Rewards

After all that Job went through in his life, the LORD God finally rewarded him. After he let Satan prove that he was capable of “avoiding evil”. Also everyone, including his wife tried to convince him on cursing God but he never did. This is how God expresses that if you are able to continue being faithful, even though you might get horrible things like Job, he will recognize it and pay it off. Job got everything beck, and even had new children and that was the prize for being faithful to God no matter what happened. God doesn’t have a direct relation with everyone, but is still thoughtful for everyone and everyone who continues to rely in him no matter what, will be acknowledged. I would say is an awesome way of convincing humans to be faithful and always trusting in God. If people know they will be acknowledged there is a better chance that humans actually continue to believe in God. If they never said this in The Bible, less humans would continue to believe in God since they would start to think that they wont get nothing for believing.

Satan??

“And Satan answered the LORD” Job 2-4. For the first time we encounter the commonly known Satan, also known as the devil. Feared, and known as the responsible for all evil. In the book of Job they relate the encounter with the LORD God and Satan. They actually encounter each other a couple of times. Something that I would really like to know would be the history of Satan. When and how did he appear? I have heard stories that say he was an angel and became evil but don’t know exactly. Is Satan the opposite of God?

As you start to read Job, you see something we are used to see in The Bible. “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was perfect and upright.” Job 1-1. Another one of those who were favored by God, or at least that were leaders and in a way the perfect role models that God wants us all to be. Job doesn’t have any strait conversation with God but any way God knows about him and in a way this shows us that the LORD actually does know you if you act as he wants us to, and he doesn’t only favor those who he talks to like for example Moses or Abraham

Sidekicks? Opposites?

David’s life was very full of adventures and different things. One thing about the text which really stood out to me was this on Samuel 19-9. “And the evil spirit from the LORD was upon Saul.” The evil spirit from the LORD? In The Bible they have always described the LORD God as almighty, as wonderful, incredible who always wants the best for his sons. To hear about his evil spirit is quite shocking. Besides you might have heard about the devil may be as his opposite. Now I make the connection to Gilgamesh, is there a sidekick for the LORD? I have seen sidekicks for Moses and even for David but I would say the LORD doesn’t have a sidekick. But does he have an opposite? Or something in him that is not perfect?

David's Example

The Bible sets more examples than any other book. With many role models, they express how humans should act in their lives. Mores, Abraham, David and even Adam, they are all positive role models of how we should be. My image of these role models is humble people, who care in the people more than in themselves. They have an extremely close relation with LORD God. Since they are honest people like them and they become leaders and trustworthy people.

Here is where I find how The Bible actually has an enormous impact on modern day society. Not only with all the stories have which all Catholics known but also on the role model of society. Even the people who do not follow any religion have that role model of how they should act and that comes through The Bible. Even though not everyone follows it, everyone knows about it.

This is the example David gave us by slaying Goliath. He accomplished the unexpected by throwing a stone at him. Just as in soccer and most other sports. The small, weak team always has a chance to beat the big teams and in fact as in David and Goliath it does happen sometimes.

Thou Shalt...

In difference with the Genesis, which we read earlier, Exodus gives tons of details to the story. I recall that in the Genesis they told many different stories, but never as detailed and specified as this one. The story of Moses has a lot more to it than only the simple story we are all told when we were little. It’s not only that he told the people to get out of Egypt and go to another place and in the way he opened the sea. These are we could say the summary of everything that Moses with the help of God had to do to free his people. The main thing that I noticed in this part of the Exodus was when God said the Ten Commandments. I know that since I am Catholic there are Ten Commandments but I would not remember them. Besides I simply knew they were there and never when the appeared in the Bible or anything. In this part of the Bible they only give 6 of them. “Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bare false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors’ house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbors’ wife.” Exodus chapter 20 verse 13-17. God seems to have a lot of control over the humans. Today it would seem that he lost contact with humans completely. He told us what to do and what not to do and we now got to a point where everyone forgot what he told us.

The Art of Persuation

Moses, another story most of us have heard many times through our lives. These stories from the beginning of the Bible have become part of our culture since we are little and everyone, at least the Catholics know them pretty well. Event though, it is very different to read it form the King James Bible than to hear it as a story or even in a kids book. Moses is the perfect example for the Bible. This man who God makes contact with and does everything that God tells him to, and of course everything will turn out for him.

What this writings of the Bible say is to believe in God. They describe as everyone who trusted in God and believed in him, got practically what they wanted. When the characters such as Abraham, or Moses did what God told them, they always did the right thing and God in a way he prized them. Of course people who read this will want to believe in this God Almighty since he can do everything and if you are loyal he would talk to you and make things work out for you. So I would say that if the Bible was actually trying to make people to believe in it, it makes a pretty good job.

Dr. JEHOVAH, Who Knows Everything

The Bible starts talking about Moses. The story most of us have heard throughout our lives at least one time of the child whom they were going to kill and got saved and grew up. I noticed God talks a lot to Moses and there is a lot of dialogue, at least more than in the Genesis. Also God tells you his name “And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.” Exodus Chapter 6, 3.

God tells Moses what to do and they express a lot of security, like God knows how everything will turn out and how he is sure about what will happen. He always talks in a way that makes you know he can control everything that will happen and that everything will work out perfectly. There is a very tight relation between Genesis and Exodus. I would say it’s one after the other, but not separate stories. In Exodus they refer to things that happened on Genesis like for example Abraham and Isaac. The main differences are that there is more dialogue and that Exodus doesn’t repeat itself as much, besides the language was easier to understand in my point of view.

Mr. Abraham

Genesis gets harder and harder to understand. The language doesn’t help and they way of writing is very antique which makes it even worse. On these chapters of the Genesis talk a lot about Abraham and his wife Sarah, also about their sons Isaac and Ishmael. Genesis seventeen through twenty four talk about Abraham and his life, but mainly his connection to LORD God. All of their conversations and the way his belief in God was so extent, he did whatever God said.

Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, now we start getting more common names, not like the ones in previous chapters that were long and complicated. Abraham became a very common name, for example Abraham Lincoln and even my 4th grade teacher Mr. Abraham. I remembered how he used to spit as he talked. That was sort of uncomfortable, especially for those on the front seats. Also Sarah is a very common name, in fact there are many in our schools. These names are all Hebrew so that is where they probably appeared.

THE Family Tree

In the Genesis form chapters ten through sixteen, explain the “family tree” and I would say it’s from here that comes the old saying that we are all brothers. What these chapters in the Genesis do is describe generation after generation showing the sons each one has. This book starts getting very hard to read, in difference from the beginning chapters. Now they give you many names. And they say these names over and over again. On then I noticed was that they had many sons per person, of course it is because they were beginning to fill the Earth with people. Today this is the opposite, as we face even laws in China stating that you can’t have more than 1 child.

At a certain point during the reading you might question yourself about is how they actually spread out into creating many different cultures and languages. At a certain point they say that “And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt.” Chapter 12, 11. Now they introduce one of the olden civilizations we know of, and that starts giving the text credibility since it’s a fact Egyptian civilization was one of the first civilizations.

Trying to master rhythym and rhyme

They laid beside each other,
But didn't know they were not alone.
They didn't even bother,
Until une day they found their clone.
They were so close but yet so far away,
Not even the love could cheer up their day.

Memories

As I read the King James Bible, I perfectly picture myself listening to my mother telling me all the stories about Adam and Eve and about Noah’s arch. Even though this Bible of course has very complex language since it was written in the 1600’s, it tells practically the same story only with more details. In the one about Adam and Eve has a lot more information about their descendants which I don’t recall to have heard in the kids stories. It tells you the “family tree” exactly and even the age on which each one died.

Another thing I read in the Genesis was that everyone had many sons with their wives. “And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice” Genesis 4, line 23. The first Pimp in history! The first one to have 2 women at a time, now, they aren’t so acceptable with that. Throughout history since Lamech, men had 2 or more women and it didn’t matter; now it’s different. Thing that I connected Genesis with is with Ishmael, because I remember Ishmael talking about Cain and Abel which now I know are Adam and Eve’s sons.

But... Why Gods Secretaries?

When I first started reading about this, I always had the question of why was the title God’s Secretaries. I had been waiting for this answer. As I read along, they talk about the sixteen hundreds and the political and religion in those times. They make reference to William Bradford, who was one of the founders of Plymouth in the “new world”. Also to things that happened in England like for example the introduction of golf and other things they say you might consider irrelevant. One of the things that make King James’ Bible so important is the words that he uses. “The king himself was obsessed with words.” Pg 182. In the first chapter we heard something very similar to this, they said that the King could translate the words from Latin to French to English very easily.

On page 184 I found something very important to the understanding of the text. The people first to write the Bible were, Gods Secretaries. The secretaries or helpers are what give a lot of the “force” to King James’ Bible. Normally, secretaries have no authority but King James takes away this law. Pg 184. Now this explains a lot better was this book of God’s Secretaries is and why it has that title which is a very big concern when you start reading.