PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2025-2026

We find Joshua commanded by God to do things that in our modern day sensibilities just might offend us. He was commanded to invade lands and to destroy all things within the cities except for the livestock and the plunder. So all men, women, and children were to be killed. There is one city in our reading where we see that 36,000 people are killed by the sword. One of you just might say, enough is enough, you made your point. But the point is that as we see even in our reading, the worship of other gods was so prevalent that the Israelites had a hard time turning away from that temptation. The entire family of the Israelite who buried the treasure and the gods of a foreign land was destroyed because it could be considered a cancer among them. If the people were allowed to live who worshipped other gods then without a doubt they would have influenced the Israelites even more to worship other gods. Does it bother me, of course it does, but it also makes sense. For us today it means to get rid of anything in our lives that would drive us towards that which takes us away from God.

In Acts we see the first martyr of Jesus’ sake after Jesus dies. Stephen is stoned to death because he tells the history of the people of God, the new people of God. As a result he is stoned to death. We see some of my favorite stories in the Bible in this reading. The conversion of the Ethiopian eunuch is powerful because God is presented to him on his own terms and he asks the question: what is to prevent me from being baptized. We see the conversion of Saul to Paul as he makes his way to Damascus and the ensuing confusion by the disciples because they remember him as being scary and one that you could not trust. But then he becomes the one who plants the churches and writes the theology of the church. You see, God is able to use anyone, even, or especially, those who at one time opposed him.

In our Joshua Scripture the writer works hard to establish Joshua as the rightful ruler and someone who was just as powerful as Moses and even as powerful as the other patriarchs that went before him. Here, he is told to circumcise all of the people of Israel, just like what Abraham was commanded to do. You see as they wandered in the wilderness and babies were being born they were not circumcised, which had to be done eventually. That eventually was now. They cross over into the promised land through the Jordan, with the feet of the priests in the Jordan so that it stopped flowing. This was just like Moses. They conquer Jericho without any trouble at all with the wall of Jericho tumbling down, which was uniquely Joshua. At some point we read that the people of Israel considered Joshua with awe, much like they did Moses who met with God face to face.

In Acts we can’t avoid the fact that the earliest disciples and the earliest church lived so differently than we did. Not one of them owned anything, but together, they owned everything. This was so crucial to how the church grew. We also see the important choosing of the deacons as they went out and did the work of the Lord of waiting on tables for the needy which was so different from the work that the apostles did which was preaching the Gospel to anyone who might hear. This preaching of the Gospel was forbidden by the religious leaders, but they kept doing it and we see the church grow and grow.

We find ourselves at the beginning of two really great sections of Scripture. Over and over again we find Joshua being encouraged not only by the Lord, but also by the people who surround him, to be strong and courageous as he takes over for Moses. We find ourselves with the relative of Jesus, Rahab, who harbors fugitives who will eventually utterly destroy the city in which she finds herself. But it is truly a survival of the fittest as we read that the people of Jericho know what is coming and that they are no match for the Israelite force, so Rahab simply pairs up with the strongest. Not a whole lot of thought is given to the fact that the two spies spent the night with a prostitute, that seems just to be matter of fact.

We then transition to the birthday of the church where we find the Holy Spirit being gifted to the church as they are gathered in Jerusalem. You do notice that none of the disciples waste any time when they have an opportunity to evangelize and to tell people about Jesus. It is what drives them and what motivates them when they are either healing a lame person in the temple or when they are explaining what just happened with the tongues of fire and the many different languages that the fishermen were able to speak.

We can’t keep going without drawing attention to Acts 2:43-47 where we find the earliest description of the first church that gathered after Jesus ascended into heaven. They had everything in common, they spent all time together, they were of one mind. What an image to emulate and to remind us that this is possible.

It is best to begin this post by drawing our attention to Psalm 1. We find here laid out for us the way in which we ought to live, pursuing righteousness as opposed to evil, and then when we live that way there is a blessing that seems to come as a result. I can’t help but read this Psalm and think about Moses whose life ends in our reading in Deuteronomy today. He blesses the tribes individually and then we see him able to look out at the land that the Lord has promised to His people. As the Scripture states, there was no other person like Moses who walked upon the earth since, someone who saw God face to face. That still rings true today.

Deuteronomy moves into the area of reaffirming the covenant that God had made with Moses throughout this whole journey from Egypt to the promised land. The emphasis is on the disobedience of the people of God and how that disobedience, if it carries on, will serve the purpose of nullifying the covenant that God has made with His people. Moses reminds them of their disobedience for the simple fact that if they were this ornery with him how much more evil will they be once he has died. Apparently this is something that only Joshua will have to worry about because he is the one who will be succeeding Moses. But it bear repeating the Moses gathered all of the tribes of Israel and all of the leaders and reminded them of the covenant that was currently in place with God. It is not to be forgotten.

In Mark we find the crucifixion and the resurrection of Jesus. But if you look carefully at chapter 16 you will see that there are a few different versions. We call one the short version and the other the long version. The problem with the short version is that it does not contain the resurrection. The problem with the long version is that it is not as prevalent in older manuscripts as the shorter version. We know that Jesus was raised from the dead. When he is raised it is interesting to see how many witnesses saw him but the disciples would not believe until he actually appeared to them. It reminds me of the Israelites and how much God had to do in order to bring them to obedience, but even that was a losing battle

The Deuteronomy Scriptures contain a sort of ying and yang of what happens when you obey: you are blessed, and what happens when you disobey: you are cursed. You see the same result of both, but the opposites. Your enemies will flee from you seven different ways when you approach them one way if you obey the commandments. Or, you will flee seven different ways from your enemy when they approach you one way. The insistence of God that His people obey him never wavers in Scripture. This is a truth that we seem to have forgotten thinking that morality is relative to the individual or to the situation. No, there are mandates in Scripture that we obey God in all things and that obedience, or disobedience, has serious implications that impact and affect the rest of the life of the individual, the body, and the world. We see that in the story of the people of God, both good and bad.

In the Gospel we find ourselves in the most intense portion of Mark, and the chapters that are the longest as well. We see Jesus with his disciples on the last day of his life as he shares with them the last supper, as they head out to Gethsemane and as Peter denies him three times before the cock crows twice. The innocence of Jesus is undisputed, but also his willingness to go to the slaughter like a lamb without protest and without a fight. He clearly could have changed his station if he wanted, but he chose not to change it. This is a message for all of us who might want to change our station following a way that is clearly disobeying Scripture, but we must choose not to change it. The two Scriptures a linked by this. The obedience that Christ shows leads to the redemption of humanity, Ephesians talks about this. The obedience that we are to show will have an impact that we cannot predict, but it will be an impact that demonstrates the power and the faithfulness of God. Just obey.

The timing of Mark and Jesus entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and then going into the temple and checking things out, but because it was late, he leaves and heads out and then the next day he clears the temple, is very different from the other Gospels. In fact, one detail that Mark has, and he was not a detailed person, is that “He would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.” That’s pretty severe and a detail that none of the others contains. He was that assiduous about the temple and its purity. Something to remember.

We continue along our journey with Deuteronomy. This section identifies are number of housekeeping responsibilities that those governing Israel had to think about. It lays out the religious festivals and reminds the people of God that they are the people of God. It also lays out the protocol in conquering the lands that the Lord has given to Israel to inhabit. Interestingly, if they come across a nation that is not willing to cede to them but it is not part of the land that is given to Israel, they are to conquer the land but spare the women and children and the livestock, not the men. But if it is part of the land that they are going to inherit, it is a handful of nations that are mentioned that fall in this category, then they are not to spare anything when they conquer that nation: not children, not women, but fruit trees you can spare. Seems harsh, but necessary.

The reason given for this harshness is that the author states that if you keep those alive, then they will over time convince you to worship the gods that they worshipped and the people of Israel will fall away from worship YHWH. Sure enough, over time we see this happening, but at least here on paper there is a strategy to prevent this from happening. Kill everyone.

Again, when you have these many chapters that you are making your way through on a daily basis it is hard to focus on something specific. I was curious about the promise that one day there will be one single place where to worship the Lord. Remember, this is crucial for the people of Israel and it translates into the temple in Jerusalem, as that place that is forecasted. This Scripture speaks of the house of the Lord, the place where the Lord resides, which is such a different concept from that of Jesus being in our midst no matter where we may find ourselves. This allows for churches all over the globe in worship with God in a way that is worthy and acceptable in the presence of God. There is no single place where God resides and where God has to be worshipped. God is present in all places and with all of us but it is in community where we find the fullness of God.

Mark describes the transfiguration, where Jesus and his clothes are changed to sparkling and dazzling white. We then find Jesus, and this is a curious verse, in 9:30 that he did not want anyone to know where he was because he was: “teaching his disciples.” He wanted some time to be able to teach his disciples and spend time with them. The topic of the day was his death and resurrection. Not really something they wanted to talk about.

We begin the Old Testament reading with probably the most subsequential reading in the Old Testament with chapter 6. This beginning section of this chapter is called the Shema because it is a command that has been passed down from generation to generation to remember all that the Lord has done. Hear O Israel, is in Shema Israele, the command for the people of God to remember what God has done for them and what God expects and requires of them today, right here and now. The subsequent chapters are reminders of the works of the Lord so that as we move forward in our faith journey we reminded of all that God has done for us.

In Mark we have the second feeding of the crowd, this time it is 4,000 instead of the 5,000 from the previous reading. We also have Jesus being lifted up as the Messiah and reminding his disciples that he will have to be sacrificed and hung on a cross in order for his work to have any efficacy at all. Peter chastises Jesus and Jesus calls him Satan and reminds his disciples that we are not to focus on our future as the world focuses on its future, trying to amass as much as possible and be as safe as possible. Safety is relative to a life lived in the arms of God, which isn’t always safe.