Read the Bible

All done! Chronicles 1 took awhile to get started with, but then I breezed through the stories. Now I am onto Psalms, and keep losing my place.

Hmmm. I haven’t kept up with this lately. 2 Kings is finished though, I enjoyed it too. Now onto Cronicles, but wishing I had read it chronologically with Kings.

Tonight I read some more of 2 Kings, here are some comments on a couple of things that I found impressionable.

Chapter 16: Here King Ahaz of Judah gives gold and silver from the temple to the king of Assyria, paying him to fight the king of Israel for him. Ahaz visited the king of Assyria to express gratitude after victory occurred and, perhaps out of further loyalty to that king, built a replica alter to the Assyrian god when he returned to his land. I found it strange that he asked the priest to now offer all the sacrifices on the new pagan alter, but use the original bronze alter for advice (probably using Assyrian divination methods). I found this strange. Did he still, deep down, believe only the God of Israel could give the right advice?

Chapter 17: This chapter further describes how Israel adopted the worship practices of the nations around them while still following those the kings of Israel had introduced. The chapter stated they did this “secretly”. I found this interesting, that they didn’t think God would know they secretly worshiped at an alter built out under a tree somewhere. The chapter says they became worthless as they worshiped worthless idols – idols they had cast themselves. This is the opposite of what God wants, as described in 2 Corintians 3:16-18 (pasted below) and it reminded me to make sure the things I do each day and focus on are not worthless, but God-worthy.

“Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We’re free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.” The Message Bible

I admit I was not looking forward to this book and similar Old Testament books. However, I have been surprised and loved both the intriguing stories and some of the messages I see they convey.

While some of the OT can be somewhat difficult to concentrate on, these books were an exception and I really enjoyed the sequence of events and dramatic encounters describd.

While some of the OT can be somewhat difficult to concentrate on, these books were an exception and I really enjoyed the sequence of events and dramatic encounters describd.

Read up to Chapter 14 of Samuel 1.

This was quite topical as the earlier part of Samuel discusses Shiloh, the place with the same name as Brad and Angelina’s new daughter.

Finished Malachi and enjoyed it :)

I have started Samuel 1 and am up to chapter four already.

Completed: Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah

I found all the dreams/visions in Zechariah interesting and tried to by a commentary on them, but there were only two for sale and both very detailed in very small print. I think I’ll search the web a bit too.

Now onto Malachi, the last bok of the minor prophets…

I still have some big books in the OT to read too.

Completed:
Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah and Micah.

The easiest was Obadiah – the shortest book in the old testament! Micah was interesting as it has inspired the current “Micah Challenge,” which is related to the “Make Povert History” campaign. Micah urges people to look at how those around them are treated.