2024 GBC Bible Read Thru Weekly Guide

Week 32, August 4–10: Job 40–42; 1 Corinthians 1–16; Proverbs 1–3; Psalms 90–95

• Sun      8/4       Job 40–42      
• Mon     8/5       1 Cor 1–4        Psalm 90
• Tue      8/6       1 Cor 5–7        Psalm 91
• Wed     8/7       1 Cor 8–10      Psalm 92
• Thu      8/8       1 Cor 11–12    Psalm 93
• Fri        8/9       1 Cor 13–16    Psalm 94
• Sat       8/10     Prov 1–3          Psalm 95

The closing section of Job, like the opening two chapters, gives important, God’s-eye-view perspective that helps shape our understanding of the poetic interchanges between Job and his friends throughout the book. We also find in Job 38–41 some of the Bible’s most captivating and powerful language on the majesty of God relative to his creation, especially compared with humankind. It also becomes completely clear that, overall, Job was in the right and his friends were wrong in their assessment of him. We already knew, because of the narrative introduction at the beginning of the book, that Job was not suffering because of his sin. Now, in chapter 42, God addresses the friends directly and tells them explicitly, “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” (Job 42:7). They find out what we were privy to much earlier; they were gravely mistaken in their assumption that Job’s suffering is the result of some serious sin he committed.

One famous rabbinical interpreter has noticed that any time we see the phrase, “the Lord’s anger burned (or was kindled),” it is followed by punishment. Here it’s interesting that the punishment is experienced by the seven bulls and seven rams that Eliphaz and his friends were to bring to Job to offer as a burn offering because of their sin, or folly. This sacrifice would serve as a substitute for their punishment, so that, as the Lord says, “I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly.” And again the Lord reiterates that they have not spoken of him what is right as Job has.

After finishing Job, we move back into the NT and read 1 Corinthians. We also pick up our Psalms reading this week with book IV of the Psalter. (And we start Proverbs at the end of this week’s reading.) 1 Corinthians is the next of Paul’s letters after Romans. This letter to the Corinthian church was written to a church Paul had planted on one of his missionary journeys (Acts 18). Corinth was an important city in the Roman empire and the largest city in Greece at the time. This letter is different than Romans in several ways, but probably the most notable is that it addresses more practical matters of life in the Church and as Christians, whereas Romans is more theological than practical in its emphasis. This is not to say 1 Corinthians is not theological. It is highly theological, it just has more of a focus on the specific implications of the theological truth of the gospel for the way Christians relate to each other in the church and to those outside the church.

The letters of the NT were all written to individual churches or groups of churches, so on one hand we should read them keeping in mind they were written to address particular situations going on in those churches. However, on the other hand, they were written for us too. Paul states that explicitly here in the opening greeting of 1 Corinthians. The letter opens where our letters and emails typically close, by Paul giving his name, telling the recipients who is writing this letter. This is customary of Paul and was the standard practice of letter writing in that time.

Then he greets his readers, the recipients of the letter: “To the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours.” (1 Cor. 1:2) There’s a lot packed into this greeting, but one thing that is clear is that the letter is written to Christians. And it's also clear that, while its Christians in the church in Corinth were its direct recipients, it is also meant for “all those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” That includes us today. As we read through the letters, or epistles, of the NT, it is important to keep in mind that these are not just historical documents written to ancient people to address their issues. They are God’s word to us today too.

1 Corinthians addresses several issues of church life and Christian practice, and it can be described, generally speaking, as corrective in tone. Some of Paul’s other letters have much more of a positive emphasis and he commends the recipient churches for their faithfulness and urges them to continue in their godly ways. Here however, he opens by thanking God and proclaiming his faithfulness, then jumps right into an appeal to the church in Corinth to stop their divisive ways. In fact, much of the letter deals with different aspects and practices of divisiveness in the church. Other areas of sin are addressed too, and Paul levels strong rebuke both against those who are engaged in sin and against those who tolerate it in the church.

It appears 1 Corinthians continues a sequence of correspondence between Paul and the Corinthian church that had already been going on before this. He refers to another letter he had written (5:9), and it appears they had written him an earlier letter as well. Verse one of chapter 7 opens with, “Now concerning the matters about which you wrote.” This suggests he is responding to questions they had posed to him in their earlier correspondence. The phrase, “Now concerning” continues through the letter, apparently as a shorthand way of referring to those earlier questions. We don’t have access to either of those earlier letters, but we can read 1 Corinthians with confidence that whatever those letters said, it is not necessary to understand what we’re reading here in this letter.

As we said earlier, 1 Corinthians is a practical letter, addressing real-life questions and issues for the church, and it is deeply theological too. In chapter 13, it contains the famous and beautiful poem that defines Christian love, which functions in the letter to capture the heart behind Paul’s appeal to unity in in Christ. And, in chapter 15, it also contains one of the clearest synthesis statements defining the gospel itself and the most comprehensive treatment of the theology of the resurrection in all Scripture.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried (1 Cor. 15:3–4)