Bible Reading Challenge Week 6

My apologies for getting this written up later than usual. I’ve been under the weather. Better late than never!

This week, in the Old Testament we finished out Leviticus and started into Numbers, as well as read a few Psalms, and in the New Testament we finished up Hebrews, Jude, and the Epistles of John. There was also a catch-up day in there, which I admittedly availed myself of, which would have added Ephesians if you were already caught up. Ephesians will come up again later in the plan. Given the number of different books read this week, I’ll only be touching on some of them.

Week 6 Readings

• Leviticus 21-27
• Numbers 1-10
• Psalms 17 & 19
• Hebrews 11-13
• 1, 2, & 3 John
• Jude

Leviticus 21-27

The last several chapters of Leviticus primarily deal with the holiness laws for priests and feast days. At the end of the specific laws surrounding these, Chapter 26 takes a step back and reframes all these ceremonial laws in the context of the covenant God has made with the people of Israel. It is here repeated that there are great blessings for obedience and great curses for disobedience. In fact, there is more detail here regarding these blessings and curses than had previously been given.

The list of blessings includes food in abundance through bountiful harvests, peace in the land, enemies that flee from them, and most importantly that God himself would dwell in their midst. The section on the curses has an interesting component to it where you can see that God intends these curses, when then come, to draw them back to repentance. They come in waves, each one building in severity if the people continue in their sin and do not turn back to God. These punishments start with things like disease and enemies taking a victory over them, but continue to worsen if they fail to repent until the punishments are that they will eat their own children and have their cities laid waste and be made utterly desolate by their enemies.

We see something of God’s character in this. He is not setting up an impossible situation for them just so that he can smite them. He wants obedience, but is full of grace and mercy when they repent. Verses 40 and following show this, even after the waves of punishment, God says that if they repent, he “will not spurn them”, and will “remember the covenant with their forefathers.”

Numbers 1-10

The beginning of Numbers lays out the leaders of the tribes, the arrangement of the camp, and the dedication and consecration of the tabernacle for regular service. We see here many of the things written about in the second half of Exodus and Leviticus acted out. Chapter 7 is an almost funny account of all the offerings given at the tabernacle’s consecration – because the offerings presented by each tribe are spelled out in every last detail, even though they are the same for each tribe. So you get a 12x repetition of the same paragraph, the only difference being the tribe and leader from the tribe who was offering it.

Hebrews 11-13

Hebrews 11 is a very familiar passage to most – the “hall of faith” as it is sometimes called. Having just read the accounts of the patriarchs over the last several weeks, it is great to read the summary of their faith here. One thing I like about this chapter is that it includes the faith of not only those who were successful heroes, but also those who were persecuted and gave their lives for their faith. And the big takeaway here is found in verses 39-40, that all these, though commended for their faith, only receive what is promised them through Christ – that apart from Christ and from His church, they are not made perfect.

Hebrews 12 is also great to read in the wake of reading the Exodus account. When we worship, we do not come to the mountain that Moses came to, where God’s holiness was such that the people could not draw near. Indeed, as we saw in Hebrews, even the sacrificial system did not have the ability to draw its practitioners near to God. But through the risen and ascended Christ, we come to the heavenly Jerusalem in worship. We are brought near, because the sprinkled blood of Christ has truly cleansed our sin. Verse 28 tells us what our response should be to all this – gratitude and obedience.

May God richly bless your time in His Word!