Should people rejoice at the misfortune of others?

Contradictions, ,

No.

Job, the most blameless and upright person on earth, said that if he had ever rejoiced over his enemy’s misfortune or gloated over his enemy’s trouble (which he hadn’t), then he would deserve to have his crops replaced with briers and stinkweed.

David, a man after God’s own heart, wished that everyone who gloated over his distress would be put to shame and confusion.

Solomon, who was wiser than anyone else ever, said that whoever gloats over disaster will not go unpunished. Even if you want to see bad things happen to your enemies, he says you shouldn’t let your heart rejoice and gloat when they stumble and fall, because then God will disapprove of your attitude and will stop doing bad things to your enemies.

God had Ezekiel tell the Ammonites and the Edomites that because they rejoiced when Israel became desolate, God was going to bring other nations to wipe out the Ammonites and make Edom desolate. And God had Obadiah tell the Edomites that they should not gloat or rejoice over the misfortune and destruction of Judah.

Yes.

The Bible says rejoicing over the misfortune of others is what righteous people do. The righteous see the ruin of the wicked and rejoice, and the innocent mock their foes when they are destroyed. David said the righteous would laugh at Doeg when God killed him. And he said the righteous will be glad when they are rewarded by getting to dip their feet in the blood of the wicked.

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The Parable of the Fishermen

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Some fishermen caught a bunch of fish in a lake. Some of the fish weren’t any good, so the fishermen threw them away, and they put the good ones in baskets.

The end.

The moral of the story

If you’re a fish, don’t be a good one. Good fish that get caught have no hope. Only the bad ones have a chance of surviving by being thrown back into the lake.

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Tabernacle plans

The bad book

The tabernacle, according to the Bible, was a sort of temporary makeshift version of a temple, which the Israelites used for a few centuries, before and after settling in the promised land.

Have you ever tried to make sense of the Bible’s descriptions of the tabernacle? I gave it a try, and now I don’t think it’s possible to make sense of it. The Bible does not do a good job of describing the tabernacle. At all.

The tabernacle is also known as the tent of meeting. But it says they also made a tent to go over the tabernacle. So that’s a tent for a tent. Why does a tent need to have a tent over it?

It says the tabernacle has a courtyard. I’m pretty sure a courtyard is an open-air area surrounded by a building. But this “courtyard” is actually way bigger than the tabernacle, with the courtyard surrounding the tabernacle instead of the other way around. Which makes it just a yard, not a courtyard.

There are a bunch of upright frames, each 1.5 cubits by 10 cubits. These seem to be the main thing that forms the main structure of the main part of the tabernacle. The total length of the tabernacle is 20 frames long, and then the shorter rear wall / west side / far end is six frames plus two more frames on the corners. It says those two corner frames “must be double“, but I have no idea what that’s supposed to mean. As a result, I don’t know how wide the tabernacle is supposed to be.

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Were there plants when Adam was created?

Contradictions,

Genesis 1 says God made the land produce vegetation, and so the land produced plants and trees, on the third day. Then God made mankind, and gave them all the plants and trees on earth as a source of food, on the sixth day.

But Genesis 2 says God formed the first man when “no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up“.

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Is anything deprived of the warmth of the sun?

Contradictions

David says the sun runs its course from one end of the heavens to the other, and nothing is deprived of its warmth. And Jesus says God causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good alike.

But Job, who speaks the truth about God, says God speaks to the sun and it does not shine. So everything must be deprived of the warmth of the sun when he does that. And when God speaks to Job later, he says the wicked are denied light.

David, contradicting his own previous claim, acknowledges that a stillborn child never sees the sun. And his son Solomon mentions the same thing.

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The Bible’s questions, answered—part 16: Answers to questions in John

The bad book

The Bible contains a lot of questions, and it doesn’t always provide satisfactory answers. So I’ve been answering some of the Bible’s questions myself. This time, I’m looking at questions from the gospel of John.

Two of John the Baptist’s disciples ask Jesus: Where are you staying? (Jesus’s answer is to take them to see the place where he’s staying.) Alternative biblical answer: He has no place to lay his head. Jesus said so, so it must be true.

Nathanael asks: Can anything good come from Nazareth? Answer: It’s the Silicon Valley of the Arab community.

A Samaritan woman asks Jesus: You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink? Answer: Why not? Do you think he has to be prejudiced just because he’s a Jew? I think you’re projectjudiced.

She asks Jesus: Where can you get this living water? Answer: For all we know, he can’t. The Bible never says Jesus actually permanently cured anyone’s thirst.

The non-Iscariot Judas asks Jesus: Why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world? Answer: Because Jesus hates the world, and doesn’t want to have to save it.

Pilate asks the Jewish religious leaders: What charges are you bringing against this man? Answer: Jewish blasphemy law violations that the Romans can’t prosecute, because they aren’t against the Roman law, so it’s pointless to bring those charges.

Pilate asks: Am I a Jew? Answer: I don’t think so.

He asks: What is truth? Answer: Truth is when what you think or say matches reality.

The Jews’ questions

Nicodemus asks: How can someone be born when they are old? Answer: Who said you have to do it when you’re old?

The Jews ask: How can this man give us his flesh to eat? Answer: Let me see… He could cut off parts of himself for you, or he could give you permission to eat him after he dies,1 or he could just let you eat him alive…

The Jewish religious leaders ask: Where is he? Answer: Jesus is at the festival he said he wasn’t going to go to.

The Jews at the temple ask: How did this man get such learning without having been taught? Answer: He didn’t. Jesus has been learning from religious teachers since he was a boy.

The Jews ask Jesus: Who is trying to kill you? Answer: The leaders are trying to kill him. The common people, who Jesus just accused of trying to kill him, are not.

Some of the people of Jerusalem ask: Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill? Answer: Yes.

And they ask: Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah? Answer: No.

The Pharisees ask: Have any of the rulers or any of the Pharisees believed in him? (Their self answer: No!) Real answer: Yes.

The teachers of the law and Pharisees ask Jesus: In the Law, Moses commanded us to stone adulterous women. Now what do you say? Answer: Jesus says rules that he made up, that are incompatible with God’s Law.

The Jews ask: Will he kill himself? Is that why he says, “Where I go, you cannot come”? Answer: I didn’t know Jews were immortal.

Some Jews ask Jesus: Aren’t we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed? Answer: No, he’s not a Samaritan.

And they ask him: Who do you think you are? Answer: He thinks he’s the son of God.2

Some Pharisees ask: How can a sinner perform such signs? Answer: According to God, false prophets can do miracles too. And it sounds like God even helps them do their miracles, for sinful purposes.

Many Jews who hear Jesus talking ask: He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him? Answer: To hear for yourself how crazy he is.

Other Jews disagree, and ask: Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? Answer: Demons can perform signs, so I don’t see why not.

After Lazarus dies, some Jews ask: Couldn’t he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying? Answer: Jesus could have kept him from dying if he wanted to, but he chose not to, just because he wanted to get to show off.

Before Passover, many Jews ask: Isn’t he coming to the festival at all? Answer: Yes.

An official asks Jesus: Is this the way you answer the high priest? Answer: Yes, the way Jesus answered the high priest is the way Jesus answers the high priest.

Jesus’s questions

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How many wives did Jacob have?

Contradictions, , ,

Jacob wanted to marry Laban’s daughter Rachel, but Laban tricked him into marrying Rachel’s sister Leah instead. Then Laban let him marry Rachel too.

Later, it says Rachel gave Jacob her servant Bilhah as a wife. And then Leah gave him her servant Zilpah as a wife. So Jacob had four wives.

But after that, it says Jacob was traveling with “his two wives” and “his two female servants”. Since when does he only have two wives?

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The Parable of the Two Sisters

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There were two sisters named Oholah and Oholibah, who were prostitutes. A man married both of them, even though he thought their prostitution was disgusting. Then the man got all the women’s lovers to come and murder them and their children after cutting off their noses and ears.3

The end.

The moral of the story

Don’t marry someone who hates you.

Interpretation

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