January 15, 2004

• The Bible is the most fascinating book ever! 

  
  

  I love that it's like a gigantic jigsaw puzzle that I'm piecing together.  That it's an elaborate whodunit mystery that I'm picking up all the clues to solve, knowing that there is a solution but that I just haven't figured it out yet.  I love that there are so many layers to the Bible.  I'll never understand it completely and yet I'm growing more in my understanding of it each day.

  
  

  Recently, I have been reading up on the restoration period of Israel, the period of time after the Babylonian Captivity, when the Israelites got to return home after their 70 year exile.  Chronologically speaking, I recommend that you read Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah, Ezra, Nehemiah, and then Malachi (in that order).  A lot of them were contemporaries of one another, so it almost doesn't matter which order you read, but I think that's the best order, generally speaking.  I haven't read Haggai, Zech, and Malachi yet in this particular search -- obviously, I'm not reading in the right order.  I'm sorta figuring it out as I go along -- and that's what I'm talking about!  Figuring out what goes where and when and how people were contemporaries of each other and what God's hand in it all was the whole time is so fascinating!  =) 

  
  

  Context is everything!  Understanding what was really going on historically has made the text make so much more sense to me!  It's simply riveting.  It's sorta like when you read a book, you won't really feel compassionately toward the character or really understand the situation unless you were following the whole story and understand the plotline.  I've never really understood God's heartache and the people's complexities so well until I started fitting everything within the context of the time.

  
  

  For example, I started Malachi last night.  At this point, the Israelites had already rebuilt the temple but God had not yet manifested Himself there, so their worship became really half-hearted and insincere.  Contextually, I now understand how wrong that was of them!  While Israel had been completely unfaithful to God; He could've and should've just left them in exile, but He is so faithful to His purposes that He brought them back.  Were they grateful?  No.  They might've experienced God's grace in His freeing them from captivity and bringing them back to their home, but they could not experience the fullness of His blessing until they repented in their hearts.  God is committed to His purposes, but if you want to be under His blessing, you need walk in His truth.

  
  

  I am gripped by the relevance of this to our lives.  After you become a Christian, you can stray away and choose all your own path, and God will keep pulling you back and even keeping you safe.  You could die in that state and still be "saved" - but what a loss to you!  You've lived your whole life missing out on God's blessing.  What a tragedy that would be!  Lord, let that not be me.

  
  

  So you see, the Old Testament is not only riveting but relevant and convicting.  And the whole Bible?  What a thrill.

  • 4:41 pm
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