The Bible Recap: Month One
The author of The Bible Recap has structured the daily readings in chronological order, so the reading plan does jump around a bit from book to book. This month’s readings were as follows:
Week 1: Genesis 1-11, Job 1-16
This portion of Genesis focused on the creation story and the first families on Earth. Many familiar stories: Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and Noah. I had read the first few chapters of Genesis before but never actually made it to the story of Cain and Abel or Noah. They surprisingly happen pretty quickly in the book.
The biggest questions for me that came out of the Genesis reading were: how did they create families when only one man and woman were initially created? Incest or additional people created that weren’t mentioned in the Bible? It doesn’t say explicitly, but what I’ve investigated is that people make assumptions around incest. Who wrote the Bible? It’s attributed to Moses, but it’s interesting how the writing describes events based on things that only God could know. For example, the 7-day creation story — the author writes the story as though they were there watching, or God told them the story later on. This was one point that had me questioning the literalness of the Bible. Did these things literally happen, or is the story more of a fable? The second point that had me thinking along these lines was the fact that people were living 600+ years. Is that literal? It does mention in the scripture that God changed his mind about letting people live that long and eventually decided to max it around 120 years, which tracks with modern day lifespans, but that also seems like a more modern development, i.e. people living longer today than they were 100+ years ago.
The second portion of the reading was centered around a man named Job, which I believe is a more common story told in churches today. It details how successful and blessed he was with his animals, family, etc., before it was all taken away from him — not by God, but it does explicitly state God allowed it to happen. He spends time lamenting on his woes, and he has three friends who visit him and give their perspective on why these challenges are befalling him. They suggest he had sinned and encourage him to repent, but Job is adamant he had done no wrong. Job tells his friends they are being ‘miserable comforters’ and insists for real answers to his suffering. One additional detail about this book is the writing style reads a bit more like a poem — I have to work very hard to visualize in order to interpret the words on the page. Not easy!
Week 2: Job 17-39 (adding week 3’s reading of Job 40-42 to finish the book of Job)
This week continued with the story of Job, and he continues to ask why his life has become so terrible. Everything he’s loved — his family, wealth, status, and health has been taken from him, and he continues to seek answers. He asks why good things happen to wicked people, and why bad things happen to good people. There is an additional character introduced, a young man who also tries to explain that God is all powerful and makes no mistakes. He asserts that there must be a purpose. Finally, in the last two chapters of the book, we from the Lord. He sets the stage by reminding Job that no one knows the things God does — that man cannot know the wonders of how the Earth was made, the intricacies of how the lion hunts or lightning strikes — painting a visual of the beautiful nature of the world and the mystery for us as humans. Job says he will finally remain silent on all his questioning and simply trust, and God then redeems Job and blesses him and his family.
Week 3: Genesis 12-29
Now we move back into the book of Genesis, and these chapters focus on the story of Abraham. The genealogy is getting a little confusing, but Abraham is from the lineage of Noah. These chapters tell the story of him and his wife Sarah and how their family is blessed by God. They are promised a child, which they do not have until Sarah is 90 years old! Her son is named Isaac. But, while they were waiting for this child to be born, Sarah tells Abraham to have a child with her servant because of her infertility. This son’s name is Ishmael. I believe these characters will have importance later on.
The story of Sodom and Gomorrah happens (another popular one I’ve heard before). It begins when three ‘men’ show themselves to Abraham and are later identified as two angels and the Lord. They are planning to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, but Abraham asks for the people to be spared if there are even a small amount of righteous people. When the ‘men’ arrive, they are threatened by the people in the town, so God decides to save Lot (Abraham’s nephew who was protecting the men) and his family, but he destroys the cities.
Another key event in this portion of the book is when God asks Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac (which he nearly does). But at the last minute, God provides a ram to be sacrificed instead. Kind of wild! Then we leave off with Isaac finding his wife, named Rebekah. They have two twin sons, Esau and Jacob. Jacob and his mother trick Isaac into blessing Jacob instead of the older brother Esau. Esau was upset about this and wanted to kill Jacob. Jacob then flees to his uncle’s land to avoid his brother and find a wife. He ends up getting tricked into marrying a woman named Leah (he requested to marry her sister Rachel). Ultimately, he ends up marrying both, and so far, only Leah is able to give Jacob any children (sons).
Week 4: Genesis 30-47 (adding week 5’s reading of Genesis 48-50 to finish the book)
I will cover this section in next month’s recap!
