The Bible OverBrew - Bible in a Yearنموونە

Week 36. Day 1. 1 Chron 1-10.

1-2 Chronicles are actually one book, covering the same general time period as the books of Kings. But whereas the books of Kings were probably written for an audience in exile (explaining how they got there—hence a focus on human sin) the books of Chronicles were written for the returned exiles. The focus was not so much what went wrong in the past, but letting the past—in particular the promises and faithfulness of God—provide hope for the future.

1 Chron 1-9 Genealogy (feel free to skim)

The purpose of this is to show continuity with the past: in particular, to show that the kingly and priestly lines are still intact, so there is hope for a renewed kingdom and priesthood after exile. Also, we are still looking for the promised ‘offspring of the woman’ (Gen 3:15) and offspring of Abraham (Gen 12:1-3; 17:4-8) through whom God will defeat evil and bless the world.

Feel free to skim this section. The point is not to read every name, but to understand the importance of why every name is recorded.

1 Chron 10 - Saul

Note how brief the account of Saul is compared to that in 1-2 Samuel.

How did Saul die according to this chapter? (see v4, v19)

For reflection: if you are a Christian, you are part of a very very old story. How can remembering this help us live the Christian life now?

NOTE: Days 1-5 of each week contain the scripture reading for that week. Day 6 has just the 'key chapters'. If you want a briefer version of this plan that still takes you through the whole Bible, you could just read the key chapters featured on day 6. Day 7 has the podcast video where we discuss the week's reading.