Tolkien and the Bible

After about seven years of trying to finish, I am 50 pages away from conquering "The Fellowship of the Ring". Oh yeah.....

I'm finding a new joy that I never found in it when I was 15 though. I never tried to track with Tolkien with the map on the cover. I never made sure I knew who everyone was that he would talk about (or at least 75% of them). He speaks with authority about a world no one has ever heard about and I was trying to read it like the life story of Cary Grant. Now that I have some grasp on things he mentions and goes into great depth on, I'm really enjoying it...and can't wait to finish.

This morning when I read about the "great and noble Osnapper" in Ezra, I couldn't help but see the comparison of the Bible and "The Lord of the Rings"(...besides the insane amount of parallels we could go on for hours about anyway). The Bible mentions thousands of names in genealogies, thousands of places (usually mentioned with which direction to go to get there), hundreds of rulers, and thousands of instruments. It is astonishing to me that the people that are bored by these "petty" details could say that the Bible is made up by man.

Here's what I've been thinking...

The God who wanted us to remember the Israelites crossing the Red Sea on dry ground also found it important to write down all the places they stopped in the desert, the stuff they ate, the way they belly-ached (haha). He wrote about David slaying Goliath but He also included how he slept with Bath-Sheba and killed Uzziah.

If it was only amazing, mind-blowing miracles written in the Word, then maybe it was made up by a prophet. If the leaders never did any wrong, then it was probably dictated by the King. If the people were constantly repressed and harassed by the king, it probably was the work of a few up and coming unionizers.

But it's a compilation...a full picture....taken from the One who sees it all. A glorious painting of history as a whole with the theme of Jesus Christ in every verse.

rainy days

I can get kinda depressed from the overcast weather up in this area. I don't like the rain but when it's just overcast, I feel down. I wish I wasn't so superficial but it really does affect my mood.

Anyway, I teach the wednesday night kid's class and we're going through Abraham's life right now. "And he believed in the Lord, and He accounted it to him for righteousness." I'm trying to figure out how to bring a life of faith to a kid's understanding and as I was driving on an overcast day I thought about how the sun is still shining above those awful clouds. it hasn't abandoned us entirely for the long winter ahead. it's still there, it's only hidden a little bit and it will come out to visit every once in a while....like today, thank God.

In the same way, we can look at Abraham's life in chapter 14 and see how he went through a drought and then threw his wife to the wolves pretty much in Egypt. God seems hidden. but He is still there. and He will fulfill His promises.

"Come, and let us return to the Lord; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight. Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, like the latter and former rain to the earth." Hosea 6:1-3

For myself in Humboldt I think Him coming like the sunshine would be more comforting....but it's cool :)