Picturepocket's Blog

Tag: culture

  • Two Loves

    Two Loves

    Did I rewatch all the Hunger Games movies over the last two weeks? Yes.  Again, seeing the character arcs as an older adult gives some additional perspective. Now let’s talk romance. Gale is objectively hotter and smarter than Peeta but, ultimately Katniss rejects him. Here’s why. In the beginning, Gale and Katniss have a genuine…

  • Genesis 40: Grape & Grain

    Genesis 40: Grape & Grain

    Joseph has now been in prison for a while. What’s a while? Five weeks? Five months? Something happens in the palace and Pharaoh angrily tosses two of his inner circle into prison: his chief baker and royal cup bearer. Did someone in the palace get food poisoning? The head of the prisoners, assigns Joseph to…

  • Today’s Hunger Games

    Netflix is showing all the Hunger Games movies in anticipation of the second prequel come out in theaters. I first read the Suzanne Collins’s series as a young adult, so of course, I imagined myself as one of the main characters, i.e. Katniss. Now, as a mom folding laundry, I am rewatching them from the…

  • Genesis 39: Twice Betrayed, Twice Blessed

    The story shifts from the wilderness to Egypt. Joseph, who is sold by his brothers to traders, is again sold to Potiphar, a captain in Pharaoh’s guard. Joseph serves Potiphar faithfully, and the Lord blessed him with favor. Potiphar recognized Joseph’s success and puts him over everything in his household.  Things go swimmingly until Potiphar’s…

  • Genesis 38: Breaking Dawn

    Genesis 38: Breaking Dawn

    In case you’re under the impression that the Old Testament is shy about human sexuality, here is a rated R story that is fully cancelable by modern standards. Leah’s fourth son, Judah had three sons with Shua, a Canaanite, who named them Er, Onan and Shelah. A young woman named Tamar is married the eldest…

  • Genesis 37: Dream a Little Dream

    Genesis 37: Dream a Little Dream

    The focus of the narrative now shifts from Israel, formally known as Jacob, to his eleventh son Joseph while the family is living as shepherds and farmers in Hebron.  Joseph is seventeen in this story. His oldest half-brother, Ruben, is about ten years older than Joseph and is one of Leah’s six sons. There were…

  • The Undeserving Poor

    The Undeserving Poor

    I remember when I was 26 years old and and working retail. I volunteered a couple hours a week at a soup kitchen in a church basement. You could work in the kitchen or sit out in the tabled area with the youth that were served. Either way, I remember the leader telling us that…

  • Genesis 36: Everybody’s Kids

    Genesis 36: Everybody’s Kids

    In Genesis 35:23-26 there is a summary of all the male children from Israel organized by mother starting with the sisters. Leah had Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. Rachel had Joseph and Benjamin. The servant Bilhah had Dan and Naphtali, and Zilpha had Gad and Asher for a total of twelve sons.  Genesis…

  • Genesis 35: Return & Rebellion 

    Genesis 35: Return & Rebellion 

    God calls Jacob to visit the place he first met him in the desert when he ran from Esau. Decades earlier Jacob dreamt of a ladder with angels and made an altar at a place he called Bethel. Jacob tells his family to bathe and leave their foreign gods behind. They hide their idols and…

  • Genesis 34: Dinah

    Genesis 34: Dinah

    If you remember at this time, Jacob/Israel had twelve children: eleven sons and one daughter from Leah named Dinah. A son of Hamor, a Hivite named Shechem, saw her, assaulted her and kidnapped her. He went to his father and asked him to make her his wife.  Jacob and his sons heard that she had…