Table of Contents

This could serve as a "table of contents" for my "book."  Here is the overview of all those people in the Bible who needed to have their head examined.  This is the raw material that God had to work with in order to create the masterpiece of history -- both the Bible and the grand sweep of the human story.
    I already mentioned the original sibling rivalry; then there was Noah's sons, Abraham and Sarah (and Hagar), and Abraham and Lot (I wrote it wrong last time -- not brothers but uncle and nephew), and Jacob (Isaac's son) "and two women," and Esau; Joseph, the 2nd youngest of the twelve sons of Israel (formerly Jacob).  
    Telling the short list to my friends last night (early December -- sorry I haven't written more sooner!), one mentioned Laban.  Jacob -- the name means "he deceives" -- first tricked Esau, then ran to his uncle, part of the story is what Rich Mullins sang about.

Now Jacob got two women and a whole house full of kids
And he schemed his way back to the promised land
And he finds it's one thing to win 'em
And it's another to keep 'em content
When he knows that he is only just one man

But Laban played Jacob, too.  It's hard for me to feel sorry for either one.
    Then there's King David (as I've already written).  Quite a few of the kings, even the good kings, had issues...
    There must be a separate category for Hosea, whom God told to go marry a prostitute; then, when she went back to "the trade," God called told him to go buy her back.  (Even if you don't read the whole book -- and it's short! -- go read the first four chapters!)
But what do you do with Isaiah, whom God made mute for a time?  There must be another chapter for the strange stories -- Ezekiel in the valley of the dry bones, and the Spirit of God picked up a prophet by the hair, or was it more than once? and the angel told two men to eat books (scrolls), and some of the dreams were just weird: pharoah dreaming of seven famine starved cows coming out of the Nile and eating seven fat cows!!
    Then, back to the wackos, the twelve disciples of Jesus: the sons of thunder, John and Peter and a tax-collector and a zealot (think IRS agent, but worse* and a Tea Party activist, but worse*).  And the story of Paul and John-Mark, which I'm sure has other explanations, but seems off and wrong, and I wonder how many more I can find.


What do you think?  Do you have a nomination for the oddest behavior in the Bible? or the strangest 'character'?
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