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Bible reading for May 3 --4 May 3 -- Song of Solomon 8 and Hebrews 8 May 4 -- Isaiah 1 and Hebrews 9  ================    "Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, the very flame of the LORD." (Song of Solomon 8:6)  FINAL CHAPTER (ch 8). The couple's love continues to grow and mature. For a good summary of this concluding chapter see Constable's notes here . One note on the "little sister" (6:8-10)... This a poetic expression of the Shulammite's older brothers protecting their sister's purity in her earlier years. The Bible teaches the primacy of the family in guarding the purity and sexuality of the children. It is not the place of the schools or government or media to override parents in their role of teaching children about God's design for human sexuality. Our culture is seriously perverted in this regard.   THE POWER OF LOVE. Wh...

Bible reading for weekend April 30 -- May 2 If you are receiving these posts by email through Feedburner -- the Google app on this website, soon to be deactivated -- this will be your last emailed post. If you wish to continue receiving these posts by email you will need to subscribe to my Buttondown newsletter listed here .   Apr 30 -- Song of Solomon 5 and Hebrews 5 May 1 -- Song of Solomon 6 and Hebrews 6 May 2 -- Song of Solomon 7 and Hebrews 7 ================    "I am my beloved's, and his desire is for me." (Song of Solomon 7:10)  DIFFICULTIES (ch 5). The couple has moved from courtship (1:2-3:5) to the wedding night (3:6-5:1) and on to maturity (5:2-8:14). There's a time in every marriage when one or the other partner lacks energy or passion to overcome the obstacles to continued love. Marriage partners must rise above their selfishness to keep pursuing their beloved. The Shulammite finally rouses herself to pursue her lover. She searches and is beaten ...

Bible reading for April 26 -- 27 Apr 26 -- Song of Solomon 1 and Hebrews 1 Apr 27 -- Song of Solomon 2 and Hebrews 2 ================    "He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love." (Song of Solomon 2:4)  THE GREAT ROMANCE. Biblical wisdom contemplates the great mysteries of life. Job dealt with pain, and now Solomon deals with pleasure. Proverbs warns against sexual sin, and Ecclesiastes tells us to enjoy our family life, and here is a book dedicated to extolling the beauty of courtship, romance, marriage, and sexuality. It's a book filled with sensual (in a good sense) imagery and metaphors drawn from nature. Marriage in all of its dimensions, including sexual relations, is good. Josh McDowell used to say, "Sex is God's idea. He even created the plumbing!" The Song of Solomon (also called the Song of Songs) is about our marriages and also about our relationship with the Lord. Everything beautiful in love and marriage -- its co...

Bible reading for February 10 -- 11 Feb 10 -- Job 9 and Romans 13 Feb 11 -- Job 10 and Romans 14 "Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God?  If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times." (Job 9:2-3) OVERWHELMED. In chapters nine and ten Job is overwhelmed by the thought of the immensity and power of the God to whom he is complaining. If he were to have a righteous cause, as he feels he does (9:2, 15, 20-21; 10:15), how could he ever defend himself before an all-powerful God? Or should he appeal to God's mercy (9:15) or fake happiness (9:27)? Who can argue with such a God? But Job wants to be heard, to be understood, to know that God knows the injustice that Job feels. He is so aware of the great gulf between himself and God, but he remembers God's kindness and love toward him, which now seem only a memory (10:11-13). Job again wonders why he was born only to end life in such a miserable way (10:...

Bible reading for weekend of Dec 5-6.  2 Chronicles 5-6. "But will God indeed dwell with man on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, how much less this house that I have built!  Yet have regard to the prayer of your servant and to his plea, O LORD my God, listening to the cry and to the prayer that your servant prays before you, that your eyes may be open day and night toward this house..." (6:18-20)  THE TEMPLE FINISHED. The construction of the temple is completed (ch 5), and as the people sing, the glory of God is revealed: "...when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the LORD, 'For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever,' the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God" (5:13-14).  Solomon recognizes God's choice of Jerusale...

Bible reading for Dec 4.  2 Chronicles 3-4. "He set up the pillars in front of the temple, one on the south, the other on the north; that on the south he called Jachin, and that on the north Boaz." (3:17)  BUILDING THE TEMPLE . These two chapters describe the structure and furnishings of the temple Solomon builds. It's the same basic plan as the Tabernacle that Moses constructed. Notice the imagery in the temple which recalls both the early chapters of Genesis (e.g., cherubim, fruit trees, etc.) and the later chapters of Revelation (e.g., gold, precious materials, the cubical layout of the most holy place, etc.). All of these images reveal the unity of Scripture and tie together the story of redemption. Christ himself is the sacrifice, the sea of cleansing, the light and bread of life, our priest, and the one who brings us into the presence of God. He restores the garden we lost and constructs a city of eternal glory.    REFLECT. I find it interesting that the two b...

Bible reading for Dec 3.  2 Chronicles 2. "The house that I am to build will be great, for our God is greater than all gods.  But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him? Who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to make offerings before him?" (2:5-6)  THE WORK BEGINS. The temple that Solomon would build was not to be some kind of container for God, but rather a place to meet with God and to worship him. It would be a beautiful structure, built with precious materials and fine craftsmanship. Most of the labor was provided by resident aliens who were drafted for the work and compensated as indentured servants. Hiram, the king of Tyre and friend of King David, recognized the excellence of Solomon's leadership: "Because the LORD loves his people, he has made you king over them" (v 11).   ===============   1 John 2. "And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will o...

Bible reading for Nov 4.  2 Kings 17. "'You shall not fear other gods, but you shall fear the LORD your God, and he will deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.' However, they would not listen, but they did according to their former manner." (2 Kings 17:38-40)  FALL OF SAMARIA. This chapter reports the Assyrian siege against Samaria and the resulting fall of the northern kingdom in 722/21 BC. The divine explanation is given in full. The northern tribes are lost, not in the sense that they are off wandering somewhere, but that they are resettled and mixed with the surrounding peoples. Their ethnic identity will be mixed (vv 6, 24). It's a sad conclusion to the story of the northern kingdom of Israel. Here's the summary: "'And the statutes and the rules and the law and the commandment that he wrote for you, you shall always be careful to do. You shall not fear other gods, and you shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you. You sha...

Bible reading for September 30.  1 Kings 2. "I am about to go the way of all the earth. Be strong, and show yourself a man, and keep the charge of the LORD your God, walking in his ways and keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, and his testimonies, as it is written in the Law of Moses, that you may prosper in all that you do and wherever you turn..." (1 Kings 2:2-3) A NEW REIGN. David gives his son Solomon a simple but straightforward charge (cf Deut 31:7-8; 2 Tim 4:1-2). He then dies and is buried in the City of David, which was the lower slope of the temple mount in Jerusalem. Though there is a traditional site of David's tomb in Jerusalem (I visited there in 1997) some archaeologists believe the tomb is yet to be discovered in the excavations of the older section of the City of David.  UNFINISHED BUSINESS. Solomon's reign will begin with a clean slate, and so his first actions are to conclude unfinished business from David's reign. Joab will fina...

Bible reading for September 8.  2 Samuel 2. "Ish-bosheth, Saul's son, was forty years old when he began to reign over Israel, and he reigned two years. But the house of Judah followed David. And the time that David was king in Hebron over the house of Judah was seven years and six months." (2 Samuel 2:10-11)  KING OF JUDAH.   With Saul and his sons buried, David sends a word of blessing and encouragement to the leaders of the northern tribes. But he is again rejected, and one of Saul's sons is chosen to be king. Without a united monarchy (God's choice of a single king) Israelite soldiers end up fighting each other. What began as a contest for entertainment turns into a heated battle, and many men die. (Some of these animosities will continue.) How much time elapsed between Samuel's anointing David as king over Israel (1 Sam 9) and the nation (in united agreement) anointing David as king (2 Sam 5)? It was between ten and fifteen years that David wait...

Bible reading for Aug 10.  Ruth 3-4. "And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, 'May he be blessed by the LORD, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!' Naomi also said to her, 'The man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeemers.'" (Ruth 2:20) RUTH'S PROPOSAL. Naomi and Ruth discover that Boaz is a close relative, also called a "kinsman-redeemer" [Heb., go'el ](2:20; 3:2, 12; 4:14; cf Deut 25:5-10). This kinsman had the responsibility to preserve not only the land but also the lineage of those relatives in need, in debt, or without living heirs. It was a family responsibility, but in this story it becomes a romance. Ruth "proposes" to Boaz, seeking his protection, and there is a tender connection between the two. This romance of Ruth might be better entitled, "the romance of redemption", for the strength of the redeemer provides security for the redeemed, where love can blossom. This is so pl...

Bible reading for April 22.  Leviticus 26. "And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people." (26:12)  Once again we are told of God's ultimate purpose for humankind : that we might dwell happily together with God. (Ex 6:7; Ezek 37:23-28.)  Walking together is a sign of friendship.   At the beginning of creation we hear that the first human couple "...heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day..." (Gen 3:8).   What then fell into shame (and hiding) by the sin of Adam is redeemed by Christ, the second Adam, and will be restored in a new creation (2 Cor 5:17; 6:16; Rev 21:3).  We need hide no longer from God . In the words of the Westminster Shorter Catechism our ultimate purpose is, "That we might glorify God and enjoy him forever."  This new creation was purchased by Christ, and we are to receive him by faith, and along with him we receive all good things: "He who did not spa...