Year in the Bible Week 11

Moses Shown the Promised Land by Benjamin West (1801)

Moses would never see the promised land. He begged God to reconsider, just like he begged for mercy in the wilderness, but this time God did not change his mind. After forty years of imperfect obedience, Moses would have to be obedient yet again, and would have to let the crossing of the Jordan be led by the one God chose, and it wasn’t him. The telling of this story from generation to generation reminded Israel that we need to always seek God’s plan above our own, even though it can be painful.

Over and over this week we’ve read about God’s promise to defeat forces much larger than the Israelites, in order for his plans to come to fruition. Their obedience does not earn this blessing, but the blessing can only happen if they are obedient! Kings tremble in fear of the nation that travels with their God among them, and the Israelites had forty years to bind together, train together, and grow. They could have gone directly to Canaan from Egypt in eleven days, and if they had obeyed God strictly he might have cleared that path for them. We will never know. Instead, we get the journey represented by the map below:

The nation sits across the Jordan from Jericho, and this week is all Deuteronomy, recapping he defining moments of the nation with Moses as leader. At the end of this week Joshua will take his place. They’ll be crossing the river soon!

Next Sunday, March 22, seems like a good time to celebrate our progress as we move past the Pentateuch. I suggest a hybrid physical/zoom meetup at 6pm on the 22nd,where we can spend an hour together. There are about fourteen of us, and some of us don’t know what each other looks like! Let’s get on a video call and change that. Please let me know if you can do 6pm next Sunday, March 22. Thanks everyone!

Year in the Bible Week 10

Punishment of Korah and the Stoning of Moses and Aaron by Sandro Boticelli (1481-1482)

Hello all!

This week’s passages were a great pleasure, even as I dealt with the flu. After the long lists of rules and requirements in Leviticus, Numbers is giving us some solid affirmation of God’s character, and some of the most comforting verses of scripture, the Numbers Blessing (Also called the Aaronic Blessing) in Num 6:24-26.

Still, there were powerful, prideful people who wished harm, and wanted more than God intended for them. The Korah disaster wasn’t just about grumbling over water, but a real rebellion against God’s word and will. The way the earth swallowed them is more terrifying than any horror movie.

We lost Aaron and Mariam this week, and we know now that none from that generation (except two) would see the promised land in their lifetimes. So this was the lot for a million Israelites. They would eat manna and wander for the rest of their lives, while God increased their numbers and their strength.

King Balak of Moab saw a million new people coming to his territory, and heard about how they dispatched the Amelekites. It’s no wonder that he reached out to Balaam to try to gain advantage. If you’re wondering why God told Balaam to go with the Moabite emissaries and then got angry and blocked the path, I’ve found two ways we might look at it. The first, most popular version is that Balaam wasn’t doing “exactly” what God said to say and do. In this case, anything that wasn’t expressly ordered was blocked by the angel, and God used the donkey to remind Balaam that he wasn’t being observant enough. A second opinion i that Balaam was still intent on cursing Israel and getting paid, and God saw his heart and blocked him. Both are valid conjectures, and I’d love to hear anything you’ve oncovered in your studies.

This week the action continues as the Moabite king works harder and harder to unhinge the advancing nation. Keep reading!

Year in the Bible Week 9

The Jews in the Desert by Jacopo Tintoretto, c.1593

Hello friends! This week we finished the clean and unclean, moved on to God’s instruction regarding the five main festivals, and finally got into the structure of the camp, which was over 600,000 men, plus women and children! Imagine being a part of the community during that time. Every day, God was raining down enough Manna to feed the entire nation, and his presence was so close they could see God’s fire, smell the sacrifices, and watch people coming and going. There were constant miracles and judgments, reminding them that the Lord was present with them always.

Setting up the camp was very specific and we can see the military wisdom, and the community planning is very wise. Very often this kind of wisdom is credited to men, and even though Moses was a great leader in Egypt, this idea wasn’t his. The picture below shows the Tabernacle at the center, with the levites on Three sides and the clans in all four directions.

Now we dig into the Book of Numbers, and by the end of next week we will meet the Moabites and their tricky King Balak, and we will see one of the most memorable moments in scripture, as God uses Balaam’s words to spoil the Moabite king’s plans. Keep reading!

Year in the Bible Week 8

The Sacrifice of the Old Covenant by Peter Paul Rubens, 1626

Well, we are knee-deep in Leviticus now, reading passage after passage about very specific rules surrounding sacrifices and cleanliness. These laws for living helped God’s people become healthy and disciplined, instead of descending quickly into chaos in the wilderness. Under the very specific rules of a covenant relationship with the God of the Unverse, the Israelites would be united, strengthened, and protected.

We can struggle to figure out how this (often tedious) discussion of the clean and unclean applies for all time, since “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,” (2 Timothy 3:16). Maybe this book will be more relatable after you see the Bible Project video breakdown of it:

Again, the types of offerings in Leviticus 1–7.

• Burnt Offering (Olah): A voluntary offering entirely consumed by fire, signifying total devotion.

• Grain Offering (Minchah): An offering of flour, oil, and salt, often accompanying other sacrifices.

• Peace/Fellowship Offering (Shelamim): A shared meal between God, the priest, and the offerer.

• Sin Offering (Chattat): Specifically for atonement of unintentional sins.

• Guilt/Reparation Offering (Asham): For offenses requiring restitution.

With all the people offering these sacrifices, you can be sure that the tabernacle was a busy place!

Next week we continue with clean and unclean people and bodily discharges. As Christy and I were discussing today’s reading, she remarked about the unfairness of the extra days of uncleanness after the birth of a girl versus a boy. That’s one of many mysteries we can’t sort out, but feel free to weigh in on anything you’ve heard or learned about this mystery. Soon we will be done with Leviticus, and then we move on to Numbers and Deuteronomy. I love Deuteronomy because is like a “greatest hits” of the the ways God has provided for his people, and we will finish the book right before Holy Week. Perfect!

In the last week of March we will celebrate finishing the complete Pentateuch (or Torah), so let’s meet to celebrate! Since we are spread around the country the meetup will likely be a mix of real-world and online togetherness, so I’d love to hear your ideas about how to make it great. Please text, email or call and tell me how you’d like to do it. Thanks!

Year in the Bible Week 7

Moses Breaking the Tablets by Rembrandt, 1659

A lot of folks say that when Moses went up the mountain for forty days the people just instantly rebelled, but I wonder if it was more like a slow-boiling panic. Either way, they were unable to sit and wait on the Lord, so they succumbed to idolatry and the false sense of security it can bring. They broke rule number one and worshipped false Gods. and the one true God who claimed them as his own struck them down by the thousands in judgment.

At sometime or other we have all been guilty of utter inability to wait on the Lord, and the consequences can be very, very severe. Only when God dwells among us do we truly have the confidence to carry on. In Exodus 33, when the Lord said his presence would not go with them into the promised land, Moses panicked. He begged God to change his mind in one of the Bible’s most memorable verses, Exodus 33:15. Almost 900 years later God finally did exit the scene before the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem. and that spelled catastrophe and captivity for the whole nation. Let us never forget how easy it is to mess up, and let us always be thankful that our atonement and redemption has been provided through Jesus. Hallelujah!

Finally, here at the end of Exodus God instructs his people in appropriate worship, and his presence fills the tabernacle. Reading every detail of the building and consecration of this sacred space and its priests, we can feel the Israelites’ deep desire to be faithful and obedient to him. As the book of Exodus concludes we see a people relying on God, always watching him to see where he moves next, and following him closely. This close relationship will bring them victory after victory, but first, obedience!

For the next couple weeks we will read through Leviticus, and then we move on to Numbers. These books can seem tedious at times, but it might help to always remember just how big the nation was, and how God cared about every single one of them. I encourage you to read the details in Leviticus and Numbers carefully and thankfully, embracing the amazing strength of the covenant between God and his people. See you next week!

Year in the Bible Week 6

Moses Strikes Water from the Rock from the ceiling of Scuola Grande di San Rocco by Jacopo Tintoretto, 1577

It’s a been a week of plagues and protection, and terror, redemption and victory.

This week started with the entire nation of Israel as slaves in Egypt and ended at Mount Sinai with them dependent of the Lord for their daily survival.

The vivd descriptions of each plague, were hard to read. Certainly, many goodhearted Egyptians were caught up in the wrath of God. Sometimes as Christians we feel like we are collateral damage in God’s retribution on someone else, but we have the comfort of knowing that God loves us, and that his plans and purposes are for his glory and our good. This can keep us courageous in difficult seasons.

I’ve always found the biblical account of manna fascinating. Lately I’ve been dieting and losing some weight, and it means that very often I’m eating the same thing day after day. But can you imagine eating the same thing every single day for forty years? The people seem ungrateful as they complain about the miracle of manna, and God calls them out for it, but I would encourage us to put ourselves in the Israelite’s shoes. God’s grace and provision don’t necessarily look like comfort and abundance, do they? The manna was their daily bread until they crossed the Jordan and tasted the promised land. I’ll bet the food of Canaan was delicious to them after forty years of the same thing! But remember that obedience bring that ultimate blessing. Later we will read about a fit of discontent where Moses ruined his chances of tasting the delicious food of Canaan by not following God’s instructions precisely.

This week God gives us the 10 commandments, and starts to build the foundations for civil law in his people. We also so early military victories by the Israelite men; fueled on manna alone! God is growing His nation!

Year in the Bible Week 5

The Lord Answers job from the Whirlwind engraving by William Blake (1757-1827)

Hello dear readers (a nod to C.S. Lewis…),

I asked my pastor once about hearing God’s voice, admitting to weakness listening for God’s small voice to guide me. His response was perfect. He said, “God has a loud voice too, but you don’t want to hear it!”

This week we cringe as Job gets an earful of God’s loud voice. The beatdown continues for a couple more days of reading before we move on to the Book of Exodus, returning to the dynamic origin story of God’s people. However, before we move on please have a look at the synopsis video from the Bible Project. It really helps get everything tied up. See below:

https://bibleproject.com/videos/job/

All next month we will move through the Pentateuch, with supporting scripture from throughout God’s word. The next few weeks are going to be wonderful! Stay warm everybody…

Year in the Bible Week 4

Job and His Friends - Ilya Yefimovich Repin (1844 – 1930)

Hi everybody! We are still reading Job this week and next, and then we start Exodus on February 1. This stormy, cold weekend is a great time to catch up if you’re behind, but I hope the reading is going well for you!

Someone I love once told me that his biggest problem with the bible was the book of Job. It seemed to my friend that in this book God inflicted pain on Job just for sport, and he couldn’t accept that as good news. But what would the bible look like without Job’s undeserved suffering? We need this book to show us that God’s plan for his people does not keep trouble away from them, and that even as we worship and obey, we can (and do) still suffer. It teaches the right perspective on that suffering in a beautiful poem.

Last week we saw Job’s friends wrongly accuse him of not being worthy of God’s protection and love, perhaps because of his sins (or his children’s sins), or because he is prideful about his righteousness before God, or because of some hidden fault. They simply cannot see the difficulty as more than a just punishment from God.

This week we will get better guidance and theology from Elihu, a new character in the poem. he correctly tells them that God lets suffering happen to His faithful so that they may be humbled and preserved from falling into evil. It is not that God is personally offended by the sins of a man (or a nation) and therefore avenges Himself, but rather that He lets suffering be inflicted upon His people to purify them from the world’s sins and be made anew. When the righteous suffer, it is to keep them in humility and to preserve them from falling intro evil. Job's three friends comment from the perspective of ancient Middle-Eastern wisdom, but Elihu gives the perspective of the Law and the Prophets.

Of course, as Christians, we understand something that was still out of reach for Job. I love verse 9:33, where Job begs for a bridge; someone who would understand God’s will and take the burden of sin on himself, connecting us to the all-powerful Creator and Judge. Job was begging for Jesus! Wow!

Year in the Bible Week 3

Joseph Sold Into Slavery By His Brothers by Donato Mascagni (also known as Fra' Arsenio Mascagni), 1602

Hello everybody! This week we get to one of my favorite chapters in scripture, which is Genesis 50. It is such a comfort to know that the plans of evildoers can easily be turned into something beautiful by our sovereign Lord.

Of course, this will end the book of Genesis, and land Jacob’s whole clan in Egypt. It’s going to be quite a while (historically) until God calls the Israelites out of Egypt, so what do we read about next? The book of Job.

There is a bit of controversy about the timeline when it comes to Job, but in this book it happens early, during the time in Egypt. We will spend two weeks in Job, so be ready for some heartache, but remember: we know how the story ends!

God bless you. See you next week.

Year in the Bible Week 2

"Esau Sells His Birthright” by Giovacchino Assereto c.1645

Hello YiB friends! Hard to believe that by week two of our journey God has already made his covenant with Abraham and reaffirmed it with Isaac, and we see tension rising between Jacob and Esau. Genesis moves really fast, so if you’ve fallen behind, please don’t be discouraged! It’s still easy to catch up if you double up on the daily readings, and its even easier if you do the audio in YouVersion. The audio plays while you’re driving, working around the house, etc. and you’re caught up before youknow it. Just text Christy or me for help if you want to get the YouVersion audio going.

God’s Word shows us a lot of bad behavior in this week’s chapters, including plenty of lying and cheating from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and still God blesses them in a covenant relationship. Reading this helps us be sure that God does not choose us to inherit the Kingdom because we are righteous, but by our faith in his promises alone. Hallelujah!

Folks, statistically the average New Year’s resolution only lasts 8-9 days. That means that if you decided to do Year in the Bible 2026 as a New Year’s resolution, this is about the time you might be thinking about putting this project down. Believe me, I understand, and there will be no judgment if you don’t make it the end. After all, this is not a small thing we are doing, especially if you aren’t in a daily reading habit. If you aren’t in the habit, I humbly suggest that you investigate ways to “create a new reading habit” online. See what you can do to build an atmosphere around this fifteen minutes each day so it becomes something you simply cannot do without. Meanwhile, I’ll be giving you links to the updates every week whether you’re keeping up or not, and then if you just can’t pull it off you’ll know what to expect when you hit it with us next year, and/or the year after that. We will get this done together!

Year in the Bible Week 1

Raphael’s “Noah Building the Ark”

Happy New Year! Hopeful New Year! Stronger New Year! Better New Year!

Welcome to Year in the Bible! Remember the four words above - happy, hopeful, stronger, and better - as you read daily. Research has shown that daily bible reading makes you happier, more hopeful, stronger in your faith, and better making choices. Do your best to keep up with the readings! This week we cover a lot of historical ground in a short period of time, so if you miss a day you’ll already feel the sting of being behind. Don’t worry, you can catch up! Christy Wilson found a neat way to catch up last year by going to YouVersion and choosing the audio option, which you can do in the shower, or while you drive, or whenever you can throughout a day. Hopefully you can find a time and place where you can just be with the Word every day, and you’ll find that those fifteen minutes become something you long for all the time.

This week we will do much of the story in Genesis, with supporting scripture from Chronicles. In the January 2 readings we see a great example of how this plan works. After we hear about Noah’s family from Genesis, we see it repeated concisely in 1 Chronicles, then we return to Genesis and finish the story. This happens over and over in the chronological plan, and it’s one of my favorite things about this method. It gives me a great sense of each moment in history, and repetition of certain facts and stories adds emphasis to them for me.

Let me know how you’re doing! Shoot me a message or an email and ask any questions you have. I’ll try to find good answers and post them.

IF YOU ARE READY TO START THE PLAN WITH US, JUST GO TO www.artistministries.org/year-in-the-bible and you’ll find all the info you need. You’ll be glad you did this!