For God's Sake

So, another blog post. Chapter 17 was nice. It was easy to understand, and I liked it. I never knew that God obligated boys to be circumcised. Something else that I didn't know was that God said: "Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham; for a father of many nations have I made thee (Gen. 17)."

Something I still don't understand is why Abraham doesn't want to have kids, and thinks he is too old at 99, when in other Bible stories people are up to 600 years old. Are the stories from different time periods or different sources?

In Chapter 19, there is a line that reminded me of a scene in Metamorphosis. I'm not sure if it is said in the same way, because I didn't really understand the story. It's this: "But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt (Gen. 19)" Something that I did understand and didn't like was how the girls lied with their father.

Chapter 20 was nice also. The main characters did bad things, and that spices up the Bible a little. Abraham is important, but I don't understand why God is so fond of him. And personally, I wouldn't like to be God's favorite if in exchange I had to do everything he asked for and follow extra rules.

Although many Catholics and Christians mock the old stories about polytheism and the gods, they might not realize that some of the stories in the Bible look a lot like them. They have the same rhythm and remind me of each other.

Abraham does everything he is asked for, and I don't understand why. I don't think he is getting anything actually good in exchange. "And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him (Gen. 22)." In chapter 22, I finally started to see a difference between LORD God and God, and how they seem to not like each other. Still, I don't get it, and I don't understand who is the real God, or if just both are.

I know that possibly there are people who are 127 years old right now, but in the time the Bible was written it was impossible to reach that age sane. Sarah died "healthy" at that age, and for me it is not very believable.

This is the story that I have liked the most in the Bible. I don't really know how it fits the story, or if it has a lesson or not, but it kept me interested all the time and it was easy to understand. Anyways, the repetition of the story by the servant before eating was unnecessary. They could have just said "and so he told them his story" and get over it.

Overall, I liked these chapters more than the past seven.