read in context (part 1)

I am about to post my final thoughts concerning several years of going thru the Bible, vrs by vrs.

I commented on each book. Took me awhile to do so because I was convicted with every word i typed.

There's nothing profound in this. The mindset I had as I did this was to display how one reads it wrong, due to either upbringing or modern church influence or just a culture that glorifies itself.

I guess I've wanted to do this for a long long time, if not for others, than for me, because this book has so changed my life and thinking, it's nearly impossible to convey it.

My current biggest struggle is, shedding years worth, decades worth, of total ignorance of God's Word. Many of these thoughts reflect that.

My thoughts will come in five (long) posts and this is my way of ending one trip through God's Word before beginning another.

I intend to wait a month before beginning again.
Putting myself on some 'plan' won't work for me.
It can't be "my" plan.

Again, there's nothing profound in my thoughts.
I'm not a scholar by any sense of the word.

I'm just a guy who started paying attention.

so here goes:

Genesis : Creation! This Book will take you from one extreme to another. From  God saying "let there be.."  to regrettably mankind's first temptation being "did God really say".
Contrary to modern belief, we are not made in God's image. Ever since the "fall" we are now in the image of Adam (Gen 5:3)  This makes so much more sense when we think about. It is arrogant to say WE are made in Gods image all the while knowing that WE have the capacity to sin. Natural conclusion being that this must mean God can sin. We would never say that out loud but in the back of our sinful minds we think it , whether we know it or not.

The most important thing to take note of as we read not only this Book but all of the Old Testament are the  types and shadows of Jesus. We can find these in the accounts of  Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Noah. The Bible will ALWAYS follow the family line to the coming Messiah.
Regrettably people do not read these stories looking for Jesus. They try to find applications to their lives in these stories. That may sound harmless enough but people tend to confuse interpretation & application.
There is only one interpretation to all scripture and that is its about Jesus ONLY!
There can be several applications but do yourself a favor and don't go looking for them. If you seek out these applications on your own this will cause us to think that these stories of the Bible are about Jesus....and YOU.
As you read Gods Word,  God (and only God) will reveal how Gods Word concerning His Son applies to YOU.    

And finally, we have so few chapters on creation but so much on Gods relationship to man. This should give us a clear indication where Gods heart is at.

Exodus : By the time we get to this point , if we are not asking the question why is Israel mentioned so much ? then we should be.
Here we will see a family go into Egypt as a family of 70 and come out as a nation of well over 2 million plus.
We will also see how God judges the false gods of Egypt thru various plagues, each plague focusing on a different god of Egypt.
The all important Passover is established here. A most significant event, one to remembered till God returns. 
 Moses make famous the phrase "let My people go"
The next significant event is the giving of the Law. This law has ONE purpose and ONE purpose only and that is to reveal to us that we are indeed sinners in need of a Savior .
Here the law is written on tablets

A type and shadow of how law (Moses) won't take us into promised land but Jesus (Joshua) will. Again, powerful foretelling of Jesus and its not the best practice to read yourself into any of this. Starting out this way will compound the confusion as you continue reading.

By reading God's Word correctly, seeing starting from the beginning, clearly seeing God's grace and mercy thru judgment and patience,

We quickly discover that the obstacle to seeing this, is pride.

God is perfect, we are not.
God is doing something here, but that pride keeps many from seeing it.

Leviticus : not too many make it thru this book. Too much blood I guess. But if we don't grasp this book, not much else will make sense.

Tabernacle, priests, sacrifices all pointing to Jesus. All the blood, all the animal sacrifices.

God knows that mankind is stubborn and stiff necked so he is trying, in a big way, to make a point.

And if and when you discover what each of the strange sounding rituals means, you will know clearly , what that point is. If we miss the significance of the tabernacle and everything concerning it, missing that will make understanding this Bible that much harder.

Numbers and Deuteronomy -  the stubbornness of people and the harsh consequences along with a re telling of God's Law to a new generation,

again we're reminded, it's not law (Moses)  that saves but Christ.

When the one who is reading straight thru understands why the law was given along with what Gods standard is concerning these laws (perfection) and how many laws there were (over 600 and all requiring perfection) and when they see how this law is to be fulfilled (in Jesus) , when a person sees this, the Bible will make more sense.

Anytime a church wants to suggest that we today should strive to obey these old laws, this is the beginning of our Bible reading , becoming de railed, but many times a church will ,after someone gets saved, direct people towards these laws by applying these stories to our lives. That may not be their
intent, but it happens anyway.

Joshua & Judges - a collection of accounts of conquest we see as unfair, but that's because we lack understanding. 

If we understood the nature of who occupied this land we wouldn't question God's judgement.
We also have accounts of how the blood line to Jesus is preserved.

We see clearly how God wanted to rule, He wants to be their King.  God allows them to reject Him.  Because the people of that day, understood God no better than we do, after they came into the land, over time became a culture, we today are very familiar with.

A culture where, everyone did what was right in their own eyes.

God will continue to allow this rejection, as to bring in a Savior but the day will come. That Day , where Jesus will indeed reign and rule over Jerusalem. That's where our hope should be.

Ruth -  Knowing who the Moabites were helps in this book.

There is not much to compare with this amazing story of devotion and love. Jesus is all over this book, our redeemer. A surface reading is powerful enough but for the one who digs in this book and studies it in the slightest way will come away from it amazed. Don't read this book asking yourself "what would you have done if you were Ruth." The book of Ruth points to the cross.

1,2 Samuel & 1,2Kings..people then, as today, don't want God as king. So the people's choice awards goes to Saul.

Todays voters may wanna see how this worked out. Saul was the populist vote.

 All these accounts in these books  have Jesus in mind. How God  interacts with man continues to amaze me as I read these accounts..

We meet the greatest earthly king ever, David  along with his wisest son. Btw, was asking for wisdom the right thing for solomon to ask for?

We talk so much about wisdom, those who don't believe the Bible think sometimes that Christians need to check their intellect at the door but that's not true.

Here we are given a clear example of extreme wisdom, given in a right way, to show us that truth is in something else, but mankind is just to stubborn to get it. We keep thinking we can do it better , when we can't. Solomon is the extreme example concerning wisdom. We use our wisdom and intellect as a means to discover the (what should be)  obvious.

1,2 chronicles  chronicles - I heard it said that Samuel & Kings are accounts given from man's perspective and Chronicles has many of same accounts but from God's perspective. I guess I like that. Many of the negative details are not recorded in this book. The dividing of Israel clearly shows, if we our reading this book correctly , Gods grace thru judgement and mercy. But again, that gets missed when we only read ourselves into these accounts. We miss the significance of the temple and we will need that as we get closer to the New Testament as well as the end of this book, Revelation.

Ezra & Nehemiah - time to rebuild.

Something we often miss , if we only read ourselves into these books up to this point, is what's known as the Covenants.

Many times we are told, these passages Instruct us, to rebuild, our "walls" in our lives, and I suppose that ok. So many churches do this.

But points like that become vague an abstract. We're not sure what to rebuild and not told how we'll know when it's rebuilt, whatever it was.

I get the point the sermon is trying to make. I understand when churches make applications to encourage people.

More times than not the application becomes the point. The mention of what God has stated is mentioned at times, but it's heard as an after thought.

It takes years of these sermons to show its effect, outwardly.

These books speak of, God keeps His Word and He is faithful.

If you find an application in here, great. It may or may not be for you. The power of God's Word is not in the application.

Here these people were exiled, went through, who knows what, and now are coming back.

These promises, or covenants, I have found, that getting these wrong will leave many a believer wandering in their walk with God.. that is, if they don't leave it altogether. 

God will keep these covenants.. There are conditional covenants and un conditional covenants. Knowing which is which , is important. Some other things to note : God will always leave for Himself , those who are faithful and they will most often be a minority. Also, take note of prayers mentioned up to this point. There were several.

Esther - Providence.

Here is an account, isolated for us,  from those who remained behind and did not go back to Israel. Accounts like this are evidence of what goes wrong if we are not reading our Bibles correctly, up to this point. We misunderstand how God works in our lives through our circumstances.

We can think many crazy things here if we are not careful. Some become fatalistic in their thinking. Some see God in areas not intended, some blame God. We might ask unanswerable questions expecting an answer and when we don't get one, become frustrated.

That's because we have been missing the true nature of God up too this point, so this book becomes a free for all in our thinking. So often , we miss the bigger picture, I know I did. We wonder how the events in our lives will effect us , and why would we not wonder that when so many churches , up to this point , apply much of the Old Testament to our lives, so by the time we get here, we do the same thing.

Many things happen to the person reading the Bible straight thru and one main thing that happens is, that person begins to think more ,concerning generations , rather than just their own (short) lives.

They can better learn from the past and envision the future. Not in a way we were taught. We are told to come up with some vision and aim for that, or we are told to "think of the children" by people who have no agenda towards that at all. Reading Gods Word correctly up to this point , will go a long way in better understanding this book.  

Job - book of redemption. Some amazing insights here. We get a peek behind the heavenly curtain here as we see how satan moves to and fro and in seeing this, we will better understand Revelation , when satan is banished from heaven.

If Job had any sin,and he did, the main sin would be was, that he thought he had done nothing wrong. God uses extreme examples to make His points because He knows that anyone reading it will fall way under that . Job asked many questions but when it came to God finally replying , which in my opinion , is the best section of this account , God does not answer his questions. That alone should reveal something.

Psalms -  the heart of God.

So often , we say things like "David had a heart after God" and then we go on to think of the many things David did wrong. The main thing being, how he slept with Bathsheba and then had her husband murdered.

This is prove positive that, we just don't get it. It proves that we are somehow making some connection between the things we do, as a way of assessing life this way and it is a sure way of reading our Bibles wrong.

How can we know the love of God , as He Himself expressed these sentiments that are in the Psalms? Why do we think they were put here.

Besides giving great hope and strength to those experiencing tremendous trials , which could include health concerns or family issues, many people find tremendous comfort from the Psalms.

But what do we think the "heart of God" means, anyway?  That can be better understood, when we avoid reading ourselves into so many of its passages.