained down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah? The passage said it was green and well-watered. It must have been beautiful! Look at photos of the area now - not quite so green and beautiful.
- The preacher I listened to earlier said Sarah was a bitter and unhappy woman, even though in Peter she is not mentioned that way (his words, paraphrased). I have never understood why people think she was a bitter and unhappy woman. I hated the book, The Red Tent (I think that was the one) where she was also cast in an terrible light. The preacher also said that nowhere in scripture do we learn that Sarah was a Believer. We simply do not know.
I admit - I was shocked. In fact, if I'd heard this sermon first or second of all the sermons I've listened to, I probably would not listen to this man again. It sounded to me like he had a thing against women. Actually, he doesn't, from his other sermons - but I still do NOT like what he said about Sarah. (Maybe I should listen to that sermon again and make sure of what he said....)
Why do people pick on Sarah? I don't get it! Have they never thought about what life was like for her? I think she was a remarkable woman - traipsing around all over the desert with her husband, living in tents
after living in what was probably a pretty wonderful home with a foundation in Ur and Haran, being lied about by her husband - practically handed on a silver platter to Pharoahs TWICE so they could make her their wife and put her in a harem (think 'prison') to use her whenever the urge came over them again, going through her whole life with people thinking of her negatively because she had no children, and so forth and so on. I think people who call Sarah "bitter" have never really thought about what life was like for her. What was she supposed to do? Smile sweetly and submit without ever thinking or feeling or desiring to be a mother? Get real!! She did submit to her husband - and look what it got her - nice accommadations in Pharoah's palace with a view toward his bed. Ei yi yi. Would I ever trust my husband again if he even thought about doing that ONE time??
It may not be completely real, but I prefer to think of Abraham and Sarah like the artist did in the painting above.Actually, I am rather incensed by it all. And then - the writer of Hebrews talks about how wonderful her husband was and only makes one positive statement about her faith (and that only in context of having a kid) and people assume she was "bitter". I'd laugh, too, if someone told me I was going to have a baby now and I'm only 57, not almost 90. Did God talk to her like He did to Abraham? Questions, questions. Sometimes I think we make too big of assumptions about things we really don't know or understand. Even my questions are based on what life is like now, and for me. How can we truly know and understand the motives of someone unless it is spelled out specifically. This is a case where I wish the Bible said more.
Well, I have more questions and more thoughts on the passages about Abraham and Sarah and Lot (hmmm - now that I think of Lot, I think that's where I stopped last night - at that passage that was so hard to teach in Junior Church when I was going through the Bible chapter by chapter, story by story with the kids. How can you leave out a whole section of scripture if you're teaching the whole scripture? But how do you teach that to a group of kids? VERY carefully and by asking the parents first and explaining how you're going to teach it. I think I did ok - there were no complaints and I did get the point of the chapter across. I think.)
For now, the blanket is calling me, and in a couple hours Nina will be here and a new adventure will begin.
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