BIBLE READINGS FOR JANUARY

1^st January Genesis 1:1 to 2:3

John begins the opening words of his Gospel with the opening words of Genesis. We live in a universe that testifies to the creative intelligence behind it, to the joy of God in His creation. This is the starting point and foundation of the Gospel.

 2^nd January Genesis 2:4-25

Adam worked in paradise. His work was not cursed with futility. That came later. These two chapters also reveal that we are made in God’s image – two persons (male & female) and one humanity/flesh. In what other ways are we made in His image?

3^rd January Genesis 3

The desire to be like God is a fount of sin and of much evil. The Bible teaches that we are creatures – created ones. The desire to be something else – grander, higher, less inhibited by our finitude, is the old temptation that lies behind some of our most cherished beliefs – as exampled by re-incarnation and evolution. When you come to Christ you accept that your final future is as a creature – a created one. Resurrection of the human body is that future.

4^th January Genesis 4, 5

Envy, jealousy, murder – and these are in the Church. Notice that Cain is not an disbeliever. He is like Satan in that he rejects the Lord and the Lord’s authority over his life and actions.

5^th January Genesis 6:1 to 7:10

Noah is a man of faith – he is not perfect, nor is he without sin (as we see later). Noah, like Abraham and Moses, exhibits the faith of Jesus – he listens to the Lord and does all that He commanded.

6^th January Genesis 7:11 to 8:19

The flood is one of the most persistent stories over the face of the earth. The ancient Chinese script has an ideogram for a boat made up of three characters – a vessel, eight, mouth. A boat is a vessel holding 8 people. Belief in Noah’s flood is not about religion versus science. The ancient deluge is rejected because it upholds belief in a Creator. The earth gives witness to several great catastrophes in our past.

7^th January Genesis 8:20 to 9:29

The rainbow is the eternal sign of God’s covenant with Noah. Every time you see one it is a testimony to that covenant. This chapter contains the sad story of Noah going on an alcoholic bender. Noah, like Paul and Peter, is a sinner saved by grace just like you and me.

8^th January Genesis 10:1 to 11:26

Language unites and divides humanity. The Day of Pentecost in Acts is parallel to this chapter of the Tower of Babel. Judgment and scattering is paralleled with salvation and gathering. In one the Spirit is withdrawn. In the other, the Spirit is poured out.

9^th January Genesis 11:27 to 12:20

The call to Abraham has a powerful attraction. It is the promise to a childless man of children. This is a rich and ever deepening stream of promise that leads from here to the New Jerusalem where a great multitude that no one can count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, stands before the throne of God and in front of the Lamb.

10^th January Genesis 13, 14

We look for lessons of faith in the history of Abraham. We are to imitate his faith.  See how Abraham handles his nephew’s greed, arrogance and lack of courtesy – with patience, courage and the risk of his life.

11^th January Genesis 15, 16

The words of 15:1 are well worth meditating on. With Abraham, we are given the example of his faith. We are also given the example of his stupidity. Sarah connives what she later blames Abram for.

12^th January Genesis 17

The covenant sign is given years after God’s covenant. We are never to confuse the covenant sign with the reality of the covenant relationship between God and us. The sign follows the reality of the relationship, so too with the New Covenant sign of baptism.

13^th January Genesis 18

When you have a JW come to your door, this is one passage to get them to turn to in their own Bible. Here is a man who is the LORD! Abraham’s prayer is to be our example in praying for our country and loved ones.

14^th January Genesis 19

Lot’s life spirals downward, no matter how many chances he is given. Lot cannot trust the Word of the Lord, as Abraham does. Lot is governed by his fears, not by his faith. He is an example of the stupidity of being governed by our fears. As Jesus said, the way of the Faith is pressed upon and confining (small and narrow), but it leads to LIFE! Matthew 7:13,14

15^th January Genesis 20, 21

Whenever Abraham gives in to his fears, his life too, like Lot’s, spirals downwards. The Lord chastises Abraham as well as Abimelech. Verse 21:1 tells us that grace is the motivating force behind the promise of God and its fulfilment.

16^th January Genesis 22

Abraham’s greatest test was in the offering up of his son, yet believing that God would do all He had promised through this son – give Abraham many descendants through Isaac (17:19). God, who is beyond Time, does not ask anything of us that He is not willing to do Himself. Jesus, unlike Isaac, comes wittingly and willingly to His greater sacrifice.

17^th January Genesis 23

Death is something we must all face. What example do you see in this chapter from the way Abraham handles the death of his beloved Sarah? The only plot of ground that Abraham owns in the Promised Land, is the family grave. Be encouraged by this parallel with our own situation in this present earth.

18^th January Genesis 24

Abraham feels that his own death is coming closer, and Isaac has no wife or child. Isaac is 40. Abraham selects his son’s wife from his own extended family – he wants a wife of the faith for his son. He trusts that God will guide his chief servant. This is a beautiful and gripping story. Its length will not stop you from reading to the end.

19^th January Genesis 25

There are many interesting snippets within this potted family history of Isaac and Ishmael. Isaac and Rebekah have to wait for 20 years before she conceives. The problems and the joys of life are exposed to us within this family for our spiritual growth and for our own wrestlings in life.

20^th January Genesis 26

Abimelech just means my father the king. It is a title of respect, not a personal name. This is a different man to Abraham’s Abimelech. Water rights are a modern concern too. Beersheba is where the Australian Light Horse made their famous charge in World War One.

21^st January Genesis 27

This is a sorry Days of Our Lives story, a warts and all picture of a family of faith. What do you find that encourages you within your family to persevere in prayer and worship?

22^nd January Genesis 28

You and I can’t reach into our children’s hearts and move that pointer around to the right direction. Our prayers for our children and grandchildren should take their cue from how God deals with Jacob personally. Prayer is to be the first resort.

23^rd January Genesis 29

The convolutions of this family with their scheming and manoeuvring makes for interesting reading. Leah and Rachael go from being close sisters to rivals overnight. Leah is the ancestress of David and Jesus. This fact is one of God’s little ironies of life. From beloved Rachael comes Joseph, one of the best loved characters in the Bible.

24^th January Genesis 30

Jacob ends up with four wives and eleven sons. After twenty years, he is still working for his father-in-law though prospering greatly – unlike Moses who remained a shepherd. Jacob is still a smooth operator. Isn’t it amazing that God chooses to use this character? Amazing grace!

25^th January Genesis 31

This flight and pursuit story is exciting. Rachael is a little thief with secrets from both her father and husband. She has only months to live, but no-one knows this. In an unruly situation where anything could have happened, God made sure that Laban treated Jacob carefully.

26^th January Genesis 32:1 to 33:16

Jacob next has to face the brother he so wronged twice, the brother that swore to kill him when next they met. Jacob wrestles with God and Esau. With the angel, he uses the angel’s strength to persevere and not give in – his hip is out. There is a good message for us here to persevere in prayer. With Esau, he divides up his company and sends out many gifts of the flock first. Bluff Esau forgives his little lame brother. Jacob’s lameness is a severe mercy from the Lord.

27^th January Genesis 33:17 to 34:31

What happens in today’s reading is the sorriest of stories. It is sordid, violent and bloody. There is dissension within the family over Dinah’s rape. Jacob is all for smoothing things over. Levi and Simeon find their father weak. We are permitted to see what they do in order that we might learn!

28^th January Genesis 35

Jacob shows Abraham’s faith – God speaks and Jacob listens to the Word and does it. God gives Jacob the Covenant Promise to Abraham – and beloved Rachael dies in childbirth. This is a family that God loves. We are to see that the wider effects of sin within the world are so undiscriminating and life-engulfing that God had to act – Jesus had to come.

29^th January Genesis 36

Esau chose wealth and fame and got it. He sold himself short on everything that is truly worthwhile – the things that last for eternity. Esau and his history should make us re-consider what we are spending our lives for!

30^th January Genesis 37

Jacob’s family begins to fracture with the death of Rachael and the rejection by Jacob of Levi, Simeon and Reuben in the position of his main heir. He pours out his grief in the very public favouritism he shows Joseph. The best of us grow weary and act unwisely or irresponsibly. Hatred stirs most in Judah’s heart – of whom great things are said later. We all need the work of the grace of God in every today.

31^st January Genesis 38

Consider Judah’s words about Tamar: she is more righteous than I, before judging her actions too harshly. (38:26) Tamar had the responsibility of producing the heir. Judah took that away from her unrighteously. He condemned her to a future of poverty and charity within the camp – she who was chosen to bear the heir! How did Joseph treat Mary – she who was chosen to bear the Heir?