Bible Reading Challenge Blog

This Scripture in Timothy is one of the most powerful and one that I will be preaching on on Sunday.  It speaks of Paul’s legacy and especially in 4:6-8 where Paul reflects that he has fought the good fight, he has finished the race, he has kept the faith.  He reminds his “son” Timothy that no one should ever be ashamed of the Gospel or of Paul in chains in 1:8.  

Proverbs reminds us of the age old truth that “rich and poor have this in common; the Lord is the maker of them all”.  And Psalm 48 gives us this wonderful phrase: Great is the Lord, and most worthy of praise.  

So, today’s Scripture is eerily similar to yesterday’s.  I think we made a mistake in our Bible Reading Challenge and repeated it.  I looked it over to make sure that we didn’t skip anything as a result, and we seem to be all good moving forward.  Hope you had a good day.

Since we only have to cover three Psalms might a well say something about each of them.  Psalm 64 is a Psalm of David, probably when he was in hiding from Saul, and it is a Psalm asking for protection from enemies.  David asks for protection in a way that kind of guarantees the fall of his enemies.  Not something I would recommend in our prayer lives.

Psalm 88 gives us a long introductory title that has everything to do with how this is to be presented musically.  It is said to be “according to mahalath leannoth” which means literally: “The suffering of affliction”.  It could be the title of the song or the psalm as we have titles today.  It is fairly self-explanatory, then what the psalm will cover.  David kind of accuses God of placing him in a state of suffering by taking away everything that is important to him.  It should remind us a bit of Job.  

Finally Psalm 130, which is very short, is entitled a song of ascents, which means that it was sung by the pilgrims as they made their way toward Jerusalem.  It is a song of hope and promise, based upon the knowledge that God will provide all things.  “I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in his word I put my hope.”  That’s a great place to end.

We once again are challenged to read through a whole book of the Bible.  Timothy is someone that Paul calls mys on, even though we know that it is not his biological son.  But there is that type of relationship that  allows Paul to teach  and to mentor and we benefit from that bond.  He is teaching Timothy how to run a church, basically.  He talks about who can and who can’t be a leader in the church.  The list is daunting and one that no one can fulfill.  I read it every time we ordain and install officers  at their training so that we can see the bar after which we ought to strive.  Look at chapter 3 and you’ll see the list there.

It is also in Timothy where we read that the love of money is the root of all evil.  The pursuit of anything for its own ends is evil, but while this may be true, this is not what he says.  We continue in 6:10 – “Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.”  That whole chapter gives some great advice on finances.  It continues in 6:17 – “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth.”  

He ends very simply: Grace be with you.

For today we only have Psalm 47 since we have already read together James 1-5.   Ironically, providentially, by God’s grace, I find myself today here at Universal Studios at a Starbucks enjoying some quiet time as the kids are off with the leaders doing their leader things.  But Psalm 47 is without a doubt one of the most powerful and energetic of Palms of praise.  “Shout to God with cries of joy.”  That’s what we are doing pretty much all week this week.  What a trip it has been.  Every single day the kids have shown resilience, hard work, determination, not a word of complaint or anger.  We have a group that is absolutely amazing and have done some significant work, to the point where those with whom they have worked have remarked on their cohesion and their work ethic.  

Praise be to God for them, their parents who raised them that way, and for the leaders who are instilling in them a desire to love and follow God with all of their heart, mind, soul, and strength.

We come to the end of another one of Solomon’s books.  He also wrote Proverbs and probably wrote Song of Solomon, hence the name of the book.  But this book of the Bible really focuses on not putting too much weight on your own planning for the future.  The verse that really struck me in this reading can be found in 9:11ff – “Again, I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to the skillful; but time and chance happen to them all.  For no one can anticipate the time of disaster.  Like fish taken in a cruel net, and like birds caught in a snare, so mortals are snared at a time of calamity, when it suddenly falls upon them.”

We can prepare all that we want, but like Job, we can never predict what will happen in the future.  Our clean living does not translate into blessings of protection.  Solomon does encourage the young to rejoice in their youth.  The book then ends with this somewhat ominous, but true, saying.  “For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every secret thing, whether good or evil.”

Ecclesiastes is thought to have been written by King Solomon.  The description of himself is such that he can say in vs.12: “I the teacher, when king over Israel in Jerusalem, applied my mind to seek and to search out wisdom.”  We know that God provided Solomon with the type of wisdom that was godly.  No one else ever had the type of wisdom that Solomon had.  It also states that he had more wealth and more pleasure, and more concubines, and more of basically everything than any other king, yeah, that fits Solomon’s bill.

There are a few significant passages in these first 6 chapters.  The one that everyone knows is found in Ecclesiastes 3, to everything there is a season.  Think about what that means.  To everything there is a season, everything.  There are certainly some things that we would prefer would be eternally out of season, but that simply is not the case according to Solomon, and I’ll take his word for it.  

In chapter 4 we have Scriptures that Stacy and I used for our wedding and you heard the words: “Two are better than one…”  It continues and it provides a wonderful background for friendship and companionship and even marriage if you want to take that metaphor that far.  When it speaks about a threefold cord it isn’t much of a leap to talk about the three cords being the bride, groom, and Jesus.  Now that is a threefold cord.  

Now we begin to get some action.  God speaks out of a whirlwhind.  He addresses Job, but I think he also addresses Job’s friends.  Just think of how you might feel if you are decrepit and have just lost everything and God speaks to you out of a whirlwind.  You would be relieved either way.  Either because your suffering is over or because God is going to bring relief.  He asks Job a bunch of questions that have to do with the Providence of God and which only God can answer.  

Job answers briefly in 40 when he states that he is small and cannot compare with God.  God then lays into him again.  Job answers in 42 and states clearly: “I have uttered what I did not understand, things too  wonderful for me, which I did not know. ”  This posture of humility does wonders.  God then speaks and castigates Job’s friends telling them that Job was right all along and they were so terrible to him that Job has to offer a sacrifice to God because God will not accept one from them, only from Job.

Job offers that sacrifice and God rewards him with double of what he had before.  That isn’t the motivation to pursue righteousness, but it doesn’t hurt.

We pretty much hear from Elihu in this section.  Elihu comes down hard, really hard on Job.  At one point he says: “Those who have sense will say to me, and the wise who hear me will say: ‘Job speaks without knowledge, his words are without insight.'”  Talking about adding insult to injury.  Elihu continues for these 4 chapters plus a couple before them just pounding Job and his statement that he is innocent.  We don’t get a response from Job here at all.  In fact, the next person to speak, but that is for our next day, is God Himself.

In Proverbs we hear the wise one, that would be Solomon, who speaks about the Providence of God.  On the one had we hear: “When justice is done, it is ajoy to the righteous, but dismay to evildoers.”  This would make us think that he is kind of working the line of reasoning that in Job goes against Job.  But then he pulls out “No wisdom, no understanding, no counsel, can avail against the Lord.  The horse is made ready for battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord.” 

We find ourselves in a bit of a transition in these verses.  Job continues his defence and states that the way of God is bigger than we could ever predict or understand.  The ways of the bird of prey no one knows, the place of gold and silver to be mined is a mystery, wisdom is a fickle creature whom no one can nail down.  But God knows all of these things and God has established them. 

Job then lays out his righteousness and described how the tables have turned on him.  He describes specific sins like adultery, turning a blind eye to the causes of the poor or the orphan.  He states pretty clearly that this was not his way, he did not sin in this way.  Then we get this phrase: the words of Job ended.  That isn’t exactly the truth, but we do now get the words of Elihu.

Elihu again speaks strongly against Job and states that he has not been righteous.  That is the only explanation for his current condition is his unrighteousness.  He states that God delivers those who are righteous and pursue wisdom so surely he is unrighteous.  We have heard this line of reasoning before.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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