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I'm doing a Bible in 90 Days challenge with folks at my church. For the most part, I'm listening to the Bible using bible.is app on my Droid phone (thus why my Rolling Stone reviews have slowed down over the past few weeks). I've given JD my brief summaries of the various books as I finished them and decided to go ahead and log those thoughts here on my blog while I'm at it.
Genesis - What I certainly expected: creation story, Noah, Abraham, Issac, Jacob, and Joseph and his family's move to Egypt. There's lots of narrative of people conversing with God and what He requires of them. This book is what I expected being raised on OT stories.
Exodus - Here is Moses in all of his glory. From birth to leading the Israeli nation out of Egypt and into the wilderness. I did a good bit of pondering on the whole Pharaoh/Plague storyline and how God "hardened Pharaoh's heart" during this.
Leviticus - Narrative comes to a complete halt while God dictates a zillion and one rules, regulations, and instructions. Must keep coffee/caffeine handy while reading this book. The list of rules is so long.
Numbers - Hey, how about we continue much of the rule/instruction content that began in Leviticus and add on top of that lots of detail of a census of the various tribes of Israel? Surely there is some hyperbole or exaggeration going on with the census numbers in this book. I have a hard time believing that the Israelis were more than a million strong during this time...especially since there isn't a fount of archeological evidence of such a number of people traveling together in that part of the world during that time.
Deuteronomy - I can see how someone could spend a lifetime comparing Leviticus to Deuteronomy. Essentially, Deuteronomy is the cobbling together of two or three speeches given by Moses (we're talking Ayn Rand-ian length speeches here) where he basically recounts many of the rules/regulations/instruction from Leviticus (and maybe Numbers, too). "Deuteronomy," BTW essentially means "Words." Along with wondering if those speeches where part of his efforts to draft out the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), I was very intrigued about how Moses wrote the Torah as a witness against the tribes of Israel. It was written to show how the tribes' wandering from or shunning God's commandments and instructions lead to God punishing them. But when the people were obedient to God, he rewarded them well.
Joshua - Ah, where Deuteronomy had some moments of narrative, this book gets back to a more story-like structure that I hadn't read since Genesis. Joshua leads the tribes of Israel across the Jordan and they conquer all of the major cities of Canaan. This book is where the walls of Jericho fell from the sound of trumpets. The book recounts the military efforts and strategies used to wrestle control of the land. Unfortunately, God told them to kick all of the Canaanites and foreigners out of the region...and they stopped short after securing the major cities. Because they didn't clear out all of the land, the Israelis were surrounded by those that worshiped other gods and would wander from God again.
Judges - This book as a series of stories with a central theme that runs through them. The people of God wander from Him, He lets foreigners take over, a leader comes forward to save the people with righteousness, God backs the new leader, and the people live in peace...until the cycle begins again. There isn't a central character other than a series of "judges" which are periodic leaders. Samson is the last of the judges discussed in the book.
Next is Ruth!
Genesis - What I certainly expected: creation story, Noah, Abraham, Issac, Jacob, and Joseph and his family's move to Egypt. There's lots of narrative of people conversing with God and what He requires of them. This book is what I expected being raised on OT stories.
Exodus - Here is Moses in all of his glory. From birth to leading the Israeli nation out of Egypt and into the wilderness. I did a good bit of pondering on the whole Pharaoh/Plague storyline and how God "hardened Pharaoh's heart" during this.
Leviticus - Narrative comes to a complete halt while God dictates a zillion and one rules, regulations, and instructions. Must keep coffee/caffeine handy while reading this book. The list of rules is so long.
Numbers - Hey, how about we continue much of the rule/instruction content that began in Leviticus and add on top of that lots of detail of a census of the various tribes of Israel? Surely there is some hyperbole or exaggeration going on with the census numbers in this book. I have a hard time believing that the Israelis were more than a million strong during this time...especially since there isn't a fount of archeological evidence of such a number of people traveling together in that part of the world during that time.
Deuteronomy - I can see how someone could spend a lifetime comparing Leviticus to Deuteronomy. Essentially, Deuteronomy is the cobbling together of two or three speeches given by Moses (we're talking Ayn Rand-ian length speeches here) where he basically recounts many of the rules/regulations/instruction from Leviticus (and maybe Numbers, too). "Deuteronomy," BTW essentially means "Words." Along with wondering if those speeches where part of his efforts to draft out the Torah (the first five books of the Bible), I was very intrigued about how Moses wrote the Torah as a witness against the tribes of Israel. It was written to show how the tribes' wandering from or shunning God's commandments and instructions lead to God punishing them. But when the people were obedient to God, he rewarded them well.
Joshua - Ah, where Deuteronomy had some moments of narrative, this book gets back to a more story-like structure that I hadn't read since Genesis. Joshua leads the tribes of Israel across the Jordan and they conquer all of the major cities of Canaan. This book is where the walls of Jericho fell from the sound of trumpets. The book recounts the military efforts and strategies used to wrestle control of the land. Unfortunately, God told them to kick all of the Canaanites and foreigners out of the region...and they stopped short after securing the major cities. Because they didn't clear out all of the land, the Israelis were surrounded by those that worshiped other gods and would wander from God again.
Judges - This book as a series of stories with a central theme that runs through them. The people of God wander from Him, He lets foreigners take over, a leader comes forward to save the people with righteousness, God backs the new leader, and the people live in peace...until the cycle begins again. There isn't a central character other than a series of "judges" which are periodic leaders. Samson is the last of the judges discussed in the book.
Next is Ruth!
