The Second Book of Moses: Exodus, Chapter 13-40

This was a really long reading assignment, and at some times I spaced out, but eventually I managed to get through it.

This is basically the continuation of the story of Moses, and how he parted the Red Sea, and how he he lead all the Israelis to freedom.

There are several interesting parts in these chapters, and also several extremely boring ones. Since I like to start with the bad news I'll start with those.

The last 10 pages or so were basically about how to decorate the church, and how to make the priest's garments, and all that kind of stuff. I have to confess that I did not follow that part too closely, although I understand why it was necessary for it to be there.

Now that I think about it, it contradicts the Puritan ideals that the church should be very bare and austere, since it mentions all these rich garments and gold chandeliers. One the other hand, the Catholics wrote this version of the Bible so, who knows?

The interesting part was when God made all the rules that people had to follow. There were tons of them, and I read them all for the sake of it.

They all used asses and oxes as examples, but they must have been metaphors. Things like, "When you say that your enemy's ass is going astray, you bring it back to him," which I suppose to mean that when your enemy gets in trouble, you should help him. It also condemns bestiality, saying something along the lines of , "He who lieth with a beast shall surely burn in hell."

Which brings me to my second comment about practically all we've read so far in the Bible.

The Old Testament really seems to advertise a vengeful God. In it, God talks about how He revenges himself upon the great-great-great grandchildren of those who do not believe in Him. He's the one that came up with the saying, "an eye for an eye." When the Hebrews had started to worship a cow when Moses disappeared (is that related to Hinduism?), He wants to kill all of the Israelis, and Moses has to convince Him not to. "And the Lord repented of the evil he thought to do unto his people." (Chapter 32, Verse 14).

I used to roll my eyes at people who were scared of God. God, in my mind, was connected to Jesus, and Jesus was nice. Therefore, God is nice. However, reading the Old Testament made me sort of scared of God myself (although, sadly, no enough to stop me from sinning when it is convenient for me to do so). Now I think I understand Christianity better, and all those old ladies in books like, "Oliver Twist," who are always throwing God in your face.