Friday, June 5, 2009

29 Silver Pans

So I'm not saying that every piece of the Bible is not important, but sometimes I wonder about the things included in it. I read the book of Ezra yesterday, and though there were some really awesome parts (my favorite being Ezra's prayer in chapter 9) there are some parts I just don't understand how they have any relevancy to me today. I suppose the names and numbers of exiles would have been important to the Jews reading the Scripture as they would identify with their family bloodline that left captivity - but what am I suppose to pull from that? The inventory of the supplies that Cyrus gave back to the Israelites - is it really critical to know that there were 410 matching silver bowls? Or even later on knowing that Eliashib decendent of Bani was guilty of intermarriage? My point is not to mock Scripture or say it is not critical - I am seeking out what we as people today are suppose to do when coming across passages of Scripture that describe names, numbers, and statistics that don't seem to have any point today. Maybe it just adds the "filler detail" to show the precise nature of Scripture. I'm not really sure. It certainly doesn't hurt the overall impact or importance of God's Word, I guess I just wish I knew what God wanted me to learn from the 29 Silver Pans...

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