Jezebel, Light, etc.

Day 11 of the 6-week Bible-Reading Challenge. So far have not missed a day and have progressed to finish 1 Kings and into 2 Kings. Jezebel was an awful woman. Often when I hear that name I think of the Bette Davis movie, where the worst thing I can remember her doing is attending a ball in a red dress instead of the white dresses of the other debutantes (she may have done more, but I don't recall--the film was in black and white too, so the whole red dress thing is conveyed through dialogue). The Jezebel of 1 Kings is much more evil than that, pulling off all sorts of trickery so that her husband Ahab (the King) can have poor (and subsequently killed) Naboth's vineyard to put in a garden, not to mention her pursuit of Elijah.

Reading in Matthew bogs down during the Sermon on the Mount and subsequent lessons, where one wants to go real slow. The most striking passage for me so far (in addition to the Beatitudes, natch) is the passage on salt and not keeping your light hidden. The footnote in my Life Application translation includes in hiding one's light such things as keeping silent when you should speak and other things. I have done this quite often--not risking my neck to voice my opinion--and can stand to meditate on this passage a bit and incorporate more into my life.

Proverbs continue apace.....

Work is crazy--I have added to my "flying monkeys" metaphor the image of "juggling flaming cats on bowling balls". I will say more about what the Bible reading has done to this and other life aspects in another post.