An update

So I'm almost through I Kings in the 90 day challenge and though it has definitely been a challenge I have learned and gained so much!  I have missed two days so far--made one up, then missed today so we'll see if I make up the time or if I can really finish in 90.  Eep!  I have learned that I really struggle to get this done if I don't do it first thing after I get up in the morning, and somehow my days seem even more full now that I'm not working--crazy!

I think that the most helpful thing for me has been that in reading in such quick succession I am able to really pick up on consistencies, patterns, cause/effect situations, etc...  In studying Israel and really all of the Old Testament figures I am overwhelmed at God's patience with His people and His true compassion & love for them.  I mean, you always hear about God's love for you, but reading about how He would punish them yet still hear them and forgive when they cried out to Him.  I love this in Judges 10:10-16. In the first 5 verses you see how Isreal has forsaken the Lord for false gods and are being punished.  Then in verse 16 "...they put away the foreign gods from among them, and served the Lord; and He could bear the misery of Israel no longer" (NASB, emphasis added).  How special is that?  That even when we turn away over and over and over, God loves us enough that it hurts Him to see us in misery--even over our own sin!

Another encouraging aspect of this study has been in seeing how God chooses and loves imperfect people.  Yes, there are consequences to sin (Moses not going into the promised land, David not getting to build the temple & losing his first son with Bathsheeba), but this is exactly the places where you see Romans 8:28 lived out!  I thought that it was especially intersting that God fulfilled his covenant with David (II Sam. 7:8-17) initially through Soloman--a child who was born to David & Bathsheeba!  He would not have existed without David's sin, yet the Lord used his lineage. 

Praise the Lord for His forgiveness, His graciousness, and His love!!!

Done with Deuteronomy, and an "AHA!" moment

I just finished Deuteronomy and the fifteenth day of "the challenge" and with that, am now finished with the books of Moses and the Law--the "boring" "irrelevant" stuff as most Christians view it at this point.  My goal in going through these has been to read them in the light of 2 Tim. 3:16-17 "All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work" (NASB).  I think I did fairly well at this, though definitely did not apply it to every single verse and passage--some of those Laws wore me out!  And I could not focus on the genealogies or lists of where Israel had traveled or the things like that. 

I had to mentally work through some of the topics as well, and my mind just does not comprehend a lot of it.  One of the biggest struggles for me has been looking at the person of Moses.  As I discussed earlier, Moses does a lot of whining and questioning God.  In Numbers 11: 10-15 we see another chunk of that "Why have you been so hard on your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all this people on me?...Where am I going to get meat to give all this people?...So if You are going to deal this way with me, please kill me at once..." yet in 12:8 God states (of Moses) "With him I speak mouth to mouth, even openly, and not in dark sayings, and he beholds the form of the Lord..." (and then He punishes Miriam & Aaron for speaking against Moses)  I mean, that is some serious praise from God, even when Moses seems so whiny!
But then...in Numbers 20:8-13 at the waters of Meribah, God commands Moses to speak to a rock for it to bring forth water to feed the people, and instead he strikes it with his staff.  The water comes out to nourish the people, but God's immediate response is "Because you have not believed Me to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them" (v. 12).  So after what seems like a technicality, God's chosen servant who has lead the people and who God has defended in spite of his whining and constant questioning is stripped of his opportunity to see the fruit of all this work.  That just seemed so harsh and out of character to me in comparison to all the other things that he did.

I struggled with it and didn't get it until finishing Deuteronomy tonight.  In chapter 32 verse 51 God is speaking of the issue and says (which is basically the same as in Num. 20:12, but I didn't get it until now) "because you broke faith with Me in the midst of the sons of Israel at the waters...because you did not treat Me as holy in the midst of the sons of Israel."  The issue is that Moses basically disrespected and dishonored the Lord in the presence of the people who he was supposed to be pointing Him.  He acted of his own will, chose how he wanted to do things, and assumed that he had the right to do so since God had chosen him for so much (prideful?  yes.). 

I think this shows so much about our relationship with the Lord.  We have the freedom to speak honestly with God.  To ask Him, to even question and intercede and beg and whine--it is a real relationship like that.  But when it comes to our actions in front of others--especially those to whom we are in spiritual leadership--it is a huge offense to try to take things in our own hands, especially if we try to pass our own desires/wishes/actions off as commanded by God when they are not.  In doing that we are saying that His grace, His will, His sovereignty are not enough, and that we can do it better on our own.  NOPE!  As hard as it can be to comprehend at some points, it is all about God's glory and when we lose sight of that fact we are in trouble!

I'm really enjoying this plan and hope you will try it at some point, even if not doing it as quickly as 90 days, but there are definitely things that I would not have picked up on had I not read them as closely.

bible in 90 days, day 5: into the Exodus

Today I read the first 15 chapters of Exodus, and though I'm not going to do super in-depth recaps anymore (just due to the time that it takes) I wanted to make note of a few things that really stuck out to me.

Exodus thus far is basically the story of Moses...so immediately my mind is going to one the favorite movies of my childhood: the Ten Commandments with the fabulous Charlton Heston of course ;).  Wow.  They sure did take a lot of creative liberties with the story!  I think it's fair to say that I've watched the movie much more often then I've read Exodus (kinda sad) so my idea of how things transpired is a bit skewed.  Oh well...

In this section, the major thing that stuck out to me was the contrast in Moses' character from that of Abraham.  No matter what God asked of Abraham, he was met with immediate obedience.  Well, Moses seems to immediately question and protest what God asks from him.  We see this in chapter 4 when he is first charged with the responsibility of leading the Israelites out of Egypt.  He argues that he is "slow of speech and slow of tongue" and even when the Lord combats his protests with the fact that He created Moses and will be with his mouth and teach him what to say, Moses begs for someone else to deliver the messages.  God appoints Aaron, but is angry with Moses.  He does this again after his first meeting with Pharaoh which brought negative consequences to the Israelite slaves (5:22-23 "...Why didst Thou ever send me?...Thou has not delivered Thy people at all.") (whine much??)  and then in 6:12 "...the sons of Israel have not listened to me; how then will Pharoah listen to me..."

Though as a reader it is easy to see Moses' fault here, I think it is also somewhat encouraging that, despite his untrusting reaction, Moses was chosen to lead the Isrealites out of Egypt, as well as to see God and to be entrusted with the Law.  And really, who am I more like...Abraham or Moses?  Definitely Moses. 

There is an extremely confusing section in Ex. 4: 24-26 that seems so out of nowhere that I had to look up some commentary to see what in the world it had to do with.  Basically, though we don't see any unresolved conflict, the Lord meets Moses as he is on his way to Egypt and tries to kill him.  The conflict is resolved when Moses' wife Zipporah circumcises his son, and throws the foreskin at his feet and declares him to be a "bridegroom of blood."  Huh?  I won't try to explain it all b/c I don't get it fully, (you can read the commentary I looked at here) but the ultimate conflict comes down to the fact that Moses was chosen to deliver the Israelites yet had not upheld his part of the covenant of circumcision (Gen 17:9-10) in his own family.  There was potentially a cultural issue between Moses & his wife where she did not agree with circumcision on the 8th day after birth, so Moses had not implemented that requirement in his family.  Zipporah grudgingly circumcises her son to save her husband's life so that he can fulfill the will of God.  Read more if you want the details, but it does show the importance of following God's commands if you are seeking to serve him--specifically I think in the area of ministry (my own take on the issue).

Last point on this section.  A lot of people get hung up on the parts where God hardens Pharoah's heart against letting the Israelites go as opposed to when Pharoah's hardens his own heart.  I won't go into the whole issue of free will here--that can be a nightmare to try to understand/explain/discuss, but ultimately it is explained in 9:14-16 (v.16 "But indeed, for this cuase I have allowed you to remain, in order to show you My power, and in order to proclaim My name through all the earth") God did not turn Pharoah completely against what his natural inclination was or Pharoah would have never hardened his own heart.  Instead, God made sure that He fully demonstrated His own power, and showed that no other person or "god" could do what he could do (remember that the Egyptian magicians were able to replicate all of the plagues up until the plauge of the gnats).

From the beginning, it has been all about God's glory!  That is why he chooses inadequate sinners like us--if we could do it on our own, it would be no big deal!

Bible in 90 days: day 4--done w/Genesis!

Wow--in 4 days this plan has taken me all the way through the 50 chapters of Genesis!  I've decided that I'm not going to do an in-depth recap of each day, but wanted to do a little summary of what I've learned in Genesis.

Honestly, this is a very shocking book!  I don't think you totally grasp everything when spreading it out into a chapter a day as I've done before--but wow, the people in the early days were crazy!  On 3 seperate occasions you see men (Abraham twice, then Isaac) lying to the men of a new country and stating that their wives are sisters, and in this Abraham allowed Sarah to be "taken as a wife" by pharoah.  Yikes!  Then there is the craziness with Lot--first he basically offers his virgin daughters to be gang-raped instead of his male visitors, then his daughters get him drunk, sleep with him, and both become pregnant by their father (and these were the righteous people saved from Sodom & Gomorrah!).  There is all kinds of hand-maid-sharing by the barren women (Sarah, Rachel, and later Leah) to allow their husbands to have children.  Just some insane stuff.  Things that aren't even legal these days, and were done by them men who were chosen by God.  Then you have the trickery of Jacob to steal Esau's birthright & blessing, and his bargaining with God about whether he would worship Him.  It's honestly kind of mind-blowing to me!

There have been 3 major lessons that I feel like I've focused on in this book. 

1. God does not choose perfect people!  This is of course before the introduction of the Law and holiness codes, so I guess God did not ask much of His chosen people other than their faith in Him & obedience, but it is encouraging in some ways.  
2. God blesses obedience.  We see this most in the story of Abraham, but when God was establishing a covenant with him there were conditions "walk before me and be blameless (17:1), outward signs (cicumcision) and later testing of his faith (sacrificing Isaac).  In these situations Abraham immediately complies with God's instructions and does so with ultimate trust.  I feel like that is the issue with obedience.  We often disobey (God, parents, laws, etc...) because we feel that it is either not in our best interest, will not have the outcome that has been promised/warned against, or because we think we know better.  Abraham did not question God about circumcising all the men in his company--he just did it b/c he knew God had them do it for a reason.  He did not question God when told to sacrifice Isaac--he trusted that God would provide, whether that be an animal to sacrifice or to bring Isaac back from the dead.  That completely blows my mind--not just b/c he was asked to kill his child, but because Isaac was the son whom God had promised to multiply his descendants like the stars in the sky or sand by the sea!  I absolutely know that I would question that command and refuse to do it! (and I think it is significant that the Law had not yet been given which commands against killing, because then God would have been giving opposing instructions).
3. hmm...i forgot my third point...Oh yeah, God will accomplish his plan in HIS timing.  So many problems came about due to the people (*ahem, wives*) trying to make it "possible" for God to keep his promises.  Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob all had wives that were barren!  Yet the covenant with God was to multiply their descendents into a "multitude of nations."  So of course, being the logical wives that they were, Sarah & Rachel decided that the only way that this would be possible was to allow their husbands to sleep with other women.  wow.  (Rebekah was able to conceive twins after Isaac's intercession on her behalf)  Of course, there are always complications when we try to do things our way rather than God's and that is what happened!

I'm definitely enjoying doing this challenge--thanks so much to Sabrina for letting me know about it!  I think it's so much easier to remember facts and pick up on similarities when reading larger chunks at a time--especially in the Old Testament narrative (I may be stressed about missing content once we get to the epistles, we'll see!)  If you want to follow along, even if you wanted to cut each section in half and do it in 180 days, here is the reading plan.

Reading the Bible in 90 days, day 2

Today's reading was Genesis 17-28 (it was just supposed to be through 28:19, but as there were only 5 more verses I finished the chapter). 

I'm gonna be a little shorter w/my recap of this one, but first I wanted to mention what we went over in church last night.  The sermon was on Acts 15:1-31, a discussion of the new Gentiles being converted to Christianity, and how the Jewish Christians wanted to require for them to become circumcised as well.  The apostles discussed and determined that it was unnecessary for their salvation and would just make it harder for the Gentiles by adding something else to what thye had to do, and being circumcised was not required for them to be saved, as God had already marked them with the Holy Spirit.  The sermon centered on the idea that we tend to add requiremetns to God's commands and make salvation very legalistic.  It just stuck out to me after reviewing Gen. 2:17  3:3--since the Garden of Eden/the Fall we have been trying to add to God's commands which only makes it harder on ourselves!

And now back to Genesis 17-28.  In this section we hit a lot of the main OT narratives:

• Abrahams covenant with God (signified in the act of circumcision).  Abraham immediately obeys God's command/requirement and circumcises all the men in his camp.
• both Abraham & Sarah laughing at the idea of having a child so late in age (Sarah was scolded, but not Abraham...not really sure why, the Hebrew word is exactly the same in both cases)
• the story of Lot & the angels in Sodom & the subsequent destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah (this whole thing is disturbing--Lot offers up his virgin daughters to be raped by the townsmen instead of the visiting men (aka angels) and then he ends up unknowingly impregnating his daughters after the destruction of their home...just yuck)
• Lot's wife being turned into a pillar of salt (fun fact, this pillar of salt was referred to in the later writings of the Jewish historians Josephus, Clement, Iraneus, & Benjamin--it was standing accoring to their records about a thousand years later!
• Once again, Abraham misleads a foreigner (this time Abimelech) that Sarah is his sister instead of wife--goes on to rationalize it saying that she really is his half-sister and later comes into a covenant agreement with Abimelech
• Isaac is finally born to Abraham & Sarah in accordance with God's promise.  His name means laughter as they both laughed at the idea of having a child at such advanced age--now it is referred to as laughter in joy that it came to pass.
• Sarah turns against Hagar & Ishmael and drives them away--her plan ended up causing her pain--if only she had just waited for God's timing instead of trying to take matters into her own hands!  Yet God still provides of Hagar & Ishmael
• The Lord tests Abraham and commands him to offer Isaac as a sacrifice.  Abraham immediately obeys and does not question that God will provide. 
• Sarah dies & is buried.  Abraham decides to find a bride for Isaac and sends his servant to his relatives to find a person.
• The servant asks God to provide a clear sign--the chosen bride will not only give him water at the well, but will water all his camels as well.  Rebekah meets these requirements and is chosen as the bride for Isaac.  They get married and he is comforted after his mother's death.
• Abraham dies and is buried.
• It turns out that Rebekah is also barren!  God has chosen barren women to carry out the promise of a great nation through Abraham's descendants--shows His power.  
• God intervenes and Rebekah conceives and gives birth to twins, Jacob & Esau.  She is partial to Jacob, Isaac is partial to Esau.  
• Jacob is tricky, tricks Esau out of his birthright in exchange for some "red stuff" (aka lentil stew).
• Isaac moves to Gerar due to a famine...and guess what?  He also lies to Abimelech and says that Rebeckah is his sister, not his wife!  This is a weird custom if I do say so myself.  the truth is found out and Isaac also makes a covenant with Abimelech.
• Jacob is encouraged by Rebekah to trick Isaac into giving him Esau's blessing.  He disguises himself and tricks his blinding father.  This causes a grudge between the twin brothers and Jacob is sent away by his parents in another trick by Rebekah in order to save his life from Esau.
• While fleeing, Jacob has a dream in which the Lord speaks to him and promises to multiply his descendants and to give them the land.  Jacob promises to make the Lord his God and to offer a tenth of everything God gives him, as long as he protects him on the journey and gets him home safely.  

So, that's a lot of content!  I guess the biggest lessons for me in this passage are about those if immediate obedience to the Lord and trusting in His timing.  In two instances we see Abraham immediately follow the Lord's instructions: in circumcising the men in his camp and in sacrificing Isaac.  In doing these things, Abraham is showing that he completely trusts the Lord to uphold his part of the covenant and bless and mulitply his descendents.  Also, we see the consequences of Sarah trying to take God's plan into her own hands by giving Hagar to Abraham to have a child.  She becomes angry and bitter towards her handmaid and the fact that Ishmael is mocking Isaac. 

Reading the Bible in 90 days: day 1

I decided to start this challenge on the first day of August--figured that it would be a fitting start to a new month, as well as to the beginning of my new status as an unemployed woman.

My first section was to read Genesis 1:1-16:16.

Wow.  A lot of content in a few chapters.  The first part was very interesting and it is helpful to read larger portions of the Old Testament at once rather than breaking them up by chapters.  I read from the creation of the world to the birth of Ishmael to Haagar & Abram--that is a lot to study in one morning! I did struggle through some of the "begat" sections and found myself fighting my tendency to nod off.

I think my greatest fear in doing this challenge is that I will end up just glancing over the passages instead of studying them intently.  I don't think that will be quite as much of a problem in the Old Testament since it is mostly narrative, but once we get into the epistles that will be a LOT of content to go through quickly. 

However, I am trying to read all of this through the lens of 2 Tim. 3:16-17: (fun fact, this verse is referring only to the Old Testament at the time b/c the New Testament had not yet been compiled!  don't let anyone tell you that the Old Testament is not valid or useful!)

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

 That can be hard in the more data-heavy sections of the OT.  I'm making notes through the verses though so I can reflect on it more--however, I am also struggling with going into my "religious studies student" mindset and analyzing everything historically as we did in class.  It's hard to wrap my mind around this stuff.  Like men who lived for over 900 years and didn't start having kids until their hundreds; the creation of the earth; God referring to himself in the plural; etc...

So what did I "get out of" this section?  I'll break it up into interesting facts that I did not formerly notice/remember and things that affected me spiritually.

"Fun facts"

• Gen. 1:29-30--the only food God mentions as his provision for mankind is fruits/vegetables.  The introduction of meat into man's diet does not come until later.  A case for vegetarianism?  hmmm...  
• Gen. 2:17, 3:3--in reference to the tree of the knowledge of good & evil.  God commands Adam &
  Eve "but from the tree of the knowledge of good & evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you shall surely die."  When Eve is later talking to the serpent she says "but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall note eat from it or touch it, lest you die'."  I won't pretend to have noticed this on my own, but it was noted in the footnotes with the concept that it is difficult for us to leave God's Word alone and often try to add our own provisions or explanations.
• Gen. 3:11--God asks "who told you that you were naked"  It made me think of Romans 7 when Paul is discussing the role of the Law with sin.  (Rom. 7:7-8..."I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, 'You shall not covet' But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment produced in me coveting of every kin; for apart from the Law, sin is dead.") Basically, the tree of the knowledge of good & evil is like the garden of Eden version of the Law.  Without it they were oblivious to anything that would have been considered sin or shame, and their hearts were pure.  We all know that the eating of this fruit was "the fall" and introduction of sin into the world, but I think it is interesting to look at this in light of Paul's exposition in Romans.
• Gen 3:12-13--the introduction of sin also brings the introduction of blaming others for our actions
• Gen 3:16--Eve's curse includes the provision: "Yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you"  I always think of this as interesting in light of woman's tendency towards romanticism and constant desire for romantic love.  It is part of Eve's curse!
• Gen 7:11 ..."on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.  And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights."  The flood is a result of overflowing from the ocean as well as from "the heavens"  You always think of just rain causing it...what can I say?  God is efficient! ;)
• Gen 8:7  I just wondered what ever happened to the raven??
• Gen 8:21 "I will never again curse the ground on account of man for the intent of man's heart is evil from his youth..."  I just think that is interesting...I mean, we know that the sin nature is in us from the beginning, but God uses this fact as the basis for his promise to never destroy all of life on the earth again.
• Gen 9:3-4 "Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant. Only you shall not eat flesh with it's life, that is, its blood."  First mention that we are allowed/commanded to eat meat.  It is only after the flood.  Just interesting to me.

Personal "take-aways"

• In the story of Abraham & Sarah (still Abram & Sarai through this section) we see a lot of them trying to take things into their own hands rather than trusting God. Abram did this is 12:11-20 when he told Sarai to pretend to be his sister, and basically whored her out to pharoah in order to protect himself form being killed so they could have his wife.  Then of course Sarai did this after God promised Abram that he would have a multitude of descendents by having him sleep w/her Egyptian handmaid (weird that both Sarai & Abram ended up sleeping with Egyptians during these passages while still married to one another).  They basically sinned against God and defiled their marriage by not trusting the Lord and trying to do things in a way that "makes sense" in the human mind. Yet it is encouraging that they were still chosen by God and blessed inspite of their lack of trust and their disobedience.
• In 16:7-16 you see the provision of the Lord for Hagar and the promise to multiply her descendants as well--of course this is an abnormal type of promise/covenant back in such a male-centered society and shows the Lord's care and concern for all people, regardless of race or gender or status.
• In 15:6-9 we see that Abram believed the Lord's promises, yet still questioned Him about how it was to happen.  God still "reckoned (his belief) as righteousness" even though he questioned and didn't fully understand.  How great for us that God loves and chooses imperfect people who make mistakes!

I'm super excited about doing this challenge (even though it kinda scares me) and will be posting regularly to update! If you are interested in joining along, the reading plan is here.  Let me know if you want to follow along!