This will be a shorter post than usual. I wanted to share a realization that I believe God is opening my eyes to this time as I read through the Bible from the beginning. It wasn't really anything particular from today's reading (I read from Genesis 28:6-30:24, which chronicles Jacob running to his uncle Laban's house after having stolen his father's blessing originally reserved for Esau, all the way through marrying Leah and Rachel and having children by them). But what it was was a realization of the relative insignificance of these stories. Every time I've read through the Bible previously, especially at the beginning, I did want to soak in the stories of Adam, Eve, Noah, Abraham, and so on. My rationale was that, these were people of God, after all. Especially the latter half of Genesis, once we see the stories of Jacob and Joseph, a lot of ink is spilled over the details of these stories of God's chosen family, but compared the rest of Scripture and more importantly, the rest of what God shared with His people throughout the rest of Scripture, these stories are less significant to me than I previously would have thought.
When I was reading through God's Word last year via The Bible Recap reading plan led by its founder, Tara-Leigh Cobble, one thing she made clear periodically as we went through Scripture together was that we needed to stop looking for ourselves in these stories and instead be looking for God. Generations come and go, but the Lord remains throughout the entire fabric of history from Genesis through Revelation, and even well beyond Revelation (the last 2,000 or so years, for example).
Going through the Bible this year is going to be interesting, considering that this is only the second time I'm really attempting to do this fresh off having done it the year before. For starters, I'm on a different reading plan, one that's non-chronological for a change of pace. Therefore, no book of Job until a little later on. But also, I'm reading through the book of Genesis after having read through not only the entire Bible but also fresh off the New Testament, with a lot of reflection on letters written by Paul, Peter, James, John, etc. bearing witness to the Lord Jesus Christ post-resurrection and pointing all Old Testament scriptures to Him. I am excited to find out what God wants me to know this time through. I plan to blog periodically about it, as things jump out to me from the Word, and as time permits.
Praise the Lord!
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