Reading the Bible in Year
How many of you have read the entire Bible? How many of you have read it in a year? My son’s family in Penang Malaysia and his daughter here in the States along with Grandma and Grandpa are about halfway through reading the Bible in a year. We also each on our own create a response to the question ”From today’s readings what is one thing God is saying to you?” In other words, what is your takeaway? Many days I struggle to keep up, I have so many things I want to write about that I cannot contain myself. On other days as come up dry and find my thoughts are so shallow. What is the difference? God has not changed nor suddenly left the building. The Word of God has not lost its way. Alas, it must be me in my preparation, I’m in a hurry, I have not prayed and not asked God to open my mind. Bible reading and study is work and done well is intensive.
These are two of the scriptures we read this week: Numbers 16 ESV and Numbers 17 ESV
This is what I wrote as my takeaway. 'On the next day, Moses went into the tent of the testimony, and behold, the staff of Aaron for the house of Levi had sprouted and put forth buds and produced blossoms, and it bore ripe almonds.’ Numbers 17:8 Moses went into the tent of testimony and discovered Aaron’s rod and only his rod sprouted but also produced buds, blossoms, and almonds. Now it not only produced almonds, but they were also ripe! Think about this every stage of almond production was present on the stem simultaneously! Talk about WOW! Where the miracle of a simple green sprout appearing on Aaron's rod would have been enough God chose to go big time. But why almonds? There is a hint of why in Jeremiah 1:11-12 'And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Jeremiah, what do you see?” And I said, “I see an almond branch.” ‘Then the Lord said to me, “You have seen well, for I am watching over my word to perform it.”' For the Jewish people in biblical times, the almond is a symbol of God’s watchful presence, always a wakeful eye upon us, and always vigilant attention on our lives and our world, ready to intervene when the time is ripe.
I would like to encourage you and at least one other person to make a goal of reading through the Bible in a year. You can even start now, you don’t need to wait until next January. We do all our Bible reading and recording of our answers in the mobile Bible App called YouVersion. It is easy to work with and since it is on a mobile device the Bible is always with you. Let me know if you need any help or have any questions by leaving me a comment before you leave this page. I truly hope you take the challenge it is well worth your effort and time.