Bible Reading Challenge Blog

I love the story of Queen Esther. If you have not seen the Veggie Tales rendition of it, I highly recommed it. You can find it here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyMpbGYR-0A

It is this story that is celebrated in the festival of Purim. I have not attended the festival of Purim but apparently it is quite an event. Mordecai as the real villan is lambasted and the children take part fully in the festival. It reminds me a bit, just a little bit, of the Rocky Horror Picture Show, where people get fully engaged and involved in the movie. Again, not something that I have been to, but I have heard about it.

There is no stronger line in all of Esther than Mordecai’s words where he tells her: Maybe for such a time as this… This should be our theme in all times of our lives. Maybe it is for such a time as this that the Lord has chosen us, has asked us to serve Him in whatever capacity that he might want us to serve. If we keep that thougth before us, that the Lord has chosen us to serve Him in such a time as this, then there is no limit to what we can do in his name.

There is a pervading thought that the day of the Lord, judgment day, is one that many look forward to and are wanting to come quickly. Zephania gives us another perspectice on judgment day. While Paul speaks about a trumpet sounding and all of us being raised up with God, which is a celebration, Zephania speaks of the Day of the Lord as a terrible day in that judgment just may not be what we expect it to be. We need to be really careful in not taking our faith in God for granted. Our approach to God has to be one of reverence and awe and not one of entitlement and casualness otherwise the surprise on judgment day will not be a good one.

Proverbs once again matches in each verse what is going to happen to those who are righteous and offsets that with what is going to happen to those who are wicked. I was struck by these verses, 24-25, which, without going into the prosperity Gospel, tells us pretty clearly what happens when we tithe, which is that God meets our need. When we don’t we find ourselves often in need. It is counterintuitive, but it is how God works.

The baseline for the first two Scriptures, Amos and Obadiah, is continual prophecies against the nations of Israel and Juday because of their unfaithfulness by following other gods. This should be a theme that you have heard before because it is so recurring. Judah has disobeyed God and so has been destroyed. But be sure that you don’t laugh at Judah, oh northern kingdom of Israel, because you are also going to be destroyed. Interestingly historically it is Israel that is taken off into exile and then Judah.

Proverbs also provides the basic teaching that if you do what the Lord requires He will provide you with blessings. But if you disobey then you will experience of life which is a repercussion for your disobedience. Now, we know that this isn’t always true, but there is a certain wisdom that is imparted which mentions that a wise and hard working son brings pleasure to the father and lazy son brings ruin to a mother. Yeah, that’s the truth.

As I was reading along I was thinking to myself, so when exactly did Amos live? Stacy said it was sometime around Isaiah and I thought, so when did Isaiah live? I realized that the years and the kings and what was happening in the life of Israel and Judah was probably more fuzzy to me than it should be. So I looked it up and found this. This is a chart of the prophets who were in both Israel and Judah. We read as a beginning in the prophet Amos that he lived during the reigns of both Uzziah of Judah and of Jeroboam of Israel.

He speaks out not only against the two kingdoms, but also against those countries surrounding the two kingdoms. If you look at chapter 5 it is the one that is used most often in social justice circles, especially vs. 24. But really the entire chapter is a scolding against Israel that it has overlooked and even trampled upon the needs of the poor and the destitute and only looked after the amassing of wealth. It is a good lesson to all of us today.

We are very familiar with Psalm 23 and there is a temptation to jump right there. But our readings purposefully build us up to Psalm 23 with the introduction of Psalm 22. This first Psalm gives us some insight into the mindset of David. He is calling for deliverance, he is calling for help amidst a certain life situation which is overwhelming and potentially sure destruction. But we see a lean in Psalm 22 to deliverance, and then the complete deliverance in Psalm 23. The assurance that God is the one who will protect and keep even in the midst of times of trial.

Psalm 24 takes us to the temple where we can offer sacrifices and sing praises to the God who does deliver. As a result we are called from deliverance to reliance upon wisdom, Proverbs 9, for all of our ways. It is one thing to be delivered, it is one thing to offer sacrifices and give thanks for our deliverance, but now we need to make sure that we don’t find ourselves right back to where we were calling out for deliverance. Only wisdom can do that, only wisdom given from God can keep us for good out of trouble. Wisdom is a good thing after which we ought to strive.

While we don’t hear again about the command of God for the prophet to marry an unfaithful woman, we do continue to see the unfaithfulness of both Israel and Judah. Israel is certainly emphasized, but Judah is also mentioned. We read a number of time the image of a lion who roars and devours. The Narnia series continue to stay with me every since I read them as a child. The mention of a lion can’t help but stir up good old memories of me where God was certainly seen as powerful, not necessarily safe, but completely good.

Like Psalms of lament this book of the Bible does end with a promise of forgiveness and restoration. It took a while, thirteen chapters, to get to this place, but we do see that the people of God will not only come back to God but also come back to the land that God had established for them. I found that as I read through this book of the Bible I was a bit out of breath. So much destruction for the people of God because of their unfaithfulness. It is deserved, but still disturbing. We see more than once images of pregnant women and children being dashed against the rock. I guess we can only take so much of that.

It is unusual to have a prophet that speaks against both Isreal and Judah. If you notice both of these nations, because at this point this is where they are at, nations, have turned against the Lord. Hosea is a bit of a rated R book of the Bible, but we must cover it. The first two chapters describe God commanding his prophet to marry someone who is incredibly unfaithful. I don’t like the word prostitute because the real victim in that case is actually the prostitute herself who is in today’s day and age probably trafficked to become a prostitute. Very few women choose to be prostitutes in this day and age, so this is not what this speak to. This speak to a woman who chooses to be unfaithful. Hosea is told to marry someone like that, whom you know that no matter what she will look for and find other men to lie with even though she is married.

What I feel the most sorry for are the children who are produced as a result of this marriage. They are given terrible names that represent the unfaithfulness of this marriage and their mother. Now, granted, at the end of the chapter 2 things do start to turn around, but still, their whole life they have been going through a bit of an identity crisis with the names that they have been given. Remember, this is a clear metaphor, though, on how unfaithful the people of God have been, both Judah and Israel, and how they have chosen other gods to follow in spite of the faithfulness of God. God remains faithful, we do not. That’s the theme which applies to us today as well. God is faithful, we are not.

We go back into time here with Moses and Aaron once again. They have just left Egypt and God commands that a census be taken of the people. He also commands that things be done decently and in order so that we know who is marching where and when. This is key in the whole picture of Israel and understanding that there was a real pecking order in regards to who was where. We also have the Levites who were set apart to serve God through the priestly responsibilities. That means that they were assigned to Aaron. I’ll speak more about Habakkuk tomorrow as we get there.

Well, I read that wrong. Instead of Numbers, which I read incorrectly, it should be Nahum. Let’s talk a minute about Nahum. It is an oracle from the prophet against Ninneveh, and it is really strongly worded. There are simply three chapters of condemnation against the Ninnevites, who were Assyrians, and so sworn enemies of the Israelite. It must have been very gratifying for an Israelite to hear this prophecy which contains only words of destrusction for those who are bitter rivals and enemies of yours. This does come to pass.

This is fairly easy reading. It allows us to fall into the reading as a spectator, but not too far lest we assume that we already know what is going to happen. Jonah is one of those stories where we assume we know it, only to find that he was swallowed up in a whale in order to go preach repentance. They repent, we know this part already. But then what we might forget is the attitude of Jonah because God saved the Ninevites. He is angry! It would have been better if you had killed me than to make me the prophet in history who saved the Ninevites. The people of God hated the Ninevites because they were cruel and a sworn enemy. Can you imagine a Jewish person who single handedly saves the Palestinians who are seeking harm againt Israel today in Gaza? How would he be viewed. This is a similar reality. I don’t want to be known in history as the one who saved these terrorists, take my life, it is better this way. God scolds him and saves the Ninevites.

Haggai is the command the encouragement to build the temple. God says basically that when you build the temple your prosperity will change. You are now struggling because you live in your own houses but the house of the Lord has been destroyed and you aren’t doing anything about it. Rebuild the temple was the command under King Zerubbabel from Judah, which we saw in Kings.