Last week I started reading a book called The Blue Parakeet: Rethinking How You Read the Bible by Scot McKnight (yes, that is an affiliate link. Please buy it!!), and it’s been talking about how there is a reason that the Bible is a a collection of books written by different authors in different times to different peoples in different places.

I’m not going to try to explain the entire book here in two paragraphs, but due to the book I’ve been thinking again about the idea of reading the Bible straight through, not to parse each tense and cross-reference everything to death, but to read the book for the story.

A couple of years ago I bought the ESV Readers’s Bible, which is designed with no verse notations or section headings or footnotes and which is laid out like an actual hardback book. It’s been sitting around waiting for me to get my act together, and this week I finally did. Four chapters a day will get you through the whole Bible in a year, but I’m starting a bit late, so I’m just doing a round five.

This is great! After two days I’ve noticed that I keep thinking of stuff I want to scribble down, so I’m just going to park my blippets here. Nothing big; not mountains of research. I’m practicing relaxing into the Word and noticing what pops up as opposed to going into full research mode. Looking forward to seeing where it goes!

So, here’s what stuck out on Day 1 and Day 2. Don’t bother asking me what verses this stuff is from. The Bible I’m reading it from doesn’t have verse markings, so I have no idea. I do have chapter markings, though, so if I feel like it I might mention those.

Genesis 1-5

• The dominion mandate was given to both Adam and Eve.
• When the curses get handed out, they go like this:
  • Snake > God curses the snake to be on his belly and have the woman’s seed crush his head. The snake himself was cursed.
  • Adam > God doesn’t curse Adam, he curses the ground because of Adam.
  • Eve (not named Eve yet) > God uses no curse language with Eve. He says she’ll have pain in childbirth and she’ll desire her husband who will rule over her. While God specifically curses the snake and curses the ground because of Adam, he doesn’t say this with Eve. Oddly, part of the snake’s curse involves a colossal promise to Eve regarding her offspring and. In the rest of the Bible this would be covenant language, right? This is the first promise made in the Bible regarding future generations, and it’s made regarding Eve‘s offspring, not Adam’s. This promise was fulfilled through Jesus by way of Mary.
• Adam has a major attitude shift in how he responds to Eve after the fall. Before the fall he’s all like the ancient version of “You complete me” and afterwards it’s “Let’s call you Eve: baby machine.”
• Mealtime was all plants before the fall. Does this mean we should all aspire to be vegetarians? Because bacon = good. No bacon = no good.
• Eve loses both of her first two children. Her second-born dies and her first-born is exiled for murdering his brother. Adam and Eve lose both their sons at the same time. For every parent who has lost a child to death or insurmountable rift or rebellion, you are in the company of the very first people ever created. Such grief stretches back through history all the way back to the beginning of time. You are not alone.
• In Chapter 5 Lamech (Methuselah’s kid) says about his son Noah that “Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the painful toil of our hands.” So, ummm, what? Noah got all maritime and all, but did he bring relief from the work and toil of the curse? I guess he wasn’t doing a lot of gardening while he was on the boat. Were the weeds way worse before the flood than they were after? Weird.

Genesis 6-10

• Ch. 6 – “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years.” Interesting way of putting it. Usually we think of a person being comprised of body, spirit, soul; but do we usually think of the Spirit of God, the very breath of God, living in every human, giving them life? Drat. Now I want to go look it up in the Hebrew and cross-reference and all that. See how I’m not doing any of that because I’m just reading and seeing what sticks out? Yes. Good.
• Ch. 8 – “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” – The curse on the ground shows up a lot in the first few chapters.
• Ch. 9 – “When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh.” – Does God really need a reminder? Seems unlikely. Maybe we just need reassurance that He remembers.
• Ch. 10 – Egypt was the son of Ham. That kingdom managed to be the longest-contiguous one in history. Not too shabby.

Okay, well that’s it for today. We’ll see what the next section brings.

Oh! I forgot I was going to start ending these with what I’m thankful for today. You know, mindfulness, gratefulness, blah, blah, blah {insert some other pop phrase here}. So here’s today’s:

Today I am Thankful For:

• Espresso
• Vanilla Candles
• Costco Meatballs