I've rewound in my Scripture reading. Having finished reading the Old Testament I'm starting over at the beginning. As I've been reading Genesis one of the things I've enjoyed is the subtle humor of the book. So often we think that God and his followers have little in the way of a good laugh, but if we pay attention we find that the Bible is often humorous. So here's a bit of humor from Genesis. In Genesis 19 in the midst of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (not funny) Lot asks if rather than escaping to the hills if he can go to a city that is nearby, a little city (see Genesis 19.20). We're told that the name of the city is called Zoar. If you look in the notes of your Bible you find out that Zoar means "little". So here's the fun/funny part. In Genesis 14 we are introduced to the king of Bela. In parenthesis it says "that is, Zoar" (Genesis 14.2,8). In other words we are introduced to the "king of little". Here's a guy who probably is all full of himself because he's a king. God says here's a little truth for you, you are a king, the king of little. Imagine going around known as "The King of Little" or going a a great ball and being introduced as "The King of Little". It's a funny. But it also reminds me of Psalm 2
2 The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the LORD and against his Anointed One.
3 “Let us break their chains,” they say, “and throw off their fetters.”
4 The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.
2 comments:
Larry, I love to read Genesis over and over again. Just a few weeks ago I was laughing over that same passage with Tim b/c the angel tells Lot to flee to the mountains, but Lot begged not to go to the mountains, but rather to Zoar. And then later in verse 30 it says, "Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar." Duh! That's where God wanted him to go in the first place! How many times in our lives do we take detours that God consents to (free will?), but His plan was better. Eventually we end up where He wants us, but we took our own detour to get there. Does this make any sense?
Tripp
Cindy says...
have you seen larknews.com -Joel Kilpatrick's church news site? I think you would especially enjoy the news item titled "Calvin grads dominate 2006 pastors draft"
Post a Comment