40 Years and 54 pages in the desert with Moses (Exodus)

Just for fun. Moses parting the red sea. Courtesy of Godview Earth (LOL). Actually found this on http://alfg.wordpress.com/2007/12/21/bible-scenes-via-satellite-as-seen-from-google-earth/moses-parting-the-red-sea/



Enough Shenanigans. I would like to start with a piece I only have now come to appreciate while reading The Bible.

        The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
        It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
        Crushed. Why do men then now not reck
           his rod?
       Generations have trod, have trod;
           And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared, with
                  toil;
           And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell:
                 the soil
        Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

       And for all this nature is never spent;
                 There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
       And though the last lights off the black West went
                  Oh, morning at the brown brink eastward,
                        springs-
       Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
                   World broods with warm breast and with ah!
                         bright wings.
        -1918 (written 1877) Gerard Manley Hopkins

I read this about a year ago and upon reading Exodus (specifically about moses and his convo with god) all I could think of, "Why do men then now not reck his rod."The image of the rod turning to a snake and back again is powerful. I just love how moses says they won't believe me, and God tells him to through down his rod and it turns to a snake, and then back again. You do get this feeling that if Pharaoh doesn't believe him then that should do the trick (which it doesn't). Only the plagues will suffice. Very interesting content in terms of Literature. It is a story of the noble quest.

Two things that I wanted to discuss quickly then I am done. First, typically when I read aloud I read slower than I do when I read to myself. This however is not the case in terms of the bible. The when I read the bible to myself I find myself getting lost, skimming, and lacking comprehension. Now when I read the bible out aloud I find that my pace is quicker, I comprehend more, and it is general kind of fun because who doesn't like speaking Biblicley. Secondly recently my girlfriend was listening (from the kitchen) intrigued. Periodically she will remark, "That is in the Bible?" Neither of us has ever been religious, or the church going type so this is the most Bible exposure we have ever had. When I was reading about moses in Exodus she also said something that cracked me up, "It is like that Disney movie Prince of Egypt." Funny because now I have to watch it in terms of comparison. I am beginning to see that the Bible is the epitome of intertextuality. It is everywhere. Hell I am pretty sure that some of the words used as names/titles for places have become descriptive words in our modern language (e.g. Sodom which is now used as sodomy/sodomize/etc...). If anyone can relate to what I am saying please let me know what examples you find.

"And god said to Abraham, Kill me a son."
               Johnny Cash