The Bible in 90 Days: 11 Down…79 To Go!

It’s hard to believe I’m on Day 11 of the Bible in 90 Days!  Somewhere between work, church, working out, hanging out with my kids, volunteering, blogging, and spending quality time with my husband, I managed to read Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and a large chunk of Numbers.  Although I’ve read the Bible before, I’ve come across so many things that I didn’t remember or never realized.  It amazes me that a concentrated, focused reading time yields such insight into the Bible. It’s also kind of shocking how much scandal is in the Bible…I’m talking PG-13 kind of stuff!  It’s interesting that they struggled back then with the same sins we do now…jealousy, lying (and even twisting the truth a little to protect yourself), complaining…

Genesis starts off with a whole lot of nothing…and then God starts creating and it is all good! Until Eve decides she knows better than God and it wouldn’t hurt to have just a little itty bitty piece of fruit.  She of course shares it with Adam and they both get kicked out of the beautiful garden they live in.

We also see the first murder…as the result of sibling rivalry.

Then we move on to Noah and his big boat…a boat that took him years to build, but that saved his whole family from a wordwide flood.

I was shocked to see that Abraham tried to pass Sarah off as his sister twice…apparently he didn’t learn the first time.  But I could also see his logic when I found out that Sarah really was his sister.  The gene pool back then was quite small and they had  the same dad!  Isaac pulled the same stunt his dad did when he tried to pass his wife off as his sister. And of course there is more sibling rivalry in both the story of Jacob and Esau and in the story of Joseph and his brothers.

In Exodus, we see Moses trying to worm his way out of talking to Pharaoh.  He gives God a bunch of excuses why he shouldn’t be the one to lead the people out of Egypt.  And just when Moses finally agrees to go talk to Pharaoh, you stumble across these strange verses.

At a lodging place on the way, the LORD met Moses and was about to kill him.  But Zipporah took a flint knife, cut off her son’s foreskin and touched Moses’ feet with it.

I’m pretty sure those are the strangest verses I’ve ever read, especially given their context.  I’m pretty sure that Moses’ son wasn’t thrilled with the spur of the moment circumcision either.  (OUCH!)

We then see Pharaoh refuse to let the people go despite the pleadings of Moses and Aaron.  Plagues fall on Egypt (including boils and locusts which I dreamed of after reading this passage…ewww), yet Pharaoh’s heart remains hard.  After more plagues including the death of the firstborn son of every Egyptian, Pharaoh lets the Israelites go.

Fast forward, you see the parting of the Red Sea which I find to be absolutely amazing (over 600,000 people walked through it) followed by lots and lots of complaining.  I have to say that I probably would have complained too.  They ate the same food for 40 years! And although I’m sure the food tasted great since God made it, it would still get old after a while.  They also complained about how much better life was in Egypt which I found to be quit odd considering how horrible their situation was, however, I realize that it’s easy to make your past seem better than it was.  When we first adopted our girls from Ukraine, they were thrilled to be in America…until the first time things didn’t go their way.  Then they cried and complained about how much better it was in the orphanage and that they wished they had never been adopted. Now that they’ve been here over 2 years, this rarely happens, but I was reminded again that although we’re in a very different place culturally, we still have the same heart issues.

In Leviticus, we find lots of information on the sacrifices. {Word of Caution: Do not read Leviticus before or during a meal unless you are trying to lose weight!} There is so much blood and guts and fat…  They also talk about testicles. (Told you it was shocking stuff!) I definitely would not plan on going through the book of Leviticus if you teach a Jr. High Sunday School class  although they might actually pay attention to this kind of stuff…

So far, Numbers has been a part census, part detailed job descriptions.  Although it’s been a little bit of a struggle to make it through the 1000s of people listed, I am reminded of how amazingly personal God is.

There is so much more than I could possibly share in one post (or even 11).  I highly recommend you consider the Bible in 90 Days.  It’s been truly amazing so far!  You can check out Mom’s Toolbox for more details.  Also, if you’re on Twitter, you can follow along using the hashtag #B90Days.

You can purchase The Bible in 90 Days and The Bible in 90 Days for Kindle on Amazon.

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