Proverbs Part I

Proverbs Part I

     We are finally able to move on from the Book of Psalms to the Book of Proverbs. The Book of Proverbs is loaded with verses repeated over and over, or simply reworded five different ways...but still the same verses. One of the things I found interesting in Proverbs was the number of times that avoiding the evil wiles of women is discussed. Does the Almighty have a problem with women? Pick up and read the Book of Proverbs and you just might think He does. Sure, a mere mortal man wrote the book, but isn't it supposed to be God-inspired?

     Now let us move on to the first posting for the questions for the verses in the Book of Proverbs.

1. Proverbs 1:4-5, 7

     4 for giving prudence to those who are simple, knowledge and discretion to the young—

     5 let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance— 

     7 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Questions
     1. Okay, simple people just don't get certain things due to their simple minds, right? They do not have the mental capacity to obtain and hold more than a certain amount, correct? It is not that they are stupid, no. A stupid person knows better but chooses differently, right? A stupid person can learn prudence, but can a simple person learn prudence when they don't even have the mental capacity to know much of anything to begin with?

     2. How is the fear of the Lord the beginning of knowledge? Is it because that to the Lord the most important thing is that He have the mighty fear of those around Him?

     3. If the Lord's/God's people serve Him, how does the fear of those who serve Him benefit the Lord/God?

2. Proverbs 1:32-33

     32 For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them;

     33 but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm.”

Questions
     1. Didn't we just discuss this? Simple people are not the same as stupid people, correct?

     2. Would you agree that a wayward person is one who knows better BUT who chooses differently? If such is the case wouldn't a wayward person be synonymous with a STUPID person and not a simple minded person?

     3. A simple minded person just does not know any better so how in the fuck can they be considered wayward?

3. Proverbs 2:3-5

     3 indeed, if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding,

     4 and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure,

     5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

Questions
     1. Insight is birthed from understanding which is itself received by the individual, thus HOW can it be justly stated that one would call or cry out for either?

     2. Why try to draw a parallel between insight and understanding and the fear of the Lord/God? This is far more than just a little stretch, wouldn't you say?

     3. Sooo, is the knowledge of God the fact that He must be feared or that He survives off of fear?

     4. What happens to God/the Lord if no one fears Him?

4. Proverbs 2:16-17
     16 Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words,

     17 who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God.

Questions
     1. The Book of Proverbs has a lot to say about avoiding the adulterous woman and seems to go great lengths to make it seem as though it is not really a problem with the man so much as it is a problem with the typical wicked woman. Why is this?


5. Proverbs 2:21-22
     21 For the upright will live in the land, and the blameless will remain in it;

     22 but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be torn from it.

Questions
     1. Sooo, when the Native Americans were torn from their lands was it because God thought they were unfaithful? Does it not matter because they were not His people? But doesn't everyone belong to God?

     2. Sooo, the problems that modern-day Israel has had with maintaining their land are because they are unfaithful?

6. Proverbs 3:5

     5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

Questions
     1. Does this mean to NOT trust yourself? How far is one supposed to go with not trusting the self?

     2. Isn't it a dangerous thing to NOT trust yourself? Doesn't trust start with the self?

7. Proverbs 3:11-12

     11 My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke,

     12 because the Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in.

Questions
     1. Have you seen how the Lord/God dishes out discipline? 

     2. Sooo, when the Lord/God is committing genocide or commanding genocide He is only doing so out of love?

8. Proverbs 3:13-17

     13 Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding,

     14 for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.

     15 She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her.

     16 Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.

     17 Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace.

Questions
     1. Sooo, you say wisdom is more precious than silver and gold and then you say that in her hand are riches. That just makes no sense, does it?

     2. If God/the Lord is the ultimate in wisdom and the ways of wisdom are peaceful and pleasant, why in the hell isn't God/the Lord more peaceful and pleasant?

9. Proverbs 3:25-26

     25 Have no fear of sudden disaster or of the ruin that overtakes the wicked,

     26 for the Lord will be at your side and will keep your foot from being snared.

Questions
     1. How is it possible for the Lord to be the one to keep your foot from being snared when in a different set of verses it clearly says the Lord commands His angels to do the protecting?

     2. Sooo, who is it who does the protecting? The angels? The Lord? Both?

10. Proverbs 3:33-34

     33 The Lord’s curse is on the house of the wicked, but he blesses the home of the righteous.

     34 He mocks proud mockers but shows favor to the humble and oppressed.

Questions
     1. Does the Lord/God favor the humble and the oppressed because He feeds off of their immense fears?

11. Proverbs 6:16-19

     16 There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him:

     17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,

     18 a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil,

     19 a false witness who pours out lies and a person who stirs up conflict in the community.

Questions
     1. Make up your mind, is it six or is it seven?

     2. Doesn't God/the Lord Himself fill at least three of these traits?

     3. Hasn't the Lord/God shed innocent blood time and time again?

   4. Hasn't the Lord/God devised wicked schemes, like when He purposely hardened Pharaoh's heart?

     5. Hasn't the Lord/God stirred up conflict by purposely pointing out differences between His people and others?

12. Proverbs 9:13

     13 Folly is an unruly woman; she is simple and knows nothing. 

Questions
     1. Isn't an unruly woman different from a woman who is simply a simple minded person?

     2. An unruly woman is a woman who knows better. A simple minded woman does NOT know any better. Why in the hell does the Book of Proverbs consistently try to make these two into the same goddamn thing?

13. Proverbs 10:3

     3 The Lord does not let the righteous go hungry, but he thwarts the craving of the wicked.

Questions
     1. Sooo, if we go according to this verse all of those who starved during the Holocaust were unrighteous? There were loads of people who went hungry then, right? Weren't many of those people the LORD'S people?

     2. The Nazis were ravenous wolves if there ever were any, and those mother fuckers got a huge chunk of what they wanted for quite a while. In fact, the little bastards are still hanging around, aren't they? Sooo, when will the cravings of the wicked, such as the Nazis, going to be thwarted PERMANENTLY?

     3. Does the Lord only temporarily thwart the cravings of the wicked? Why?

     4. Is the Lord/God only referring to the afterlife and NOT how things go here in the real world? Does the Lord mean that in the afterlife the righteous will not go hungry, but here in the real world many righteous will suffer and starve while the wicked will reap the riches of the earth?

14. Proverbs 10:12

     12 Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers over all wrongs.

Questions
     1. If love conquers all wrongs then WHY doesn't God/the Lord use love to conquer all instead of bloody wars?

15. Proverbs 13:11

     11 Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.

Questions
     1. Do you think that Bernie Madhoff knew this?

     2. Do you think that the filthy rich televangelists know these verses?

16. Proverbs 13:24

     24 Whoever spares the rod hates their children, but the one who loves their children is careful to discipline them.

Questions
     1. Does hitting children really teach them anything other than it is okay to hit other people?

     2. Why are children so badly treated in the Bible? Remember when Abraham came that close to sacrificing his son at the request of God? How about the Son of God being sacrificed?

17. Proverbs 13:25

     25 The righteous eat to their hearts’ content, but the stomach of the wicked goes hungry.

Questions
     1. Does this verse mean in the afterlife and not in real life?

     2. How many wicked folk in the present times go to sleep with their bellies full?

     3. Sooo, are the hungry homeless of the earth all unrighteous?

18. Proverbs 14:4-5

     4 Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty, but from the strength of an ox come abundant harvests.

     5 An honest witness does not deceive, but a false witness pours out lies.

Questions
     1. Are these verses really examples of the wisdom of Solomon? Where there are no oxen the manger is empty? No shit, Sherlock.

     2. An honest witness does not deceive? Really? Isn't that like saying a glass with water in it is not empty? Seriously.

19. Proverbs 15:3

     3 The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.

Questions
     1. Well, since God/the Lord IS supposed to be Omni-Present I suppose it could be said that His eyes are everywhere. BUT, is that what this verse means?

     2. Does this verse mean that the Lord has eyes everywhere because he has his little angel slaves slinking around keeping tabs on everybody?

20. Proverbs 16:4

     4 The Lord works out everything to its proper end— even the wicked for a day of disaster.

Questions
     1. Isn't this one of the oft favored verses of Christians when they cannot explain something? Don't worry, the Lord/God has it all worked out in the end, right?

21. Proverbs 17:28

     28 Even fools are thought wise if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues.

Questions
     1. This is not fucking wisdom. Just because a fool is thought to be wise and discerning because he has kept his trap shut does not make him wise or discerning, right? Even a sleeping dog left to continue sleeping is STILL a sleeping dog and nothing else, correct?

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I Kings Part III: Just a Few Questions

THAT was Quick

Sooo...what do you think of the book of I Kings so far? Pretty interesting, isn't it? And while on the surface it does seem like God's people are finally getting on the right track what does God/the LORD do to His people? He pulls a General Sherman and rips the tracks right up before those using the track have a chance to respond or resituate. How very thoughtful of Senor El Shaddai. 

We pick up where we left off for the questions of I Kings in chapter nine. Enjoy.

1. I Kings 9:1-3

1 As soon as Solomon had finished building the house of the LORD and the king’s house and all that Solomon desired to build,

2 the LORD appeared to Solomon a second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon.

3 And the LORD said to him, “I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time.

Questions
     1) Why does God claim He wants all men to know Him, but then He very rarely shows Himself to anyone?

     2) What are some of the excuses offered by believers that are intended to explain away the inconsistencies surrounding God's supposed omnipresence (kinda like the wind, right? You can hear it and feel it, but cannot see it)? Some believers hold that the reason God very rarely shows Himself is because people are supposed to believe in God out of faith and not out of literally seeing God. The part about believing out of faith, WITHOUT any sign and encouragement, meant that you totally trusted God and were therefore saved from hell.

But if God wants people to believe in Him out of pure, unadulterated faith straight from the heart of the individual...WHY is He always telling the people they have to do it His way, or else? They have to choose God/the LORD, or else? Doesn't this qualify as negative encouragement to get people to follow God, and wouldn't such show people are not believing out of trust but out of fear?

2. I Kings 9:4

4 And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules,

Questions

     1) King David walked with integrity and uprightness? Sooo...was David's murdering Uriah uprightness and his taking of Bathsheba integrity...or was it the other way around?

3. I Kings 9:6-9

6 But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them,

7 then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples.

8 And this house will become a heap of ruins. Everyone passing by it will be astonished and will hiss, and they will say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?’

9 Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD their God who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore the LORD has brought all this disaster on them.’”

Questions
     1) Here we go again with God/the LORD making stupid and pointless threats again, right? If you turn aside from me? If you do not keep my commandments? Come on, God, You KNOW the people cannot help but to sin, meaning, they will never be able to hold up their end of the covenant. You KNOW this but You keep making covenants with these people?

     2) Does God's/the LORD's persistence to create meaningless/impossible covenants despite His knowledge of man's proclivity to sin unceasingly indicate lying on some level or other?

     3) If man does not know, if man is ignorant of the fact that he will never be able to stop sinning and thus will always be deserving of God's judgments, and if God knows that man does not know...isn't that sneakiness, trickery, and lying?

     4) Has God/the LORD ever stopped to listen to how He sounds when He is talking to people? Does He pay attention to the things He says? Isn't He more or less saying that the people had better believe in Him and if they do not He WILL hurt them?

4. I Kings 9:20-22

20 As for all the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites and the Jebusites, who were not of the sons of Israel,

21 their descendants who were left after them in the land, whom the people of Israel were unable to devote to destruction—these Solomon drafted to be slaves, and so they are to this day.

22 But of the people of Israel Solomon made no slaves. They were the soldiers, they were his officials, his commanders, his captains, his chariot commanders and his horsemen.

Questions
     1) Solomon made NO slaves of the people of Israel?

     2) Don't the people of Israel use a conscription program to stock their military with people?

     3) Isn't that forcing people to serve in the military?

     4) Is forcing someone against their will to enter the military so that they might fight for the king...well, isn't that the same as slavery? And remember, this is conscription and not a draft.

5. I Kings 10:23-29
23 So King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom.

24 And the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind.

25 Every one of them brought his present, articles of silver and gold, garments, myrrh, spices, horses, and mules, so much year by year.

26 And Solomon gathered together chariots and horsemen. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horsemen, whom he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.

27 And the king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and he made cedar as plentiful as the sycamore of the Shephelah.

28 And Solomon’s import of horses was from Egypt and Kue, and the king’s traders received them from Kue at a price.

29 A chariot could be imported from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver and a horse for 150, and so through the king’s traders they were exported to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria.

Questions
     1) Sooo...the verses do say here that the kings of the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon so that they may hear his words of wisdom? The whole earth?

     2) Sooo...the Bible does say the 'whole earth' and we are supposed to take the Bible as literal truth, correct? Would you be so kind as to tell me what kings or representatives or leaders from, say...North and South American, Australian, and Arctic peoples traveled wayyy over to Solomon just to jaw on for a spell, hummm?

     3) Sooo...are the people of Israel back on good speaking terms with the Egyptians since there seems to be some significant trading/purchasing in war materials?

     4) Considering what supposedly went down in Egypt when the people of Israel left...do you really think the Egyptians would sell chariots and top of the line horses to the same people who were supposedly responsible for Egypt's loss of its entire army of chariots and footmen?

6. I Kings 11:1-3
1 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women,

2 from the nations concerning which the LORD had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love.

3 He had 700 wives, princesses, and 300 concubines. And his wives turned away his heart.

Questions
     1) Read that verse two there, would you? Nice little snippy tone to it, right? You know it sounds suspiciously like those over-the-top, uber-zealous Muslims who swear by Whoever they worship that the daughters of the Great Satan are infidels (and we ALL know what happens with that version of God and infidels, right?

     2) What makes this version in the Bible any better, hummm?

     3) Isn't this a fine example of God using religion and faith as weapons specifically intended to draw lines of separation between peoples and cultures?

     4) Seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines? Yikes!! Do you think King Solomon spent a good portion of his time tending to his over-used, very likely sore sex pistol?

7. I Kings 11:7-8
7 Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem.

8 And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.

Questions
     1) Sooo...here we find the need to ask why it is okay to butcher animals and give them to the God of the people of Israel, but the same cannot be done for other gods? WHY? And don't just say some abomination bullshit, either. Just tell me when and why God decided killing animals and burning their carcasses in supplication to the mighty invisible was a good idea?

8. I Kings 11:9-11
9 And the LORD was angry with Solomon, because his heart had turned away from the LORD, the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice

10 and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not keep what the LORD commanded.

11 Therefore the LORD said to Solomon, “Since this has been your practice and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes that I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant.

Questions
     1) Aha...the LORD is miffed that HE feels like HE went out of His way to show Himself to Solomon, and now Solomon has wandering eyes? Did the LORD really think appearing twice was enough to tip the scales in His favor? Look at all the shit He does to the people! ON PURPOSE! And He wonders why people run the other way?

     2) The LORD/God seems absolutely happy and ready and willing to do anything for the chance to give people something great, and then right when they think they have something good He takes great and sadistic pleasure in ripping whatever He gave right out of the hands of those He gave it to, right?

9. I Kings 11:12-13
12 Yet for the sake of David your father I will not do it in your days, but I will tear it out of the hand of your son.

13 However, I will not tear away all the kingdom, but I will give one tribe to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem that I have chosen.”

Questions
     1) For the sake of Solomon's father? Doesn't the LORD know that David is dead? Does the LORD really think David would give a shit when the guy has been long dead?

     2) You DO see how this sadistic fuck tries to get Solomon where it hurts, right? What does He say to Solomon? I will tear it out of the hands of your son? How would you feel as a parent if someone told you that after you die they are going to take revenge on your child for something that YOU did, not something they did? What kind of fear and sorrow would that put in your heart as you worry day after day for your child? Pretty sick, isn't it?

10. I Kings 11:14-18
14 And the LORD raised up an adversary against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite. He was of the royal house in Edom.

15 For when David was in Edom, and Joab the commander of the army went up to bury the slain, he struck down every male in Edom

16 (for Joab and all Israel remained there six months, until he had cut off every male in Edom).

17 But Hadad fled to Egypt, together with certain Edomites of his father’s servants, Hadad still being a little child.

18 They set out from Midian and came to Paran and took men with them from Paran and came to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave him a house and assigned him an allowance of food and gave him land.

Questions
     1) Well well WELL! What have we here but God once again frigging with the free will of people by making them fight, right?

     2) Doesn't the verse say that the LORD raised up an adversary?

     3) Does the verse say that an adversary arose on his own?

     4) Sooo...God has purposely set fire to the barn. Isn't that just wonderful? Is this something an honest, truthful, loving, kind God would do?

11. I Kings 11:23-25
23 God also raised up as an adversary to him, Rezon the son of Eliada, who had fled from his master Hadadezer king of Zobah.

24 And he gathered men about him and became leader of a marauding band, after the killing by David. And they went to Damascus and lived there and made him king in Damascus.

25 He was an adversary of Israel all the days of Solomon, doing harm as Hadad did. And he loathed Israel and reigned over Syria.

Questions
     1) Oh, look! God was in SUCH a generous mood that He decided to go all out and raise up yet another adversary? Wow. God must not have remembered that part toward the beginning of I Kings where it said Solomon had rest on every side and there was peace, right?

     2) These verses totally sound like a slightly tweaked version of the Hagar/Ishmael story, don't they? The childless father, rooked out of his birthright, rewarded with a half ass blessing that was far more about misery and struggle than anything positive, the angst, the hatred...seriously?

12. I Kings 11:26
26 Another rebel leader was Jeroboam son of Nebat, one of Solomon's own officials. He came from the town of Zeredah in Ephraim, and his mother was Zeruah, a widow.

Questions
     1) Does God arrange shit like this because He figures that when people 'do wrong' the best way to get back at them is to strike the people they are closest to?

     2) And God knows it is even better if it is a person the sinner really, really trusts and relies upon, correct? And it doesn't matter whether or not the people had a reason to fight, because the LORD always helps with that, right?

13. I Kings 11:28
28 The man Jeroboam was very able, and when Solomon saw that the young man was industrious he gave him charge over all the forced labor of the house of Joseph.

Questions
     1) I thought the Israelites were not the ones forced into labor, and now they are? Wait, do you mean the people living WITH the tribe of Joseph were forced into labor?

     2) Is this another one of those nonsense verses in the Bible that just don't freaking add up, and that people simply pass of as the mysteriousness of God/the LORD and the ways in which He works?

14. I Kings 11:34-36
34 Nevertheless, I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him ruler all the days of his life, for the sake of David my servant whom I chose, who kept my commandments and my statutes.

35 But I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand and will give it to you, ten tribes.

36 Yet to his son I will give one tribe, that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put my name.

Questions
     1) Why does God keep saying King David kept His commandments when David very clearly broke damn near every single commandment with what he did with Uriah and Bathsheba?

     2) That my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem? Seriously? Have you seen Jerusalem on the news and heard about all the constant bickering and fighting and killing...fucking people STILL not getting along? Christ! That place is a friggin lamp? With all of the people behaving like they only think in the goddamn dark, with all of the bombings and grenade attacks, all of the riots and protests, and intermittent smoke billowing up from destruction...geeze, it is more like a LUMP, right?

15. I Kings  11-37-38
37 And I will take you, and you shall reign over all that your soul desires, and you shall be king over Israel.

38 And if you will listen to all that I command you, and will walk in my ways, and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, I will be with you and will build you a sure house, as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you.

Questions
     1) When God says He will 'take you' do you think it could possibly mean that in the sense of a 'con-man' He will take you for a long ride to nowhere where you eventually either starve to fucking death or die of thirst?

     2) If you walk in my ways? Is God high? If everyone walked in His ways the human race would have disappeared a long ass time ago, right?

     3) And WHY is God so freaking persistent in saying that King David walked in His ways when that is simply not true and there is irrefutable evidence of it NOT being true?


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