STUNNER STORIES!

So, I've already come to terms with the fact that Exploring the Bible is my FAVORITE class. The class simply takes us through the bible. And it's not just reading it, it's like in-depth, lifestyle-transforming, applicable, biblical, amazing kind of stuff. I hear others around me complaining about the amount of reading we have to do each week and I just smile to myself. It's not even work to me! It's my favorite homework. FOR. SURE. I mean, I am reading the Word of God. For a class? God is speaking to me. And it's homework? Separation of Church and State is so ingrained into my little brain that the whole concept of this class to me is mind blowing. (Really all my classes have been, the integration of faith into my academics has been everywhere! But none more prevalent than this.) It's funny because I only have this class every tuesday... for 3 hours. That does make it kind of long and hard-to-sit through sometimes, but our Prof is great! He's actually a preacher, so he makes it really engaging. And gives us lots of breaks. And sometimes lets us out early!! The title of this class should be something so much more than "Exploring the Bible". It should be "Get to know God's Word and how to let it seep into your life!". Because that's what it's doing for me!

Right now we're going through Numbers/Deuteronomy/Joshua/Judges. Yeah, a lot of context! But no worries, we read excerpts (; I am BLOWN-AWAY at how much I stinkin' relate to Israel! And I've been told all these stores since I was a kid. I know them well. Like the back of my hand! But I've never heard them like this... I've even heard some of them recently, for a sermon, for a devotional reading, for an examen.me. But hearing it all in order like this, it's soo... refreshing! Like last class, We covered Joseph and God showin' Egypt UPPPP! Like seriously, don't mess with God, right? He was so established in who He was! He was Yahweh, and He delivered them from slavery, He dominated Egypt and pharaoh, He gave them life! And then He gives them a land...and they have the nerve to complain? I was thinking to myself "WHAT?!?! Israel's dumb!" I think I said it out loud a couple times and freaked the library people out around me... But then I was like, wow, how many times have I done that? God reveals Himself to me over and over again and I'm sooo sinful in return. I complain. I talk-back. TO MY CREATOR? THE HOLY ONE? WHAT?!?!?! Danielle's dumb! And basically that cycle keeps going on and repeating itself.

God shows up. The Israelites are blown away. They grow tired and forget how baller God is. They start living it up (and break their covenant with God). They get in a heap of trouble and heartbreak. God shows up. Rinse and repeat. And to that I think, um, story of my life?

This basically goes on and worsens throughout each cycle. It gets to Samson and our textbook explains that Samson lives life separate from God even though He knows Him. He's a Nazarene and makes certain vows before God (like not drinking alcohol and not cutting his hair) And so although He is committed to God, his life does not reflect it. He's basically a womanizer, and that gets him in trouble when he womanizes Delilah and tells her his secret it comes back to bite him in the butt and the Philistines cut his hair, his source of strength, gouge his eyes out and humiliate him. We all know his story! And if you don't you could read it in Judges 16. But the textbook I read explains how Samson is a metaphor for Israel at that present time.

"Samson's awareness of his separation to God, and yet his disregard for it, his fatal attraction to foreign women, his willfulness and his presumption all hold up the mirror to the behavior of Israel itself. So too does his fate. Samson dies, Israel does not, but neither is delivered. And Samson's tragic fate makes us wonder to what straits Yahweh will have to reduce Israel before it, too, is reconciled to its separateness." -The Drama of Scripture

God tooootally still does this to us today. He wakes us up to Him, we forget, He wakes us up to Him, we forget. But the story of Samson and it's in-between-the-lines meaning, man, it just breaks my heart. For me. I know I'm caught up in the cycle... and I find hope in the fact that God did this for Israel for like HUNDREDS of years. His Grace is just beyond what we could ever need or want. But something deep inside of me reads these stories and just wants to cry out to God.. I don't want to have to be woken up! I know You are everything and more. I know You are my Deliverer. My Redeemer. My Salvation. My Hope. Peace. Strength. Comfort. Purpose. I don't want to be a Samson who is claims one thing and yet is so separate.

The Old Testament is sooo good. So, so good. I've never heard stories like these. Actually I have like a bajillion times when I was little but never like this. The Old Testament is alive and working. God's Word is alive and working! Once again, I LOVE this class and I am so grateful that God is waking me up with it. I just pray and will that it's permanent, although I know I will fall short and God's Grace is sufficient.