MInTheGap

Kind of a mixed bag today.

Last night’s reading covered
the section in Numbers where the king of the Midianites tries to get
Balaam to curse the children of Israel.  One wonders what relationship
Balaam has with God in that God would bless/curse people through him,
and speak to him the way he does.  On first glance, I would think that
Balaam was one of those Gentiles that knew God.  The commentary in my
Bible implies that he is not, and so I would have to do some study to
come to a decision on that one…

Regardless, it’s nice to
see that Balaam cannot curse the Israelites.  In fact, he can only
bless them.  However, and this is not obvious in this passage for it is
told later on, Balaam does give some advice to the king.  He tells the
king to have his people intermarry with the Israelites, for their
downfall would be start following after another god, in which case the
Lord would attack Israel.

I find this instructive to us in
our lives.  Surely, having a good wife was not a bad thing, but when
they married wives that were not Israelites, they were taken down a
path to destruction.  What things do we have in our lives that may not
be bad in and of themselves, but tend to lead us into wrong things?

I find I have to mention Terri Schaivo and her case down in Florida. 
Can someone explain to me why her “husband” is seeking to have her tube
pulled out?  I mean, there’s a lot of logical problems here:

• He obviously isn’t concerned about the moral problem of divorce, since he’s living with another woman with whom he has children.
• He wouldn’t need to be burdened with caring for his wife, since her parents have volunteered to do it.
• Yet he’s spending a lot of money trying to terminate his wife’s life.

I can only see a few reasons:

• Somehow
  he thinks that if he divorces his wife, he won’t get all the settlement
  money he won when she got into this condition and he pleaded for the
  moeny because that would be what it would take to keep her alive!
• Someone
  behind the scenes is forcing the issue because they want approval for
  right to die legislation (something akin to Roe v. Wade, where they
  found someone so they could try to make a case).
• This man is a egomainiac who can’t stand that he lost.

None of these seem to make a good case for why this woman’s life (or
horrifying death) is hanging in the balance.  I pray that some sense is
introduced in that court, and that logic and mercy prevail.

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