90 Day Bible Challenge – Day 35

You’ll notice that the post title says Day 35, rather than the expected Day 36. That means I got behind. I had a late class Friday and fell asleep before reading and then I taught all day Saturday and didn’t read all the designated pages before falling asleep. As you can tell, teaching is an exhausting task for me. 🙂 The good news is that I was a bit ahead so I didn’t get far behind. I’m not sure if I’m going to try to make up the missing day, or accept it as one of the two “grace” days built into the 90 day program. For those of you who didn’t know, there are 88 passages to be read over the 90 days, thus the “grace” period.

This week we read 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Ezra and a bit of Nehemiah. The passage that got me (actually, it got me when I first read it in 2 Kings) is the one below:

While they were bringing out the money that had been taken into the temple of the LORD, Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law of the LORD that had been given through Moses. Hilkiah said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the LORD.” He gave it to Shaphan.

Then Shaphan took the book to the king and reported to him: “Your officials are doing everything that has been committed to them. They have paid out the money that was in the temple of the LORD and have entrusted it to the supervisors and workers.” Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king.

When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his robes. He gave these orders to Hilkiah, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Abdon son of Micah, [a] Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king’s attendant: “Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the remnant in Israel and Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the LORD’s anger that is poured out on us because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written in this book.” –2 Chronicles 34: 16-21

Do you remember back when we were reading Deuteronomy and I was wailing about all the laws, rules and regulations God gave the people. I even speculated that this was a component of Him building a relationship with His people. Well, this passage got me because the people lost the Book of the Law that recorded all the laws Moses had laid out for them! Now, let’s be clear, this is long generations after Moses, but still. . . They lost it! Can you believe that? They lost it!

Losing it meant that they hadn’t been adhering to it. Wow! They lost, okay misplaced, the Book of the Law. Now that’s a biggie. How could they do that? Well, I can remember a time when I couldn’t find my Bible. Ooops! I guess that meant that I probably wasn’t following it. That’s not actually true since I, probably like you, have a house full of Bibles. But I couldn’t find my main Bible because I hadn’t been using it regularly.

I believe that a person can live for God without a Bible because He gives us His Spirit and writes His word on our hearts, but there is a closeness, an alertness of Spirit, that comes with continued and consistent reading of His word. Not to mention tht He commands us to study it, meditate on it, keep it always in our hearts and minds.

In one of the comment posts, Geigh talks about feeling a new depth to her relationship with the Lord because of the reading associated with the 90 day plan. I’m experiencing the same and I bet some of you are as well. I think a part of it is the picture that we get our Lord. We see the many facets of His personality and how He deals with people and situations over a short reading period. A slower paced reading would still give us this but not with the intensity that we get by doing the reading over the shorter period.

Well, that’s it for me this week. My prayer is that none of us ever again lose or misplace the Book. Don’t forget to tell me what you learned this week. And don’t miss reading the Comments to the 90 Day posts. Geigh has a very insightful comment about fighting for what’s yours on the Day 29 post. Check it out and be blessed.

Have a great week!