Wow… I have been terrible at updating this!!

I am not exactly sure how many people are following this, but for the few who are, I must apologize for my inconsistency.  I have been pretty busy, and the blogs have been the thing that have taken the back seat to other stuff.  The reading has been going very well.  To date, I have taken one grace day in the plan.  This was for Valentine’s Day, which happened to fall on a Sunday this year.  This made things pretty packed as I balanced Sunday morning responsibilities and taking my bride out on the town.  I thank God for the grace days, because I know that things like this just come up from time to time.

Since then, I have had one day that I did not get the reading done.  It was actually two days ago…  Saturday seemed to slip by without warning, and at the end of it, I realized that I was officially behind schedule.  I caught up on Sunday, but it was definitely tough.  But here I am, Monday, and still truckin’.

Today is day 21 and will take me from 1 Samuel 16 – 1 Samuel 28.  I am officially through eight of the books of the Bible…. only 58 books left to go!!!  I should be through one more of those after tomorrow.

It has been interesting seeing how certain books seem to read faster than others.  Numbers was, in my opinion, one of the hardest books to read thus far.  There were some interesting parts, but it was tough for me to simply read over and over again how many people were in each tribe.  That is the only book that has really been a struggle for me.  Leviticus was awesome…  crazy laws and stuff that made me thankful for Jesus’ fulfillment of the Law.  Deuteronomy was pretty cool too…  Moses throwing down and doing some wild stuff.

The past few days have taken me through a few books.  Joshua, Judges, Ruth, and now 1 Samuel.

The book of Joshua was so cool.  It was almost like watching “Saving Private Ryan”…  Joshua led the people of Israel over the Jordan River and into the Promised Land to conquer many different cities and peoples.  There was constant advancing by the people of God into the land that the Lord had promised them, and they settled in their place of rest… that is until it was time to fight again.  Joshua led his people well, but then he died… He went out with a bang though… He challenged his people to choose who they were going to serve.  He assured them that if they chose anything other than the LORD, then they would fall.

Judges, much like Joshua was filled with war and battles.  The difference was that Israel was going through seasons of war and peace like a yo-yo.  The other thing is that they went through a whole host of “judges” that ruled them.  Some of these Judges were good, others were, in the words of Charles Barkley “trrble”…  The thing that I loved about Judges is that there were stories that would make you cringe.  I love these stories because it really helps us to see the Word of God more clearly and shakes us out of our tree of complacency…  Some totally violent and gruesome things happened in there…  Ehud (one of the Judges) stabbed a big fat dude, Eglon, in the belly like a fresh caught fish.  The Bible went as far to describe this as saying that “dung came out” when Ehud  did this.  Then, not a chapter later, we see Sisera fleeing what he saw as certain death by falling into the hands of Israel.  He makes his way to the tent of the wife of a friendly… or so he thought.  She (Jael) covered him up with a blanket to get all snuggly, gave him some milk, and the dude falls asleep.  Then she grabs a tent spike and a hammer and drive it through his head like a mushroom going onto a shish-ke-bab…  i mean, this is crazy stuff!

Judges led into one of the most amazing books about redemption in all of the Bible.  The Book of Ruth.  This story is so beautiful, and I am moved every time I read it.  This beautiful, young, foreign, widow, Ruth, leaves the place of her homeland, enters into a strange land, and is redeemed by a man’s man, Boaz.  He treats her so tenderly and with so much love…  I think that every man should have to read and understand this book before they even think about taking a wife…  We need MANY more men like Boaz in this world.  If the men would lead like Boaz, we would not have as many divorces, and spiritually pitiful “Christian” families…

1 Samuel, although I am not finished with it, is pretty legit.  Samuel, a prophet of God is used by God to select a king for Israel.  The people forsake the Lord, so he puts Saul in place…  which is a huge mistake on the people’s part…  They asked for it though.  Saul ended up being a piss poor king who was more concerned about his own success and glory than he was about the Lord’s glory.

I will try to update this more frequently…  sorry about that again.

Father, help me to continue to be refreshed, renewed, and revitalized by YOUR WORD.  help me to see areas of my life that are not pleasing to You…  mold me into a man after Your own heart.  help me to seek YOUR GLORY, not my own.

here is a better pic, courtesy of the ESV Study Bible

Numbers 2, the arrangemen of the camp

I forgot, this was pretty cool to visualize… The Lord established what their arrangement would be for the camp… As I was reading, I sketched this out.

Every tribe was situated around the tabernacle, with their tents facing it. Pretty cool to think about this.

Day 10: Leviticus 27-Numbers 8

Wow, this one was a tough day…  The last chapter of Leviticus dealt with laws about vows.  I was getting pretty excited that this was the last chapter of Leviticus, and then I got into Numbers.  The first 8 chapters of Numbers is pretty much described by the title of the book…  So far, this has been the toughest part to gut it out through.

There was a bit of interesting relief from the numbers though…  The Lord gave some commands to the Levites regarding their ministerial duties.  This was pretty thorough, and each “clan” had a specific duty.  The whole Tabernacle had to be portable so that it could travel with the people, so there was a very strict process for dismantling and setting of the tent.  The part that I had always wondered about was the Ark…  How did they transport this??  No one but the high priest was supposed to be in the room with the Ark and only but once per year.

in Chapter 4, Aaron and his sons are given the responsibility of covering the Ark with the veil…  then they cover it with goatskin…  then they cover it with a blue cloth…  then they put the poles into the rings so that it could be carried without being touched by human hands.  This was a process!  And that is pretty much how they transported everything that was in the Tent.

Chapter 5 dealt with unclean people…  there was even a “test for adultery.”  That was pretty involved.

Aaron’s blessing was cool though…  ”The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”  I liked this.  which was good, because the next chapter was HIGHLY redundant…

Here is what was basically repeated 12 times in chapter 7… “12 He who offered his offering the first day was Nahshon the son of Amminadab, of the tribe of Judah.13 And his offering was one silver plate whose weight was 130 shekels, one silver basin of 70 shekels, according to the shekel of the sanctuary, both of them full of fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering;14 one golden dish of 10 shekels, full of incense;15 one bull from the herd, one ram, one male lamb a year old, for a burnt offering;16 one male goat for a sin offering;17 and for the sacrifice of peace offerings, two oxen, five rams, five male goats, and five male lambs a year old. This was the offering of Nahshon the son of Amminadab.”

Just switch the names and repeat twelve times… that’s chapter 7.

Chapter 8 closed out with the blessing and purification of the Levites to serve as the Lord’s priests.  The Lord took the Levites to Himself so that the other people of all the other tribes may be redeemed.  The Levitical priesthood was thus established and secured as the Lord’s.  One of the fun facts: Priests were initiated into the priesthood at the age of 25 and stepped down at 50…

Father, forgive my ignorance and impatience with the redundancy of Numbers 1-8…  They are YOUR words, and i am a fool.  Lord, break my heart and heal it with Your Word.

Day 9: Leviticus 15-26

Today will take us ALMOST out of Leviticus……..  For some strange reason the reading plan stops one chapter shy of finishing Leviticus tonight.  It’s cool…  whatever.

Keeping up with the reading has been good so far this week… (it IS only Tuesday).  I will be happy to get through Leviticus though.  The Laws that are outlined in Leviticus are so redundant it seems.  I think that it could have been much shorter, BUT, the Lord thought it was necessary, so it IS NECESSARY!

Chapter 15…  you know, there is nothing much like starting your day with a nice cup of coffee…  You watch as the dark, smooth liquid cascades down into your mug, steam billowing up…  the smell of the fresh brew hits your nostrils and you are awake…  Carefully, you sip…  it’s hot, very hot…  but soothing.  Then you sit down with your coffee and Bible in hand and open it up to read as your eggs boil…  You are in Leviticus…  Chapter 15…  you take another sip as you read the first verse and a half: “The LORD spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying,2 Speak to the people of Israel and say to them…”  You take another sip and continue on… “When any man has a discharge from his body, his discharge is unclean.3 And this is the law of his uncleanness for a discharge: whether his body runs with his discharge, or his body is blocked up by his discharge, it is his uncleanness.”

YEP, no better way to start your morning…  Coffee, hard boiled eggs, turkey sausage, and a little light reading on bodily discharges…  and yes, the entire chapter is like that.

Chapter 16 was cool as heck though…  It centered on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) which was a day that the Jews would celebrate EVERY YEAR.  This got me excited because this is where it talks about Aaron bringing the two goats before the Lord and casting lots to see which one would be the sin offering, and which would be the one that would carry the sin away.  The reason that I love this, is because it is a foreshadowing of Christ.  See the first goat, being the “unlucky one,” gets slaughtered right there, and thus becoming the people’s propitiation (satisfies the wrath of Go).  The other goat however, becomes the people’s expiation (removal or cleansing from sins).  This goat was also called the scapegoat.  They would confess the sins of the people over this goat’s head, and then go ditch him in the wilderness to take the sins out of the city.

The way that this foreshadows Christ is that He becomes both of the goats in a sense…  now, please do not think that I am reducing Jesus to a goat… no no no…  I am saying that Jesus is the perfect fulfillment and replacement for these two goats.  So perfect in fact that his sacrifice only had to be made once, and not once per year…  Jesus shed his blood on the cross and died a terrible gruesome and violent death, thus becoming for us, our propitiation.  Due to the fact that we needed not only propitiation, but expiation, Jesus had to also function as the scapegoat.  He effectively became our expiation when he carried our sins into the grave and then rose bodily three days later, leaving our sins in the grave…  Thus conquering Satan, sin, and death…  This is the Gospel…  it is a story of perfect redemption at the hands of the God-Man Jesus.

you know what…  honestly, that is all that I write about right now…  JESUS CHRIST, CRUCIFIED, BURIED, RESURRECTED, AND REIGNING…

the rest of today’s reading was ok…  there are a bunch of laws about sexual relations…  which is a list longer than you would have expected and covers things that I think only happen in West Virginia and Utah.

I am pumped about getting into Numbers…

Father, THANK YOU for sending Jesus.  Thank You that He is our PERFECT propitiation and expiation.  i do not deserve the gift of YOUR mercy and grace.  forgive me for my brokenness, and grow me in my sanctification.

Day 8: Leviticus 1-14

Well, the first weekend of the reading plan is past, and we are back onto weekdays.  The reading for Day 8 took me into Leviticus head first.  The first 14 chapters are, well, a bit redundant…  Levitical Law is not the most riveting of reads, but as it is one of the book of the Bible and the third book of the Torah, it is important and beneficial as 2 Timothy 3:10 says…  So, we charge on, trusting that the Lord will help us to draw closer and closer to His heart through every aspect of His Law.  Including laws about burnt offerings, grain offerings, peace offerings, sin offerings, guilt offerings, etc…

I am also trusting that the Lord will help me to see how dwelling on such things will make me “like a tree planted near streams of water that yields fruit in it’s season, it’s leaf does not wither.  In everything [I] do [I] prosper.” Psalms 1…

So, Leviticus 1-5…  Basically these first 5 chapters were totally surrounding offerings of various types.  This part of the read was tough, and I must admit that there was probably very little that I actually retained.  The next time I read this, maybe some more will stick.

Chapters 8-9 talked about the consecration of Aaron and his sons for the priesthood.  This actually got pretty interesting for me and I started thinking about what it would be like if I had to go through this ritual to become a pastor.  They had to kill a bunch of animals, throw their blood around, wash certain parts, burn certain parts, eat other parts…  it was crazy!  There was even a point at which Aaron puts a burnt offering on the altar, and fire came out and consumed the offering in front of all the people…  What was their response?  Everyone fell on their faces… But the Lord was intent on communicating that He is a God that should be approached with care…  to prove His point, things got a little crazier.

In Chapter 10, Nadab and Abihu (Aaron’s sons) get a good idea to bring another fire before the Lord…  This was not fire that was approved by the Lord, but they figured that it would not matter.  As they laid the incense on the altar that was lit by their own fire, something incredible happened…  Fire came out of the Most Holy Place and BBQ’d them…  Even after Moses told Aaron that the Lord wanted people to honor Him and do what He says, Aaron “held his peace.”  He just watched his sons get toasted by God, and he held his peace.  Amazing…

The rest of the reading for today dealt with Laws regarding clean and unclean animals, purification after childbirth, laws about leprosy, and laws for cleansing said lepers..

The clean vs. unclean animals part cracked me up…  check it out:

Lev. 14:3-8  ”3 Whatever parts the hoof and is cloven-footed and chews the cud, among the animals, you may eat.4 Nevertheless, among those that chew the cud or part the hoof, you shall not eat these: The camel, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you.5 And the rock badger, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you.6 And the hare, because it chews the cud but does not part the hoof, is unclean to you.7 And the pig, because it parts the hoof and is cloven-footed but does not chew the cud, is unclean to you.8 You shall not eat any of their flesh, and you shall not touch their carcasses; they are unclean to you.”

Then it starts getting into my forte…  the water!!  but I was disappointed, because according to this, eels are unclean (under the First Covenant of course).  This stinks because I like eels, and even have two in my aquarium…  I guess if I was a Jew during the Levitical rule, then I would not have ha any…  in fact, they would have been “detestable” to me…  oh well.

The section on leprosy was very thorough I thought…  I think it covered every skin disease known to man, plus three more that have never been discovered.  The cool thing is that if one of the college students comes down with leprosy, I will get to try this “lock them in the closet for a week and then re-examine” thing that Aaron did.  It even told you how to cleanse a house that had been “infected” with leprosy…

All in all, these are good for anyone to know…  I mean, you never know, right??

Tomorrow’s reading starts off with Laws about Bodily Discharges…  :)  Fun Fun Fun!

Father, help me to see Your Supreme Goodness in the Scriptures that You authored by Your Holy Spirit.  i yield to your work in my life, and ask that i would be used to glorify Your name.

Thoughts from Day 6 &7 (Exodus 16-40)

Wow, I am starting to experience the “wall” in this whole process of posting blogs… It has been tough to post my thoughts on the reading because I have so much that I am getting from it.  It was interesting also to see how much of a struggle it was to finish my readings during the weekend.  I had figured that the reading on the weekend would be easier because I did not have work, meetings, e-mail, etc…  But what I found was that because I am not as intentional with my time on the weekends, things will quickly fall by the wayside.  I have kept up, despite missing my mark on Friday, but got back on track Saturday.  I have found that it is about an hour and fifteen minute commitment of just reading to accomplish this daily read.  On top of that, I have been stopping every so often to jot down some notes or revelations that I have.  This can easily become an hour and a half to an hour and forty-five minutes.  If you are tracking along with me on this plan, please keep it up!  You are doing great, and I know that this will continue to help you grow in Christ.

As for the readings of Day 6 & 7…

Day 6 was Exodus 16-28.

This reading can be broken down into two basic sections…  First, we see that God provides for His people.  What I mean by this is that God will give the people what they need… not necessarily what they want.  They had their basic biological needs met in that they were provided food and water, and they had shelter that they could get into.  We see that the Lord provided the food and water miraculously in the form of crusty stuff on the ground that tasted like honey called manna, and water from a rock.  Then the Lord provided Laws for the people.  You may be thinking that this is not something that is given to someone, but rather “imposed” on them.  I would argue with this and say that the Lord provided a system of order and security within a culture of people who were lost and confused.

The Lord met with Moses and communicated all of the Laws to him so that he might relay those to the people.  This is where we got the Ten Commandments, and all of the other laws.  It got pretty funny at times…  for instance check this one out:  21:28  “When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox shall be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten, but the owner of the ox shall not be liable. 29  But if the ox has been accustomed to gore in the past, and its owner has been warned but has not kept it in, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and its owner also shall be put to death. 30  If a ransom is imposed on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is imposed on him. 31  If it gores a man’s son or daughter, he shall be dealt with according to this same rule. 32  If the ox gores a slave, male or female, the owner shall give to their master thirty shekels of silver, and the ox shall be stoned.”  You know, I never would have thought about it, but if I was in that situation, I would want to know what to do… The Law provides an answer…  stone the ox!

The second part that this days reading can be divided into is the Confirmation of the covenant, and the instructions for the tabernacle.  This part was pretty cool.  I love the imagery that flows all through this section.  In Chapter 24, Moses gathers the  people  together and tells them what God has said…  Their response to what Moses told them was this: “All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do.”  Then Moses made peace offerings of oxen to the Lord.  He took half of the blood from the animal(s) and placed it in basins.  Half of the blood he threw against the altar.  Then he took the book of the Covenant and read it before the people, to which they replied: “All the words that the LORD has spoken we will do.”  Then, Moses took the rest of the blood and threw it onto the people.  As I read this, I could not help but draw the parallel to Christ’s blood covering us.  I closed my eyes and tried to picture myself before Christ Himself, draining His own blood and then dumping it out onto me.  Yes, it is gruesome, and it is ghastly, but it is the message of the Gospel….  If we begin to visualize this, it helps us to better understand that the sacrifice that He made was COSTLY…  This passage in Exodus was very moving for me…  It talked so clearly about the coming of Christ and what He gave for ill-deserving sinners.

The 6th day of reading closed with explicit instructions for the construction of the Tabernacle.  Chapter 25:9 said this: “Exactly as I show you concerning the pattern of the tabernacle, and of all its furniture, so you shall make it.”  The LORD then gave VERY explicit instructions for building the Tabernacle.  There was no room for deviation.  And why did He want Moses to build this Tabernacle?  The previous verse said: “let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.”  What an honor…  the LORD GOD HIMSELF wanted to dwell in their midst.  And if He is to dwell in their midst, they had better have his dwelling place done the way that He wants it.

The parallel that I saw here is the parallel between the Tabernacle/Temple vs. our hearts.  Under the New Covenant, the Lord dwells in the hearts of those that He saves.  I began to think about this and remembered what Ravi Zacharias once said in a message…  He made the point that the Tabernacle had explicit instructions for being built so that God would be able to meet with His people.  Then he talked about how our hearts, now being the dwelling place of God, need to be “constructed” according to what God has said if we ever want Him to meet with us.  Now, this is not to say that we are saved by works, or doing something for the LORD…  What I am saying is that for us to truly meet with God, our hearts need to be so conditioned that we are able to meet with Him period.  With all of the junk that we allow our hearts to be filled with, we fail to keep the Lord’s temple in order, and then miss the fellowship that we should be enjoying with HIM.

Day 7 was Exodus 29-40

Ok, Day 7 was the conclusion of Exodus, and was filled with some great stuff!  It started off with a consecration (making Sacred) of the priests.  Aaron was the first priest and according to the Law, their priesthood would be their’s forever.  This process involved killing a lot of animals and splattering a lot of blood…  but at the end of the process, the priesthood had been established.  Aaron being a priest of the Most High God, would ideally be a theologically sound dude, who is able to lead his people well…  but then something happens that would suggest otherwise…

While Moses has been up on the mountain talking with the Lord, watching Him write the Law on two stone tablets with His finger, the people grow impatient…  rather than paraphrase this one, I thought it would be appropriate to quote it… check this out:

Exodus 32:1-6

1  When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” 2  So Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3  So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4  And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5  When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.” 6  And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.

These knuckleheads get bored waiting for Moses, so they ask Aaron to craft them an idol to worship…  And the most ridiculous part is that HE DID IT!

When Moses gets back and hears the singing and partying, he wonders what’s going on.  As he comes closer to the camp, he sees the calf and all of his idiot people worshipping it.  At this point we see Moses literally blow a gasket.  He was so mad that he threw the tablets on the ground that God had just finished writing on and shattered them into pieces.  Being the good leader that he was, he went to Aaron, who is essentially second in command and asks what the heck happened.  The dialogue is priceless:

Exodus 32:21-24 (my paraphrase)

Moses: “what the heck did these people do to you that you led them into such sin?”

Aaron: “Chill out Moses, don’t get mad at ME!  You know that these people are evil… they always try to find ways to do bad things… So, they wondered where YOU had gone to, and to calm them down, I collected their gold jewelry, I threw it into the fire, and WHAM, this golden calf came right out!  It was crazy!”

Moses gets so angry that he has the faithful ones of God slaughter three thousand of the people who were worshipping the calf…  So, lesson to be learned: Not such a good idea to worship idols..

Gathering his thoughts, Moses goes back to the Lord to discuss the future plans for the people of God. God assures him that He will be with them, and then Moses says something profound… Exodus 33:15 “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here.”  Moses was essentially saying, “God, I want you with me EVERY STEP of the way…  if you are not with me, then I do not want to be there.  I love this and it is my prayer for my own life.  I do not want to go anywhere that the Lord’s presence will not accompany me.  Not that I can escape the reach of the Lord, but that I would be out of His pathway.

After things get patched up, Moses makes new tablets to replace the ones he broke. The Lord authors the words on the tablet again, and Moses was able to keep a hold on them.  From that point on, every time that Moses went to meet with God, his face would glow.  This served to show the people that Moses was in direct communication with God, and if I saw something like that, I would be a whole lot less likely to worship some golden calf that “jumped out of a fire.”

Exodus closes out with the people constructing the Tabernacle.  They had done everything as the Lord had commanded.  Down to the cubits, they had constructed everything exactly as God had commanded.  Because of their obedience, the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle.  It was so radiant and glorious that Moses was not able to enter.  The Lord now dwelt among His people, although behind two curtains, and only directly accessible to Moses…

The next reading will take us into Leviticus.  Praying for endurance!!

Father, open my eyes that i might behold the wondrous things in YOUR LAW!