PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2023-2024

As I mentioned earlier a modern overlapping of events with what is depicted is pretty much impossible.  But an ancient one is a little less tricky.  It is fairly clear that Rome and Nero are seen as the great enemy in the day of John who wrote Revelation.  We have a couple of hints in regards to this.  We see in chapter 17 an angel who interprets the visions that John sees and in 17:9 says: “This calls for a mind with wisdom.  The seven heads are seven hills on which the woman sits.”  Everyone knew, and even today it is very well known, that Rome is a city with 7 hills.  When I studied in Rome I lived on the Aventine hill, the Palatine hill is famous for the Forum and there are others as well that make up the city of Rome.

Clearly John had in mind the arch enemy of Israel would be the one who crucified their messiah, Jesus himself, which was Rome.  Jesus died on a cross which was a national execution for those who did not fall in line with the Roman Empire teachings.  Rome was responsible for the burning and the final destruction of Jerusalem and the temple in 70 AD by Nero.  It makes sense that John, both the Gospel writer and the writer of Revelation and the writer of I,II, and III John would describe the enemy as the one who destroyed the very fabric of the people of Israel.  John probably wrote these books of the Bible at the end of the 1st century.  He is always depicted as very old because of the belief that this was written at that time.  This means that he witnessed the destruction in some format.

Granted, he was a disciple of Jesus Christ and a Christian, but back then Christians, especially if they came from a Jewish background, still very much identified as Jews, just as followers of Jesus as well.  So if we read Revelation in light of this revelation, that the beast and all of his minions are the Romans and those who helped facilitate the destruction of the temple with the Romans, it makes much more sense.

Now we are in the part of Revelation that people are afraid of.  First, we find the 144,000 who receive a seal, and they are the nations of Israel times 12 which is a complete number and which represents all of the nation of Israel.  This number is used by the Jehovah’s Witnesses to describe the finite number of people who are saved.  I like to use the number that we find in 7:9 which says: “after this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language…”  That is the number, an infinite number of people that God has saved and will bring to himself.

You find in 8:8 and following the description of a great mountain that is hurled into the sea.  It is thought that this is the description of what happened with Vesuvius when it erupted, because we know that this great mountain in Naples was thrown into the sea and destroyed many villages and people in its wake.  

One word on prophecy vs predictions.  Prophecies describes ways in which God is going to work or ways in which God has already worked.  When I read Revelation I interpret it as a message to the first century church and an attempt at describing what has already happened, much less what will happen in the 21st century.  I know that takes some of the “fun” away from trying to match what Scripture says in Revelation and what is happening today in current events, but it is much healthier to see it this way.

I had not seen that 12 is also covered in this reading.  So, the woman has habitually been seen as Mary who gives birth to Jesus, what with the killing of the innocents by Herod after Jesus is born and their fleeing to Egypt, all of this can neatly fit into the prophecy that this Scripture lays out.

We begin Revelation and I think the best way to explain this book of the Bible is to tell you a story.  If I were to say: The Cowboys crushed the Eagles and the people wept.  You would know exactly what I was talking about, a football game.  But if we buried this statement and someone dug it up 500 or more years from now, they would think that we lived in a land where people were riding horses and slaughtering eagles and it made the population sad.  500 years from now without context and without understanding what is happening in the culture and in the society and the sports culture in which we live, we would have to create a meaning to the phrase which more than likely would be wildly inaccurate.

We do not know all the meaning of Revelation and we tend to make up stories as to what it means.  So we are left with trying to discern the meaning behind the stories, and those are much easier to discern.  These first chapters deal with the churches that primarily Paul planted and encouragement for them to persevere in the faith even in the midst of persecution.  I have always seen the primary message of revelation as no compromise in the face of conflict and persecution.  We would do well to hear that message.

We come to the end of Zechariah and find a description of God as the former shepherd who broke his own staff to represent the breaking of the covenant between him and his sheep.  An interesting image because while it is the sheep who disobey, it is God who ultimately decides that the covenant must be broken forever with his people.  This sets the stage for the new unconditional covenant that must come through Jesus based upon grace and providence as opposed to action and obedience.  

In the Psalms we have in 84 one that is very well known and even has a contemporary song attached to it.  See if you can find the verses that go with this song.

The imagery and the metaphors continues to abound in Zechariah.  There are a few verses of importance that we should highlight.  The first ones we find in chapter 7:8-10 which describes what is true justice.  It is wrapped up in showing mercy and compassion to one another.  That is quite a different take than what today people think is justice.  Justice is showing mercy and compassion.  That’s a pretty important angle that is easy to forget in this day and age.

The other is the Scripture that we use habitually for Palm Sunday which is found in 9:9-10 where we see the image of Zion’s King riding into Jerusalem on a donkey.  That should sound familiar as our king rode into Jerusalem riding on a donkey to shouts of Hosanna. 

Psalm 82 finds us with the verses where we are equated to gods, and yet we will still find our demise sooner or later.  That may sound somewhat morbid, but the Psalm is actually one that gives thanks to a God who defends the weak and the vulnerable, so that’s a good thing.

So what just happened there?  You have horses, and olive trees, and flying scrolls, like huge flying scrolls, a woman in a basket who is called wickedness.  Okay, things have gone a little strange, so what is exactly happening?  Well, in Zechariah you have God promising restoration to Israel, which is so much better than a promise of exile with future restoration.  

All of the metaphors that are used in Scripture are not so easily understood by us these some 2500 years later.  I love the verses that states: “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the Lord Almighty”.  It reminds me of this song.

In the Psalm we find these comforting words: “with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”  It reminds me of a group of musicians that were fairly popular, Sweet Honey in the Rock.

This second letter of Paul to the church in Thessalonica is similar to the first.  Timothy remains mentioned in the greeting as someone who is writing the letter along with Paul.  Once again Paul speaks to the congregation to encourage them even while they are experiencing a persecution that was real and was felt tangibly.  Family members were dying and they felt as if their lives were in danger every time that they left their home.  But they had not lost their faith and so Paul wanted to encourage them and let them know that they are not going through this alone.  I see you, I see the lives that you live and how you are keeping the faith.  But continue to keep the faith.

In Psalms 79 and 80 we do have a lament followed by a lament.  In 79 we read its sense in vs.9 where we read: “Hel us, O God of our salvation, for the glory of your name.”  The point is that if God’s people suffer then how in the world will those who follow idols evern come to believe in a God who allows His people to suffer.  That simply doesn’t work.  But we just heard Paul say that there is redemption and value in suffering and in fact, if you do suffer then it is proof that you are one of God’s children.  I’m guessing the converse can be true which ought to catch our attention.

We finally find ourselves back to the New Testament.  Paul is writing to the church in Thesallonica.  He loves this church with all of his heart and mind.  He wanted to go and visit it but was not able to so he sent Timothy instead.  In this letter to the church we find the verses that people have used over time to speak about what we would call in modern day the “rapture”.  Look at I Thessalonians 4:13-5:5 where we read that with the sound of God’s trumpet the dead in Christ will rise first and then those who are alive will be caught up in the clouds with him.  

I do believe that the rapture is more of a theological contrivance that for some reason has become in the mind of many people the Gospel truth.  If you continue in chapter 5 we read that not only do we not know when this is going to happen, like a thief in the night, we don’t even know how it is going to happen.  We do know that Jesus is coming back, but he did not give us a blueprint on what it is going to look like when he comes back.  He just tells us to be ready.  I know, this may not be a super popular approach, but I don’t see anything else in Scripture that comes even close to describing what some would call a rapture and these verses are very suspect in regards to a rapture.

Philemon is Paul writing to the owner of a slave to consider his slave as his own flesh and blood.  There is a lot of problems in Paul not condemning slavery, I wish he would have.  But Jesus’ words and the basic moral fabric of humanity  speaks not only against slavery but against any form of thinking that would elevate one race over another.  That is clear from Scripture.  

We come to an end with the book of Daniel and it remains its apocryphal writing with the archangel Michael making an appearance.  There is found descriptions of many different nations from the north, south, east and west who try to have influence over other nations, succeed for a season, and then fall into desolation.  It seems to be an unpredictable cycle which can be predicted in that every single nation will find its demise over time.  That’s a good reminder to us as well.  

The Psalms take us to remember the time that Israel served in captivity in Egypt and then was led out by God as an attempt to remember the faithfulness and the consistent deliverance of the Lord over history.  We serve a God who will deliver, that seems to be the theme and the reminder to each of us.  

There are a lot of horns mentioned here in Daniel and then again also in Psalm 75.  We begin with the famous story of Daniel in the lion’ den.  Daniel, much like Joseph, is given a lot of power in the land of Babylon even though he was an exile from Judah.  So, keep in mind that Daniel is foreigner and yet the king gives him this extraordinary power.  The king is about to give him not only regional power, but is about to transition him to national power.  The other regional leaders were not crazy about this at all so they conspire against him.

It does work and the king is forced to throw Daniel into the lion’s den.  It didn’t hurt Daniel, but it sure did hurt those who set him up, as well as their children and wives.  Pretty brutal imagining what the lions did to them.  From that folksy tale we move to images and apocryphal writings that describe glorified men, beasts with metal teeth, and horns that have eyes and think for themselves.  All very surreal, but each of these images depicts a person and a country over which it will rule.  The horns always describe enemy or neighboring countries and their attempt to make an impact on history.