Sunday, November 24, 2013

Turkey Broth for the Spirit: Just a Few Questions Part I: The Pentateuch


FINALLY here!

     I have finally put together all of Part I of my book series that questions the verses of the Bible. This first book covers solely the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, and is the total compilation of the posts in the corresponding blog. You will notice that in the book many of the verses read differently than they do in the posts since it was absolutely necessary for me to ONLY use the World English Bible translation.

     With ALL of the questions posed in regards to the Pentateuch in one compilation there is no need whatsoever to flip-flop between various posts. However, I would still like for people to post their answers to the questions and hopefully you will do just that.




Saturday, November 16, 2013

Job Part III: Just a Few Questions


With ALL of these questions posed in regards to the Bible wouldn't it be nice to be able to access the questions in one place instead of flipping between blog postings? Now you can! The questions for the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch are now in one compilation, and there is no need whatsoever to flip-flop between various posts! Go here for your copy:
http://www.amazon.com/Turkey-Broth-Spirit-Questions-Pentateuch-ebook/dp/B00GVLQ0CY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385499539&sr=8-1&keywords=ester+lighthorse



This Strange and Terrible Journey

You know, going through this particular book in the Bible elicits so many emotions for me. There are so many different 'messages' to be found in this book of the Bible according to many of my childhood Bible instructors. And, yes, while I do (quite obviously) have a rather large chip on my shoulder when it comes to religion this book of the Bible reminds me again and again as I turn the pages of my Bible that the chip on my shoulder just may have some righteous standing after all.

1. Job 5:11
11 So that He sets on high those who are lowly, And those who mourn are lifted to safety.


Questions
     1) Really? And WHO destroys the lowly with the high? Does this not happen with each and every war fought on this planet whether or not it is a religious war? Is not God/the LORD in control of all things, everything out of necessity adhering strictly to HIS planning? So, again I ask you...just WHO destroys the lowly with the high?

     2) Lifted to safety? Lifted to safety? Fucking WHEN? What the hell happened to lifting the people to safety in WWII?

2. Job 5:12
12 He frustrates the plans of schemers so the work of their hands will not succeed.

Questions
     1) Yeah, real fucking good frustrating the plans of Hitler, Mussolini, Saddam, bin Laden, Escobar, Noriega, and an ass load of other shit-fucks who just loved (and some still do) following through with dastardly plans, right?

     2) Sooo...WHO destroys the good intentions of the loving so that war may persist and peace fail to be recognized/achieved? Would it be man? Can you really say it is man who does such when it is made clear by more than just a few verses in the Bible that GOD Himself puts people up to shit (like when He purposely hardened Pharaoh's heart?)?

     3) Why does it seem like God is frustrating the peace-seekers and not the evil-doers? 

3. Job 5:13
13 He traps the wise in their own cleverness so their cunning schemes are thwarted.

Questions
     1) Who seizes the fearful in their own stupidity, thus bringing the advice of the wise to a fiery end?

4. Job 6:4
For the Almighty has struck me down with his arrows. Their poison infects my spirit. God's terrors are lined up against me.

Questions
     1) Well, damn...but doesn't this verse say a LOT?

     2) Would you say that Jim Jones, David Koresh, and all the preachers who led their flock to the killing chutes were infected by the poison of God? How do you know when you are poisoned by God? Was Jimmy Swaggart poisoned by God when he sought the services of a hooker?

     3) Isn't this the truth of what God does to people?

5. Job 6:30
30 Do you think I am lying? Don't I know the difference between right and wrong?

Questions
     1) Do you know the difference between right and wrong? Apparently not, right? If you DID you sure as hell wouldn't be sitting around letting God fuck you up for no goddamn good reason, RIGHT?

6. Job 7:2
like a worker who longs for the shade, like a servant waiting to be paid.

Questions
     1) You mean like the workers of the well-used feudal system? You mean like the African servants (SLAVES really)?

7. Job 7:14
14 Then You frighten me with dreams And terrify me by visions;

Questions
     1) Yeah, uhmmm...isn't this SO God though? Isn't this what God does? Scare and terrify?

8. Job 7:15
15 I would rather be strangled--rather die than suffer like this.

Questions
     1) Do you suppose some of the condemned people in the Nazi death camps felt this way? Would God let them die? Why did He FORCE them to suffer? Were they being punished?

9. Job 8:3
Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right?

Questions
     1) Is this a fucking trick question or what?

10. Job 8:20
20 "But look, God will not reject a person of integrity, nor will he lend a hand to the wicked.

Questions
     1) If God didn't support evil doers would He be able to exist, for is not this God/LORD of the Bible the BIGGEST evil doer EVER?






Friday, November 15, 2013

Job Part II: Just a Few Questions

With ALL of these questions posed in regards to the Bible wouldn't it be nice to be able to access the questions in one place instead of flipping between blog postings? Now you can! The questions for the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch are now in one compilation, and there is no need whatsoever to flip-flop between various posts! Go here for your copy:
http://www.amazon.com/Turkey-Broth-Spirit-Questions-Pentateuch-ebook/dp/B00GVLQ0CY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385585976&sr=8-1&keywords=ester+lighthorse


Oh, yes...this guy is STILL getting smacked around!

Poor Job. Poor poor Job. This guy was the little soccer ball of misery that the LORD/God kicked around in a little soccer match with Satan as the LORD/God tried to prove to Satan just how loyal and special Job was. Did the angels/heavenly host shout "GOOOAAAALLLLLL!" each time Job was slammed with some new tidbit of living horror? Who knows? The fact remains, though, that there is a whole lot more than some poor devotee of God/the LORD getting pummeled for no damn good reason in the Book of Job. The author/authors tries/try very hard to use the completely insane story of Job to validate much of the LORD/God's terrible behavior as well as try to validate many of the unjust and nonsense punishments heaped upon mankind.

So, let's get to continuing with the questions for the Book of Job.

1. Job 2:9
His wife said to him, "Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die."

Questions
     1) The Bible doesn't pass up a chance to crap all over women, right? Here, much like Eve supposedly did unto Adam, Job's wife offers terrible advice. A woman told Adam to eat the bad fruit, a woman wrangled the secret of his strength from Sampson, a woman contributed to the fall of the doomed Ahab and here a woman is noted as having told her husband to curse God. What do these things tell you about God's opinion of women?

     1) God never mentions having a mother. I mean, Jesus has Mary, but God apparently didn't have a mother. Is this why He has such an obvious problem with women? He didn't have a mommy to love Him?

2. Job 2:10
10 But Job replied, "You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?" So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.

Questions
     1) God is perfect, right? How can there be ill with His good...unless it intones balance?

     2) If there must be ill with the good in order for there to be a balance, how does God plan to defeat evil at the Battle of Armageddon? 

     3) Wouldn't God be defeating Himself in defeating evil? Without evil there would be no balance, correct? Thus, the idea of good defeating evil is utter lunacy, correct?

     4) Wouldn't it then follow that the idea of God only doing good is an equally lunatic ideology? 

3. Job 2:12
12 And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven.

Questions
     1) Why make a show of sorrow? For attention? What does this behavior accomplish? How does it impact the situation? Do these men do this to show God their displeasure and pain and suffering? Why? Wouldn't God already know how they feel? Wouldn't they know that God already knows how they feel and think?

4. Job 3:1-4
After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth.

And Job said:

“Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’

Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it.

Questions
     1) Sooo...cursing the day he was born accomplishes WHAT except maybe for a bit of venting?

5. Job 3:16
16 Why wasn't I buried like a stillborn child, like a baby who never lives to see the light?

Questions
     1) Sooo...as Job is whining about his life does he even consider what his death in infancy or in utero would have done to his mother in particular?

6. Job 4:6
Doesn't your reverence for God give you confidence? Doesn't your life of integrity give you hope?

Questions
     1) Listen to the words of this verse and consider another message within them. For those who fear God...isn't that their confidence? For those who claim integrity of their ways in God as their hope, is that not their own choice of hope?

     2) How can people like this assume OR assert that their fear of God/the LORD or their perceived integrity due to this fear that governs their spiritual and physical life, be the same for another person or culture? Or that it SHOULD be the same for another culture or another person?

7. Job 4:7
"Stop and think! Do the innocent die? When have the upright been destroyed?

Questions
     1) Do you really want this question answered? We would have to start with Adam and Eve, correct?

8. Job 4:17
17 ‘Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?

Questions
     1) What do you think? Let's put it this way: If a God tells His faithful servant to fly a plane loaded with people into a building also loaded with people and the faithful servant not only says NO but FUCK NO, is that man not more righteous than his God?

9. Job 5:6-7
But evil does not spring from the soil, and trouble does not sprout from the earth.

People are born for trouble as readily as sparks fly up from a fire.

Questions
     1) How the fuck is man born for trouble when it is the supposed Maker of man Who sought to sew evil in the garden and then allowed man to be tricked into eating it?

10. Job 5:8-10
8  "If I were you, I would go to God and present my case to him.

He does great things too marvelous to understand. He performs countless miracles.

10 He gives rain for the earth and water for the fields.

Questions
     1) Who does horrible things that cannot be fathomed, man or God? Who promises to do wonderful things but finds ways to revoke joy and love and promises of peace? Who withholds the rain to starve men by denying harvest? Who sends water to the depth of cubits above the highest mountain peak to destroy all life?




Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Job Part I: Just a Few Questions

With ALL of these questions posed in regards to the Bible wouldn't it be nice to be able to access the questions in one place instead of flipping between blog postings? Now you can! The questions for the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch are now in one compilation, and there is no need whatsoever to flip-flop between various posts! Go here for your copy:
http://www.amazon.com/Turkey-Broth-Spirit-Questions-Pentateuch-ebook/dp/B00GVLQ0CY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385585976&sr=8-1&keywords=ester+lighthorse


One of the Most Battered Men of the Bible

Sooo...we have made it to the book of Job. Yes! I have been looking forward to this one, especially with all of the amazingly jacked-up things that God allows to happen to Job...on purpose. Yes. Isn't God just the best pal ever?

1. Job 1:1
There once was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless--a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil.

Questions
     1) So, right off the bat we can say this Job fellow is a really good guy?

2. Job 1:5
When these celebrations ended--sometimes after several days--Job would purify his children. He would get up early in the morning and offer a burnt offering for each of them. For Job said to himself, "Perhaps my children have sinned and have cursed God in their hearts." This was Job's regular practice.

Questions
     1) Is this the old theme of paying for the sin of another?

     2) Does God/the LORD like this theme because it gives Him clearance to punish the innocent?

3. Job 1:6-7
One day the members of the heavenly court came to present themselves before the LORD, and the Accuser, Satan, came with them.

The LORD said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”

Questions
     1) Really? As if God/the LORD didn't know that Satan would show up at the party? Seriously? From where have you come? Why does God/the LORD play stupid? Does He think it is cute or endearing?

4. Job 1:8
Then the LORD asked Satan, "Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless--a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil."

Questions
     1) Don't you think that God/the LORD totally baits Satan here?

     2) Would you say God is being a bit of a braggart here? Wouldn't that be a sin? If it is not considered a sin is that because it is God doing it?

5. Job 1:11-12
11 But reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!"

12 "All right, you may test him," the LORD said to Satan. "Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don't harm him physically." So Satan left the LORD's presence.

Questions
     1) Was God/the LORD looking for a reason to hurt someone?

     2) Sooo...it was okay to hurt Job's family but not Job? Is that supposed to make anything better, or God less guilty?

     3) Here God is more or less giving Satan permission to fuck Job up, right?

6. Job 1:21
21 He said, "I came naked from my mother's womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The LORD gave me what I had, and the LORD has taken it away. Praise the name of the LORD!"

Questions
     1) Is the reason that Job doesn't complain because in reality he knows, he knows that God/the LORD could make it oh so much worse?

7. Job 1:22
22 In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

Questions
     1) Job does not do this out of love, does he? He does it out of FEAR, doesn't he?

8. Job 2:1-3
One day the members of the heavenly court came again to present themselves before the LORD, and the Accuser, Satan, came with them.

"Where have you come from?" the LORD asked Satan. Satan answered the LORD, "I have been patrolling the earth, watching everything that's going on."

Then the LORD asked Satan, "Have you noticed my servant Job? He is the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless--a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil. And he has maintained his integrity, even though you urged me to harm him without cause."

Questions
     1) Oh wow. Same story, different verses? What the hell is up with this cheapie version of religious story-telling?

9. Job 2:6
"All right, do with him as you please," the LORD said to Satan. "But spare his life."

Questions
     1) Sooo...would this qualify as conspiracy to inflict great bodily harm?

     2) Isn't this verse saying the LORD is giving Satan permission to beat Job within an inch of his life?





The Book of Esther: Just a Few Questions

With ALL of these questions posed in regards to the Bible wouldn't it be nice to be able to access the questions in one place instead of flipping between blog postings? Now you can! The questions for the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch are now in one compilation, and there is no need whatsoever to flip-flop between various posts! Go here for your copy:
http://www.amazon.com/Turkey-Broth-Spirit-Questions-Pentateuch-ebook/dp/B00GVLQ0CY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385585976&sr=8-1&keywords=ester+lighthorse


The Shortest Yet

If you thought the posts for Ezra and Nehemiah are short then you are in for a real treat with the book of Esther. This one is mega short. Granted, it is a fairly short book of the Bible, but the book of Ruth is shorter and even that book produced more questions than Esther which is considerably longer. Sooo...here we go, right? Girdeth thee thou thy loins and let us get on witha da show, no?

1. Esther 1:10-11
10 On the seventh day of the feast, when King Xerxes was in high spirits because of the wine, he told the seven eunuchs who attended him--Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas--

11 to bring Queen Vashti to him with the royal crown on her head. He wanted the nobles and all the other men to gaze on her beauty, for she was a very beautiful woman.

Questions
     1) Is this where we get the term trophy wife?

     2) Verse ten totally sounds like something from those Sleeping Beauty novels about sex, doesn't it?

2. Esther 1:19-22
19 "So if it please the king, we suggest that you issue a written decree, a law of the Persians and Medes that cannot be revoked. It should order that Queen Vashti be forever banished from the presence of King Xerxes, and that the king should choose another queen more worthy than she.

20 When this decree is published throughout the king's vast empire, husbands everywhere, whatever their rank, will receive proper respect from their wives!"

21 The king and his nobles thought this made good sense, so he followed Memucan's counsel. 

22 He sent letters to all parts of the empire, to each province in its own script and language, proclaiming that every man should be the ruler of his own home and should say whatever he pleases.

Questions
     1) Aha...a LITTLE problem with women, hummm?

     2) Husbands should receive proper respect from the wives but not the other way around, hummm? Tell me again how this works, how does God/the LORD figure that this is proper treatment of women?

3. Esther 4:3
And as news of the king's decree reached all the provinces, there was great mourning among the Jews. They fasted, wept, and wailed, and many people lay in burlap and ashes.

Questions
     1) And this helps HOW?

     2) Did God/the LORD ever tell people to behave/mourn in this fashion when situations like the one presented in this particular story occur? What is the purpose and aim of this foolishness? 

4. Esther 8:2
The king took off his signet ring--which he had taken back from Haman--and gave it to Mordecai. And Esther appointed Mordecai to be in charge of Haman's property.

Questions
     1) Hummm...another recycled story? Isn't this very similar to what happened to Joseph in Genesis 41:42?

5. Esther 8:17
17 In every province and city, wherever the king's decree arrived, the Jews rejoiced and had a great celebration and declared a public festival and holiday. And many of the people of the land became Jews themselves, for they feared what the Jews might do to them.

Questions
     1) Well isn't this wonderfully fucked up, hummm? Many people of the land became Jews because of what they feared the Jews would do to them? You mean like how many of the Native Americans became Christians and Catholics because they were afraid of what might be done (and unfortunately still WAS) to them?

     2) What makes the Jews who did this shit so right or so special or so privileged to do something so fucked up? Because they are supposed to be GOD's people, is that it? 

6. Esther 9:2-3
The Jews gathered in their cities throughout all the king's provinces to attack anyone who tried to harm them. But no one could make a stand against them, for everyone was afraid of them.

And all the nobles of the provinces, the highest officers, the governors, and the royal officials helped the Jews for fear of Mordecai.

Questions
     1) Sooo...is this FEAR thing something Mordecai learned from his God/LORD? And people who believe this way wonder why there are people who hate them? I am NOT saying they deserve the hate, but what I am asking is do they really wonder why some people are so angry with them and harbor great disdain for them?

     2) Do people who fear others normally love those they fear? Following this line of thinking, how in the fuckey-doo do Christians figure to get people to really love God/the LORD if what they are teaching is fear this and fear that or God will do this or that?




Tuesday, November 12, 2013

Nehemiah: Just a Few Questions

With ALL of these questions posed in regards to the Bible wouldn't it be nice to be able to access the questions in one place instead of flipping between blog postings? Now you can! The questions for the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch are now in one compilation, and there is no need whatsoever to flip-flop between various posts! Go here for your copy:
http://www.amazon.com/Turkey-Broth-Spirit-Questions-Pentateuch-ebook/dp/B00GVLQ0CY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1385585976&sr=8-1&keywords=ester+lighthorse


Just as Short as Ezra

Well...hummm, Nehemiah really didn't have that much to offer either. Go figure. My questioning fared about as well as it did in the book of Ezra, thus this post will also be quite short. Good times!

1. Nehemiah 1:11
11 O Lord, please hear my prayer! Listen to the prayers of those of us who delight in honoring you. Please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me. Put it into his heart to be kind to me." In those days I was the king's cup-bearer.

Questions
     1) The quest is not whether God/the LORD hears BUT whether He gives a shit about what is uttered in prayer, right?

2. Nehemiah 8:2
So Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand what they heard, on the first day of the seventh month.

Questions
     1) Sooo...were there those who did not understand? Were they stupid, or did God/the LORD just treat them that way on general principles?

3. Nehemiah 8:8
They read from the book, from the Law of God, clearly, and they gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading.

Questions
     1) How many ways do you interpret Thou shalt not kill?

     2) Is not the sense inherent in Thou shalt not kill? Why would this need to be explained or be 'given sense' to? Did the people NOT understand Thou shalt not kill?

4. Nehemiah 9:1-2
Now on the twenty-fourth day of this month the people of Israel were assembled with fasting and in sackcloth, and with earth on their heads.

Those of Israelite descent separated themselves from all foreigners as they confessed their own sins and the sins of their ancestors.

Questions
     1) God is hell-bent on making the people pay for sins they did not do, isn't He? Why the fuck are the people having to confess the sins of their fathers?

5. Nehemiah 9:8
When he had proved himself faithful, you made a covenant with him to give him and his descendants the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Jebusites, and Girgashites. And you have done what you promised, for you are always true to your word.

Questions
     1) Fucking where? Fucking WHERE has the LORD/God done what He has promised and stuck to His Word?

     2) Isn't the only place where God/the LORD follows through is when it comes to PUNISHMENT and DEATH and SACRIFICING shit so He can get His blood fix?

6. Nehemiah 9:21
21 Forty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.

Questions
     1) Fucking please. That was 40 years of mental/psychological warfare where there was only one winner, right? The winners were NOT the people of Israel, correct?