DIY enthusiast, husband, dad, welder, coder, gardener, gearhead, fledgling writer, archer, half-baked theologian, tinkerer.
Relentlessly optimistic.
Author of Turtle Heaven
Many Christians know precisely one thing about the Sadducees: "they didn't believe in the resurrection, for they were *sad, you see.*"
What they don't often know is that the Sadducees were the ones who ran the Temple, held the offices of high priests, and ultimately were the ones who handed Jesus over to the Romans to be executed.
Because of their religio-political standing, their association with the Temple was paramount. So when the Temple was destroyed in 70AD, so went the Sadducees.
In Genesis 35, God identifies himself to Jacob as the one who met him in his fear. As the God who was there in his darkest hour.
Perhaps this is how God truly meets all of us. And perhaps when God says, "fear not," God isn't talking about himself, but rather about the thing you're facing.
It's so pretty!
The Scriptures are not there for the theologians and the scholars. It’s not there for the rulers.
The Scriptures are there to comfort those who mourn. To bring hope to the dying.
I often wonder about the ontological view of a short-lived mayfly that only lives long enough to watch the tide come in.
What must it imagine will happen to the world after it dies?
I'm now at Genesis 34 in my years-long study of Genesis. This is the chapter about a young girl who gets violated by a wealthy and powerful man who thought he could possess her, just because he was wealthy and powerful. In retaliation, her brothers trick the wealthy man and all of his men into getting circumcised, and while they writhed in pain, the brothers slaughtered them all.
And you know what? I'm really feeling her brothers right now.