Entry 21- Reading Day 18

Genesis 36-38

Dear Reader,

I realized I have neglected this blog for over two weeks. Until yesterday I was simply too tired to deal with anything as involved as the bible. Two weeks ago, I was in D.C., as you may know, marching with ADAPT. Then I came home, went to Pride on May 1st where I had a great time marching with my home church, the Belchertown UCC. Following that, I went home and slept for about a week. I could have restarted this blog yesterday, but it seemed inauspicious. I preferred to wait for Mother's Day. As we all know, God is all about honoring mothers. Here, I tend to agree.

In chapter 35, nothing much happened, as far as I could determine. All it contained was a list of who bore whom to whom. I'm not one to criticize God, but in this case, I think God could use an editor. But who am I to say. Maybe that chapter will come back to be important. Although, I can't see how. The only information I might consider vital is that Esau became known as Edom.

Chapter 36 was a bit more interesting. Particularly, if you have ever heard of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. Being a musical theater person when I was a kid, I have. I never knew, however, that this was a real story in the bible.

Joseph starts having all these dreams that say he'll be the ruler of everyone someday. His brothers begin to dislike him and his father rebukes him for being so big-headed.

One day, someone (I'm not entirely clear who this someone was) tells Joseph to go and join his brothers taking care of the cattle. He goes to the first place and is told they've moved on. He goes there and things go badly for him. Tired of all his boasting about his dream of being in charge of everything, his brother conspire to hurt him. They cast him into a pit and eventually he's sold into slavery by another tribe of people who find him. In one last unscrupulous act, his brothers even lie to their father about what happened to Joseph. They say a wild animal got him.

Chapter 37 had no connection, as far as I could see, to chapter 36. It tells the story of a completely different person which I was disappointed in because I wanted to know what was going on with Joseph. The more I read the bible, the more it sometimes seems very Ffordeian as in Jasper Fforde of the Thursday Next novels which make very little sense. Mind you, at times, the bible is very lucid. But at other times, you're reading along and suddenly someone who you left several chapters ago appears with no indication of why they're there. Such was the case with chapter 38.

Although, I am still not sure why Judah appeared in this chapter, I know the following facts: Judah's first and second sons were wicked people, so wicked, in fact, that God killed them. I do not understand why God did this when all the second son did was ejaculate prior to penetration so he wouldn't impregnate his dead. brother's wife. I wasn't even clear on why that needed to be mentioned. Secondly, in modern times, we don't consider masturbation a capital offense. Although, Jocelyn Elders was fired for mentioning it. Also, in this chapter, for some reason, Judah accidentally sleeps with his daughter-in-law. This alarmed me for a whole bunch of reasons. First, I don't approve intra-familial sex. I have a stepdad and that's disgusting! I don't care what the law says. It's still wrong and I don't want to think about it. How could he not know? It says that the daughter-in-law had been sent away from his house after his son died, so she could wait for his third brother to become a man and then marry him. I don't care if I haven't seen my stepdad in 10 years. He's still going to know me. She didn't tell him either which I don't understand at all. If my stepdad ever hit on me, not that he would, I would certainly who I was so he would stop. Apparently, her goal was to get over on Judah somehow for reasons I don't know.

This has the most disturbing chapter thus far. It's like watching a really bad soap opera or some reality show. What does any of this have to do with God?