Deuteronomy

Finished reading Deuteronomy tonight, which ends the five books of Moses, known as the Pentateuch. The word Pentateuch evidently comes from the Greek "pent teuchos" meaning "five-volumed book" after the Jewish "five-fifths of the law." Jews would refer to it as the Torah ("instruction"), Christians call it the first part of the Old Testament.

Deuteronomy is known in Hebrew as "The Book of Love," because it's a reiteration of God's covenant with the people of Israel (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's descendants) and his expression of His love for His people. This last of the five books is basically a repetition of all the rules and laws God teaches in the first four books. (Don't drink blood, don't sleep with your sister, don't steal, etc.) There is much about killing other nations, which I really don't follow, but there are also some beautiful verses about God's love for his people:

"But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul. When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the Lord thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice; (For the Lord thy God is a merciful God); he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of they fathers which he sware unto them." -- Deuteronomy, 4:29-31

Overall, I'd say I am a bit disturbed by all the God-sanctioned violence towards other nations, but there is definitely some very beautiful (though graphic) poetry in this, the fifth book of Moses:

"If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgement; I will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me. I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh;" -- Deuteronomy 32:41-42

In the end, Moses goes up onto the mountain, from where he can see the promised land, and dies. God Himself buries this prophet, and no one knows to this day where his remains were interred. I don't understand how Moses could have written about his own death, but then I have to remember that not everything in the Bible so far has made sense. Consider the talking donkey in Numbers.

Now that I'm finished Deuteronomy it's on to the book of Joshua, who was a good friend of Moses, and the man who will lead the people of Israel across the River Jordan and into Canaan, the promised land. There's been a lot of hype about this place, so I'm looking forward to finding out what the Israelites will do with all their newfound milk and honey.

After all the travelling around through the desert for so many years, it'll be nice to find out what these folks do once they settle down. Speaking of travelling around, I couldn't help but notice a strange parallel between the scenery described in Numbers and the scenery described in The Lord of The Rings. The Israelites, like the group of nine brave heros in Tolkien's epic novels, move from mountains to planes to forests and come across all kinds of dangers during their travels. It makes so much sense to me, having read the very epic, long tales in the LOTR trilogy, that Tolkien was a reader of the Old Testament.

Everything comes back to the Bible. I wish I'd read it before I studied English Literature at university. Might have understood a lot more about all the allusions and inspirations so many Western writers have had, since, well, biblical times.

**NEXT: Joshua

Numbers

Finished reading Numbers tonight. There's a lot more sacrificing of animals, same as in Leviticus, plus a lot of human bloodshed. Moses and his people continue to wander around the desert, (mostly) following God's commands, which often happen to include going to war with other nations. Um, what?

Did the Lord not explicitly say, just a few months before at Mt. Sinai, "Though shalt not kill"? Yet, here we have in Numbers 31:7 -- "And they warred against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses; and they slew all the males." What's this about? Not only is God okay with the Isrealites slaughtering other people for their land, He's actually commanding them to do it.

It gets worse.

Numbers 31:9-11 -- "And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain; namely Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword. And the children of Isreal took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods. And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire."


Moses, by the command of God, is inciting wars against everyone so that his people can inhabit their promised land. I just don't get it. I also don't get why in Chapter 15 that poor guy who goes out into the desert on the Sabbath to collect sticks is stoned to death. Okay, he wasn't supposed to be working on the official day of rest, but does picking up sticks really warrant a horrible execution?? What the %$@! happened to the sixth commandment? This Old Testament God is not only moody and vengeful, smoting everyone in his path (even Moses at one point!), but is He not also hypocritical?

Of course, anyone who knows the Bible would say "no," and explain to me what I've missed. I'd love to hear it. I clearly have much to learn about the message that is not made clear from the text itself.

**NEXT: Deuteronomy

System Override

Today I figured something out about running. Although there's the old adage that your body is really good at telling you what it needs, sometimes your body will lie to you.

I went for a 12 km run this afternoon, and while it was a fine day and lovely in the forest, my bowels were roiling, so I had to push through the pain (and make a mental note of all the possible places to duck into the trees if I suddenly needed to, um, relieve myself). Though my body (specifically my intestines) was telling me (screaming at me) to stop being a fool and just go home, I kept going and made it to the end without any medical emergency or bathroom break. I ran the last lap pretty fast despite the nagging worry about the slightly heavy feeling and intermittent cramping deep in my guts. Maybe it was the waffles and sausages and coffee I had for brunch.

Well, I discovered that, despite the warnings, I did not drop to the ground at the end, clutching my stomach in agony or sprint to the outhouse at the parking lot. Like a twinge in the knee or a cramp in the hamstring, I think sometimes our bodies will try to fake us out when we're running with a little lie about impending toilet problems that end up being nothing but a sly move to get us to slow down or give up. Steve Prefontaine is supposed to have been so successful partly because of his ability to ignore pain. He once won a middle distance race with a badly cut foot. Maybe that's what all runners do -- override the system -- whether it's knee pain or a side cramp, at least to a certain extent. If you can get the most evolutionarily advanced part of your brain to override the lizard part of your brain then you can keep your legs "turning over" as the elite runners like to say, and finish or maybe even win the race.

So today it was 12 km in 1:17, which is a PR for me for that distance... and no diarrhea!

Leviticus

Finished reading Leviticus yesterday. The third book (of the five) of Moses, translated from Hebrew, is "And He Called." I like the poetry in that. Reading it, however, is not exactly poetic. Leviticus is essentially a rule book, an expansion of the 10 Commandments, the laws set out for the Isrealites as told by God to Moses on Mt. Sinai. It's the Book of Abominations. (What not to do.) There's a whole lotta bloodshed going on what with all the lambs and goats and turtle doves being slaughtered for sin offerings and burnt offerings and offerings of atonement, and also a lot of explaining about what to do with someone who shows signs of leprosy. And then, of course there's all the rules about sex -- don't sleep with animals or other men (interesting it doesn't say women shouldn't sleep with other women, but only that they shouldn't sleep with "beasts," as this would be "confusion." Weird.)

The whole book is pretty disturbing. I understand that the priests, Aaron and his sons, would find specific rules about ritual practices useful, but boy, the Old Testament is sure filled with some nasty stuff.

"And if, when the priest seeth it, behold, it be in sight lower than the skin, and the hair thereof be turned white; the priest shall pronounce him unclean: it is a plague of leprosy broken out of the boil." (13:20)

On top of that, it's very repetitive and there's no narrative. It's just rule after weird and disturbing rule. Of course, at that time the laws would have made sense. And some of them are timeless:

"Though shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord." (19:18)

But what's with the priests putting blood on the tip of the right ear lobe, the right thumb, and the right big toe of the person making the offering to God? I couldn't seem to find an explanation in the Bible itself or in Bible for Dummies. Again, there's so much that seems so arbitrary. Granted, I'm no theologian, but why it's important for these chosen people to do some of the stuff they're supposed to do just seems so... pagan.

Another interesting thing -- don't drink blood. That's very clear. Being a vampire is not okay with God. Eat meat (but only certain kinds; pig is not cool. Neither is camel nor rabbit), but definitely don't drink the blood of the animal. And don't eat anything you didn't slaughter yourself. I guess being a vegan was not an option if you lived in the desert in those times. Having an intact foreskin was also not an option. I've heard the theory that all the rules have to do with being healthy ("healthy" and "holy" mean the same thing, don't they?) so I guess it made sense in those times for people to follow these rules to stay well, in every sense of that word.
Of course, it's also about keeping the covenant, the agreement with Yahweh. But I guess I would have to talk to a rabbi or priest to get at the fundamental truths that extend through time, the rules that hold true for those who still use the Torah/Old Testament to guide their lives today. I'm curious to know how these rules apply and are followed by Jews in the 21st century.

**NEXT: Numbers

Pace Bunny

I feel like a real runner now. This woman in the clinic this morning came up to me at the end of the run and said she'd been using me as her pace bunny and hadn't been able to catch up to me. I was a pace bunny!

We did a 12 km run with a "fast finish," which means we had to kick it up a notch for the last two kilometers or so. I kicked it up two notches and imagined I was coming in to the end of a race. It was raining and it seemed so hardcore. The only downside to today's workout was the fact that I didn't have time for breakfast and tried a couple of gel packs during the run. Mis-take. No breakfast + 2 gel packs = diarrhea.

It wasn't an Ironman moment on someone's front lawn or anything, but I did have to interrupt a nice conversation with a nice man while we were stretching back at the shop very suddenly and beeline it to the bathroom. Oh well, I'll know for next time.

Exodus

Well, the Book of Exodus, the second book of Moses, starts off with a bang and then, in my humble opinion, fizzles out.

Moses is unknowingly adopted by Egyptian royalty, he grows up to lead his people out of Egypt after casting a bunch of plagues (flies, boils, river into blood, pretty horrific stuff) and then does all those other miracles with the parting of the Red Sea and the finding of bread and water in the desert so his people don't starve, etc. There's a reason they make movies about these things with Charlton Heston.

Of course the 10 commandments part on Mount Sinai is classic, but I was confused by the idea of God actually changing his mind after Moses convinces him not to kill everybody for worshipping the golden calf.

32:14 -- "And the Lord repented of the evil which He said He would do unto His people."

Am I missing something about what the word "evil" means? And wouldn't repenting imply repenting TO God? I'm terribly confused on this point. The Dummies book has nothing to say on this matter of evil. This vengeful God is not the one I'm use to, the one from the New Testament. This God walks on the Earth and gets all hot and feisty. Granted it is pretty exciting stuff... but then...

...there's all that stuff about how to build a great tabernacle. Oh, my goodness, it's SO BORING! Maybe in the original Greek or Aramaic or whatever it's poetic, but in English, it's so dry. I think it repeats about 20 times that the curtains around the altar should be blue and purple and should be made of twined linen. Okay, we've got it. Make a really nice place to worship God and make it portable so you can keep moving through the desert. Chapter after chapter on the exact dimensions and materials for this thing. Couldn't Moses have just drawn up a blueprint?

Well, that's the end of Exodus. Next is Leviticus. The book with all the rules. I expect I may need to brace myself for the repetition in this one, too.

**NEXT: Leviticus

Ice Bath

After a 14 km run this morning, in the rain, I was encouraged to take an ice bath to help decrease swelling in my joints and muscles. It's just as nasty as it sounds. Actually, I didn't even put any ice in the tub, I just ran the cold (which happens to be very cold) until I was sitting in the water up to my hips. Wow, that hurts. Fifteen minutes (I used a stop watch) of sitting in freezing water is really uncomfortable, but supposedly it does wonders for injury prevention and in no way causes damage to your body. My knees and hip flexors have definitely been sore after the long runs, so it seemed like a good (albeit crazy) thing to do today.

I learned a few tricks to make it more bearable though:
1. Get in first, run half an inch of warm water, then turn it to freezing so it's not a total shock to the system.
2. Wear a sweatshirt (roll it up a bit).
3. Have a hot drink while you're in the tub.
4. And my own touch... read a good book to make the time pass faster.

29 Forever

I feel elated after tonight's workout. We jogged 15 minutes, did six reps of 600 m, and then jogged back 15 minutes. I am sore but seriously happy. And the glass of milk I just drank was the best tasting milk I've ever had, ever.

Running is helping me sleep better, feel more alive and gives my heart a reason to beat other than general anxiety. Also, I recently read a book by David "Patch" Patchell-Evans called Living the Good Life, which is really just a plug for his chain of fitness centres, but does offer some inspirational reasons to get off the couch. In fact, there's a list of 125 specific reasons in an appendix at the back.

Anyway, the point is, one of the stats he offers really got me thinking. He says if you exercise just three times a week for about 20 minutes of cardio, you can effectively stop the clock on aging. The average person, he figures, puts on a pound of fat every year after age 30, and resting heart rates go up by one beat per year... UNLESS you exercise. Which means... drumroll please... you can stay at whatever age you are now if you just get off the couch three times a week and move your body around. Actually, you could even reverse it. And he's not just talking crows feet and arthritis. Feeling young and alive is the real reward. Feeling good. So I'm planning to keep up this regimen of running and whatever else sounds like a fun way to get some exercise at least three times a week... and stay 29 forever.

Bible for Dummies

Decided to get some help figuring out what the Old Testament is really all about. I figured a "Dummies" book would be most neutral. It's written by a couple of PhD guys with purely academic interest in the Word. I've read the intro and the first section on Genesis, and I've gotta say, although I have a somewhat better understanding of the narrative, even the authors of this book, whom you would assume know this text in depth, can't explain what's up with the incest incident or why God decided to make circumcision necessary.

The Bible truly is a mystery, and perhaps will always be.

Well, if nothing else, it's definitely keeping my attention for the stories. The setting in Egypt, the lives full of deception, murder, jealousy, but also grace, trust, love and compassion, and the quest for a promised land... I can see why so many stories are based on the Bible. And now onto Exodus!