What I've been reading Part I

I previously posted my intention of reading through the Bible in the next year, and Chris has asked how that's going. I thought, "Why not blog about it?"

Well, I doubt I'll finish in a year, but who cares? At least it's a goal that keeps me reading everyday. Since June I've read Genesis- Numbers and Job.

In Genesis, God creates the heavens and the earth, plants, animals and people. Adam and Eve live in paradise and walk and talk with God in the Garden of Eden. Everything is going great until they eat the forbidden fruit and introduce sin into the world. Humans have been cursed to live in this fallen world ever since. Now we see all kinds of bickering, murder, adultery, etc. When it gets really out of hand God wipes out the sinners in a flood. Only Noah and his family survive. Noah's descendants repopulate the earth and the rest of Genesis is filled with the type of stories your typical grocery store tabloid will pay big bucks for. A man is tricked into marrying the wrong woman, jealous siblings sell their brother into slavery, two particularly sin-ridden cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, are destroyed.

In Exodus, the Israelites are slaves in Egypt- descendants of family that sold their brother to be a slave there. God selects Moses to lead his people out of Egypt and into a promised land. God brings nasty plagues on Egypt until Pharaoh finally lets them go. God leads the people through the desert by a pillar of fire, feeding them with bread that falls out of the sky. In an awesome display of smoke and fire He leads Moses up a mountain and gives him the ten commandments. Despite the display of God's mighty power, the Israelites grumble about the food and start worshiping idols. So God lets them roam around in the desert for 40 years until a new generation rises up to take over the promised land.

The books are full of wild stories and weird regulations meant to set the Israelites apart from the rest of the nations. Sin has made a mess of things. The sacrifices required of Israel prove there is now a huge chasm between God and man. This holy and righteous God is "untouchable" to the filthy, sin-ridden humans. From the very first pages of the Bible the need for a Savior is evident.