Author Archives: Clark Bunch

Satur-deja Vu

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If you are unfamiliar with the Holy Nope, it’s basically Pastor Austin Keeler calling out foolishness on social media. I mean, he produces TikTok, YouTube Shorts and FB Reels that usually feature a short clip of someone on social offering up heresy or acting foolish in church. He uses comedy to draw attention to the fact the he is very serious about identifying the truth of scripture. He is pretty harsh on charismatics, women pastors and he is a hard line Calvinist. Which brings me to April Fools Day.

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Read the Bible: Genesis 35

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Rachel is going to have a second son, giving Jacob a total of 12, but dies in child birth. Isaac also dies at the end of this chapter but he was 180 years old; he lived to see Jacob return and be reconciled to his older brother Esau.

Genesis 35

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Read the Bible: Genesis 34

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Sometimes to make stories from the Bible suitable for Children’s Church or Veggie Tales videos, the details get a little bit sanitized. There are no coloring pages or VBS skits for Genesis chapter 34. This is certainly not the most shocking or the most violent chapter we will read but you do want to brace yourself, it’s not exactly safe for work either. Maybe read the first few verses before you start the player.

Genesis 34

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Read the Bible: Genesis 33

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This is a short chapter and gives me a chance to offer some commentary about slavery in the ancient world and the difficulty of translating Hebrew.

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Read the Bible: Genesis 32

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After 20 years, Jacob finally breaks ties with Laban. But to return home he still has to deal with an older brother who possibly still wants to kill him, and was the reason he left in the first place. Then he wrestles with an angel and claims to have seen the face of God. There is never a dull moment with this guy.

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Read the Bible: Genesis 31

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Jacob finally gathers all he has and flees from Laban in order to return to the land of Canaan. There is a verse in this chapter that is often quoted but maybe it does not exactly mean what a lot people think it means.

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Read the Bible: Genesis 30

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When people say they don’t read the Bible because it’s boring, I can tell they have in fact not read the Bible. There are portions that are a little dry but the book of Genesis is not among them. If the stuff from chapter 30 happened on a modern daytime soap, the audience might find it hard to suspend their disbelief. But of course this is real. In the words of Jack Palance, the truth is stranger than fiction.

Genesis 30

When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister and said to Jacob “Give me children, or I will die.”

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Read the Bible: Genesis 29

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Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are great men of the Old Testament, renowned for their faith but sometimes questionable in other aspects. They lived in a different time, in another culture, and remember this is before the Law was given to God’s people. Abraham lied, on two separate occasions, about his wife being his sister; Isaac later did the same thing with one of the same kings. Jacob stole his older brother’s birthright and later his father’s blessing. And now it’s Jacob’s turn to be on the receiving end of some deception. This is just the beginning of the drama for Jacob.

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Satur-deja Vu

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We continue to make tweaks to the Read the Bible series of posts. By the time we finish Genesis, I hope we have the design elements of the posts, the quality of the audio – maybe find a good place to record – everything just right. We started Happy Monday in 2012 and that took a little while to find itself. Here is the latest post, Genesis 28, and I think we’ve just about got it. If anyone comes along later and starts at Genesis 1, that will be a fun trip.

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