Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Bible Reading Challenge day 3

I starting the 1-year Bible reading challenge on Sunday, reading 3 chapters a day. So I finished Genesis Chapter 9 today. Since these few chapters cover hundreds of years in human history, I wonder if we are meant to see in them the large patterns of God's dealings with man. Something that interests me is that thousands of people must have lived during this time period, but we learn of only a very few--basically one line of Adam's descendants, leading to Noah. This pattern is continued in the rest of Genesis--we learn mostly about one line, one family. Obviously we need to learn about the family of Israel, through whom Jesus Christ will be born into the world. But I wonder if God is trying to teach us too that it is very often through families that His work is done here on the earth. Each of us (since Adam and Eve, anyway) is born to someone--hopefully into a family with parents who will teach us about God, and about our place here on earth. When the Lord wants to do some great work, he starts by preparing a family. So we have Adam and Eve teaching their children, Noah and his family, Abraham and his family, Joseph and Mary...and I think it applies to each of us. I was born to parents who taught me the gospel and helped me prepare to live a life in accordance with God's will and hopefully teach my own children to do the same. And so on down through the generations...

3 comments:

Kelley said...

Paula, this is the reason I like your blog so much. It intersperses delightful stories with thought-provoking mini-essays. You are a great writer, and I love it when my Google Reader tells me you've written again.

Paula said...

Why thank you Kelley! It's fun to have a forum for my more-and-less philosophical musings...thanks for inspiring me to start a blog!

Anonymous said...

I want to read the Bible with you. I've been wanting to for about a year now. I don't know if I can do 3 chapters a day, but I am trying a new schedule, which includes extra reading. I think I'll start with my "central classic". Thanks for the inspiration.