Reading Through the Bible In a Year(ish): Day 77: Judges 19-21

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Day 77: Judges 19-21

In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit. (21:25)

So ends the book of Judges. This is a dark period in Israel's history. The book of Judges is bloody. The story is the story of God's people. "God's" in the sense that God has chosen them but they haven't totally chosen Him. The book chronicles their ups and downs...mostly downs to be honest. A judge will rise up and lead the people to repentance...and things start to turn around...but once the dynamic leader dies the people once again fall into all kinds of sin and false religion. They had no king. Actually, I suppose God's intention was that He would be their King...but they never quite got that concept...so, "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit."

You know what?

The story of Judges is our story.

1 comment:

Scott PenceApril 20, 2011 at 11:29 AM
This is not a carefully researched response, but the only sense I can make of the book of Judges is as one giant example of how to get it wrong. Jepthah got it wrong...Samson got it wrong...Basically an explicit historical homily on "our righteousness is as dirty rags"
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Year(ish)

I posted a link on FaceBook recently that was a plan for reading through the Bible in a year. It's designed to do the readings chronologically so that the reader can get a better feel for the flow of the Biblical narrative. I think this is a good approach. I noticed recently that the same plan is posted on my church's web site.

My problem is I've never been very successful in through-the-bible-in-a-year type reading plans before (notice the date of my first reading)...plus, the important thing is reading the Bible, right? Who cares if it takes a year?

So here's my plan: The chronological design is set up for 6 readings per week which equals 312 daily readings. I'm going to do the 312 daily readings - but they may not be 312 consecutive days. After each passage of scripture I'm going to write whatever comes to my mind from that reading. Don't expect a scholarly exegesis of the text - I'll leave that for others more qualified. What I plan to share is simply how that particular passage spoke to me. Please feel free to leave your own thoughts in the comments. On day 312 this blog comes to an end.

There are 2 reasons for doing this on a blog: First, I'm hoping the fact that I'm doing this in a "public" way will provide motivation. Second, I'm inviting you to go on this journey with me. I'm hoping that by doing this together we will be able to "spur one another on" and get a better overview of God's word in 2011(ish).

You can download a .pdf of the plan here.