History Hound Travels

No, I don’t have anything new to tell you about Noah, but I have surely felt like I was enduring 40 days and 40 nights of rain! In fact, I went to my door yesterday, opened it, and started calling the animals to see if they would line up 2 by 2 to get in. Unfortunately, all that water was IN my house, and so I have been very busy mopping and bailing. The tide has been stemmed, and I did read a bit last night. When I left off last night, Moses had begun to talk to Pharaoh.

I do enjoy this book, but it is a long read, and it does not move very fast. I still heartily recommend it for the sense of realness it gives to people we tend to think of as “Bible characters”. They weren’t characters. They were real people just like us, and this book helps show that. The cultural information is also great. So, let’s just keep reading, and I’ll try to start adding in some info from other sources to go with this book. Perhaps some information on the Pharaohs of this era???

Technorati Tags: Noah, Moses, Pharaoh

I’m up to page 90 in our book. Are you reading along with me? After Jacob married Laban’s daughters for 14 years of labor, he worked still for Laban. He finally broke with Laban and returned home. He met his brother Esau peacefully, and the two parted ways amicably. Jacob did see his father Isaac again, though. Isaac was 60 years old when Jacob was born, and he lived to be 180 years old, quite an accomplishment for a man who thought he was ready to die at least 20 years earlier. Doing the math leads us to know that Isaac lived for 105 years after his father Abraham died, so his death would have been about 2,286 years after creation, a bit over 30 lifetimes.

Those who are familiar with the Bible will know that Jacob came to be called Israel, and that his son Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt. This is how the Jewish nation came to be in Egypt. We’ll discuss this more on Wednesday.

Technorati Tags: Laban, Esau, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph

I said we would get to Jacob and Laban today, so I’ll discuss it briefly. It will be a short discussion, as I have still been tied up with the other stuff I had going on in real life. I’m pleased to report that’s about done, and I’ll be back to a normal schedule next week.

So, Jacob bargained with Laban to marry Laban’s daughter Rachel. The bride price was seven years labor, with Jacob cheerfully fulfilled. Laban brought his oldest daughter, Leah, to Jacob instead. Jacob did not discover this until the morning. He got to marry Rachel as well, but it did cost him another seven years of working for Laban.

Technorati Tags: Jacob, Laban, Rachel, Leah

I did not get as much read as I had planned. I’ve been busy as I posted. We don’t hear very much more about Isaac at all, but his wife Rebekah is an interesting study. She was apparently a very beautiful woman, but she was also deceptive. We’ll see the fruit of that in her son, Jacob.

Rebekah helped her favorite, Jacob, deceive Isaac and gain the blessing due the first-born son, which his brother Esau should have had. As a result of this, Esau vowed to kill Jacob and so he was sent away. Rebekah never saw him again. Esau had already traded his birthright to Jacob for food, so again we see a case of the younger son taking the place of the older. We’ll see that at least once more in Joseph’s sons. This is important in a historical context because it was typically the oldest son who led a family.

It’s worth noting that the deceiving Jacob was in turn deceived by Laban, his father in law. He bargained for one wife and was given another instead.

We’ll get to that on Friday

Technorati Tags: Rebekah, Jacob, Isaac, Esau, Laban

The Book of God begins with the story of Abraham. As you will recall, Abraham was born at about the same time that Noah died. He was 75 when God appeared to him and promised him an heir, and his wife Sarah was 65.

While they waited for God to fulfill His promise, they took matters into their own hands, and Abraham fathered a child, Ishmael, but the Egyptian maid Hagar. Abraham was 86 when this first son was born. And 100 when Isaac, the promised child, was born.

Ishmael had 12 sons, and they were wild fighting men, dwelling in the Wilderness of Paran, between Egypt and the Holy land. Does this area sound familiar to anyone? Yep, thought so. We’ll talk more of Isaac and his sons later, beginning with our next lesson.

Abraham lived the rest of his life as a nomad. Sarah died at the age of 127. Abraham lived to 175. That’s more than 2 of our lifetimes, and brings up to 2181 years after creation.

The next time we talk about The Book of God, we’ll talk about Rebekah and Jacob. I’ll be reading up to Joseph, but I don’t know if we’ll get all that material covered in one post.

Technorati Tags: Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Isaac, Ishmael