Week 7, February 8–14: Exodus 24–40; Leviticus 1–3; Psalms 4–10

• Sun      Feb 8   Exod. 24–25    Ps. 4
• Mon     Feb 9   Exod. 26–28    Ps. 5
• Tue      Feb 10 Exod. 29–31    Ps. 6
• Wed     Feb 11 Exod. 32–34    Ps. 7
• Thu      Feb 12 Exod. 35–37    Ps. 8
• Fri        Feb 13 Exod. 38–40    Ps. 9
• Sat       Feb 14 Lev. 1–3          Ps. 10

The latter portion of Exodus is dedicated in large part to the instructions for building the tabernacle, then the description of its construction. God gave Moses instructions for the tabernacle while Moses was with the Lord on Mt. Sinai, The tabernacle was a large tent that would serve as a mobile sanctuary, the dwelling place for the Lord’s presence while the Israelites were in the wilderness. This would remain the center of Israel’s worship until a temple was built in the Promised Land during Solomon’s reign as king.

Included in the middle of this section Exodus we also read of one of the saddest displays of sin in all the Bible. The golden calf incident of Exodus 32 marks a low point for Gods’ people and serves as a paradigmatic example of sin and warning to following generations and readers of Scripture. God’s own people, his treasured possession (Exod. 19:5), who he just delivered from slavery in Egypt, they fall into grievous idolatry and rebellion against the Lord. They build and bow to an image of their own making while Moses is meeting with God on Mt. Sinai.

Also in this section, we read perhaps the most definitive and profound statement of God’s character, spoken from the Lord himself.

The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” (Exod. 34:6–7)

It is significant that this statement of who the Lord is sits right after the account of idolatry with the golden calf. God’s grace and mercy are seen most clearly against the backdrop of human sin. The Lord’s holy character and human sin will remain in focus as we finish Exodus and begin Leviticus. There will be more to say about Leviticus in next week’s post.

We have also now begun reading in Psalms. Even though there is a coherence and compositional strategy in the way the book of Psalms has been put together, we will spread the Psalms reading throughout the year. The book of Psalms, sometimes called the Psalter, is broken into five parts, or five books. We will start by reading through the first book, which goes through Psalm 41. Then we will break from Psalms for a few weeks before coming back to pick up in book two of the Psalter.

Even though we are reading individual psalms separately, we should keep in mind that they are not totally separate from their context within the Psalter and from their connections with one another and with other Scriptures. In fact, many recent commentaries and studies in Psalms highlight the coherence and strategic design of the Psalter and its parts, showing that the individual psalms have been put together intentionally with an overall structure and design to the book of Psalms as a whole. As you read Psalms, notice details linking the psalms to each other, and themes that flow from one to the next. Also notice the connections between the psalms and other parts of the Bible. One of the benefits of becoming more familiar with Scripture is that we begin to notice more of the many interconnected links throughout the Old and New Testaments.

We can see the intentional design of the Psalms right at the outset. Psalms 1 and 2 function as a joint pair of psalms that introduce the whole Psalter. Here are a few examples of the language linking the first two psalms together.

• In Ps. 1:1 and 6, at the beginning and end of the first psalm, two ways are contrasted: the way of the wicked and the way of the righteous; in Ps. 2:12, those who do not honor the Son will perish in the way.
• In Ps. 1:1–2 the one who meditates on Torah is blessed; in the conclusion of Ps. 2:12 those who take refuge in the Messiah are blessed.
• In Ps. 1:2, the righteous meditate on Torah; in Ps. 2:1 the wicked plot (same Hebrew word as “meditate” in 1:2) against the Messiah.
• In Ps. 1:6, the wicked will perish; in Ps. 2:12, those who do not kiss the Son will perish.

Again and again, we see evidence that the Bible has been put together with a great deal of intentionality. It is a cohesive whole that communicates a message that is at the same time both elegantly unified and also deeply complex. God has been so kind to reveal himself to us.

Beginning in earlier write ups, we have been thinking about the purposes for doing a read thru like this. The first purpose is to meet with God regularly and hear what he has to say. We could say more about that, but for now we will shift to the second purpose, which is to cultivate a lifelong habit of growing in familiarity with God’s word. One of the most amazing things about the Bible is the way it can speak in different registers at the same time. It is both simple and complex. Its basic story and message can be grasped by children, and you can spend your whole life studying it and still just begin to scratch the surface of all it means.

I think this is a feature of Scripture that flows out of the loving character of the God who inspired it. He wants to be known, and he has given us a way to know him. He calls us to have childlike faith (Matt 18:1–4; 19:14), and his word helps us know him from the very beginning of our lives as Christians. And on the other hand, the Bible is not the kind of book that we read just once and now we fully grasp it. It is meant to be read repeatedly, studied, meditated upon. As we do, we can trust that God will show us new and wonderful things in it as we read it again and again over the course of a lifetime.

Reading through the Bible in one year does not have any kind of magic power; it does not automatically produce a more mature Christian life. But each time we pick it up and read it, we are building a foundation of familiarity with the story of our God and of ourselves in his world, and this will form us in ways that result in growth and godliness.

This is a process that takes patience. We are conditioned in our present day to want immediate results and to get the quick, nutshell summary that will tell us what we need to know. There are some really good resources that synthesize the key themes of the Bible, but these are no substitute for the long, patient, soul-shaping journey of daily Bible reading. At whatever point in life you are, and whether you are just starting to read the Bible or have been reading it for a long time, investing a few minutes each day in God’s word will produce the kind of fruitful growth over the course of a lifetime that we cannot get anywhere else.

The goal of cultivating this lifelong habit is not to become an expert in the Bible, to master its content. The goal is to grow in familiarity with its message, and by becoming more familiar with it, we grow in our knowledge of the God who wrote it and in our love for him, and our lives our formed into Christlike character and a love, for God and for others, that flows out of what we have seen in Scripture. We will come back to these ideas later in these posts.