PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2023-2024

I mentioned on Sunday that it is difficult to understand exactly what is taking place in the minor prophets unless you read the entire books, then, at least, you can get a bit more of an understanding of the bigger picture.  Today we get to read two minor prophets in their entirety.  Both Nahum and Habakkuk were written at a time when Israel and Judah were divided and were off in captivity.  Nineveh is addressed in Nahum, remember Jonah was also one who went to Nineveh to address the people so that the Ninevites, these foreigner, would repent.  Which they did of course.  In Nahum you have an oracle against Nineveh and the statements that it will fall and that the day of the Lord will be a terrible day for Nineveh.

With Habakkuk we find ourselves with the prophet complaining against the Lord because it is obvious to the prophet that those who are doing evil are making out better than those who are righteous.  He asks God how long will this be.  So you have the first chapter contains two complaints and one answer, the second chapter contains the second answer and the last chapter contains a prayer by the prophet asking Got not to forget his people.  

Don’t we all love the story of Jonah?  I’m thinking we love it because it is a success story of God sending a whale to swallow one of his prophets so that he could carry on his work of evangelizing and evnentually an entire population is saved as a result.  I guess that is the big picture perspective.  But think about it from Jonah’s perspective.  He ran from God, he was grumpy when God saved the people, he didn’t understand his role in God’s kingdom which one of supporting cast, not of decision maker.  Are we comfortable with that role of supporting cast to God’s plans and not the decision maker?  

Haggai takes us to the call to rebuild the temple after the people have returned from captivity.  He calls out the leaders and say why is it that you have prioritized rebuilding your homes when the house of the Lord is in ruins.  Remember, the Babylonians destroyed the temple completely and so there it was, in ruins, while the people worked hard to get their life back in order, God calls them out for not focusing on their relationship, their duty to God.

When we look at the minor prophets, such as Joel, we need to know that they were written primarily in the time when the both the nations of Israel and Judah were in captivity.  As a result there will be words that predict doom and destruction as well as restoration.  We find that in Joel.  We read about the day of the Lord that is to come and it is not a day that we often imagine.  When we think of Jesus coming back again we often think of a celebration that will take place as he takes his people to him.  We don’t often think about a day of destruction, but that is what Joel speaks about.

We also see in Joel the verses that we often use to describe the day of Pentecost in 2:28-29 where we see that all flesh will have the Holy Spirit poured out upon them.  There is also the reverse of what we read in Isaiah that we often quote as a time of peace in 3:10 where the plowshares become swords and the pruning hooks spears.  Not the promise of peace which we come to expect with the kingdom of God being established.

When we look at Psalm 138 we find a psalm of thanksgiving by David which reminds us that the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever.  That is a good one to end on.

There last chapters of II Kings contain the most celebratory and the most tragic of all the chapters in this book of the Bible.  We continue along that cycle of those kings of Judah, and we are only looking at the Southern kingdom at this point, of those who don’t do the will of the Lord and those who do the will of the Lord.  We have the extreme disobedience of Manasseh who even got the people involved again in human sacrifice as we see in II Kings 21:6 that he made his son pass through fire.  That would have been a human sacrifice.  As a result of the evil of Manasseh the Lord determines that he will destroy Judah including Jerusalem one day.  That day had not yet arrived, but he determined to do so.  

But then we have King Josiah who is the exact opposite.  He tears down all that was built up that was pagan and not pleasing to the sight of the Lord.  What is more, he discovered the book of the law and made all of the people pledge to follow the book of the law.  This has to be the highlight of the people of Judah as we see that they all follow the will of God.  It was an incredibly fruitful time.  The temple was repaired and all the other places of worship to the foreign gods were destroyed.  

Once Josiah dies, this go south quickly.  Babylon begins to move in and takes a group of people into captivity and leaves others in Jerusalem.  Those who are left in Jerusalem rebel and take just about everyone else and they flee to Egypt.  After that Babylon is angry and they take the rest of the people into Babylon and leaving behind just a few people to tend the land and then they destory Jerusalem and burn down the temple and take all that was in the temple, most probably the ark of the covenant as well.  It isn’t mentioned specifially but we can pretty much be sure that this is when it is taken.

Proverbs 8 speaks about the importance of wisdom and the importance of following in her ways.

We see the diametrical opposite result for both the northern and the southern kingdoms.  In the north we see Hoshea is the last king of Israel (the north) as the Assyrians come and conquer them and take all of the people into Assyria.  After they take the people they then transplant others into that territory so that the Israelites, the northerners, would not be able to resettle even if they escaped or got out of Assyria.  You can basically call it a wrap for the northern kingdom at this point.  We read in chapter 17 that this takes place because of the unfaithfulness of the people of the north.

We then transition to the south and we see a ruler who according to 18:5 – “Hezekiah trusted in the Lord…there was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him.”  That’s pretty high praise.  As a result the Lord honors him and honors the people of Judah, the south.  The Assyrians who had just taken over the north now try their hand on the south.  But Hezekiah turns them back and they never do end up taking over the land or the people.  

One of my favorite places to go when we visit Israel is Hezekiah’s tunnel.  It is simply amazing.  Made by hand it is a long tunnel that stretches under Jerusalem and provided water for the city especially during sieges.  Interestingly enough Isaiah is the prophet who is alive during the reign of Hezekiah and so is the one who advises him that Assyrian would not take over the land of Judah.  Babylon, now that is a different story.

There is no Psalm more powerful than Psalm 139.  It is the one that I read the most when I make visits to the hospital because it reminds us how the Lord has made and created us.  It also reminds us of the deep knowledge that the Lord has of us.  Even while we were yet unformed in our mother’s wombs did the Lord know us.  That speaks to something pretty powerful there.

We begin our ping ponging back and forth between the rulers of Judah (the south and the home of Jerusalem) and Israel (the north and its capital being Samaria).  You should be able to see that for each ruler there is an overlap with the ruler from the other section.  Remember, these two lands at one time were united under Saul, David and Solomon, but now represent two separate and distinct kingdoms.  The north tends to do what is evil in the sight of the Lord and the south tends to do more what is good in the sight of the Lord.  It makes sense because the temple is located in the south.

We see in chapter 14 that the north is taken into captivity by Assyria which should not be confused with the Babylonian conquest which comes later.  

In Proverbs you have a clear description of someone who is called the adulteress and she is clearly blamed for leading those who come under her clutches astray.  It seems a bit, I guess silly is the word, to think that men have no power to say no or have no power to evade temptation and so we must blame the woman who is the temptress.  Not sure that would fly today.  We have to recognize that we cannot blame  the woman alone for adultery, and normally it is the man who is to take the primary blame, normally.

We once again find ourselves hearing about the life and times of Elisha as he leads Israel into the conquest of the Arameans and into a time of famine followd by a miraculous defeat of the Arameans simply by them running away and leaving all of their provisions behind without even a battle.  

We then transition to Jehu who cleans house, literally, and removes the king of Iarael and and all of his family and all of the family of Ahab including his wife, Jezebel.  Remember Ahab and Jezebel, the two who fought against Elijah on Mt. Carmel but were defeated by God bringing fire down?  Yeah, she is still around as well as the children of Ahab, 70 of them, and each with some right to the throne.  With the elimination of them Jehu is able to lay claim to the throne after Elisha sends his servant to go and annoint him.

As a reult Jehu kills all the prophets of Baal and destroys the temple of Baal while at the same time still hung on to the sins of Jeroboam and was willing to worship not just God, but also the golden calves of Bethel and Dan.  Even though he cleaned house in a very effective way, old bad habits die heard, and that still tripped him up.

Psalm 140 speaks of those who would use violence to bring about their desires and prays that their plans would not succeed.  It is somewhat ironic to hear about Jehu who is supported and encouraged by the Lord and the degree of violence that is a part of his life and yet he is doing God’s will.  Not somethign that in our modern day we would consider the way to do things at all, and Psalm 140 reflects that, but historically we simply know that God’s people took over control through violence primarily.  When Jesus came along he changed all that.

We begin a new book in the Bible and this time we also have the transition from Elijah to Elisha.  Isn’t it interesting that this book of the Bible is called Kings and yet it focuses on the prophet of the Lord and his interaction with the kings, even while the kings are very present and evident.  Elijah is taken up into heaven in a chariot of fire and Elisha sees it happen and as a result he is given the mantle of  prophetic leadership that Elijah had.  After receiving that leadership one of his first acts is to kill a bunch of teenagers who call him bald, yeah, that happened.  

The story of the widow’s oil is significant as is the healing of Naaman in the Jordan.  Both of those stories I have preached on numerous times as demonstrations of the love of God that manifests itself when we are willing to do God’s will even though at the time it is less than evident why we are doing what we are doing.

Proverbs gives us a series of warnings: against folly and against adultery.  Both of those things we find people of God caught up in and it changes and destroys lives.

We find ourselves in the last chapters of I Kings and the last day of king Ahab.  Remember, Ahab is that king who along with his wife Jezebel had that battle of the gods on Mount Carmel with the prophet Elijah.  He, along with the southern King, Jehosophat, are surrounded by yes sayers in the prophets around them who told them that they should go into battle against Aram.  But only one prophet, Micah, tells teh two kings the truth, they will be scattered o the battle field, meaning they would be defeated.  

They choose not to listen and go into battle and are defeated and Ahab is killed.  That ends the book of I Kings and the kingdom is still divided, even though they worked together for their own defeat here.

We then pick up in Proverbs with an extolling of wisdom as what we ought to be pursuing.  There are some who see in wisdom, the greek it would be Sophia.  Interestingly there is a whole movement in regards to Sophia almost defining her as a goddess.  

Chapter 5 gives the reader a chance to see the perils of adultery, and reminds the reader that it is probably better to “drink water from your own cistern.”  That’s a great euphemism for don’t cheat on your spouse.

We find a lot of intruige and death and backstabbing an other events to ensure that one ruler remains ruler and another ruler and his family are completely destroyed so that no one in the family would lay claim to the throne.  It fascinates me that each person that comes up and rules over Israel does what is worse than what his ancestors does.  This culminates with the reign of Ahab and Jezebel.  Keep in mind, these chapters only talk about the kingdom of Israel, so that would be the northern kingdom.  It seems like during this whole time the southern kingdom, Judah, is reigned by Asa and while not perfect we did read last chapter in 15:11 that he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.

We are introduced both to Elijah and Elisha in these Scriptures for today.  The battle of the prophets is classic as is Elijah’s experience with God in the cave where a still small voice came after a series of events that one would have assumed were theophanic experiences.  But none were, except, potentially, that still small voice, that whisper.  

In James we have some great moral teachings in regards to not treating other people with preference because of their wealth or their status.