PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2023-2024

We begin the divided history of Israel. It is really important to be able to follow along with what is happening in the chapters that we have assigned for today. Solomon clearly turns his back on the Lord as a result of his many wives and their religious backgrounds and affiliations. He wanted to please his wives so he brings into being the sacrifices and the high places and the altars to different gods. That was the one thing that God you shall not do. God tell him clearly that because you have done this then I will maintain my promise to you that your children shall reign over the people, but only a portion of the people. You will reign over the southern end of Jerusalem, that is called Judah. It will encompass Jerusalem and that is pretty much it, just two tribes you will reign over. The rest of Israel, the other ten tribes in the northern section of where you are now ruling, I will give to someone else.

This happens and Solomon’s son is given the throne, someone else rises up and takes over the northern kingdom, called Israel, and this will be the new norm here on out. These chapters lay the foundation to what we will be seeing in the Old Testament here on out. There will be two kings, one that rules over Israel, the Northern Kingdom with centers in Bethel and Dan. The first ruler of the north, Jeroboam, begins on the wrong foot by making golden calves so that the people could worship. Someone forgot their history and what happened the last time that golden calves were worshipped in the people of Israel.

So the story continues with rulers who are more or less faithful to the Lord, with the southern kingdom tending to be more faithful because, after all, that is where Jerusalem and the temple are located. We pretty much end with a recounting of the reign of Asa in the south who ruled for 41 years, yikes that’s a long time, and who was very faithful to God. A good way to end this reading. In Proverbs 3:5-6 we find the great verses: “Trust in the Lord Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” This is a good way to end the day.

These chapters in I Kings are dedicated to Solomon building the temple. We don’t quite go into the detail of how the temple is built like we do in other books of the Bible, but I like this condensed version. We do read that it took Solomon 7 years to build the temple and 13 years to build his own house. That seems a little off, but that is what Scripture says. I love what Solomon says when he dedicates the temple. It is less about what the people of God will do and more about asking God to do good things for the people of God. In one place he says, when we sin, for we will sin, and are carried off into captivity because the surrounding nations invade us, then when we realize our sin and confess it and turn our faces back towards you again, remember us and bring us back into the land. That is exactly what happens over the history of Israel more than once. They forget God, turn their back on God and worship idols and other gods, and then they remember the Lord and the Lord restores them. It is a back and forth of obedience and disobedience for the people of Israel. But the temple was supposed to be the constant.

Proverbs reminds us of what obedience looks like, you know, the obedience that the Lord requires. When Solomon prays to the Lord the Lord actually answers and promises to protect and keep the people of Israel.

I like this section of Scripture. It provides us with a historical account that serves us well to remember. We begin with David’s family being divided because one of his sins has claimed the throne in the wake of David’s failing health. Remember the kingdom is solid, powerful, and has never seen the prosperity that it is currently experiencing. But David had promised, because God had demanded, that Solomon would take over once David was out of the picture. Sure enough, David crowns Solomon, Solomon takes care of the various factions that were not totally on his side, and we begin with an Israel that is consolidated and powerful.

God asks Solomon what he might want as a ruler. Solomon asks for wisdom and displays that wisdom for the world to see in the famous cutting the baby in two story. Brutal, but compelling. We then see that Solomon is ready to build the temple and that he is able to build the temple because he has created peace among his neighbors, including marrying the daughter of Pharaoh. Could that be Cleopatra?

In Proverbs we see an encouragement to follow the way of the righteous and not to follow the way of the wicked. It is a them repeated over and over again in this book. Some have called Proverbs a cross country road trip with your mother-in-law. NOt my words, but the assumption is that there is a bit of a nagging quality to it because what is mentioned ought to be pretty self-explanatory. But we still don’t pursue wisdom and righteousness, we often just pursue our own desires. Proverbssets out to fight this urge.

We find ourselves during Lent in the readings that we have for today. Jesus and his disciples and the last supper is a Scripture that is often used when communion is served. I choose to use the I Corinthians 11 Scripture, which is a little more atypical. But we do have the steady stream of events leading up to Jesus’ death. You have Pilate who is told by his wife to let Jesus go because of a dream that she had where it pained her to have Jesus as a prisoner. But it was not to be, the crowd was too powerful and they were able to impose their will.

Jesus’ suffering is pretty evident in this Scripture, more so than the other Scriptures. He is stripped and beaten and forced to carry his cross and cries out in a loud voice as he is on the cross. He doesn’t get any sympathy from those with whom he is being crucified, unlike the other Gospels. His death comes and there is still interaction with the leaders who put him to death and his followers. We also see a lot more of the behind the scenes discussions, such as paying off the guards to tell the story that his disciples stole Jesus’ body.

The resurrection is powerful and gives us the Great Commission in Matthew 28: Go and make disciples. What a great way to end the Gospel narrative, a command to go and make disciples.

We have the opposite problem that we had with Isaiah. With Isaiah we didn’t have a whole lot to talk about each week since the chapters were so similar. With Matthew we have an abundance of material that we could cover. I hope what I cover is something that is of interest to you, and if I do not cover it please comment and I will respond in the comment section. I definitely wanted to cover chapter 20 and the parable of the hired workers. I have seen this parable come to life time after time in real life. People simply think that they are entitled to certain things because of their status as a child of God and because of the amount of time that they have been serving the kingdom. There is always a bit of jealousy when the newcomers are seen as enjoying all the benefits of those who have been at it for a long period of time. I see this in life, for example, in mission trips as we have been preparing for months and a new person comes on board and hasn’t done all the work that the others have done and there is sometimes a bit of a complaint that this person should make up for lost time.

We also see the entry into Jerusalem and Jesus riding both a donkey and a colt, weird. But we do see throughout these Scriptures a constant reference to prophets and how the religious leaders not only turned their backs on the prophets but killed them and completely did that which God did not want them to do. Jesus points to this and says, hey guys, you are doing it again.

The last one that I want to cover is Matthew 25 which is the chapter that has the verses that we have been focusing on forever. We are called to act in a way that reflects that our priority is to provide social ministries that delineate a loyalty to the kingdom not only in speech but also in action. What are we doing consistently to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc. etc. That is a question that we have to ask consistently and not just once in a while. Doing this is just as important as prayer and reading Scripture.

We need to spend some time in Isaiah again. Look at 65:17-25 where we find described a new heavens and a new earth. Something very similar is described in Revelation 21, but here we find someone who finds delight in the end of days. Imagine what it would be like if 100 was too young to die. That would be ideal. But that is image that we are given of when God comes back to deliver us. This is a promise at the end of a very long book of the Bible steeped in a reality where the people of God have suffered and have been taken in to captivity. So it is a promise that one day all will not only be made right, but be made perfect.

From there we move on to the Psalms and to Proverbs, both describe what it would be like to follow the wicked, terrible, or to follow the righteous exactly what God has intended in our life. As you can imagine the following of the wicked will lead to all sorts of undesirable things in our life. While following the righteous will lead directly to the Lord. It is a bit of a no brainer which path we are encouraged to take, but both options are still presented to us.

We find ourselves completely immersed in Isaiah this morning. If you look at 59:17 it slightly reminds me of Ephesians 6:10ff. You should read all of it as it describes what is called the whole armor of God. Isaiah, on the other hand, speaks of the wrath of God that is to come against the nations that have conquered Israel and this wrath is metaphorically described as armor as well. In Isaiah you have: righteousness as a breastplate, salvation as a helmet, vengeance as clothing, fury as his mantle. In Ephesians you have: the belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shoes the proclamation of peace, shield of faith, and helmet of salvation. So the parallels are obvious with both the breastplate and the helmet being the same. I had never noticed that before.

Chapter 60 gives us the great phrase of arise your light has come, as well as a precursor to the kings bringing gold and frankincense. A lot happens in Isaiah which later we find in the life of Christ either as a baby, hence the gold and frankincense, and as an adult, the chapter 61 the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. This chapter reflects what he said in the temple in Nazareth, again, which got him in trouble. We are making our way to the end of Isaiah.

There is again richness in Isaiah.  By this I mean passages that are familiar and passages that refer back to the work and the covenant that Jesus has established.  In 56 we find a space for those who were not born Jewish but still love God.  This space widens significantly in the New Testament, but it is good to see that it describes that there will be a place for those who love God in the house of the Lord, but who were not born as people of God.  The reason this is, Isaiah implies, is that there is vast corruption in the people of God.  Interesting how it pivots from there being a space to a castigation against the corruption of Israel.

We then find in Isaiah 58 some powerful verses in 5-12  I know it is a lot, but it reminds us that God loves those who love their neighbor.  Matthew takes this theme back up, as we have seen it repeatedly in this Gospel as he focuses on righteousness as the calling card of those who follow Jesus.  We find the wonderful example of the parable of the lost sheep in chapter 18, but it isn’t matched with the prodigal son like we find in Luke, and in Luke alone.  We do see an emphasis on forgiving, even as we receive a prescription on how to work out differences with someone who consistently is disobedient in the community.

The teaching about divorce is not to be passed over lightly.  As Presbyterians we take marriage seriously, even if it is not a sacrament.  But divorce is not a sin greater than any other.  But in divorce sin has taken place, in some form or shape, and the objective is to confess that sin and to move on with what God wants in our life.  Righteousness should always be pursued regardless of the reality in which we find ourselves.

We can finally focus on Isaiah.  We find a series of chapters that we have read today that address very directly who Jesus is.  Now, remember, Isaiah was written hundreds of years before Jesus every walked upon the face of the earth.  But we find some very clear correlations between the prophecies of Isaiah and the work that Jesus did upon this earth.  Let’s look at a few.  Chapter 52:7 give us the John the Baptist Advent message with the feet of John being beautiful because he is bringing the good news of salvation that Jesus will bring.

Staring at vs.13 in the same chapter we see a description of who Jesus will be that then carries into the next chapter.  Pretty much all of 53 describes Jesus as one who “carried our diseases…wounded for our transgressions…by his bruises we are healed…he bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.”  This is the work that Jesus did upon the earth and the work that he was able to do because he was not just the Son of God, as Peter confesses in our Matthew reading, but he was actually God himself.

Matthew 16 has that much debated conversation between Peter and Jesus where Jesus says that upon this rock the church has been established.  The rock is not Peter, although that is what the term rock literally is written as in Greek, petros, or Peter.  The rock is the fact that Jesus is the Messiah.  A lot here to look at because so much of it is so familiar.

The Isaiah Scripture does speak of a restoration of Israel but not until after the total destruction of her enemies. There isn’t a sense of reconciliation of the people of God with their neighbors, but there is definitely a sense of reconciliation between the people of God and God. God had turned His back on them and did all the things to them that he promised that he would do to them. This sense that we have from Jesus that we are to love God and love our neighbor is not really super strong here. Love God, yes, but when your neighbor is looking to wipe you from the face of the earth then it is hard to love them. At least that is the vibe we get from the Old Testament. Thank God that we have Jesus, literally, who tells us to live in a different way otherwise we would all be blind and toothless.

Strangely enough in Matthew we have the feeding of the crowds twice. Once it is five thousand and another time it is the feeding of the four thousand. Each time Jesus uses what is at hand and give it to the people and there is more left over for everyone. The abundance of God in His generosity is seen time after time. This also strikes me when he heals, even though he says that he has not come to heal those outside of the house of the Lord, the gentiles, he still heals the woman’s daughter and proclaims her as having a faith not seen elsewhere. There is the presence of the Lord in places that we would not expect.