Matthew 25: This chapter starts with the parable of the 10 bridesmaids. They went out looking for the groom, each with a lamp. Only 5 brought extra oil. The 5 foolish ones (those that didn’t bring oil) ran out of oil, had to go buy more (because the other 5 wouldn’t share), and missed their chance to enter with the groom. The bridesmaids represent the people and the groom represents God. The notion here is that people need to remain faithful so they are always prepared. This means that people need to always follow Jesus’ teachings.
Continue reading “Matthew 25”Isaiah 28-30; Matthew 19-20
Isaiah 28: The Lord is a refuge and protection. Isaiah condemns the leaders of Ephraim and Judah for their drunkard actions and lack of trust in God. They have instead put their faith into others for their protection. According to Isaiah, God specifically says “One who trusts will not panic” (p. 1004 NRSV).
Isaiah 22-24; Matthew 17-18
Isaiah 22: Warnings to Jerusalem and its leaders. The warnings stem from how the leaders behaved during wartime. They apparently stopped focusing on God and spent more time focusing on their defenses. At least this is according to the notes in the CEB study bible (p. 1124 OT).
9/17 Reading (Isaiah 4-6; Matthew 7-8)
Isaiah 4: This is the last chapter of the first part of this book. After all of the promise of death and destruction, we see a single paragraph that paints a lovely picture of what Jerusalem will look like after God is done. It sounds like a utopia.
9/8 Reading (Isaiah 1-3; Psalms 97-98)
Introduction to Isaiah: This is the first of the prophetic books. Introduction in CEB makes this book sound pretty interesting. I want to get into the text, but I need to definitely reread this later. In fact, I think that once I’m done and start to explore writing a book, I will come back to all of the introductions to each individual book, the introductions to different sections in the Bible, and the additional essays from each Bible. And I’ll read this source (here).
9/7 Reading (Song of Songs 7-8; Matthew 5-6)
Song of Songs 7: WOW! Now this chapter is where things get interesting. A friend of mine made a comment several months ago that there was references to all sorts of sexual acts in this book, including oral sex. And yep, here it is. The man first describes the woman’s body in a similar fashion to how he did in earlier chapters. Of course this focuses on her entire body.
Continue reading “9/7 Reading (Song of Songs 7-8; Matthew 5-6)”
3/5 Reading (Proverbs 4-6; Matthew 2)
Proverbs 4: So I may have to pull back from my view in the first three chapters that when the text referred to a son I argued it could just be children. The reason why is this chapter starts with reference to children. Oops. Anyway, the parents tell the children they need to seek out wisdom first. Then they can get understanding. But they need to focus on seeking out wisdom and then respecting it.
3/3 Reading (Proverbs 1-3; Psalm 89)
To anyone reading this, if you don’t have a study bible, get one! I recommend either the CEB study bible or the NRSV study bible. Both are very interesting.
Introduction to Proverbs: The CEB study bible has a nice introduction to Proverbs. I especially like part of it. Instead of rewriting the whole part, I’m just going to include a screenshot below (p. 1006 OT):
2/27 Reading (Job 31-33; 2 Timothy 3)
Job 31: This chapter marks the end of Job’s tenth speech. In this chapter he asks God to directly face him. Job actually declares an oath, declaring his innocence against seven possible charges: “deceit (vv. 5–8), adultery (vv. 9–12), disregard of servants (vv. 13–15), disregard of the poor (vv. 16–23), trust in wealth (vv. 24–28), rejoicing at the misfortune of others (vv. 29–34), and assault on the land (vv. 38–40b)” (NRSV Study Bible notes, p. 757). In essence, Job is presenting his case again. He is so confident he is right that he says he is willing to accept punishment if he is lying.
2/17 Reading (Job 25-27; Psalms 82-85)
I’ve been so swamped at work these past few weeks that I got behind, again. So I adjusted the schedule, again. But, it’s my schedule, so it’s all good.
Job 25: We see Bildad’s very short third response here. He seems to be arguing that God is simply too important and great to be questioned by Job. Bildad does directly ask Job “How can a person be innocent before God” (25:4), seeming to challenge Job’s earlier arguments that he has done nothing wrong. Still sticking to their arguments.