You Can Read the Bible Bible Only Podcast

You Can Read the Bible Bible Only Podcast

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You Can Read the Bible Bible Only Podcast episodes

  • Day 381 Bible Only Podcast

    Our reading for today is Genesis chapter 12.

    This is where the story really begins. Yes, yes, I know that there are eleven chapters before this, and that those chapters upended everything the pagans believed about the universe. But those chapters were at least recognizable in their time. There are other creation stories, other flood stories, other dispersion stories.

    But there is no God-in-history story. There is no “there was a man whose life you can authenticate, whose places you can stand in, whose lineage you can trace” story. Not like this. “Then the LORD said to Abram…” is fundamentally different in content and form. “Abram?” the Israelite is startled awake. “I know there was an Abram. I know he was here because I am here. I’m a child of Joseph, of Judah, of Simeon… who’s a child of Jacob, second-born of Isaac. That oak where the LORD spoke to him – it was there is my grandfather’s time.”

    We’re so used to the idea of God working through history that this fails to take us by surprise. But it impressed others – like Moses (Deuteronomy 4) and David (2 Samuel 7) who ask, “Have you ever heard of such a thing? Of a god taking a nation for Himself out of another nation?”

    In here are Haran and Shechem, Bethel and Egypt, the Oak of Moreh. A land, a famine, a Pharaoh. A promise, and a lie. That’s why I want to read Genesis 12 again.

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  • Day 384 Bible Only Podcast

    Our reading for today is Lamentations chapter 3.

    Jerusalem had resisted Joshua, and Saul, but David had finally wrested it from the Jebusites.  He established the city as his capital, and the LORD had allowed His name to rest there.  It had been sacked by Shishak, threatened by Sennacherib, and protected by tribute payments to Assyria and Babylon, but for four hundred years Zion had survived. 

    Now Jeremiah records his lament as he walks through the charred citadel of the LORD’s people.  The small book of Lamentations is worth reading in its entirety.  It is not a disorganized wail, but, like the Song of Moses that commemorated the Exodus, this memorial is produced with memorable artistry.  Chapter 3 is a tripled acrostic poem – three lines at a time beginning with the same Hebrew letter, in sequence through the alphabet.  For the worshipper of Jehovah, the lines of celebration and grief are drawn with equal creativity and skill.

    It’s impossible to separate Jeremiah’s lament from his prophecies.  If you even casually peruse the book that bears his name, you’ll conclude that the surprise wasn’t that Jerusalem had fallen, but that anyone should be surprised by it.  Jeremiah knew this was coming; the tragedy of his ministry is that no one would listen. 

    But this adds another layer when, in the middle of this lament, Jeremiah bursts out: “The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, His mercies never come to an end.”  Jeremiah could see and touch and smell the evidence that the LORD was faithful to His promises: if Israel could be destroyed, as promised, then she could be restored, as promised. 

    These verses formed the basis for the hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness! by Thomas Chisholm: “Morning by morning new mercies I see!”  That’s why I want to read Lamentation 3 again!

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