PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2025-2026

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.

Whew, that was a lot. It is chapter after chapter of the prophet telling Israel what will happen to them because they have been unfaithful to the Lord. It is completely focused on Israel and doesn’t include any of the other nations around it, but just Israel. Israel has “played the whore”, which means it has been unfaithful to God. As a result, God will not only turn his back on Israel, but he will actively bring upon Israel the type of destruction and future that no one would ever want. This will last some time.

But just like a Psalm of lament, that destruction will not last forever. The last chapter is what we expect in a lament, the promise of restoration and the hint of some type of faithfulness of Israel. God will forgive Israel, isn’t this what the coming Messiah is all about? The presence of God, God with us, in a way that provide grace and forgiveness. Yes, it comes, but after a long and torturous road.

We get to a Scripture where God asks one of his prophets to be an object lesson. Hosea is called to marry a woman who is unfaithful and to remain married to her. We see this in chapter 1, but we also see in chapter 3 that not only is he to remain married to her, even in the midst of her unfaithfulness, but he is not to have any intimate relations with her until a time that will be disclosed later. I hadn’t noticed that part of this book of the Bible before, but this is fairly extreme, all in order to show the extremes to which Israel and Judah have been unfaithful to God.

That is the point of object lessons, isn’t it, to show us how we are that which God has asked to show through story or through an object lesson. That is the point of parables, that is the point of miracles and healings. They are all signs to either show the glory and faithfulness of God, or the wretchedness and sin of the people of God. He is able to do both here. Hosea remains faithful even in the face of abject depravity by his wife. And Israel/Judah continue to play the field in the face of that clear faithfulness. So it is with us and God.

These prophets have two very different messages to two very different people. Nahum is actually speaking out against the enemies of Israel letting them know that their days are numbered. Normally we see the prophets speaking to the people of God, but here they are speaking to the enemies of the people of God. They do not have good things and there are promises of restoration after the exile and the downfall of those nations that took advantage of Israel’s status as an exiled nation.

Habakkuk, on the other hand, is the prophet who is basically complaining to God about how God does not seem to respond to the people of God in their time of highest need. He complains and then in chapter 2 he says he is just going to wait until God responds to him. Well, God does respond and like in so many other places, Job, Jonah, Isaiah, God asks Habakkuk who exactly he is to challenge or question God’s ways? That elicits both a recognition of God’s Providence by the prophet, but also a request, that God’s vengeance would happen during his lifetime. That is a bit of a strange request, but also one with which we can identify. Don’t we also want our prayers to be answered in our lifetime?

Who doesn’t love the Jonah and the whale story? But there is so much more to it than just that scene. Jonah runs from God because he is asked to bring the Gospel to a country who in his mind doesn’t deserve it. So he runs away and the boat on which he escapes and the people on that boat, bear the brunt of his disobedience. We don’t sin in a vacuum, people around us are affected even, or especially, if they are innocent and unaware.

He is thrown out of a boat, a whale/fish comes and swallows him up and spews him out on dry land. He goes to Nineveh and does what he is supposed to do and the people of Nineveh do what they are supposed to do: repent. It infuriates Jonah who goes out of the city to sulk and hopefully watch it get destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah style. None of that happens, and God teaches him a lesson that God is in control. He has the right to change his mind. So many great lessons for all of us.

Haggai is told by God to tell the people that it is now time to rebuild the temple. There is a direct correlation between the misfortune that the people of Israel are suffering and their disobedience and unfaithfulness to God. If they are more faithful and show that by rebuilding the temple, then their ability to grow and prosper will also change. There is a fine line between prosperity Gospel and believing that God will take care of us. The latter is healthy, the former is heresy.

We see a few passages in Joel that are used habitually, especially the 2:28-29 on the day of Pentecost where the Holy Spirit is promised to all people. We also have a reversal of Isaiah 2:4 where instead of beating swords into plowshares you are taking in Joel 3:10 the plowshares and beating them into swords. The crux of the matter is that often we hear people waiting for and expecting and anticipating and looking forward to the Day of the Lord. But here Joel says that it is a terrible day, not one which we ought to long for, but rather one that we ought to fast and pray and hope that we are able to make it through it. A solemn fast is called to ensure that we do not get caught up in our own desires and wishes, but rather that God’s plans are realized.

And so the people of God, as the people of God who were governed by God’s emissaries, cease to exist. Judah is conquered by Babylon and taken into captivity, and the story ends. We now have to wait until Jesus comes back to pick the story back up, as far as the people of God are concerned, their time as a nation ends with their slavery to another nation. Today is an anomaly in the history of the people of Israel. The fact that there is a nation that is run autonomously is not the norm for the people of Israel. The history for the people of God is one of hardship, slavery, non-nation, and really nomadic living. I wonder which of the kings would God say is the current one living like: the ones who followed the Lord, or the ones that moved the people away from God.

As we move into other books of the Bible that depict stories that are similar, some even identical, to the ones that we read, it is important to note that we do not live in a context that is at all similar to that which Israel lived. We cannot claim to be a nation that God has established and that is seeking to pursue His purposes. We are a secular nation created by people in a format of government that is strictly secular. Whether God wants that or not is beside the point. The point is that we are not the people of God so what our task is, is to live our lives according to the principles of the Messiah, Jesus, who commands that we follow the laws of righteousness, even if it means that it could potentially go against the best interest of the country in which we find ourselves. Our primary loyalty has to be to God.