Mar4:
Interesting that the Eagle is on the detestible bird list (along with the vulture, several owls, and the bat). How would you feel if you were on God's "detestible list"?

In the midst of these diatery regulations, it's challenging to see this as a sign of "holiness". Yet the Lord consistently says, "Don't defile yourself with these animals but be holy as I am holy." It's so foreign for me to think that eating these things (which I don't) would make me 'unholy'. Hmmm....

Mar5:
Now I'm all about discipline but this is rough > "If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and his mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, his father ... shall take hold of him ... then all the men of his town shall stone him to death. You must purge eveil from among you." Deut. 21.18-21 I wonder if they actually obeyed this law or not - if there was a time that Israel actually followed it?

"Deut. 20:4 - For the Lord you God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory." That's so encouraging. I think that because we've been defeated in the past, we often think the Lord is absent from our battles. Couldn't be further from the truth.

There's an interesting distinction between cities that Israel will conquer far from them verse the cities/nations of the Holy Land - the Promised Land. Cities far away should be offered peace, and then pummle them if they say no. Cities that are a part of God's inheritance - there will be no negotiations and no survivors. It's like God knows that we can handle daily, repetitive tempation to sin. He says, if you don't purge those cities, those people will show you how to worship their gods, etc. God knows our weaknesses and tried to set this up to avoid the traps that would come.

Mar6:
This reading is interesting. If you obey me, life will be good. If you don't obey me, life will stink. If you continue to disobey me, life will really stink. If you continue to disabey me, life will reek and you'll wish you were dead. But if you repent, I'll remember my covenant with Jacob, Isaac and Abraham and we'll be good again. Hmm....