I try to read the Bible every day and there are many
different Bible reading plans available and resources to assist in study. I’ve
read the Bible in many ways and studied some of the sixty-six books contained
therein more than others. This year I decided to opt for reading the Bible
straight through from Genesis to Revelation and signed into an online plan
which paces you at about three chapters per day. At the moment I’m a few weeks
ahead of schedule as I tend to want to keep reading.
It’s been a bit challenging compared to my normal routine of
choosing a particular book and studying what I like. There are lots of familiar
and exciting stories in the Old Testament – Noah and the ark, the exodus from
Egypt, David slaying Goliath and Esther thwarting plans to destroy the Jewish
race to give just a few examples. At the same time, one is faced with ploughing
through long genealogies, extensive descriptions of building processes and
sacrificial requirements, laws and more laws, rulers and more rulers and
detailed accounts of battle after battle.
Yet all this is our history as Christians. God has given us
accounts of what went before the time of Christ so that we understand the
reason for His coming: and the changes that He brought to this Earth.
What is initiated in the Old Testament is fulfilled in the
New Testament. In the Old we have the patriarchal families. In the New we have
adoption into the family of Christ. In the Old we have repeated sacrifices to
ask forgiveness for sin. In the New Christ is the Lamb of God who takes all the
sin upon Himself, a once and for all time propitiation for our sins. In the Old
Testament God’s presence on Earth was found in the Ark of the Covenant and
later in the holy of holies, inside the temple in Jerusalem. In the New Testament
God’s presence is found not in a building but in the person of Jesus Christ,
and later in the presence of His Holy Spirit indwelling in His people, who are
the church of God on Earth.
We all have a story and a history, and our history becomes
our story. We look at our own genealogies, our personal family trees and see where
we have come from, who our parents and grandparents and ancestors were, and see
where we fit, and who we have married and the children we have borne. Likewise,
God has determined our history, where and when our lives will occur and the
impact our lives will have in this world.
