Skipping goats

Every Sunday in church, one of my normal tasks is welcoming people to church and reading our psalm for the day. Last sunday we read psalm 114 from the Contemporary English Version which said

The mountains and the hills skipped around like goats

and I mentioned that I had a problem with that. As a small farm owner who has raised goats and lamb, I haven't seen a goat skip. Now the lambs I'm willing to say they have skipped. The young lambs bounce all over the place but a goat--whether old or young--I have not seen one skip. I talked about how I looked the verse up in another version the King James Version which said

The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs

which I prefer. I can work with lambs and rams skipping, just not goats!

Anyway, it started a series of conversations. I've had people tell me that they think goats skip just fine. I got the feeling that their thought was

the bible says it so it is so, no need to ask

and I appreciate that position, but I don't think it is that simple. In the Jewish tradition, questions are good. Questions are more than good, they are expected. A good question is praised and an excellent part of being a student or follower. We read in the scriptures when Jesus was a boy in the temple in Luke 2 that A

fter three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.

Here we see a story of Jesus in the temple asking questions as is the tradition and normal at the time. As I have thought this through since Sunday, I've come to the conclusion that asking questions of the text is a very important principle and shows respect. Not questioning just to be obstinate, but actually trying to internalize the point being made and asking questions of that is important.

I know as a teaching pastor at church, it is my goal each time I teach that people will go home and look into what we discussed on their own to see if it is correct. Just because some preacher said something doesn't make it true. We are to look into these things ourselves and make them our own. This is more than just walking out of church and bringing up an argument, but rather going home, researching a point ourselves, finding what we really believe about something and then continuing the conversation. Realize it takes hours and hours to put a message together so that it is presented as clearly and truthfully as it can, and if somebody spends time at home with a point that bothered them to continue the conversation, that would be welcomed!

So there's my continued take on skipping goats!