It Is Finished!

As we have mentioned several times, a few of us in our family are reading through the Bible this year. Yesterday, September 23, after 266 days of reading, we finally finished the Old estament! I must admit that seems like more wars, pestilence, judgments and examples of man's sin than I care to keep in mind on a daily basis.

And genealogies and lists of people! Let it never be said that God went light on the details. There are more lists in the Old Testament than my wife, Susan, keeps in her day planner... and that is saying a lot!

I must admit there are some real gems in those details. Just the other day, in list of provincial officials who resettled in Jerusalem (Nehemiah seems like a fellow that had a hard time turning his back on a good list) we found out there were "468 descendants of Perez who lived in Jerusalem - all outstanding men." I don't know about you, but a detail like that makes me wonder what went right in that family... why did they all turn out to be outstanding men? What were their family reunions like? If there were no black sheep in the family (a role that I serve in my own), what did they talk about when they got together?

Way back on April 22nd we read a list of the armed warriors who joined David at Hebron. 6,800 warriors came from Judah; 7,100 from the tribe of Simeon; etc, etc. In 1 Chronicles 12:32 it says there were only 200 leaders who came from the tribe of Issachar... but these men "understood the temper of the times and knew the best course for Israel to take." My guess is those 200 were worth many thousands of the guys with shields and spears.

The One Year Chronological Bible that we are reading chooses to put Joel as the last book in the Old Testament. If this was done on a regular basis, it would sure ruin all those sermons that talk about the Old Testament closing with a curse (Malachi 4:6) and the New Testament with a blessing. Joel ends by saying, "...and I, the Lord, will make my home in Jerusalem with my people." That sounds like a blessing and a promise to me.

I am looking forward to reading all the Gospels in chronological order. I am looking forward to reading about the reality of the promise mentioned at the end of Joel.

Now, I must admit that reading 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John on Christmas day is going to be a bit strange. However, even there we read, "For every child of God defeats this evil world by trusting Christ to give the victory." (1 John 5:4) In a world where wars, pestilence and examples of man's sin still seem as prevalent as they were in the Old Testament that sounds like a pretty good Christmas promise to me.