In today's reading, when a brother does not marry his deceased brother's wife, one of the consequences is that his line shall be known as "the family of the unsandaled." Does anyone know why that was particularly dreadful or unbearable to be called that? Because it doesn't seem like much of an insult to me since I wear flip flops allll the time! ha.
Thanks. love youguys. =)
Sunday, March 1, 2009
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5 comments:
I would say, "cool, keep both of them", lol. They are only 3 bucks each at old navy. =) Then again, Old Navy doesn't exist in the old testament times. Well, "old" is in the bible and "navy" is a color of blue...
haha that’s cute PT :)
I thought the description was funny when I read it in chrono. Anyway, I googled this :)... because of the incident in Dec 2008 with George W. Bush while he was in the Middle East (a journalist threw a shoe at him), there is some information online regarding the Middle East custom associated with feet and shoes…
Specifically, feet and shoes have deep cultural meaning in the Middle East that goes back centuries. Feet and shoes are considered dirty. The Times of India wrote that Arab societies have cultural prejudices against the foot because it is the lowest (and thus dirtiest) part of the body, and shoes are considered impure. It is a great insult to show ones feet to another person and the ultimate shame to strike a person with a shoe.
Even the author of one of the Psalm uses the description “toss my sandal” to show contempt towards Edom: “Moab is my washbasin, upon Edom I toss my sandal; over Philistia I shout in triumph.“ Psalm 60:8
Good question Lisa. Thanks for the scholarly research Tera. Yeah I don't know what's so bad about being 'unsandaled,' but you can see how important family was back then and maybe is to God. What's the average children to family in america these days? 2? Maybe that's few. How big were their families back then. If the brother had to give his brother's wife a son at least, how long would that take? What if they had 3 girls? Keep going? Being spit on in the face and then hit by a sandal is pretty intense. It's a selfish thing for the brother not to do this for her. At least that's how God looks at it.
Yeah. Family is important according to this. Women had no means of support in their youth or old age outside of family ties to men in that time period. The story of Ruth and Naomi is extremely important as an example of faith in God because they had to survive without the traditional support of male family for a brief period. Yet it was in God's great plan that she have a Kinsman Redeemer to bring them back into the supporting environment of a family of believers. I love God's plan to place us in families of love and respect His way instead of the Fallen way. Hopefully, people will find their way to the family of God by allowing him to lead in times of stress or through life's circumstances as Ruth and Naomi did.
thank you for everyones response!
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