The Old Testament in 60 Days
On September 3, 2020, I heard the Lord clearly say: Read the whole Bible between now and the end of the year. I had taken an afternoon alone to pray and plan for what promised to be a rousing conclusion to this rousing year, and I’m glad I did. How I know I heard Him say so isn’t the question I’m seeking to address here. Suffice it to say, “when you know you know.” Little did I know that I’d get my very own quarantine once again to make such progress (!) but the last couple of weeks of laying low while recovering from COVID-19 have provided a nice cushion of space to conclude the Old Testament just in time to enter into the holiday season and focus on the New. If you think pastors usually read at a clip similar to reading through the entire Old Testament in approximately 60 days, I’ll speak for myself and just say - not this pastor...
Reading at such a rapid pace of course has its pros and cons. I wouldn’t recommend it to many as a regular practice, and I don’t plan to make it mine. At the conclusion of this journey, I expect to return to my normal “close-to-1-year” Bible reading plan, and I’m happy to do so. But, reading this quickly certainly has its advantages. I imagine watching all 6 Star Wars (or however many there are now) episodes in a weekend might reveal certain themes you’ve missed before, or at least would reacquaint with the story in a refreshing way. How much more, then, would the Holy Spirit illuminate the themes He desires us to see in the Old Testament story? He has worked supernaturally in me to shine light into my mind to reveal that the same truth He unveiled to Moses early on in the story He was still emphasizing at the time of Nehemiah, near the end. There’s something about having read those promises and plans 2 weeks ago that you just can’t miss when you see them again. Normally, the span of time between readings would simply be much greater. And of course, He’s still emphasizing those themes today.
To be fair, I didn’t exactly dig into a lot of detail in certain sections. If I was reading the details of the construction of the temple or the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s wall or Solomon’s daily provisions or the division of the land in Joshua, I skimmed. I hope the Lord is ok with that! Ha. It’s not that these sections aren’t important, but they can’t be appreciated in all their fullness by a casual read, and I knew that going in. They must be approached with much more focus than reading at this pace would allow. To focus on these details is a fascinating in-depth study, but it wasn’t my purpose in this reading.
Here are 3 themes I noticed over and over. I don’t mean these to be an exhaustive list, just ones I couldn’t escape as I read.
3 Themes I noticed over and over
1. He will go to any and all lengths to make Himself known.
For you are a holy people belonging to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be his own possession out of all the peoples on the face of the earth. 7 “The Lord had his heart set on you and chose you, not because you were more numerous than all peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. 8 But because the Lord loved you and kept the oath he swore to your ancestors, he brought you out with a strong hand and redeemed you from the place of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. -- Deuteronomy 7:6-8 (CSB)
All history and creation is the story of God. 2020 wants us to read the Bible like it’s the story of us. Listen to enough of the popular preaching of today, or spend enough time on Christian Instagram, and you can easily draw the conclusion that God’s mission is to elevate our self-worth. Our self-worth may be in the tank, and God isn’t ok with that. But, the way to self-worth isn’t to look for Bible verses that tell you how valuable you are. It’s to be reminded that the God who made everything is telling us his story, and He’s inviting us to be a part of it. You just can’t read the Old Testament and draw the conclusion that God’s mission is to tell people how valuable they are. It’s obvious that He created the world, chose a people for Himself, and guided them through thousands of years in order for both them and every nation around them to reach one conclusion - there is one God and his Name is Yahweh. Only by recognizing this truth can life have powerful meaning.
The actual timeline of the story of Old Testament Israel ends at the conclusion of Nehemiah. Then comes the wisdom and poetry (Job-Song of Solomon). Then, the prophets, all of which lived and spoke for God during the elapsed time of Genesis-Nehemiah. Reading at this pace had a way of helping me see the prophets in their context. Having recently read the story from the historical books made me more aware of the timeline when I read Isaiah or Ezekiel, for instance.
Every time I ran across a phrase like “that you may know that I am the Lord,” I wrote in the margin of my Bible a small “for HIS glory.” There are pages where I wrote it 4 times! His mission is so clear. And, when I don’t see myself as the center of the story my heart swells with how big He is.
2. The Old Testament story BEGS for Jesus to come.
God’s covenant(s) to Israel throughout the story all center on Jesus. From the promise to Adam and Eve to send a serpent-head-crusher forward, Jesus is everywhere in the Old Testament! He told Abraham that his seed would come and reconcile all the nations to Himself. He promised David that he’d never fail to have a descendant on the throne, and Jesus came as that final fulfillment. Over and over and over and over I noticed God reminding his people that if they’d remain faithful He would never leave them. And over and over they failed! Yet, his promise was secure. Only Jesus could end the chaos of success and failure, mostly failure, of the Israelites. By the end of Malachi I was struck with the hopelessness of any human effort to save.
A little New Testament context - Remember Romans 3:25 - “God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed.”
Before Jesus came, sin had gone unpunished. Many Jews had been saved by looking ahead to the coming of the Messiah. They’d pictured it every time a lamb was slain before their eyes, knowing the Lamb of God would one day come. And, yet, He hadn’t come. They were forgiven by looking ahead to Jesus but sin hadn’t been punished. It was by Him taking it on his shoulders and healing us by the stripes Isaiah promised He’d receive 700 years before (see Isaiah 55). I’m telling ya - Jesus is EVERYWHERE in the Old Testament. I saw it with my own eyes.
Every time I ran across a covenant God made or reminded that He’d made I marked it in a pink highlighter because pink is the closest color to blood that doesn’t cover up the words! There’s a LOT of pink in this Bible.
3. The day of the Lord - whoa.
I’m still processing this one, and I will be for a long time. This phrase, “the day of the Lord,” is everywhere. Sometimes it seems to refer to the day Jesus comes the first time as the fulfillment of the promise of a Messiah. In these circumstances, there’s so much hope. Think all the prophecies we read at Christmas: how in Isaiah He’s the Prince of Peace, how in Micah a baby will be born in Bethlehem, how in Malachi He will rise with healing in his wings.
Other times it refers to a day of judgment. As Israel wandered from Him, the day of the Lord was promised as a day of judgment, both for Israel and for those He would raise up to oppress them. That alone blew my mind multiple times. God is so serious about his people’s faithfulness that He would raise up nations to cause them to suffer so they’d return to Him, and then He’d punish those nations for oppressing his people. I don’t get all the theological nuances of that, but I’m grateful I’m one of his people. He’s serious about drawing us back in 2020, and I know it. When the day of the Lord comes, watch out.
So, to wrap up, the Old Testament is worth our time. It’s not just the backstory before the Bible gets good. Read it quickly or read it slowly; both ways have their benefits. Either way, I’d love to discuss what the Lord says to you as you engage!
