PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2023-2024

Be strong and let your heart take courage, all you who wait upon the Lord. That sounds like a sentence upon which we can count to boost up our faith and know that God is on our side and wants us to succeed. That often is a question that people have. Is God on our side? Does God really want us to do well, or is He just waiting for us to fail so that he can call us out and punish us? Many may haver a perspective of God as a gotcha God, how disheartening that would be. God wants us to have a life of joy, and that defines how we understand the role of God in our lives.

The end of Jacob’s life is marked by the blessing of Joseph’s sons, and then the blessing of all twelve of the boys. Some of them barely seem like a blessing, and more like a bit of a curse. For example, look at the blessing for Simon and Levi where he says: “I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.” Can I have your curse instead? This is then followed with Joseph’s death and the end of the book of Genesis. So we have in these first few weeks seen all of Genesis and all of the Gospel of John. It is a great way to begin this journey of ours through Scripture.

The story of Jacob continues. We see his story from chapter 30 all the way until he passes away in chapter 50. That’s a lot of the Old Testament that deals with Jacob and his story. Remember whom he becomes. He becomes Israel and it is from Jacob that we get the twelve tribes. So it makes sense that so much time is given to Jacob and his life and how the nation of Israel is formed as a result of his children and the progeny that are saved as they now settle in Egypt. But keep in mind that Egypt was never meant to be their final resting place. While they are protected by Joseph while they are in Egypt, that is not the land that God has promised to the. This will be remedied as we get into Exodus. God doesn ‘t lead them out of Egypt just because they were slaves, but because God had promised them land in Canaan, which is where they end up settling after Egypt.

Now to the whole Joseph reveal. It is quite long and complicated how Joseph gets Benjamin back to Egypt and puts his borthers in a position where they are able to realize the harm that they had done to Joseph and now this is a bit of payback. The key verse that you want you to look at is 45:8 where Joseph says to his brothers that it wasn’t them who sent him into Egypt, God had done it because God knew that the famine would come and this would be the only way to preserve Israel, Jacob, and all of his family. Since this was the family of God it had to be saved and God’s plans, God’s ability to providentially be over all things, allowed the family to be saved.

To me it remains interesting that it is the one who was sold into slavery who needs to make his brothers feel better about themselves. The take away point is that even those most tragic of events in our lives can become a way in which God is able to save and reveal himself. I hope that provides some consolation.

It is simply not fair that there are so many good stories and hugely important theological truths in these few chapters. We find the story of Joseph where he goes from the impossible to being placed on a throne. The resonating message with Joseph is that all things are possible with God. The providence of God where He is leading us from one step in our lives to another is so clearly visible. He is that bratty brother, but to the Nth degree (Nth degree), and they decide to take care of him in the most unbrotherly way possible. First Joseph is saved by his brother Reuben, remember that name, he comes into play later on. Then he is sold to one of the most powerful people in Egypt who decides not to kill him when he is accused of trying to rape his wife. He meets a person who then eventually is able to get him into Pharaoh’s presence and when he does, he does what God has gifted him to do. Each step along the way, even the most tragic and terrible, God is able to lead him to a place where he is able to take the next step to ensure the salvation and safety of his entire family, read Jacob who is actually Israel.

God is able, always is able. Even in the middle of a storm God is able to calm the storm. But even more importantly in this instance God is able to direct the sins of others which creates tremendous suffering and pain, to a place where our future is still able to complement His plans for his kingdom. There is nothing in our life that will ever be able to disqualify us from being a crucial piece of his work. Make sure you hear this and believe it and base your life upon the fact that God’s desire is to use us for His purpose.

Then there is John who gives us the reason for why the Bible was written. Did you get that? He literally tells us why the Bible is written. Look at 20:31 where we read: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. ³¹ But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.” We have life in his name because we believe, but remember that believing is not enough, but it certainly has to be present.

The resurrection story of Jesus is so different with the women playing a much different role than in the other Gospels. Now, remember, each Gospel has its own take on the resurrection because each Gospel was written by a different person. John has the relationship of Jesus with his disciples as front and center. Thomas’ words in 20:28 are the words that ought to be on our lips. My Lord and my God. Sometimes we stop at the point of just being able to say: “My teacher”. But Jesus is Lord, that means he is our master and we are his servant and we are completely his, completely. As our God we obey his voice and we live the type of lives that reflect his Lordship, his divinity, in our life.

The last thing I’m going to cover is the rehabilitation of Peter. Three times Peter denies Jesus and here three times in front of all the other disciples he has to confess his love for Jesus. As a result he is able to do the things that allow the church to grow to where it is today. Without a doubt Peter is the leader of this motley crew, as flawed as he was, but God is still able to use him. But what about our friend John, who remained by Jesus’ side at the cross. He’s going to hang out at Ephesus for a while with Mary. To me it is interesting that there isn’t a story of Jesus’ resurrection of him and his mom meeting once he rises from the dead. That would have been a good one.

The story of Jacob continues and I have to retract something I said yesterday. Jacob did not put his wives in front of him with him behind. He did quite the opposite. He put himself first, then his wives least to favorite. Esau surprises him and hugs his neck when they meet. Jacob does supply him with an abundance of livestock and riches in exchange for his safety. Esau takes all of it. This is a scene of intense reconciliation. I like that image, intense reconciliation. This is the scene we also see in the Gospel of John, an intensity that is unmatched with Jesus’ arrest, torture, and crucifixion, but we have a bit before we discuss that, let’s stick to Genesis.

The story of the rape of Dinah is disconcerting for the sake of Dinah. She is absolutely voiceless and her brothers make all of the decisions on her behalf after she is raped. I wonder how she would have wanted the situation to be handled, maybe in this way, in an act of complete vengeance. There is a large part of me that says she would be justified in seeking that vengeance. This Scripture almost, I said almost, gives you a green light to violence when a child or a family member is wronged in this way. The eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth does not come from Jesus, but comes from Leviticus 24:19-21. Thank God, literally, that Jesus had a different perspective. But speaking on the part of someone who has not been a victim is a bit more difficult to navigate. The intensity of the feelings and the emotions cannot be matched unless you have suffered in a way that is reflected in this Scripture.

Jacob has his name changed yet again, second time in Scripture. Just in case the wrestling match had been forgotten, in chapter 35 his name is changed yet again from Jacob to Israel. This chapter surprises me because Jacob commands his family to put away the idols that they still have so that he is able to bury them. Wait, what? Why are the family members of Jacob worshiping idols in their posession. It feels like there is a tremendous disconnect when God makes it very clear that we are not to have any idols in our midst, and yet constantly the people of God have to determine themselves to rid themselves of the idols. Some habits die hard.

John gives us the agony of Jesus’ last few hours. The agony of betrayal by his disciples as Judas leads a band of armed men to arrest him. The agony of abandonment as all of his disciples flee the scene of his arrest and leave him alone. The agony of betrayal as Peter denies him three times. The agony of physical suffering as he was whipped and a crown of thorns placed on his side. The agony of torture as he was crucified upon the cross. The intensity of this scene cannot be overstated and it should reflect the extremes to which God is willing to go to bring us closer to him. The death of Jesus, Good Friday, is our salvation. Thanks be to God.

The story of Jacob is a long one and it covers a number of chapters, and we are still in his story when we finish today. We see him marry the daughters of Laban in a way that he is deceived on his wedding night. I love the simplicity of 29:25 where it says: “When morning came, it was Leah!” Surprise! He does get to marry the love of his life and then Leah and Rachel have a bit of a contest to see who can bear the most sons to him. Notice Dinah is mentioned, a daughter, which is unusual, but she will come into play a little later on. Jacob finds a way to get out of Laban’s household, even if it is a bit by hook or crook.

Do you notice that a lot of unethical things are happening in the lives of those who have been called by God to do His will. Including, but not limited to, the taking of household gods, which would be idols. You would think that would be frowned upon to have the wife of the man who would one day very soon become “Israel”. Did you notice that Manheim is mentioned in 32:2 and that term means two camps.

In this chapter we see Jacob getting himself ready to come face to face with his brother Esau whom he hadn’t seen since he stole his birthright and his blessing. You would think that he would still carry a bit of a grudge, and Jacob certainly thought so. He strategically places his wives, the one he loves least, in front of him as a buffer before Esau come to him. It is the evening before this fated meeting that he wrestles with God and has his name changed to Israel. The changing of names in Scripture is certainly something we should look at. Abraham, Jacob, Peter in the NT and so on have their names changed as they carry out God’s plans and as it becomes more and more clear that they are going to be crucial figures in God’s kingdom.

This chapter in John contains one of my favorite concepts, Jesus praying to God that his disciples would remain united. The term: that they may be one, is a term that we use to focus on when we gather together as a ministerium once a year. This day of unity is meant to be a very small answer to Jesus’ prayer. Yes, chapter 17 is an entire prayer as Jesus prepares himself to suffer and die on the cross. In his final prayer he asks that God would allow his disciples to be one. The many different churches and denominations spread across the globe is proof that we have sinned as a church in that we have not been one. We are divided. I would love to answer God’s prayer of unity.

Father Abraham, had many sons, but only one with Sarah. Isaac and Rebekah had Esau and Jacob, and what a story that is. The crux of it all is that the father loved Esau and the mom loved Jacob, so of course they were going to have problems. Jacob wins the birthright and the blessing and gets a dream of a stairway to heaven. Eventually, not now, but Jacob actually becomes Israel and he has the twelve children who are the twelve tribes of Israel. We will spend a little more time when we get to those chapters. But it all goes back to the conflict between Esau and Jacob and Jacob winning at just about everything, even though he is the youngest. That theme will continue as well as we see it with Joseph and King David and a number of others.

Did you notice that Isaac pulled the whole “she is my sister” trick and almost got all of them killed? I guess that happens when you have a wife who turns heads, but it still strikes me as kind of self-serving on the part of the husband. I guess I can take out the conditional. It is very much self-serving. I love the final story of Jacob’s ladder that was climging higher and higher. He calls the place Bethel, which in Hebrew means house of God. I would love to have a church that considered itself, if not named itself, Bethel. The house of God.

Now to John. There is no more important chapter in the Bible than John 14. I think I have said that for a few chapters already. But the understanding that Jesus tells us that God will send the counselor is in reality a promise that the Holy Spirit will be with us and is with us in this now and not yet time. This now and not yet time in which we find ourselves is the time that we are called to do the will of God and yet at the same time anticipate the second coming when we will all be drawn to Christ. Jesus’ answer to Thomas who questions where we are to follow Jesus because we do not know the way is our calling card. Look at vs.6 where Jesus says: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the father except through me.”

There is only one thing that would cause me to be schismatic. Look that word up: schismatic

If at any point anyone higher up may mess with the truth that Jesus is the only way to the Father, that Jesus is the only way to salvation, that Jesus is the only one true God, then that will cause me to think twice about the associations I have at a religious level. Jesus is the one and the only one. I hope I have emphasized that enough. Don’t allow people to convince you that there are many ways to God. Not according to this verse. Don’t allow others to convince you that we all worship the same God, we do not. If you ask a person of another religious if they worship the same God that we worship, they would say no. For some reason we have a hesitancy to claim the exclusiveness of Jesus and insist on an inclusiveness that completely neuters our God. Maybe I’ve had too much coffee.

The birth of Isaac marks a pivotal moment in the nation of Israel’s history. That moment is almost taken away as Abraham follow’s God’s command to sacrifice him as a test of his faithfulness. Abraham passes the test. Where else in Scripture do we read about a Fathe who is willing to sacrifice his son? The sacrifice of Jesus upon the cross which results in the salvation of all humanity, finds its earliest example in Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice. The Old Testament is hard to read. There is so much killing which seems indiscriminate. God chooses whom he wants and the rest have a pretty difficult, if not impossible, hill to climb. But why do we insist on creating God in our image, in an image that we would want God to be like? Can’t God be kinder, gentler, more compassionate? He is, but in this setting in the Old Testament God is seen and revealed as something that we simply don’t like. But in the end, that is our problem, we can’t understand why God would need to be an Old Testament God. I’m okay in not knowing why.

When we jump to John we see Jesus enter triumphantly into Jerusalem and the crowds following him primarily because he raised Lazarus from the dead. I just noticed that the religious leaders conspire to kill Lazarus because he was the reason the people were going crazy for Jesus. But we have to rest a little bit of time on the washing of the feet. When we talk about sacraments we have a clear definition as to what we believe sacraments are. Literally the word means a holy act. We believe that they are things that we should do because Jesus commanded us to do them. We baptize because Jesus commanded us to baptize in Matthew 28. We take part in the Lord’s Supper because Jesus commanded us to do that in Matthew, Mark, Luke and in I Corinthians 11.

These are the only two sacraments that we recognize as Protestants. But doesn’t Jesus command us to wash each other’s feet. I know gross, but is that any more gross than eating someone’s body and drinking his blood? It is sad to me that the logistics and the practicality of washing feet has gotten in the way of some really good theology on why we ougth to wash one another’s feet. It serves to show us how we are servants one to each other, just as God has made us.

The promise of the covenant with Abraham is sealed with the sign of circumcision. This may not seem that important to us as Christians in the 21st century, but the link between circumcision in the OT and baptism in the NT is fundamental to understand. The covenant with God was seen between God and his people in the sign of circumcision, which obviously was only applicable to the Jewish males. Today, our sign and seal with God and his covenant is baptism, which has taken the place of circumcision for the follower of Jesus, allowing the covenant to extend to male and female alike. This is crucial, no longer is the sign of God’s promises seen in circumcision, but it is in baptism that the sign and seal of God is witnessed and carried into our Christian faith.

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah has peaked the interest of many especially in light of the debate surrounding homosexuality. Let’s put this to bed once and forever. Sodom and Gomorrah was not destroyed because of the homosexual tendencies of its people, we don’t serve a God that is that small, but rather because of its evil that was clearly manifested in how they treated each other and all people who came into their presence, especially guests that were sacred. The sacredness of the guest in Jewish culture is known to the degree that you are to welcome them in a way that is unconditional. But their evil tendencies in all walks of life are clearly seen. This leads to their destruction, not just one sin, or one category of evil that sparks outrage. Let’s stop using this Scripture as a proof text for something it doesn’t prove.

This brings us to the very disturbing scene of incest with Lot and his daughters. Scripture doesn’t justify it, but it does record it. I kind of wish it hadn’t, but I guess it goes back to what they had experienced in Sodom and Gomorrah and so as a result they act according to what they know and were exposed to. Keep in mind that just because it is recorded in Scripture no place do we see this as being okay in God’s eyes.

Finally in John we find one of the most powerful Scriptures that defines who Jesus was in the story of the raising of Lazarus. Look at 11:25 where Jesus professes to all who would hear that he is: “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will life, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” Jesus then asks Martha the question that he asks us of this truth: “Do you believe this?” We need to believe the divinity of Christ and his desire to bring all of humanity, including us, to him.

We have to cover both the Old and the New Testament Scriptures because they both contain some of the most important stories of the Bible. Abraham is called in chapter 12 to leave his land and to follow God’s promise that he will make of him a great nation. He does, he leaves, he calls his wife his sister when they are in Egypt, he gets rich off of that scheme, and then they settle in Canaan where they way to have a child. But no child comes but God repeats the promise to Abraham, which is called the Abrahamic covenant that he will have a child through him this covenant will be realized.

Abram and Sarai decide they have waited long enough so it is time to take matters into their own hands and they have Abram sleep with a slave. Along comes Ishmael after Hagar runs away from Sarai and then returns. The historical importance of all of this is that all three of the modern people of the book, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim, see Abraham as “father” Abraham. We even have a song about it. It is from Abraham through whom the people of God come for the Jew. It is through Ishmael that the people of faith come, according to the Muslim, and it is through Abraham that Jesus comes as the Savior of the world. Abraham is absolutely a pivotal and central figure in our salvation story. It bears saying it clearly.

On to the New Testament where Abraham is discussed and where the enemies of Jesus say that they have Abraham as a father so why would they need a Savior. It is in the midst of that context that truth is bandied about. In that setting my favorite Bible verse is spoken by Jesus. Look at John 8:36 and you can mark it in your Bible as Pastor Bob’s favorite Bible verse. But the truth matters, people. And we are not at liberty to make up the truth as we would like it simply because the actual truth doesn’t meet our needs or our desires. The fact that Jesus calls himself the way, the truth, and the life should remind us of how important it is not to try to make the truth after our own image. There is nothing more dangerous than that.

So yesterday I cut you all short one chapter. I had thought it was up untilGenesis 6, but it actually included 7 as well. Good thing, because what we find in Genesis is the continuation of the story of Noah. We cannot just see the story of Noah as a cute children’s message, because in it we find a clear covenant that God has made with us. God makes a covenant with us, this is something we need to spend some time on, because Jesus’ coming to the earth is also a covenant that God makes with us. Also, we find ourselves introduced to Abram in chapter 11 of Genesis with whom God is going to make a covenant that is remembered to this day.

The covenant with Noah is seen in Genesis 9:9 where God says to Noah: “I am establishing my covenant with you and with your descendants after you.” That’s pretty clear. But what is a covenant? Simply stated it is an agreement between two parties. In this covenant, which is an unconditional covenant, the agreement is the following as seen in vs.11: never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood. It is an unconditional covenant because God does not say that only if you obey me, Noah, will I spare you and all humanity. No, God simply says, I will never cut you off again like I did in this flood.

When Abraham comes along we will see a conditional covenant where God says I will do this for you Abraham if you and your people will respond to me in a way that I want them to respond. Jesus’ act upon the cross is also an unconditional covenant. Jesus’ dying for our sins was not based upon our obedience. In fact, quite the opposite is true. In spite of our disobedience, “even while we were yet sinners” (Romans 5:8), God died for us and was raised again from the dead.

Let’s look at John where we find eucharistic language in regards to who Jesus is. We begin with Jesus feeding the 5,000 with elements that a child gives him. Look at John 6 where Jesus is given the elements and then in vs.11 we find this formula: Jesus took the loaves, gave thanks, distributed them. This is the same formula that we find in Matthew, Mark, and Luke when Jesus is at the last supper and with his disciples and when he gives the bread out. When we use the term eucharistic it simply means in Greek, blessing. When Jesus “gives thanks” over the bread in vs.11 in the Greek it is the term eucharisteo. Our communion that we take part in together is a reflection of the thanksgiving that we have because Jesus is present in our midst.

Later in this chapter we have Jesus talk about him being the bread of life and how we must eat his flesh if we are to participate in his kingdom. While as Protestants we don’t believe that Jesus is physically present in the bread and in the juice, we do believe that he is truly present in a spiritual way. This is key, when we take commuion it is not just a memorial for all that Jesus has done. It is a time to recognize that Jesus is present in our midst during communion in a way that he is not present when communion is not being serve. Too many double negatives, but Jesus is present in a unique way during communion. Let’s leave it at that.