I love readingthe OT.. I am reading a version I have never read before. The 1599 GenevaBible, it is the version that the Pilgrims brought over on the Mayflower. It predates the KJV by a few years and is similar but what I really enjoy is the notes added by some of the "reformers"... of course they are pretty hard on the "papists" as they call them but all things considered the notes are really thoughtful and thought provoking.
Have you noticed that Elisha asked for a "double portion" of Elijah's annointing and that Elisha performed twice as many miracles? That is one of those cool little things about the Scripture record... IIRC, his last miracle was after his death when some people tossed a body into a tomb where the bones of Elisha were and when the body touched the bones of the prophet, he came back to life!! I bet stuff like that in real life is really disconcerting... I mean, to read about it sounds wonderful but I bet if you or I were one of the guys who tossed the body into the grave and hte guy came climbing out... we would be shook up a little... or a lot, laff.
Another thing that has always been really cool to me is in the book of Job. Job lost everything... he lost all his barns, all his stock, all his wealth, all his children... everything, but notice in the beginning of the book of Job and in the last of the book of Job there are two things that are tied together. In the beginning ot tells about how Job sacrificed every day for the sins of his children, lest they be lost. It implies that Job was concerned with the way they were living, as most parents are concerned with the way their children live... the young have always been prone to wander.
Anyway... they were all killed.
Fast forward to the end of the book of Job. God said that Job received everything back double... but notice that he only got the same number of children. That implies that God honored Job's sacrifice's for his children and that God saved them and only needed to give him the same number of children for them to be doubled, for the first children were alive with God. All the other stuff was doubled back to him and he, it is implied, had double the children, half on earth and half in Heaven.
Julien
