Bible Read Thread

[Goodbook]

Powerful chapters.

 

[SarahsKnight]

My guess would be that Isaiah 27:1 refers to the eventual and final destruction of the Devil, being seen here, like in Revelation, as a dragon and a sea serpent.

 

[SarahsKnight]

There was definitely this unusual sense of wonder I had reading through the section of Isaiah that we did yesterday. Our God is mighty but will always use it to ultimately restore and reconcile in neverending mercy.

This morning we will be reading through the Gospels with Matthew 11 through 13.

 

[SarahsKnight]

Week 5, Sunday: The Epistles

The reading today will be Romans 9 and 10.

 

[SarahsKnight]

What a dizzying sermon we have from Paul in Romans, huh? For the Israelites everything they've ever known is turned on its head. St. Paul says that salvation is by Christ and not following the written law well enough, by faith and not works, that God's salvation is for the Gentiles who did not previously seek Him and yet His own chosen nation are no longer considered "descendants of Abraham" just because they were physically descended from him, and so on. Granted at first glance Christ did not seem to emphasize these these values in His own teachings like Paul did, but I can see the similarities and insinuations through Christ's parables, and it is true that He did get in the faces of the teachers of the law a whole lot.

It's also really helpful that Paul sheds light on the validity of what he is teaching through constant reference back to written prophecy as well (although I admit I have no idea whether they all come from Isaiah or not, and actually at least one is said specifically to come from Hosea), such as this:

“I WILL CALL THOSE WHO WERE NOT MY PEOPLE, ‘MY PEOPLE,’ AND HER WHO WAS NOT BELOVED, ‘BELOVED.’ ”

... Which I think is a decent example to use in a case for anyone being welcome to come to Christ (i.e. unlimited atonement) if they so will (by the guidance of the Holy Spirit to a degree, I believe; I have something of a mixed view between Calvinism and Arminianism), and that God is no player of favoritism.

 

[Goodbook]

Hmm i may have read a bit more than prescribed but it seems to me this remnant Paul is referring to is the 144,000 mentioned in the book of revelation.

What I dont know is if that number is the first resurrection or it still has to be fulfilled. I dont know how many israelites entered into the kingdom from before christ whether that is included in that number, but it seems so. If so thats very few from the entire population although on first glance it doesnt seem to include women.

Anyway just my thoughts as was thinking on how relevant Pauls musings on the israelites (the elect) are for today. As there are still israelites i.e seed of abraham who dont know Jesus, apparently, gathered in their homeland now. Where im confused is the difference btween israel and judah. Cos we automatically think jewish when we think of isrealites but many israelies arent from the tribe of Judah, which is where we get the word Jewish and what Judaism has come to be.

 

[Goodbook]

The difference between house of israel and house of judah is marked. But Jesus can trace his lineage to tribe of judah, through joseph and mary. Thats why when he was crudicifed he was labeled mockingly King of the Jews.

But..there were actually two kingdoms that wanted Gods favour, the kingdom of judah and that of israel. People were looking for him to retore the kingdom to Israel but Jesus wanted neither, he was for the Kingdom of God.

It took me a while to figure this out. i guess I am a bit slow.

 

[SarahsKnight]

Week Six, Monday: The Law

Genesis chapters 20 through 23

 

[Swan7]

Sorry, I haven't been around here much. I am reading along though!

 

[Goodbook]

Huh I enjoyed the bit where God told abraham to listen to Sarah.
Ironic turn around.

Also interesting that seven ewe lambs were used in covenant with abilemech before God told abraham to sacrifice isaac.

 

[SarahsKnight]

Also interesting that seven ewe lambs were used in covenant with abilemech before God told abraham to sacrifice isaac.

Why, what is the connection you see there, Miss Book?

 

[SarahsKnight]

I must say, often when reading through this part of Genesis I thought that Abimelech must be pretty chill for a king that he all but lets Abraham's deception concerning Sarah go by him with nary but a "Dude, what's up with that?" when he learns from God that Sarah is not Abraham's sister but his wife. This is, what, the third time now that Abraham made that story up? Sarah really must have been a looker who cannot pass through a single nation without catching the eye of someone if Abraham feels he needs to do this every time they enter a new country. Sure it says here that Abraham told everyone that she was his sister this time because he was afraid they were a godless people who would take her by force and slay Abraham anyway if he says Sarah was his wife, but he was eventually proven wrong on that anyway, since Abimelech was upset that he was deceived and readily obeyed God in that dream or night vision he had of God speaking to him, by readily handing her back over to Abraham, and then willingly forged an alliance with him. I think Abraham really mistakenly sold Abimelech and his people short in thinking they would not honor his marriage to Sarah if he told the truth, when he lied and said she was his sister.
Abimelech seems like a good and honorable king to me, at least as of now.

It is also a beautiful picture, I think, that even though God let Sarah mistreat her maid Hagar and send her off with her child into the wilderness to fend for themselves, He nevertheless came to Hagar when she was about to despair and promised to take care of her and make her son also a father of nations. God forgets no one.

 

[Goodbook]

Why, what is the connection you see there, Miss Book?

Oh just about the lambs. God provided another lamb. Abraham wasnt seriously going to sacrifice his son. He trusted God would provide one. He probably kept one back just in case.

 

[SarahsKnight]

Good morning, class. ^-^ This morning we start in a new book of Scripture with Judges 1 through 6.

 

[Goodbook]

Lots happening..i havent read Judges in a while.
Deborahs song is interesting, I forgot she had a song!

 

[SarahsKnight]

I must say, I really like Gideon's beginning story here in Judges 6 when God first comes to him to call upon him to deliver Israel (for what, the fifth time, now, since the book of Judges even started?) from their oppressors and their infatuation with foreign gods. It took a great deal of courage, I think, even when Gideon was visited by the angel of the Lord (which every time this phrase is used I assume it refers to the Holy Spirit in some manifestation or another; I never really inquired after this point before, but if someone else here has a different answer than me on who "the angel of the Lord" is, please inform me) and told to do so, for Gideon to tear down Baal's altar and the Asherah symbols.

Another thing of note to me is that the NASB explains in a footnote that Asherah is in essence a wooden symbol of a female deity. Which of course would be a false one.

 

[Goodbook]

Well people seem to like their gods an awful lot. They are like household pets but made of stone or wood going 'worship me' but really all they do is collect a lot of dust.

 

[Swan7]

I really don't get it. Time and time again they have been delivered from their enemies and STILL worship false gods.
I don't get it.

Another thing that stuck out with me is the "testing God" that Gideon dies with the fleece. Is that even allowed? I mean, we aren't to test Him... are we?

 

[SarahsKnight]

Another thing that stuck out with me is the "testing God" that Gideon dies with the fleece. Is that even allowed? I mean, we aren't to test Him... are we

Note Gideon's heart when he asked, though, Sheena. He was humble in doing so, even meekly asking the Lord to be not angry with him for requesting proof, just as Abraham kept asking God to spare Sodom if Abraham were to find a lesser and lesser number of God-following folk within Sodom. I believe Gideon was asking in good faith and God certainly knew that; perhaps Gideon was even asking for God to confirm Himself in the likeness of how even John tells us at the beginning of 1 John 4, to "test the spirits to see if they are from God" (which I believe in essence to be the Holy Spirit) so that we are not led astray in any by antichrist spirits (which, as John writes, will not admit or affirm that Jesus Christ has come to us in the flesh).

I personally have taken this passage from 1 John to heart in my personal walk with God over the last two to three years.

As with many commandments from the Lord, such as "thou shalt not put the Lord thy God to the test", I believe it is not to be judged at face value, but God will know the intentions of the heart of the person "testing" him. Such that when God says not to test Him, He means with an air of disbelief or haughtiness.

 

[SarahsKnight]

I really don't get it. Time and time again they have been delivered from their enemies and STILL worship false gods.
I don't get it.

I used to say that of the Israelites in the Old Testament, too. But when you think about it, Sheena, when we let trivial or worldly things in our lives take over and put God on the backburner for a while, us humans today are doing in essence the same thing, even if it may not be as blatant as literally casting God aside to lay down idols of pagan gods and worship before them instead.

I think even believing Christians God can look upon from time to time in the same way He sees the Israelites often: a "stiff-necked people".