PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2023-2024

Isaiah is one of those books of the Bible that if you don’t know what the context is it might be difficult to understand what the prophet is saying.  So, let’s establish that.  Isaiah is a prophet of God and we don’t see his commissioning until we get to the next chapter in Isaiah 6.  But suffice it to say that Israel is divided into two kingdoms with two rulers who have no love lost among themselves.  There is the northern kingdom, called Israel with its religious center in Samaria, and the southern kingdom, called Judah with its religious center in Jerusalem with the temple.

Isaiah warns in this chapter that both nations will be going into exile and will be taken over by the Babylonians and taken far away from their homeland.  You can see this described in Isaiah 5 where we find the image of the vineyard producing bad grapes and so as a result it will be destroyed.

It is great to be able to read a complete book of the Bible.  Paul loved the Ephesian church and we know that he was the one who founded it.  You can read about the founding of the church in Acts 18:19.  I have to say that it is probably one of my favorite Epistles because of the history involved in it.  It is the church that it is thought that Mary attended.  It is thought to be the church where the Apostle John was buried and also attended.  Stacy and I were able to visit the church in Ephesus and it certainly felt like holy ground to me.

There is a lot in this book of the Bible but I wanted you to be familiar with a verse that I just discovered this morning which I am envisioning as being my own and which I am asking of you.  Look at Ephesians 6:19 and consider this my request from me to you: “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains.  Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.”

You can also find the ecumenical verses of Paul in Ephesians 4:3-6 where he speaks about the unity of the body of Christ.  This is matched perfectly well with another call to unity in chapter 2:13-16.  Ephesians gives us a lot of ammunition to remind ourselves that we are called to be one church in Christ Jesus.

We find ourselves today on Good Friday and we have just read the Scripture which speaks of that event in Jesus’ life.  These chapters contain the ride into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday which is in chapter 19.  We then transition to a number of teachings, but no more miracles from now to the end of the chapter, just teachings.  

We also find in these readings the last supper and all that takes place in chapter 22 which we looked at last evening at the Maundy Thursday service.  Just one note before that, look at 21:37 where we read that every day Jesus would teach in the temple and then every evening he would head to the Mount of Olives as if that is where he would stay overnight.  The Garden of Gethsemane was not just a place that he happened to find the evening of his betrayal.  That was a location that he was very familiar with and obviously where he spent a lot of time.

In chapter 23 we find the crucifixion of Jesus and all the events that led up to that and all the events that composed the crucifixion.  Finally, in the last chapter. we have the resurrection and the unique story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus.  No other Gospel writer has that story.  I like the simplicity of the Ascension and the final command to hang out in the city, that would be Jerusalem, until they received power.  Remember, Luke is written by the same author who wrote Acts which is where we have the story of Pentecost, so it all makes sense.  

We find ourselves in the middle of Luke with all of Jesus’ miracles and teachings compiled to give us an insight into what it was really like to be his disciple as he did all of these things.  We find many of his miracles lead to teachings that have to do specifically with the kingdom of God.  Chapter 15 is a key chapter because it contains both the parable of the lost sheep and the parable of the prodigal son.  We know both stories and they both deal with the same topic.  The way in which God searches for us as we go through life and walk away from him.

One of the favorite stories that I like to tell the preschool kids is the one of the 10 lepers who are healed and only one comes back to thank Jesus.  He tells the one to go because his faith made him well.  Surprisingly all of the others who were healed were permanently healed, they didn’t lose their healing because they didn’t come back and thank Jesus.

Chapter 18 contains the parable of the persistent widow which Stacy and I used to preach on when we came back from Russia to do itineration in the various churches.  It also contains Jesus telling the disciples to let the children come unto him, which was what was written on the main orphanage building where we worked in Naples, Italy.  A lot of cross reference going on here.

This was a super long reading and there are a lot of events in Jesus’ life that we could point to which catch our attention.  Let’s try to underline the highlights.  Jesus goes on a tear and heals a whole bunch of people from the centurion’s servant to the widow’s son and there are more in the other chapters that read including the demon possessed man and the raising of the dead girl and the sick woman with the flow of blood.

But he also shows he has power over nature by calming the storm.  We see the story of the transfiguration and Jesus sending out the 72 and of course our favorite, the parable of the good Samaritan.  Chapter 12 contains many different warnings about the end times, but the final point is: Jesus is coming, but we just don’t know when.  It will be like a thief in the night and when we least expect it.  That’s a good thing to remember. 

We begin reading through the Gospel of Luke.  There is an undercurrent among old scholarship that sees this Gospel written by a medical person and someone who is fairly educated.  That stance has been debated in the last few decades and most fall in the category of that is not necessarily the case.  The details that Luke includes which the other Gospels do not include are many.  One of them is the reference to rulers and leaders among the secular world which squarely places these verses within a time frame that we know took place historically.  And that is where we start.

We actually begin this Gospel with an explanation that all of this was written “so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught” to a certain Theophilus.  Theophilus means simply lover of God.  We start with the miraculous birth of John the Baptist who was a relative of Jesus.  We then transition in this very long chapter to the announcement of the birth of Jesus and then his actual birth.  It is in this second chapter, and only in this Gospel, where we read that he was placed in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.

Only here do we find the shepherds and the angels.  Jesus is presented at the temple and we are introduced briefly to Anna and Simeon and their exclamations of joy at meeting the Messiah.  John the baptism baptizes and then is arrested.  Jesus’ genealogy goes back to Joseph.  Jesus is tempted in the wilderness to begin his ministry.  Jesus is almost killed in his hometown of Nazareth in one of his first lessons taught in the synagogue after he comes back from his time of preparation in the wilderness.  Not a great start for him.

I guess I would encourage you to focus on Luke 6:27-36 in this day and age of division.  Love your enemies.

We don’t often find ourselves sitting down and reading an entire book of the Bible.  Congratulations, you did it!  Let’s set the stage a bit because it is a confusing if you just hear the words and don’t understand what is happening to put them in context.  After King Solomon, that would be King David’s son, dies almost immediately Israel is split into two kingdoms, the north and the south.  The north is called Israel (I know, confusing) and the south is called Judah.  The capital of the north where their religious center was located was in Samaria and the capital for the south where their religious center is located is Jerusalem.  That makes sense, because that is where the temple is.

The people of the north almost immediately turn on God and start to worship other gods.  The people of the south have the temple in their midst and so tend to be a bit less conflicted and unfaithful and so remain somewhat loyal to God.  Micah is a prophet who speaks out against this separation and specifically against the northern kingdom and tells them that they will be taken into captivity into Babylon, which eventually happens.

There are some key memory verses that are crucial to hear in Micah which ought to have caught your attention: Micah 4:3 which was often used as a peace narrative.  In fact, this song came from this verse:

We also have the prophecy of Bethlehem being the city where the Savior, the Messiah would be born, which is where Herod told the wise men he would be born, you see this in Micah 5:2

You also have a very popular verse which describes what it is that the Lord ultimately demands of us, which is found in Micah 6:8

We ended last time with the death of Absalom, and we begin this time with the death of Absalom.  David refuses to be comforted about the death of his son who was a traitor and looked to overthrow him until his general comes to him and says if you don’t celebrate our victory then all the men are going to leave you.  It does remind me of the soldiers coming home from Vietnam and the treatment that they received. 

David then returns to Jerusalem with all of the tribes of Israel and Judah supporting him.  But there was one, Sheba, who rebelled against David and so David had to pursue him and his head was thrown over the wall of the city in order to spare the city.  Yeah, so that happened.  The Gibeonites who were promised eternal protection had that stripped from them by Saul and David makes up for it by killing a number of Saul’s descendants.  That also happened.

David then sings a song of praise which is pretty much perfectly reflected in Psalm 18 which we also read for today.  I love how the Scriptures match up with each other.  David’s last words are basically the counting and recounting of his soldiers and their exploits.  He then disobeys God, seemingly with God’s encouragement, and as a result a plague strikes the land which is not appeased until David builds an altar at the location where the plague seemed to stop.  

We already spoke about Psalm 18 which is a mirror reflection of II Samuel 22 and Psalm 50 gives us the words that we have heard at one time or another as it pertains to the glory of the Lord: from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets.

There were a lot of names mentioned in these three chapters and even I found it a bit difficult to keep them straight.  Let’s set the stage.  One of David’s prophets, Hushai, had gone back to the king’s palace where David’s son, Absalom, had taken over and was now reigning while David was hiding out with his men.  Hushai gave advice to Absalom that he could then pass on to David and let him know what Absalom would do as far as his next step in pursuing David.  He was basically a mole in Absalom’s court.  It worked, and the Israelites under Absalom fell to the Israelites under David.  

Notice the last message that David gives his generals which is be gentle to Absalom since he still loved him.  When the battle is over and David hears that Absalom has been killed David mourns with the famous line: “O my son Absalom! My son, my son Absalom!  If only I had died instead of you – O Absalom, my son, my son!”

The psalms that we read reflect this crying out of David to God as he is being pursued by his enemies.  In this day and age Psalm 7:9-10 is a good one to hear: “O righteous God, who searches minds and hearts, bring to an end the violence of the wicked and make the righteous secure.  My shield is God Most High, who save the upright in heart.”

The story of David continues and we get to the point of the story that is very conflicted and we see the sin of David reveal itself.  David is an adulterer who takes the wife of one of his soldiers and then sends that soldier into battle purposefully to die on the battlefield.  Nathan, the prophet of David, calls David out and says that the child that is to be born to Bathsheba, the woman he raped, will die.  David goes into mourning until the child dies and then he comes out of it.

Just to interject here, Psalm 51 which we read is a psalm that David wrote as a result of Nathan confronting him with this egregious sin.  This psalm contains phrases that are memorized the world over.  Just about everyone has heard this phrase:  “Create in me a clean heart oh God.”  We are also familiar with this phrase: “You do not delight in sacrifice…the sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.”

It seems as if things get worse in the household of David, the fruit doesn’t fall far from the tree.  One of David’s sons rapes one of David’s daughters.  The brother of that daughter then kills the one who raped his sister.  Absalom is the one whose sister was raped and who killed his step-brother.  He is banished from Jerusalem until he isn’t.  He comes back to Jerusalem and conspires against David by sitting at the city gate and speaking poorly of David and trying to gain the trust of the people himself so that they would turn and serve him. 

As a result it becomes clear to David that his reign is not viable so he better boogie out of Jerusalem.  He boogies out and Absalom comes in.  That is where we leave it.  We know that the Lord is with David and that this is just going to be a brief blip on the screen of David’s rule, but let’s see what happens.