Sunday Sermonette: Trust, but do not verify

We are now heading into an extensive bout of lawgiving. I won ' t start in this chapter, which is just the warmup. Let me take a brief aside to refer you to theAwkward  Moments Children ' s Bible. We obviously won ' t get to Samuel for a while so this will give you a taste of what ' s ahead once the Israelites have kings and all that.As I often note here, the parts of the Bible they teach in Sunday school, and the parts that get preached about, are highly selective. In fact Tufts professor Daniel Dennetthas written a whole book about ministers who lost their faith when they went to the theological seminary and actually read the damn thing. Since they had invested in their education and don ' t have any other marketable skills, many of them are still preaching and leading congregations even though they know it ' s all a fraud.Anyway, let ' s get on with it. This is Exodus 19. On the first day of the third month after the Israelites left Egypt —on that very day—they came to the Desert of Sinai.2 After they set out from Rephidim, they entered the Desert of Sinai, and Israel camped there in the desert in front of the mountain.As I have mentioned before, the identification of this feature with what is today called Mount Sinai is a late attribution. Some scholars put them elsewhere but again, it really doesn ' t matter since this is all fiction anyway.3 Then Moses went up to God, and theLord called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are t...
Source: Stayin' Alive - Category: American Health Source Type: blogs