Gospel of Luke 6-10 Jesus is Elijah Spelled Sideways

Luke 6-10

More of the same from Jesus.

Did anyone (as in actual scholars) consider that Jesus, who most surely knew of Elijah the Prophet was just mimicking his act?
Healing, making zombies, exorcisms, multiplying the number of things in a container...  This stuff isn't unique to The Son of Man.

8:10 And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.

Sounds like Jesus doesn't want people to know what he's talking about.  Or does he consider his followers to dim to follow what he's really trying to say?

8:33 Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked.

Jesus kills a herd of pig, destroying the livelihood of the pigs owners.  Pretty thoughtless act for the Son of God. But then, Jesus was responsible for many LESS killings than his dad!

Also, I have to admit that when I read about people being possessed by demons I find it hard to take these stories seriously.

Along the same lines of believability, Jesus talks with two fictional characters from stories in the Old Testament;

9:29 And as he prayed, the fashion of his countenance was altered, and his raiment was white and glistering.

9:30 And, behold, there talked with him two men, which were Moses and Elias:

9:31 Who appeared in glory, and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. One of my favorite bits from That Mitchell and Webb Look; 9:52 And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. 10:1 After these things the LORD appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and two before his face into every city and place, whither he himself would come. I'm surprised Jesus had this many people in his service. He commands them to live humbly and only take what is offered to them for their service.  I again ask, Why do modern Christian preachers dress in expensive suits and have 'Mega-churches"?  Why does the  Catholic Church revel in ornate material objects and wear expensive clothes and jewelry? Tom gave an explanation here but it didn't satisfy my question. 10:21 In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight. Why is Jesus happy that intelligent people haven't received the word of god, but those with minds of a child have?  I get why the wise and prudent wouldn't listen to him but for Jesus to be happy that some folks did not receive the word seems rather odd, petty and counter-productive on his part.

As an aside, I get a kick out of the Zemanta add-on that helps you with research for your blog.  It will sometimes recommend an earlier blog post of mine as a reference!  Proof that you must be very careful about what to trust on the internet!

2 Kings 1-5 The Revenging!

2 Kings 1-5

The above is a New English Translation version.  If the King James version is making you weep blood, try the more user friendly translation.  I'm forced to stick with the toe-crappity KJV.

Anyway, on to the second book of Kings.

When we last checked in with out hapless kings, they were alternating between worshipping and pissing off the LORD.  I'm guessing that the second book will be exactly the same thing.

Ahaziah, the king of the Moabs falls thru his roof garden (?) and gets hurt.  So, he consults a prophet, but from the wrong god.  He then tries to meet with Elijah and the prophet of the LORD kills over one hundred men because their king consulted with the prophets of Baalzebub first.  The king also dies.

BTW, Beelzebubba is a great album by the Dead Milkmen and everyone should buy it.

Elijah goes up to Heaven in a whirlwind.  Why?  Will he come back?  Very Jesus like.

Elisha is freaked out but carries on his friends work.

2:23 gives us one of those great, bizarre head scratching passages that can only be found in the Bible.

Here is a great reenactment of the event.

The Moabs cause trouble again and the splintered tribes of Israel go to battle once more, but only after Elisha has God water there cattle.

The LORD commands another scorched earth policy, telling the Israelites to kill everyone and everything.  They leave without killing everyone after the king offers his son as a burnt offering.  I'm guessing that, again, God will not be happy with only a partial massacre.

We return to the adventures of Elisha and find him performing acts that Jesus will later add to his own bag o' tricks..

The bottomless vessel of oil, raising the dead and curing leprosy.  Elisha could alos make rotten stew yummy again.

I'm going to try and add more links and videos to these posts.  This monotonous stuff is killing my spirit so I need to juice it up.

1 Kings 15-20 Confusion and then Elijah

1 Kings 15-20

Asa, Baasha, Abijam, Benhadad Nadab, Ahab.
Chapters 15-16 confused the hell out of me.  I could barely keep track of who was king, who was doing evil (basically all of them), and who was smiting who.
I like the part where the LORD likes Asa even though he didn't do everything he could to please the LORD.  It's like he was just emotionally exhausted by the actions of the people and just said "Ah, whatever.  Good enough."

But then we get to Elijah, the prophet, one of the biblical characters that is revered by all three of the Abrahamic religions.
Elijah seems to be a mouth piece for God, almost like God just didn't want to deal with humans anymore.
Can you blame him?

Elijah gets fed by birds, he raises a kid from the dead and kind of just wanders around.
We get a "battle of the gods" competition and Baal fails to show.  the LORD gets a little showy when it's his turn to front.
Elijah then has the competition wiped out but then fears for his own life when he's the last prophet standing.

We finish with Elijah finding Elisha plowing a field with 12 oxen (get the symbolism?) Elisha immediately leaves his job, pausing only to say goodbye to his parents and slaughtering the oxen (a foreshadowing of future events?).

Since we're talking about Elijah, I need to link to this SNL Sketch with Jerry Seinfeld.  One of my favorites.