Psalms

The Psalms written by David seem to cover the gamut, inluding things which sound rather unsavory to our 21st-century American ears, like "Break the arms of these wicked, evil people! Go after them until the last one is destroyed." (Ps. 10:15) or "Slap all my enemies in the face! Shatter the teeth of the wicked!" (Ps. 3:7) Does this say something about God's character? Or does this say something about David's character? Or his view of God? Or his culture? Does this have any bearing on how we may/should talk to God? Is this sort of prayer disgusting? Or is it heartening? Or both?

Numbers 22-24, 2nd Peter 2

An angel in the road with flaming sword, a talking donkey, a reluctant (?) prophet, blessings rather than curses... People get stirred up over this whole event. Was God being tricky with Balaam or is there more to this story? Was King Balak just stubborn? dense? confused? uninformed? Had Balaam been hired before and cooperated with Balak's requests? Check out 2nd Peter 2:15, 16 (in context preferably). Does this shed more light or was the author of 2nd Peter just adding his own interpretation?

Numbers 19, Hebrews 9

Numbers 19:13 "All those who touch a dead human body and do not purify themselves in the proper way defile the LORD's Tabernacle..." And those who weren't Levites weren't even allowed in the Tabernacle. Does anyone see any parallels to Hebrews 9?

Numbers

God seems to offer on many occasions to wipe out the Israelites. Would he really have done this? What was God's larger purpose in these threats in light of his rescue of them from Egypt? Why didn't he annihilate them? Was God expecting Moses to stand up for them?

Leviticus, Hebrews

The author of Hebrews is clearly very familiar with the contents of Leviticus. He also believes that the religion portrayed in Leviticus was superceded by something more "real". What relationships do you see in the two books and does reading the one help to clarify the other?

Proverbs 1

From last week's reading:
"Fear of the LORD is the foundation of true knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline."
-Proverbs 1:7 (NLT)

Leviticus

It seems to appear here that God is basically inventing a religion for these people, and it's really detailed, and kind of disgusting for those of you who aren't into graphic descriptions of animal sacrifice. What's this all about? Why couldn't God just say, "Love me, love each other" as it seems like he does other places in the Bible?