PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2023-2024

It is these types of chapters in the Bible that give God a bit of a bad name.  Granted, Joshua is carrying out the commands of God and fulfilling the promises that were given to him by God, but all of the slaughter and the killing and all of the countries that are overtaken without a single living soul remaining.  It is interesting that Joshua was able to stop the sun and he is described as someone who was in charge when: “there has never been a day like it before or since, a day when the Lord listened to a man.”  That pretty heavy praise.

At the end of the day we have 31 kings and their lands taken over and that translates to 31 groups of people, nation states, completely wiped off the face of the earth.  It is hard to swallow, but it is also something that we have to recognize as taking place in the old covenant which certainly was not a covenant of grace.  Thanks be to God that we now live under a covenant of grace and God would never call us to do something similar.

We then transition to Acts and Peter takes center stage once again.  Peter’s vision is crucial for two reasons.  One for its literal translation which allows us to eat all that God has created and we no longer have to follow the dietary laws which God had given to the Israelites.  While that is great news to us meat lovers, the greater news is how he explains his vision to Cornelius which is that God has chosen all of the humanity, including the gentiles, to be a part of his kingdom.  No longer is just a select nation God’s children, but rather God so loved the world…  Here’s an appropriate video that speaks to the love of God for all people.

We continue along in the story of the Israelite gobbling up the land in front of them as they take over the promised land that was a part of the covenant that God made with the Israelites.  Some of the regions that they conquer they are allowed to take loot, but others they are not.  When they take over Jericho they were not allowed to take anything, but Achan saw a really pretty robe and some silver and figured no one would know.  Well, the next time Israel went to battle they lost and armed men died.  Achan is discovered and he dies along with his family and his livestock and all of his goods are burned.

That does the trick and Ai is then destroyed with an ambush that was carefully planned.  Joshua then renews the covenant with God.  But wait, back in 7:7 we see Joshua complain after the lost battle just like the Israelites complained when they were in the wilderness: It would have been better if we had stayed in Egypt.  Not something you want your leader to say.  In chapter 9 the Gibeonites do their own bait and switch as they make a pact with Israel so that they would be protected.  It works, as they pretend to be foreigners from far away, but are actually a neighboring country, which means that Israel could not take over their land and slaughter them, but they can take over their land and make them wood cutters and water bearers, so that happens.

In Acts we find the first martyrdom of a disciple, and that would be Stephen, who graduated from a deacon to preaching the Word of God.  He dies quietly, after preaching the Gospel from beginning to end.  At his death we see this new character, Saul, approving of his murder.  Look at 8:1-3 where you see the persecution of the church which continues strongly even after Saul comes on board.  My favorite story in Acts is seen in 8:26-40 where Philip converts the Ethiopian eunuch, but not by his own initiative, but rather by the initiative of the Spirit and the eunuch.  He does not force himself, but rather simply answers the questions that are posed to him by the eunuch.  That is a great model for evangelism.

We then see the conversion of Saul which will be repeated a number of times in the Bible.  

We see the Israelites finishing up their crossing of the Jordan River with a memorial being set up on the other side.  Remember how important it is for the people and their children to remember the actions of God, especially the miraculous actions like the passover and now the passing over of the Jordan.  We then move to the people of Israel circumcising themselves.  It does surprise me that they would not circumcise their children while they were in the wilderness.  I would have thought that this crucial aspect of the covenant would have been done, even if they were terribly disobedient.  

This then takes us to Joshua who fought the battle of Jericho, but we see that it isn’t much of a fight.  Nothing like blowing trumpets in order to seize the victory.  Now that is the type of battle that we need.  We see that Rahab and her family are saved just as she had been promised.

In Acts we find Peter and John before the Sanhedrin, which would have been the governing body of the priests of the temple.  Peter and John were involved in healings and this really disturbed the religious leaders.  They commanded them to come before them and charged them with not speaking any longer in the name of Jesus.  But they replied, we have to do the will of God, not the will of man.  

We see the Christian body growing, now it is up to 5,000 people, a real bonified megachurch.  They begin to live together and share all of their possessions together, except for Ananias and Sapphira, of  course, but they didn’t last long.  The story starting in 5:33 is one to pay attention to, where Gamaliel states very wisely when he is speaking to the religious leaders who are at wits end to figure out what to do: “Leave these men alone.  Let them go.  For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.  But if it is of God, you will not be able to stop these men, you will only find yourselves fighting against God.”  That is pretty powerful.

Moses dies and now it is up to Joshua to take the people into the promised land.  The Lord pumps Joshua up and encourages him to be strong and courageous as he prepares to enter the land.  He sends and expeditionary force out in front who happen to stay overnight at the home of a prostitute, not sure why this isn’t spoken about more.  It would not be where I would encourage my men to stay when they are on a top secret mission.  Rahab, the prostitute, is actually Jesus’ great great great so on grandmother.

Chapter 3 contains some of the most powerful didactic elements in the entire Old Testament.  God commands the priests to go forward with the ark, about 3,000 feet forward and to stand in the Jordan in order to dry it up, ala the Red Sea.  He tells the priests, you have to get your feet wet before the Jordan is going to dry up.  Isn’t that often the case with us?  We want to sea to part in front of us before we put our feet in the sea, if we have to risk it and actually put our feet in, well, then it may not be worth it.  God calls us to get out of the boat if we want to walk on water, he calls us to get our feet wet in order to see God’s miracles.  What a great lesson.

In Acts we have Jesus’ last words to his disciples where he sends them out into all the world.  We then have the day of Pentecost, also known as the birth-day of the church when the Holy Spirit falls powerfully on the apostles and all those who were gathered.  It is interesting that they were a group of 120 people and then once the Holy Spirit falls they swell into more than 3,000 people.  

We were set up in the previous chapter for these chapters where we were told that Moses had put together a song that was to be recited and sang by the generations to come so that they could remember how God had worked and how God would work in the history of the nations.  So his ditty begins in vs.32 where we find something more of a curse where Israel is said to be unfaithful and to turn their back on God.  As Moses calls them: “They are a nation void of sense.”  

After this song God tells Moses that he will take him up a mountain called Mount Nebo and there he would die.  The next chapter Moses blesses all of the tribes of Israel and names them by name.  This is quite a long chapter because there are twelve tribes that need to be blessed in this chapter alone.  In the last chapter we see Moses does climb Mt. Nebo and he dies there and was buried in the land of Moab.  He is one that is described as someone who saw God face to face.  That’s pretty impressive.  

Psalm 1 basically gives us the costs and benefits of following God or not following God.  There is the image of a tree planted along the river.  Each decision that we make either brings us closer to God or further away from God.  

We have what could be described as a summary of events in chapter 29 which serves as a renewal of the covenant for the people of Israel.  Probably the most powerful verses in the reading for today is found in Deuteronomy 30:19-20 where we see God tell Moses: Now choose life so that you and your children may live.  This is a powerful verse and it does show the decisions that we make often are decisions which either bring God closer to us or pushes God further away from us.

We then have the peaceful transition of power from Moses to Joshua and God predicts that the people of Israel will rebel.  I can only think of poor Joshua as the power if being passed from Moses to him and God is just going off on how bad the people are and how inevitable it is that they will turn their back on him and on their leader.  But, take heart Joshua, says vs.23, be strong and courageous.  I mean, the people are going to be snakes, but hey, I’ll be there with you to address it.

In Mark we have the crucifixion of Jesus and the burial and then the eventual resurrection.  If you notice, Mark is a bit controversial for some because some of the oldest manuscripts don’t contain 16:9ff.  For many the Gospel ends at verse 8.  Me, I don’t have a problem either way.  I know that Jesus rose from the dead and all of the other Gospels attest to it in a way that settles my faith. 

Hang in there folks, we are almost through Deuteronomy.  We find ourselves in chapter 26 where we have the first fruits of the land offered to the Lord in sacrifice.  The giving to God was a part of the natural habits of the people of Israel and so as time passed and evolved into the church, the idea of tithing to God became something that came naturally.  

In chapter 27 we find the tribes divided into those who would give blessings as they enter the promised land and those who would give curses.  We begin with the curses and it is from here where we get the phrase that we use sometimes: Then let all the people say: Amen!  I didn’t realize it was from here, but it must be, because it is repeated a number of times.  Chapter 28 contains both blessings and curses for the people of God with the requirement of obedience in order to enjoy the blessings.  

When we transition to Mark we find ourselves right before Jesus is heading into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to spend the last week of his life.  We hear the parable of the tenants who kill all those whom the owner sends, including the son whom he sends last.  That is obviously a reference to the prophets and then to Jesus.  A lot of popular stories are included in this chapter: “Pay unto Caesar”, Marriage at he resurrection, Greatest Commandment, widow’s offering.

Jesus does get into the signs of the coming of the end of the age, signs that for generations now people have tried to discern and guess.  Remember the point of all this is seen in Mark 13:32-36 where we do not know the time or the hour, but you better watch and be ready because Jesus can come at any time.  Chapter 14 has Jesus with his head washed and Judas betraying him as a result of that with a kiss in the garden.  We finish the chapter with Peter betraying Jesus and all of the disciples scattering.  Don’t ever forget that all of the disciples betrayed Jesus, not just Judas.

Moses prepares the people of Israel to take over the land flowing with milk and honey and provides them with even more laws which they have to follow.  Chapter 21 deals with how to handle a dead body and who is at fault and how to absolve the closest town from a death that is not attributed to anyone.  In that chapter we begin a series of laws dealing with purity of women and the responsibility of men to take as wives and honor the children of all of their wives.  Remember, this was a polygamous society so very different from what we know.

Chapter 22 describes the responsibilities that we have to our neighbor, whether we think we have to or not, we need to look out for our neighbors.  Chapter 23 describes who is welcome and who is not welcome to worship the Lord God, and it is all dependent upon their nationality.  Again, very different from our approach today.  24 contains a number of different laws from kidnapping to paying the wages of the poor before nightfall comes.  

Mark gives us the triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  Remember, we are one week away from the death of Jesus so the time is waning.  He clears out the temple because of the money changers and declares that the temple is to be a house of the Lord, not a house of commerce.  

In these chapters Moses lays out the religious holidays that ought to be celebrated once they arrive into the promised land that was given to them.  Chapter 16 goes through the celebration of Passover, which was a reminder of what God did for them in Egypt.  Chapter 17 addresses the desire of the people to have a king and I was surprised to read this part because I had thought that God had categorically at this point denied the Israelites even the possibility of setting up a king.  But here he gives some details on how the king is to be chosen and how that king is to rule.  This is way before Saul is anointed the first king of Israel.

Moses addresses how the Levites have been set apart and so don’t have an inheritance of the land, but rather the people need to be taking care of them through the offerings.  We then transition to cities of refuge where people can go if they kill someone by mistake.  That is always nice to have.  And finally we see direction on what to do when you go to war.

In our Mark Scripture we read Jesus receiving the children and telling them that they cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven if they do not become like children in their faith.  Accepting of all that he teaches.  We next see Jesus’ command to the young man to sell all that he has and give it to the poor.  To me it is interesting how we tend to consider some stories literal and other stories allegories.  This one tends to be symbolized more than accepted as literal for some reason.  

We have in Deuteronomy the repeated emphasis on not having other gods before them.  They were poised to enter the promised land, and this meant that they were poised to go into battle and take over towns and cities that were already occupied and where the people were worshiping other gods.  As they conquered these cities they were commanded to first of all tear down all of the religious artifacts that may have been present from the previous population so that whatever religious relics were still in existence, would be destroyed.  God is a jealous God, He says so himself.

I found it interesting that it is within these verses where we see the establishment of the local synagogues where the people are told to create a space that would have the name of the Lord God upon it and the Levites who were living in that town would be the ones who were running that space.  The Levites do not have their own land like all of the other tribes, but rather are spread out among the other tribes and they serve the function now, as it is laid out here, to run the place that is established in each land, that has the name of the Lord upon it.  We would call it the synagogue of that time, or the church in the Christian parlance.

In 13 we see the punishment for anyone who might lead people away from God to another God is pretty severe.  Even if it is your best friend, or your son or daughter, they are to be killed and you are to be the one who takes the first blow.  Did I mention that God is a jealous God?  We continue in chapter 14 with eating laws which then goes into the year of jubilee and the requirement to set your slaves free and to forgive the debts that you may have over other people.  

Mark 9 is filled with a number of very, very important life events of Jesus.  We begin with the transfiguration of Jesus where we are commanded to listen to Jesus even in the midst of the disciples not understanding the kingdom that he brings or how he is going to bring it: with his suffering and death.  We see a number of times that the disciples did not understand, look at vs.32 this whole talk of suffering and dying, and they were too afraid to ask him.  I love the depiction in the Vatican of the transfiguration because you also have the scene of the disciples trying to heal the boy and unable to do so.  Every time that I go to the Vatican I have to see this painting, and it reminds me of the power of the Gospel, and the importance of listening to Jesus and his commandments.  It is by Raphael.