So You’re Going to Read the Whole Bible This Year…

Can’t tell you how many times I’ve started a year out like that, running through Genesis, jogging through Exodus, marching through Leviticus, only to get bogged down and stalled out in the muddy genealogies of Numbers… “Next year…”
 

We attest that we believe scripture to be complete, inspired, and inerrant. We admit that if it’s in the Bible, we can trust God put it in there for a reason. And, when we’re reading Genesis and Exodus, it’s juicy and meaty, but Leviticus is a bit drier and tough. Numbers? Like a mouthful of sawdust, maybe?


From:
http://mikeneglia.blogspot.com/2013/09/3-ways-to-read-genealogies-in-bible.html

What do the genealogies reveal about God? They tell us that He is a faithful Lord, who keeps His covenant from one generation to another. Whoever we are and however far we may have descended from the source of our human life in Adam, we are still part of God’s plan. Over the centuries we have developed differently, we have lost contact with one another, and we have even turned on each other in hostility, but in spite of all that, we are still related and interconnected in ways that go beyond our immediate understanding or experience.
 
Secondly, what do the genealogies say about us? They say that from the world’s point of view, most of us are nobodies. We live and die in a long chain of humanity, but there is not much that anyone will remember about us as individuals. Yet without us, future generations will not be born and the legacy of the past will not be preserved. We are part of a great cloud of witnesses, a long chain of faithful people who have lived for God in the place where he put them. Even if we know little about our ancestors, we owe them a great debt of gratitude for their loyalty and perseverance, when they had little or nothing to gain from it or to show for it.
 

Finally, what do the genealogies say about God’s dealings with us? They tell us that we are called to be obedient and to keep the faith we have inherited, passing it on undiminished to the next generation. They remind us that there is a purpose in our calling that goes beyond ourselves. Even if we are not celebrated by future generations and leave little for posterity to remember us by, we shall nevertheless have made an indispensable contribution to the purpose of God in history. So the genealogies bring us a message from God, even if they appear on the surface to be barren and unprofitable. All we have to do is ask the right questions, and their meaning will be quickly opened to us.

Bored by Geneologies in the Bible? 3 Tips for Finiding Life in the Scripture

     How often do we commit to read the Bible from cover to cover only to get bogged down and disinterested around Leviticus? Dennis Mock helped me get over that a few years ago as we unpacked Leviticus as a book all about one word: “holiness”. Today, with a greater appreciation for the rigors of ritual commanded and described in that book, I’m far more grateful for that book’s presence in the canon of scripture.

     Then, we get to Numbers and the counting of tribes, more rules, and geneologies that used to make me scratch my head and wonder like high school math class “are we ever going to use this stuff? I mean, what’s the use?”

     Nice to hear from an Irish pastor who has some tips for us all that truly make the scripture come to life.

http://mikeneglia.blogspot.com/2013/09/3-ways-to-read-genealogies-in-bible.html