Emily: welcome to immerse: the daily bible reading experience.
Day 300 and 26
Chronicles
Almighty God, father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Grant, we pray that we might be grounded and settled in your truth by the coming
of your Holy Spirit into our hearts.
What we do not know, reveal to us.
What is lacking within us?
Make complete that which we do know.
Confirm in us and keep us blameless in your service
through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen.
Welcome to Immerse the Bible Reading Experience.
The Bible is a great gift.
The creator of all things entered into our human story and spoke to us.
He inspired people over many centuries.
To shape words into books that reveal his mind, bringing wisdom into
our lives and light to our paths.
But God's biggest intention for the Bible is to invite us into its story, what God
wants for us more than anything else.
Is that we make the Bible's great drama of restoration and new life.
The story of our lives too.
The appropriate way to receive a gift like this is to come to know the
Bible deeply, to lose ourselves in it.
Precisely so that we can find ourselves in it.
In other words, we need to immerse ourselves in it to read God's words
at length and without distraction.
To read with deeper historical and literary perspective, and to read
through the Bible with friends in a regular three-year rhythm.
Immers.
The Bible reading experience has been specially designed for this purpose.
Immerse the Reading Bible presents each book of the Bible without the
distractions of chapter and verse markers.
Subject headers or footnotes, all later historical additions to the text.
The Holy Bible New Living Translation is presented in a single column
format with easy to read type to provide meaningful perspective.
Book introductions, provide his.
Historical and literary context, and the books are often reordered
chronologically or grouped with books that share similar ancient audiences.
Every change from tradition in this unique Bible enhances the
opportunity for readers to engage with God's words in simple clarity.
Introduction to Chronicles.
We began our journey into the Bible's first testament with a comprehensive
telling of Israel's history from the creation story to Israel's
exile from the land of promise.
Then we heard the prophets delivering the word of the Lord to Israel,
intervening as the people wandered again and again from their allegiance to God.
We joined with Israel in singing songs of both Lament and Praise, entering into the
worship of God in a way that acknowledges a full range of human emotions.
We listened in as Israel's wisdom.
Teachers taught the good way of life meant for all the creator's people.
This final part of the Immerse First Testament contains
its three remaining books.
This last collection focuses once again on telling stories.
The Hebrew expression translated as Chronicles means
words or events of the days.
That is, it's a record of day-to-day events, much like a diary or journal.
The stories in this volume are all Chronicles that tell how the
people of God lived out their faith after his covenants with Noah.
Abraham, Moses and David were established.
First comes the Book of Chronicles, Ezra.
Nehemiah.
This unique telling of Israel's history is presented in most Bibles
as four separate books, although it was originally a unified work.
Notice that the ending of Second Chronicles overlaps
with the beginning of Ezra.
This book of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah.
Emphasizes the importance of the true worship of God.
The shorter books in this volume, Esther and Daniel show God's people
facing extreme challenges in foreign lands, whether in their careful
day-to-day observance of God's law, or in their willingness to suffer death
through persecution, faithful and courageous men and women demonstrate
an unfailing loyalty to God.
All three works presented here were written after the Jewish people were
conquered by foreign empires and scattered among the other nations.
These books tell stories that carry on the grand story of God's
covenants in into later centuries.
It is important to read these final books of the first Testament with the overall
development of the Bible's story in mind.
God created the world to be his temple.
The place where he would dwell in fellowship with humanity
after sin entered the world.
God chose Abraham and his family, the people of Israel as those who would bring
blessing and life back into the world.
But most of the story so far has been about Israel's struggle to live
up to its divinely given vocation.
God initiated covenants with humanity in order to move the story closer and closer
to his intention for all of creation.
But the goal has not been reached.
God wants a people who worship him well so they can go out into the
world to share his light and life.
The exile had caused a crisis in Israel's story.
Leading many to question God's own faithfulness to the covenant, as well
as their status as his chosen people.
God's vision for Israel and for the world could not be fulfilled as
long as foreign powers controlled God's people and their land.
These books at the end of the First Testament were written to
remind the people of their true story and their ultimate hope.
The issues raised will continue into the period between the First
Testament and the New Testament.
As the years go by and Israel's struggles persist, the longing for
God to keep his covenant promises will grow stronger and stronger.
This is a story begging for its fitting conclusion.
Immersed in Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah.
In 407 bc, leaders of the Jewish community on the Egyptian Island
fortress of Elephantine wrote to the Persian governor in Judea for help.
They explained that their ancestors had built a temple to Yahoo, Yahweh
there, but that it had recently been destroyed by a mob, incited by the
priests of the Egyptian God canoe.
These Jewish leaders complained that they had requested assistance from the priests
and elders in Jerusalem, but had heard nothing back In response, the Persian
governor authorized them to rebuild their temple, but why hadn't their fellow Jews
in Jerusalem been the first to help?
This request for the Jerusalem community to invest in a temple in Egypt
illustrates why the writing of a grand new history of Israel was necessary.
These Jews in Egypt were worshiping Yahoo alongside other gods in a
mix of Jewish and pagan rituals.
This newly written history repeatedly makes a vital claim.
True worship of God will follow the instructions God gave in the law of
Moses and will occur in the place God has chosen the temple in Jerusalem.
This history comprises the books commonly known as First and Second
Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemiah.
It draws on accounts kept by profits in earlier times on the
personal memoirs of Ezra and Nehemiah and on community records.
These materials were brought together into one large work to address the
particular challenges of this time.
Israel's previously written history from Genesis to Samuel King's, addressed the
situation of Israel's exile and answered the question, why did the exile happen?
Chronicles Ezra.
Nehemiah addresses the situation of the people after the exile and
answers the question, who are we now?
This new telling of Israel's history begins with an elaborate genealogy, a
list of ancestors that goes all the way back to Adam and reveals the origins and
development of the 12 tribes of Israel.
Special attention is given to Judah, the tribe of King, David
and Levi, the tribe of priests.
This genealogy helps the current generation see that they are linked to
Israel's most ancient people and stories.
Thus, the lists begin the work of reminding them of who they are.
As the book changes to narrative, the reigns of David and Solomon
come into the spotlight.
The story alternates three times between accounts of David's wars and
long descriptions of arrangements he made for true worship in the temple.
David is careful to ensure that God will be worshiped in the place and in
the way that God Himself has chosen.
But since David is a man of bloodshed and war, God appoints his son
Solomon to actually build the temple.
With its completion, the key sign of God's presence among his people is now in place.
The reigns of later kings are described more briefly with the exceptions of
Hezekiah and Josiah, whose religious reforms restore the proper worship of
the Lord after periods of idolatry.
In contrast, most of the kings lead the people astray from God's ways.
This unfaithfulness becomes chronic and widespread, and the people are
ultimately punished with exile.
The story continues with the memoirs of Ezra and Nehemiah.
Describing the people's return to Judea from exile, following God's
instructions, and with his help, they rebuild Jerusalem's Temple and Walls.
As the story reaches its conclusion, the returned exiles diligently restore
their ancient worship and community practices at a grand ceremony.
The book of the law of Moses is read aloud to the entire community,
leading first to weeping and confession, and then to celebration.
As the people understand and respond to God's words, the temple and the law lie
at the heart of the true worship of God.
The temple represents God's new world, and the law reveals the path for the
community to become his renewed people.
This community, as the covenant people are to presume their special role in
God's plan, so it's vital for them to know and obey God's instructions,
to protect their faith from being diluted and distorted and to worship.
And honor God in his holy place.