Bible Reading Challenge Blog

We have a repeat accounting of the death of Saul in the previous chapters, and here we have David’s rise to power and taking over the throne. The details that are different with this accounting is that we have the names, all of them, of the warriors who helped David, and how many warriors are from each household who came to be on David’s side. It is clear that the presence of the Lord is with David, he even suggests it as he asks for warriors but tells them that if they do not think that God is on his side, then it is better to not come and help.

We hear again the story of the ark of the covenant that makes its way into Jerusalem, and as it does the carriers get clumsy and one of them touches it and he is truck dead. David is a bit more cautious and later demands that only the Levites are allowed to carry the ark, they understand the holiness of it, and the danger of it.

Psalm 28 is an inspirational Psalm which contains a plea for help and an accounting of joy once the resolution is reached. We see this so often in these Psalms of help or lament. The beginning of the Psalm finds the ask, and the end finds the thank you.

We could dwell on the genealogies that take us through Saul and into David, but we pretty much know what they say. There are some interesting tidbits that we can gather from them: the singers of the choirs in the temple, those who made the temple and prepared that which was to go into it. But for the most part I would love to spend most of my time in Psalm 27. It is probably one of my favorite Psalms and one that I use the most in my ministry. There is a real sense of deliverance and protection in Psalm 27, along with the very real encouragement to “wait on the Lord”. This command, of waiting on the Lord, is probably the most ignored commandment that we face. We struggle to wait, especially in our culture of being told that we can have whatever we want, whenever we want, and however we want it. As the Psalmist says: I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! This is a great way to start your day!

Here we go! So we begin that part of the Bible where if you were reading right through it, then this section becomes quite of a slog because of the names. But I don’t actually mind the genealogies. It reminds me of who went before and the order of things. It is good to be reminded of the ancestors of Abraham, and that after him came Isaac with Ishmael and who came through Ishmael, even though we don’t trace our faith lineage through him. I do hope that you are aware that those who follow Islam trace their religious heritage through Ishmael and not through Isaac. It does us good to see from whence we come, even though it can be understood as a bit of a slog. Don’t get bogged down, enjoy the names and pay attention when you recognize a name and see who surrounds it.

A couple things in Titus that caught my attention. The first were the qualifications of an elder, which when put together one has to ask the question, well then who can serve? No one can fulfill all of the qualifications that are listed there. But it does show how high the bar is raised by Paul in regards to whom he wants serving the church. People within the cities who are well respected and have a way of life which is commendable, can we leave it at that, are those who are called to serve. That sets the bar a little lower, but high enough that those who are serving are considered pillars of the community.

Later in this letter written by Paul, he speaks about our salvation as coming about not because of our works, but rather as a direct result of God’s mercy. This is a key operating theme in our own lives. We have been saved by grace, through God’s mercy, and not because of our own decision or our own works or our own way of life.

The Book of Esther comes to a close with a lot of redundancy. Queen Esther and Mordecai save their people and the Lord establishes the celebration of this salvation as the a day of celebration in perpetuity. It still happens to this day that Jews celebrate Purim on a yearly basis. I have never been but I hear it is quite the celebration and party and Haman is vilified as he should be.

Psalm 15 is a well known Psalm and one that asks the question: who shall (read who is worthy) to enter into the sanctuary of the Lord? It is a roadmap to personal righteousness that leans heavily on moral teaching as the means to righteousness. I would have wished that the more common theme of helping those in need would have been uplifted, but as it is the focus tends to be more on doing the right thing in general.

Who doesn’t love the book of Esther and its lessons that carry throughout the generations? I can’t help but think of how Haman so closely reflects the actions that were taken by Nazi Germany as they tried to carry out the orders that were put out there across the kingdom of the King Ahasuerus. I have always believed that the more we forget history, the more we are condemned to repeat it, especially, if not only, the evil things that have been committed. That is true today as well. We are condemned to repeat the evils of history as individuals, as a nation, even as a church, if we forget how God has called for righteousness to be pursued. We simply do not pursue righteousness, and as a result we will be doomed to make the same mistakes that those who went before us made.

The line that Mordecai tells Esther that is often repeated, “Do not think that in the king’s palace you will escape any more than all the other Jews. ¹⁴ For if you keep silence at such a time as this, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another quarter, but you and your father’s family will perish. Who knows? Perhaps you have come to royal dignity for just such a time as this.” This is a line that we can take and apply to our own lives. We are not able to escape from what is required from us, but God is fully capable of using someone else in our place to carry out God’s plans and purposes.

I would like to highlight Proverbs 11 which walks a fine line between correct theology and the heresy called the prosperity Gospel. There is a clear path, Proverbs tells us, to follow the will of God. I do believe strongly that when we are miserly and only care about our finances, then we will always be wanting of finances, they become the most important thing. When we obey the Lord and tithe, give 10% of our income, then God is faithful and just and will provide so that we will not be in want. I can only write that which I have experienced, and I have experienced the latter. Our whole life we have never made much, even less growing up as a child, and yet God has provided and we have never, ever worried about finances in our life.

The prosperity Gospel is something different. It tells you, wrongly, that God wants His followers to be wealthy. No, that is not the case, in fact Jesus says that it is harder for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to inherit the kingdom of heaven. Why is that? Because the most heinous deed against God is having a false god and riches can easily become the most important thing in our life, or a false god. We only focused on Proverbs because it does reflect the way in which I think about the resources that are gifted to us: “Some give freely, yet grow all the richer; others withhold what is due, and only suffer want. A generous person will be enriched, and one who gives water will get water.” Something to remember.

I was struck by the castigation of Amos against not just all the people of Judah, but specifically those with wealth who were living in Judah and Israel. It was a direct warning on those who had the time and the resources to lounge, to drink wine, to basically be self-indulgent. We don’t often see God give a warning to a specific class of people, even if we do see that he has a special preference for the poor, the widow, and the orphan in all of Scripture. There are then a series of metaphors where Amos intervenes for the people of God, much like Abraham intervenes for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18-19. In both of those cases the judgment of God nevertheless falls and in this case the people of God are exiled to a foreign country.

Obadiah, which is a single chapter, is a series of warning against the nation of Edom which is related to the people of God, but has consistently been their antagonist. In the end, Israel wins. Again, much like the psalms of lament that have the protagonist, usually David, complaining about life being a disaster, there tends to be a resolution at the end which is favorable and God almost always comes to the rescue. This is true here in Obadiah.

Amos is a prophet who really spent his entire career foretelling the doom that was about to take place on a day that most people looked forward to: the Day of the Lord. He reminds folks that the Day of the Lord was not some kind of party that we should be anticipating, but rather a day of judgment and separation and even death and division. We have to wait for a long time in Amos until we get some Scripture that is fairly well known. We see that in chapter 5 when the prophet states: Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an overflowing stream.

Psalm 25 is much more familiar, in fact, we have a VBS song that goes with it, and it is called to you O Lord. Just a reminder that when we turn our back on God, God will pursue us, but that doesn’t eliminate the repercussions of our sin. Sometimes we think that because God pursues us our sin is not that big of a deal, it is.

Each of these contains passages that are super familiar, with the crowning jewel being the entirety of Psalm 23. We see in 22 the Psalm that Jesus quotes when he is on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me.” There is a real irony in understanding the context for Psalm 23. It comes at a time where we feel the most abandoned and the most alone, a time when we need it the most. Even as we cry out to God and ask for His presence in the midst of feeling abandoned, we see that he walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death. 22, which is a lament, ends in the way that we saw yesterday, with a recognition that at the end of the death God is faithful, despite our unfaithfulness, and God will eventually deliver.

A word about Proverbs 9, there is so much truth in these words. Wisdom is portrayed throughout Proverbs almost as a part of the Trinity, meaning the presence of wisdom is often considered the presence of God. The simple truth that those who want to grow and mature will always take direction and guidance, and those who are foolish and will simply never grow try to always do it on their own. Good advice here.