Isaiah

Isaiah 1-4, 6-9

ch. 1
5 - interesting that he asks why the nation should be beat anymore and why they persist in rebellion. It almost seems that he makes the statement that it is regrettable that they endure these hardships yet it is of their own doing that they suffer these wounds on all sides, so he cannot truly feel sympathy
11-13 - God asks what are the sacrifices of the people to Him? I think this speaks on the idea of grace. The Lord says He has more incense and burnt offerings than he would ever need. In the same way, we can bring nothing to Him except a willing heart; he provides everything and asks for nothing of the like in return.
15 - God says He will not listen to the prayers of the unclean. This makes me wonder about the sacrament of confession in the Catholic Church and if this would be one scripture quoted in defense of this practice.
16-20 - These verses though make me wonder about the call for good deeds. God makes it clear that helping the oppressed and being obedient are of worth in His sight. Yet he also says that if you are willing and obedient you will eat the best from the land; therefore, life will be easier for the follower of his laws. Or is this saying that they who follow His word, while not necessarily leading an easy life, will live a more fulfilling life? Obviously there are numerous examples throughout the Bible where people lived by God's word, or at least tried, and their lives were anything but easy. And then I ask, is he talking about the individual here anyway? In verse 20 He says those that disobey will be devoured by the sword. Here is He talking about the growth of violence of a period of time, whereby His chosen people were driven out by war? And again we see this return to Genesis and the power of God's word as the Bible says the Lord has spoken in this verse.
21-23 - Here the scriptures speak to me about the state of faith in a person. Although it makes no mark that these people are not forgiven, it does say they are spotted. In application then, we can see that by not following God's word we do not condemn ourselves we just lose in our relationship with our Maker.
25 - It intrigues me that by God turning away from His people He actually removes His impurities from them. Yet I don't think ever removes His love, just when the people have turned away from Him for so long, He will grant them their wish of trying to maintain lives apart from Him.
26 - Here God talks about His installment of the Judges once again. In this we see that the faithful follower is not meant to live as an island. Also we see that certain people are appointed to certain positions, such as those in leadership, which makes me ask what God is calling me to do.
27 - I take great heart in the fact that God says the penitent will be deemed righteous. As long as we step away from ourselves and examine our selfishness we can find hope in forgiveness.
29-31 - When we place our soul in the hands of things of this world, we shall fade, both in the physical sense as we become tired, but also in the sense of our inner passion as everything we do will not be in the service of something eternal.

ch. 2
1-5 - When we read hear about the last days, are we to think of the days before Christ's coming? For here it says that the people will live in peace, which is not generally a shown as a sign of this. Or could this be a message on our last days as those in heaven? Moreover could this be a state of mind for those who have established God's kingdom in their hearts? Thus when they die they erect Him as the most important above all other things in their lives and live trying to make peace with all their demons of the past.
9 - Here it says do not forgive them, but in this he is saying do not turn a blind eye and accept their evil ways as alright.
12-21 - In reading about the wonder of God, but also the terror He can inspire, I am still amazed that He even has anything to do with the human race.
22 - Here I am reminded, as Yancey points out, that I should be taking everything to God. It is only Him that has all I need, not that God doesn't use people in our lives to work on our hearts and to help us find revelation of Him.

ch. 3
2-3 - The fact that God can take away these people from the society points to the fact that it is He who inspires and gives the leaders of a community their talents.
9 - This is a testament to how blind we can be to our own sin. It also reminds me in some ways of our own culture when the verse says that the people parade their sin. Many times people will brag about their sexual conquests or the way their greed has brought them much wealth or that they got out of a sticky situation with a clever lie.
12 - I'm not sure I really like the wording of disbelief or disgrace in saying that women will rule over Israel. Perhaps if you take this in the context of the period, but all in all this phrase rather upsets me.
14-15 - It is only God who has the right to judge. Even the elders and those in power will fall to his hand. One of the most unnerving things to the Lord is the abuse of power, as he asks how those elders and such can spurn the poor.
16-24 - Is this a testament to modesty or vanity as it says the women are haughty and flirt with their eyes? Are women supposed to live without what we consider the finer things? Or does God ask this of all of us? But if he does, what of all the rulers who have lived in splendor that he loved so vehemently? Is it just what is underneath that wealth that matters to him? Or is our physical appearance not also a testament to him, as he asks his people to dress a certain way in the Old Testament?

ch. 4
1 - Is this verse a metaphor for the church and the Lord in that we will flock to the Lord and ask him to take away our disgrace and provide us with eternal food?
ch. 4
2-4 - This continues the metaphor in a way as God says that in the day that the women finally cling to their husband all will be beautiful and holy. When God says he will cleanse all with spirits of judgement and fire, is this meant literally? Or is it describing the intensity with which God will work to save his people? Or the pain that will come in this judgement - "pain before gain"?
5-6 - I have to ask if these elements the Lord speaks of sheltering his people from the elements that pound on us in life? But how can this be when so many who follow Him are living in pain? Or is He speaking of a time when He has erected His final kingdom?

ch. 6
2 - What are the significance of numbers in the Bible? Why does it always go into such specifics?
6-7 - Interesting that the Seraph flies to the man with a hot coal in order to rectify his sin. This reminds me somewhat of the idea of purgatory, that guilt and sin are taken away through some sort of punishment.
9-13 - Why does God want His people to be dumb to everything? Why does He wish for them to be nothing as a people?

ch. 7
10-12 - Why does God ask his servant Ahaz to put Him to the test when Ahaz says he won't put his God to the test?
15-16 - Here it talks about Immanuel and how He will eat curds and honey when he learns how to choose wrong from right. I've never thought of Jesus as ever having to learn this for some reason, more that it was instilled at his birth or something. In this are we supposed to read that Christ suffered with the same issues of conscience as other men? If so, this is somewhat of a comfort to know he worried with this in the same way.

ch. 8
1 - Random question, what is an ordinary pen?
3 - What does Mahal-Shalal-Hash-Baz mean?
7 - Here we hear that God calls his punishment, the Assyrians, the mighty flood waters, which relates back to the first flood and tells us a little about the enormity of this removal from their land.
9-11 - Did God use war, even though He is against killing, as an instrument merely because it was the way of the time? Why couldn't something else be used? Is this a question more of free will and thus God had to play within the bounds of mankind? But then, does this question God as the Almighty, capable of anything? Maybe this is a case of His own restraint and the fact that He could stand to let the people He loves make their own choices, which shows perhaps an even greater power.
12-13 - This speaks to a country that lives in fear and conspiracy and asks us to look for the good in people instead of always expecting them to do something bad to us. Truly the only thing we have to fear is our Lord because He decides our eternal fate.
19-22 - Tells us nothing can give us the answers and truth we're searching for except faith in God, not spirits from the dead nor those who consult them. We shall be famished without His intervention.

ch. 9
1-3 - These few verses have such beauty and hope in them in thinking that even if a whole nation turns from God, He will provide a light for them in the darkness so that they can still find their way to Him.
5 - Is this saying that people who kill will be judged in fire? Or perhaps that every time someone is killed our our passion should be fueled to enact what the Lord asks of us.
15 - Here again we see the pride of the supposed holy men of the time, much as in the days of Jesus. It seems that mankind has not learned from its own history for as long as we have been a people.
17-20 - How can this loving God have no pity on His people? Is it that they choose not to have Him in their lives so He does not help them? But it seems that He doesn't just leave them alone to rot, He actually works against them! Is this for the betterment of all in the end? But what of those who have to suffer in the now, are they martyrs?

Genesis 1-19

CH 1 - reminds me of big bang
When speaks of there being a morning and an evening what part of the world then is God referring to as the sun never fully sets on the earth? Or is He talking about there being an evening and morning concurrently? If so, does this play even more into the idea that there is not the same time for God as us as humans?
pollution
If we are made in God's image and are to govern, should we then govern as He does?
vegetarianism - God gave us "every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it."
In this, God creates man and woman together. Why is the story of Adam and Eve always referred to? History?

CH 2 - interesting how man is made before plant life
Woman was made to complete man for he was not whole without companionship - so why do men sometimes use the fact that women were made from a man's rib to place them in an inferior status, when they could not find peace without a companion

CH 3 - God actually walks among man in this story
Did we have intelligent though before eating of the forbidden fruit?

CH 4 - Why is God not pleased with Cain's offering?
How are all these new generations being produced? With women inside the family?

CH 5 - Did they have a different length for a year, or do the numbers have certain meanings, or are the people metaphors for something else?

CH 6 - Lord feels pain
How was Noah the only one not to be corrupted?
Did noah know every type of animal in the world? Or did God help him know all that he should have on the ship?

CH 7 -What's the difference between a clean and unclean animal?
How did Noah feed and seperate all these animals?
If the ark was as high as the highest mountains, was it hard to breathe?
Did God instruct Noah which animals of their species had the best temperments?

CH 8 - When the Dove didn't return to the ark, did or how did the other dove find it some way?

CH 9 - It's amazes me that God speaks on the sanctity of life even in this first book of the bible, yet humanity seems to take this fact for granted at times.
It talks about Ham being the father of Canaan. Is this where the Canaanites come from?

CH 10 - Where did the slang meaning of Nimrod come from since he was one of Noah's descendants?

CH 11 - Verse 1 says there was now a common language but in chapter 10 it talks about each of the clans having their own language. Did they all just understand the same language?
When God says humans would be capable of anything if we all spoke the same language, is He speaking of bad, good, or both?

CH 12 - Why did the Lord show such favor to Abram? Does God mean all people should like Abram or else they will eb cursed?
What did Abrams wife say to having to become Pharoah's wife? Were she and Abram seperated from each other during their time in Egypt?

CH 13 - Why did Lot acquire wealth? From association with Sarai or Abram?
Is this land that God promises Abram now what Palestinians and Israelis fight over?

CH 14 - If the people of Sodom were sinning greviously against God, why did Abram have any sort of dealing with their king? Merely to recover Lot?
Is this the first example of tithing in the Bible?

CH 15 - Do the ages of the animals and the ritual of cutting and placing them in certain ways have symbolic meanings?
How did knowing his descendants would suffer affect Abram's thoughts toward his family and his faith?

CH 16 - Did Abram not pray for guidance regarding Hagar? Here again we see the same actions as in the Garden of Eden; when man and wife act in their sole interests, evil springs.
How did Hagar's knowing that her son would be a "wild donkey of a man" who would "live in hostility toward all his brothers" (12) console her?

CH 17 - What is God's reasoning in not asking anything of the women concerning this covenant with his people?
Why does God not make His covenant with Ismael? Is it because he was born out of wedlock or that Isaac's birth will be considered a great miracle?

CH 18 - Were the three men God?
We see again the motif of fear of the Lord from earlier in Genesis as Sarah lies and says she did not laugh. I wonder at the tone of God's response to this. Was it reprimanding or merely a statement of calm fact.
In the conversation with Abraham about Sodom, are we to interpret the Lord's downsizing of the righteous people needed to save the city as mercy and love for his creation? Is not one life as important as ten to God? This account makes him seem almost a reluctant car-dealer, haggling for price.

CH 19 - Why would the men of the city want to have sex with the angels? As a show of dominance? And was Lot willing to give up his daughters to show his allegiance to God or what?
Was Zoar also going to be destroyed if Lot had not chosen to flee there?
By turning Lot's wife into a pillar of salt, are we to take some knowledge away about questioning God's plans?
Did the Lot not teach his daughters about God? Why were they so eager to "preserve [their] line" (32) though their father? Was this a practice taken by people of the time or would that audience be just as shocked?