Third Bible Read Thread

[SarahsKnight]

DAY 274

Jeremiah 11 through 13
Hebrews 1

 

[SarahsKnight]

DAY 275

Jeremiah 14 through 16
Hebrews 2

 

[SarahsKnight]

DAY 276

Jeremiah 17 and 18
Psalms 35
Hebrews 3

 

[SarahsKnight]

DAY 277

Jeremiah 19 through 22
Hebrews 4

 

[SarahsKnight]

DAY 278

Jeremiah 23 and 24
Hebrews 5
Psalms 110

 

[SarahsKnight]

DAY 279

Psalms 75
Jeremiah 25 and 26
Hebrews 6

 

[SarahsKnight]

DAY 280

Jeremiah 27 through 29
Hebrews 7

 

[SarahsKnight]

Many of the chapters covered in the last three days' reading have mentioned Melchizedek often, the king of Salem spoken of at the beginning of Hebrews 7. I wonder if Scripture means to say that he is a forerunner of sorts to Jesus Christ come, thousands of years later after Abraham's time, in the flesh ->

For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. 2 To him Abraham also gave a tenth part of everything. In the first place, his name is translated “king of righteousness,” and then also he is king of Salem, which means “king of peace.” 3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, he continually remains a priest.


This is the passage from today's reading that stood out most to me, at the tail end of Hebrews 7 ->
For the law appoints men who are weak as high priests, but the word of the oath, which came after the law, appoints a Son who is made perfect forever.

 

[SarahsKnight]

DAY 281

Psalms 87
Jeremiah 30 and 31
Hebrews 8

 

[SarahsKnight]

DAY 282

Jeremiah 32 and 33
Hebrews 9

 

[SarahsKnight]

DAY 283

Jeremiah 34 and 35
Hebrews 10

 

[SarahsKnight]

DAY 284

Jeremiah 36 and 37
Hebrews 11

 

[SarahsKnight]

DAY 285

Jeremiah 38 through 40
Hebrews 12

 

[SarahsKnight]

DAY 286

Jeremiah 41 through 43
Hebrews 13

 

[SarahsKnight]

DAY 287

Jeremiah 44 and 45
Psalms 13
Jeremiah 46 and 47

 

[SarahsKnight]

DAY 288

Psalms 123
Jeremiah 48 and 49

 

[SarahsKnight]

DAY 289

Jeremiah 50 and 51
Psalms 137

 

[SarahsKnight]

DAY 290

Jeremiah 52
Psalms 74
Lamentations 1

If I recall correctly, Lamentations consisted of a sort of poetic mourning over the fall of Jerusalem when Babylon invaded in the book of Jeremiah previously. So it is fitting that thematically, this comes next in the reading.

And apparently I had the basic idea correct since, searching for a summary of Lamentations wight quick in Google, this was one of the first results to comes up, from the Insight For Living Ministries site (Book of Lamentations Overview - Insight for Living Ministries). This might be worth using as a companion to our time reading through Lamentations ->

Like the book of Job, Lamentations pictures a man of God puzzling over the results of evil and suffering in the world. However, while Job dealt with unexplained evil, Jeremiah lamented a tragedy entirely of Jerusalem’s making. The people of this once great city experienced the judgment of the holy God, and the results were devastating. But at the heart of this book, at the center of this lament over the effects of sin in the world, sit a few verses devoted to hope in the Lord (Lamentations 3:22–25). This statement of faith standing strong in the midst of the surrounding darkness shines as a beacon to all those suffering under the consequences of their own sin and disobedience.


I think the sentiments insinuated here are sound. They express a sort of hope that, no matter how great and even devastating chastisement from the Lord might have seemed to both the Israelites throughout the OT - and also us here as we walk with Him in each of our lives in the present day, He always seems to promise restoration in the end. Healing. I have always said throughout the years I have been a part of this community, after all, that among my most treasured passages from Scripture does come from Lamentations. Chapter 3:21-23, after a period of time in 2012 in which I suffered greatly from Scrupulosity.

Thus, in my experience, even punishment from the Lord seems to ultimately come from a Hand of admonishment and chastisement toward wayward children whom He still loves, rather than from anger toward an enemy who He will despise and hold a vendetta against forever. How fortunate we are to have such a God Who created us and is watching over us.

 

[DragonFox91]

I am so behind on my devotions. You do a really good job Knight

 

[SarahsKnight]

Thus, in my experience, even punishment from the Lord seems to ultimately come from a Hand of admonishment and chastisement toward wayward children whom He still loves, rather than from anger toward an enemy who He will despise and hold a vendetta against forever. How fortunate we are to have such a God Who created us and is watching over us.

In fact, I was thinking about a particular incident at work a year or two ago as I typed this yesterday, in which I said that, at least in my experience, even a seemingly hard scourge from the Lord after I was behaving in a very bad way one day, still felt like a loving chastisement to me once I came to my senses. This is a WYOM post from me at that time->

Everyone here should hear this from me. You have graciously looked to me as a knight, or at least someone who genuinely tries to be, so when I screw that whole thing up, I should confess it.

The Lord has greatly humbled me today.

There I was for most of the day, laughing along with everyone else about two certain people on other crews in the lab and how they've messed up a lot of things, whether by being unsafe in their work or just unfocused and ended up making a major blunder. Oh, I was telling my own stories about them, too, not just playing along with the others'. It was gossip, pure and simple. And worse, who am I to talk about the lack of safety and awareness and all on these two's part if I myself have cut corners before? And sure enough, later on that shift, as I am making up a solution I lose my focus and completely spill a good 100 to 200 mls of nitric acid everywhere, a fraction of it hitting my sleeve and burning my wrist. I was wearing protective gloves - that much I always do - but not the particular kind for the specific purpose of transferring larger quantities of concentrated acid, as they are elongated to protect the forearms as well as the hands. Thus, my wrist got drenched. It is a minor burn, and I did at least take the measures to mitigate the effects right away, and thank the Lord Nel wasn't there today to find out; that would have been a huge mark on my personnel file .... like, the kind Agent Mulder from The X-Files probably racked up quite a few of by the end of his career as an FBI agent , but nevertheless, through a combination of lack of the proper full protective attire and a clumsy moment, I screwed up. And considering I had been berating some folk behind their back all day beforehand for this very type of mistake, I think it served me right. Even without getting into trouble with any superiors or anything, it was a humiliating experience but one that I can only imagine the Lord allowed to occur for the sake of chastising me for my very un-knightly pride earlier.

Offhand I do not know the book and chapter, but I know there is at least one verse somewhere in Scripture admonishing us not to despise the chastening of the Lord, for He does so to those He loves. I noticed something in my experience today; I feel humiliated by my mistake, but it is not the same kind of humiliating scene the Lord allowed to or Himself brought upon me as, say, the kind of humiliation that a school bully or some other human opponent might bring upon you. I felt the Lord's gentle rebuke and genuine admonishment through my humiliation; it was harsh, but He delighted not in bringing it upon me as a bully or other personal enemy would have, no. Instead, He genuinely wanted me to learn and do better from this. He truly wished for my personal own good. That is why it called only admonishment or chastisement when it comes from Him; not a personal hatred or wish to harm. Please pray that I will remember this lesson and act better in all ways from here on while in my work environment, even if I might ever be tempted or even pressured into behaving in a reverse way.