DISCLAIMER - Today is the first of ten days where some people, including myself, are going to try and read through the whole Bible where we hit the 'highlights' in a sense. The first five days are scheduled below. This is just a post so we can have a discussion group on the comments section.
To begin with, here is a general invitation to anyone who would like to join us at anytime, describing what we are trying to do.
Hi everybody. I have wanted to do this for quite sometime and thought today was a better day then ever to start. I have never read the Bible all of the way before, but am dieing to read it through to understand the arching story of the Bible better. To begin the journey, I am planning to go through the Bible first by hitting the 'highlights' I suppose, in 10 days. The plan is below. This I feel can give me at least a very general sense of the story line. I would be more inclined to actually do this if people actually did it with me. The more the better. I hope this can jump start a fire to burn in us for what's in that book. The very act in itself of course will not do it, but stepping out is the first thing, at times, to do before the Spirit takes a hold of you. 10 days to wet our appetites for a life time in the scriptures and a life desiring God... only by His help. only at the point in which He decides... Feel free to join the discussion that will start today in the comments section.
I think this section in John is relevant as we start in Genesis today:
John 5:39-47 - 39 “You search the Scriptures because you think they give you eternal life. But the Scriptures point to me! 40 Yet you refuse to come to me to receive this life. 41 “Your approval means nothing to me, 42 because I know you don’t have God’s love within you. 43 For I have come to you in my Father’s name, and you have rejected me. Yet if others come in their own name, you gladly welcome them. 44 No wonder you can’t believe! For you gladly honor each other, but you don’t care about the honor that comes from the one who alone is God.e]">[e] 45 “Yet it isn’t I who will accuse you before the Father. Moses will accuse you! Yes, Moses, in whom you put your hopes. 46 If you really believed Moses, you would believe me, because he wrote about me. 47 But since you don’t believe what he wrote, how will you believe what I say?”
and this one in James because reading the Bible does not allow us to just check off our God box for the week, as we read I pray that God will inflame us with what he has in store for us in our actual lives...
James 2:21-24
21 Don’t you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? 22 You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete. 23 And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.”g]">[g] He was even called the friend of God.h]">[h] 24 So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone.
THE SCHEDULE
Day 1 - Today, October 5
Genesis 1-3, 12, 15, 22
Exodus 1-5
Exodus 12-14, 20
Leviticus 1, 10, 16, 25
Numbers 3-4, 6, 11-14
Deuteronomy 5-8, 28-31, 34
Day 2 - Tuesday, October 6
Joshua 1-6, 23-24
Judges 1-4, 13-16
Ruth 1-4
1 Samuel 7-10, 12
1 Samuel 15-20, 28, 31
2 Samuel 5-8, 11-13, 15, 18
Day 3 - Wednesday, October 7
1 Kings 3, 6-12
1 Kings 17-19, 21
2 Kings 1-2, 6-7, 11-122
Kings 17-23
1 Chronicles 15-17, 21-22, 28-29
2 Chronicles 5-10, 14-16
2 Chronicles 24-26, 29-35
Day 4 - Thursday, October 8
Ezra 3, 6-7
Nehemiah 1-2, 4, 6
Esther 1-4
Job 1-3, 38-41
Psalms 1, 8, 19, 23
Psalms 51, 100, 103, 139
Day 5 - Friday, October 9
Proverbs 1-3
Ecclesiastes 1-5, 12 and Songs 1-2
Isaiah 1-2, 6, 40, 52-55
Jeremiah 1-5 and Lamentations 3
Ezekiel 1-3, 18, 33
About Me
- Scott
- Oakland, California, United States
- I like making music and bands to play that music; I like sports teams from San Francisco; I am substitute teaching in the Oakland Public School District and I hope I will get a job as a teacher someday; I have a wife who is beautiful, smart and compassionate; I have this blog to wrestle with, make sense of, and heartfully worship Jesus who was foretold about in Isaiah 53.
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7 comments:
Possible discussion starters??
1. Tim Keller on Genesis 15 (go to the last 7-8 minutes of the sermon)
http://download.redeemer.com/rpcsermons/tragedy/Praying_Our_Fears.mp3
2. Tim Keller on Genesis 1 and 2
http://download.redeemer.com/rpcsermons/QandA/How_do_Genesis_1_and_Genesis_2_relate.mp3
3. John Piper on "If You Believed Moses, You Would Believe Me", in particularly his look through how the book of John describes Jesus as fulfilling much of the Old Testament
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2009/4261_If_You_Believed_Moses_You_Would_Believe_Me/
and this... I promise this is the last one until my real comments:
“Jesus is the true and better Adam who passed the test in the Garden and whose obedience is imputed to us. Jesus is the true and better Abel who, though innocently slain, has blood now that cries out not for our condemnation but for our acquittal. Jesus is the true and better Abraham who answered the call of God to leave all the comfortable and familiar and go out into the void not knowing whither he went to create a new people of God. Jesus is the true and better Isaac who was not just offered up by his father on the mount, but was truly sacrificed for us. And when God said to Abraham, ‘Now I know you love me because you did not withhold your son, your only son whom you love from me’ now we can look at God taking His Son up the mountain and sacrificing Him and say, ‘Now we know that You love us because You did not withhold Your Son, Your only Son whom You love from us’. Jesus is the true and better Jacob who wrestled and took the blow of justice we deserved so we like Jacob only receive the wounds of grace to wake us up and discipline us. Jesus is the true and better Joseph who at the right hand of the king forgives those who betrayed and sold him and uses his new power to save them. Jesus is the true and better Moses who stands in the gap between the people and the Lord and who mediates a new covenant. Jesus is the true and better rod of Moses who struck with the rod of God’s justice and now gives us water in the desert. Jesus is the true and better Job, the truly innocent Sufferer who then intercedes for and saves His stupid friends. Jesus is the true and better David whose victory becomes his people’s victory though they never lifted a stone to accomplish it themselves. Jesus is the true and better Esther who didn’t just risk losing an earthly palace but lost the ultimate and heavenly one, who didn’t just risk His life but gave His life to save His people. Jesus is the true and better Jonah who was cast out into the storm so we could be brought in. Jesus is the real rock of Moses… He’s the real passover Lamb… innocent, perfect, helpless, slain so the Angel of Death will pass over us. He’s the true Temple, the true Prophet, the true Priest, the true King, the true Sacrifice, the true Lamb, the true Light, the true Bread…”
- Tim Keller
Wow! That was a lot of reading. I barely stayed a wake through Numbers (typical... it seems like that book always has the reputation of being mega-boring), but actually just loved Deuteronomy... Incredibly weighty...
For the sake brevity and my own endurance in this little project (and I am assuming yours as well) here are just a few thoughts and some questions about what we just read:
awesome/important parts -
1) the point of Genesis 1 - God created. He is the our creator. There are implications/things that are so with this relationship. If i were to say paint, and critics from around the world declared it to be the greatest painting ever, I would still have ownership of the painting because it is mine, I created it... could the establishment of the relationship that was naturally the it should be and was be behind the meaning of the Tree of Good and Evil in Genesis 2?
2) Genesis 2:23
"At last!" the man explained
3) The point in gen 3:7 seems so suddle and unimportant when reading it, but it is the moment where the natural world turns chaotic, where it starts crying out to God in pain (Romans 8:20)
4) Gen 3:17-19
the point being that we will try and cultivate, but we WILL be UNSUCCESSFUL until He reconciles all things back to Himself. Back to how they were intended to be... and even though Adam and Eve rebelled God continues to provide (3:21)
5) That is just incredible that Abram caves the first time that things get tough (in Gen 12). It is so great though that he honestly is just such a scoundrel in this scene... all of it so God's glory is shown to be that much brighter.
6) If you guys have time, listen to the last 7-8 minutes of kellers sermon (i put it as the first item above, in my first comment). It just makes Gen 15 INCREDIBLE!
7) My eyes started getting glossy in Exodus. It is just such a familiar story.
8)I love though how at the end of ex. 2 it says taht God is finally going to act and even though the very atoms in this world are at His command, He decides to act through us. through people. He could have brought the end of the israelite slavery much sooner, but God decides to act through people. I just think thats great!
confusing/hard/need clarifying parts -
1. Genesis 2:24 says verse 23 explains why men and woman marry - unite. I don't think I am understanding the full implications of that all.
2. I don't know what to do with Gen 3:16. That is hard to sit with.
.... to be continued (I have to go run an errand!)
awesome/important parts -
(1) Moses is almost as pathetic here in in ex. 4 as Abram was in gen. 12. I love it! God is so cool! His greatness is shown more fully because He works through this murdering pansy.
(2) By the end of Ex. 5 Moses fully knows that no human intervention will sway the Pharoah... so that is exactly where God steps in. His timing is incredible. He steps in here so we can see more fully who He is and how great He really is.
(3) Why are the first human sons spared in Ex. 13? There is no answer given... I believe it is because even then God is looking towards the sacrifice of His first son.
(4) Starting at the passages of where God is saying that HE will harden Pharoah's heart, I saw more and more language declaring that He is behind more than we think in the world. Hard, persecution may be supported by the Devil, but nothing ever happens without it being within sovreign eternal purpose of God. There understanding has made my faith so much more real and relevant these days.
(5) The 10 Commandments are more than the seem on the surface because of Jesus' clarifying teaching later. Instead of seeing these as a to do list, we need to see them as speaking to our very hearts.
(6) These sacrifices that God demanded from the Israelites were brutal! We must remember that it is not as though these were magic acts that made our sin vanish. There was more to it... i think a point of it is not less than this: that we were to see the severity of what sin truly is. It is hard to see that in the world. Maybe our eyes were being opened to the bloodshed on the spiritual realm.
(7) I am finding more and more that the Bible is at least about the display of God's glory. I don't see no other more common purpose that moves God to act within the Bible.
... trust me let me just skip Numbers, my brain just turned off during it...
(8) Jesus sums up the Law by Deut. 6:4-6. I love it!
(9) My heart is turned on when I read of God's angst/longing for His people (ex. Deut. 5:29)
(10) Duet. 7:7-9 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. It says so much about the love God has for His people
(11) I am reading how much incentive there really was to follow the Law here. If it was possible it would seem to me that someone would have done it... hence, "no one is righteous, not even one" (i think that is in psalms and paul quotes it). not until jesus. and only in Him does the Father see us as righteous and all of these blessings will be restored to His people on the last day (Rev 21).
(12) Deut. 8:2-6 - great part. reminds of 1 peter has his writing on trial in life
(13) 2 passeges that are burning a hole in me are Deut 28:45-48 and 30:6. God speaks of the destruction on those who WILL refuse to listen, but it is those very same people "the hungry, thirsty, naked" that He identifies as Himself in Matt. 25. It are those that He comes down to identify with on the cross.... and 30:6 - HE WILL CHANGE YOUR HEART. So that you WILL love Him with ALL OF YOUR HEART....
confusing/hard/need clarifying parts -
(1) Jesus is crucified on Passover, right? That would make Ex. 12 all the more meaningful. Whatever the case may be, Jesus is the ultimate fullfillment of that sacrifice. Our scapegoat and our sacrifice.
ok.... it is 1240. i got to go to bed. Love you guys. don't worry if you dont get to this today. it sure was a lot. i know i am tired. see ya!
i just reread that part when i was talking about brevity... i am so funny! good night internet. good night me. Good night you good God you!
By the way I read Number 1-2 by mistake and I enjoyed it a lot more than 3-4. It seemed like there was more of a backstory in 1 and 2 than in 3 and 4.
by the way, peter has a cool post about this reading section in the genesis 1 post which is just before this post for anyone else coming along and wanting to comment.
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