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  Bible reading for December 22 -- 26 Dec 22 -- Zechariah 9 and John 12 Dec 23 -- Zechariah 10 and John 13 Dec 24 -- Zechariah 11 and John 14 Dec 25 -- Zechariah 12 and John 15 Dec 26 -- Zechariah 13 and John 16 We are in the Christmas holiday season, and so, I'm combining several days' readings. Next week we will be finishing the 2021 Bible reading schedule! Congratulations to those of you who have been reading along with us. Thanks for your kind and helpful notes along the way. And may you and yours have a blessed Christmas! --Sandy ================ "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey." (Zechariah 9:9)  THREE REMARKABLE PROPHECIES (Zech 9-12) . The prophet Isaiah gave us many wonderful descriptions of the Messiah-to-come, including his miraculous birth. Daniel gave us a sketch of the Messian...

Bible reading for weekend Oct 15 -- 17 Oct 15 -- Ezekiel 48 and Psalm 104 Oct 16 -- Daniel 1 and Psalm 105 Oct 17 -- Daniel 2 and Psalm 106 ================   "And the name of the city from that time on shall be, The LORD is there." (Ezekiel 48:35) THE INHERITANCE (ch 48). From time to time I have seen a bumper sticker on a car (usually a nice car) which reads, "I am spending my children's inheritance." Inheritance is not a word which carries much weight in our culture these days. After paying off student loans, mortgages, consumer debt, and then nursing home care there's usually not much to go around afterwards. In the ancient world -- and even our world until just a century ago -- one's inheritance was a very important thing. It meant receiving and carrying on a family legacy, including the traditions, influence, and power that came with it. It meant having land or a house where one could make one's home and raise a family. It was a place to work ...

  Bible reading for Oct 6 -- 7 Oct 6 -- Ezekiel 39 and Psalm 90 Oct 7 -- Ezekiel 40 and Psalm 91 ================   "Then they shall know that I am the LORD their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations and then assembled them into their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations anymore. And I will not hide my face anymore from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord GOD." (Ezekiel 39:28-29) ISRAEL REGATHERED, GOG DESTROYED (ch 39). The Gog / Magogite alliance fails in their attack upon Israel. One of our readers asked if the re-establishment of Israel as a nation following World War 2 (in 1948) was the fulfillment of Israel's regathering seen in Ezekiel 37? Here's what I wrote back... "I take it that the return from Babylon was one stage in the return to the land, but not long afterwards the Jews rejected the Messiah who came to inaugurate the new covenant. There was a hardening upon Israel...

  Bible reading for Oct 4 -- 5 Oct 4 -- Ezekiel 37 and Psalms 87-88 Oct 5 -- Ezekiel 38 and Psalm 89 ================   "I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people." (Ezekiel 37:26-27) DRY BONES RESURRECTED (ch 37). Ezekiel is prophesying the future restoration of the nation -- uniting both Israel and Judah together -- in conjunction with God's new covenantal work (ch 36). On one sense (spiritually) this is being fulfilled in the church age as the gospel goes forth bringing life to Jew and Gentile (Rom 3:29-30; 9:24; 11:1-5). But the church does not replace Israel in God's plan. This chapter looks forward to the future work of God in restoring Israel (Rom 11:25-32; Zech 12:9-14). "David" ruling as king (vv 24-25) is ...

  Bible reading for September 8 -- 9 Sep 8 -- Ezekiel 11 and Psalm 50 Sep 9 -- Ezekiel 12 and Psalm 51 ================   "And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God." (Ezekiel 10:18) BAD LEADERS, BRIGHT PROMISE (ch 11). Israel was chronically plagued by bad leadership (vv 1-12). In the days of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, the rulers of Judah and their advisors, along with the popular prophets, urged the people of Jerusalem to hold out against the Babylonian siege. God had plainly told them through Jeremiah to not fight the Babylonians but to peacefully surrender. But in their pride and zeal they resisted and faced a long siege, starvation, disease, and finally, violence and enslavement by the Babylonians. But there's a bright ray of hope (vv 16-20),...

  Bible reading for Aug 4 -- 5 Aug 4 -- Jeremiah 32 and Psalms 1-2 Aug 5 -- Jeremiah 33 and Psalms 3-4 ================    "I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul." (Jeremiah 32:40-41) LAND INVESTMENT (ch 32). To demonstrate God's promise of Judah's return to the land in seventy years, Jeremiah is instructed to buy a field and to seal the deed of the land (vv 1-15). Notice Jeremiah's prayer for understanding (vv 16-25), how he begins with the character of God and historical background before his question, or implied question, at the very end. We would do well to model his way of praying -- instead of rushing to our petition, to take time to praise and thank God, to recount his attributes and his working in hi...

Bible reading for June 21-- 22 Jun 21 -- Isaiah 53 and Matthew 1 Jun 22 -- Isaiah 54 and Matthew 2 ================    "But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed." (Isaiah 53:5) WHO WOULD BELIEVE IT? (ch 53) This is the longest, the most beautiful, and the most surprising of the Servant Psalms. The Messiah prophesied in the OT might have been viewed as a kind of super-hero were it not for this chapter! It's unbelievable that God's holy Servant should be abused in this way by mankind (v 1). He is not a handsome caped man, rippling with muscles and charisma (v 2). He is despised, rejected, looked down upon. If this were not surprising enough -- many prophets beforehand were so treated -- but here the suffering and death is not some kind of martyrdom but actually brings forgiveness even for the perpetrators: "by his wounds we are healed" ...

Bible reading for weekend June 18--20 Jun 18 -- Isaiah 50 and Revelation 20 Jun 19 -- Isaiah 51 and Revelation 21 Jun 20 -- Isaiah 52 and Revelation 22 ================    "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'" (Isaiah 52:7) THE REJECTED SERVANT (ch 50) . "The Lord GOD has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may know how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning he awakens; he awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught.  The Lord GOD has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious; I turned not backward.  I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting" (vv 4-6). Perhaps this referred to Isaiah's ministry to the Jews, but more likely in light of chapter 53 this is another foreshadowing of ...

  Bible reading for June 16-- 17 Jun 16 -- Isaiah 48 and Revelation 18 Jun 17 -- Isaiah 49 and Revelation 19 ================    "It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth." (Isaiah 49:6) PEACE LIKE A RIVER (ch 48). We continue to read of Israel's hypocrisy, obstinacy, and idolatry (vv 1-8). God sends the prophets who reveal his words and what is to come (vv 5-8). The Lord for his own sake, and for the sake of his name, restrains and withholds judgment (vv 9-11). Bible expositors hold various opinions as to whether verse 16 is an allusion to God's triune nature or not. God's desire is that his people be trusting, joyful, and obedient (cf Titus 2:11-14). There is no peace for the wicked (v 22), but for those who pay attention to his commandments, "Then your peace would have been ...

Bible reading for weekend June 4 -- 6 Jun 4 -- Isaiah 36 and Revelation 6 Jun 5 -- Isaiah 37 and Revelation 7 Jun 6 -- Isaiah 38 and Revelation 8 ================    "So now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you alone are the LORD." (Isaiah 37:20) HISTORICAL INTERLUDE (ch 36). Chapters 36 and 37 demonstrate that what Isaiah prophesied actually came to pass. The pre-siege negotiations begin. The Rabshakeh, referring to the chief representative of the Assyrian army, dissuades the people of Jerusalem from trusting in Egypt for deliverance (good advice), and also not to trust the Lord, the God of Israel, to rescue them (bad advice). The Assyrians are mocking the God of Israel as just another regional god who would fall at the hands of their mighty men. "Who among all the gods of these lands have delivered their lands out of my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?" (v 20). Hezekiah's trus...

Bible reading for weekend February 8 -- 9 Feb 8 -- Job 7 and Romans 11 Feb 9 -- Job 8 and Romans 12 "Does God pervert justice? Or does the Almighty pervert the right? If your children have sinned against him, he has delivered them into the hand of their transgression." (Job 8:3-4) THE MISERY OF LIFE (ch 7) . Job continues his lament. All of humanity shares suffering in common. We are all fragile. "Remember that my life is a breath; my eye will never again see good. The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more; while your eyes are on me, I shall be gone" (7:7-8). Job's case is extreme, but he knows that his suffering is not due to some serious unconfessed sin, as his friends imply .  BILDAD'S FIRST SPEECH (ch 8) . Job's second friend now speaks, more harshly than did Eliphaz (8:2; cf 4:1). But the same argument is being made: God is just and punishes the wicked; you and your children have suffered greatly; therefore, you have much wickedness to confe...

Bible reading for January 27--28 Jan 27 -- Esther 4 and Acts 27 Jan 28 -- Esther 5 and Acts 28 "For if you keep silent at this time, relief and deliverance will rise for the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house will perish. And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14) FOR SUCH A TIME AS THIS. The Bible reveals God to be the Lord of time, and times. He creates order in the passing of time (Genesis 1). The sun, moon, and stars serve as lights and markers: "...for signs and for seasons, and for days and years" (Gen 1:14). The word "time" in Scripture may refer merely to the passing of time, but often the sense is that of an appointed time, or the right time, designating a point or season of significance or opportunity. In Israel's history, the men of Issachar knew that it was the right time to come to King David's aid, for they "had understanding of the times, to know what...

Bible reading for Dec 16.  2 Chronicles 18. "Ahab king of Israel said to Jehoshaphat king of Judah, 'Will you go with me to Ramoth-gilead?' He answered him, 'I am as you are, my people as your people. We will be with you in the war.'" (18:3) A LYING SPIRIT. How can God -- who is absolutely true, who speaks only the truth (Titus 1:2; Heb 6:18) -- send a lying spirit to deceive Ahab?  Sometimes the judgment for rejecting the truth is removal of the truth:  "....because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.  Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false" (2 Thess 2:9-12).  God does not delight in untruth or blindness, but he may send such as judgment upon those who do not want the truth or the light. Light rejected brings darkness. Read more about this on the 1 Kings 22 post on October 19 .   UNEQUALLY YOKED. One big lesson here is that, for all the good things that Jehoshaphat did, he was too accommodati...