Dear sisters,
Isn’t it great to know that we are moving into week 5 of this Bible Reading Challenge together? If you signed up to start, but already feel like you won’t be able to keep up with the plan and finish strong, please read this: Do not quit. Don’t stop now, friend. Jump in on the day we are on and rejoice and be glad! Take the Book of Life and eat it. Open the Book of God and read. Feed your soul. Read one verse, and then the next, and the next one, and then the next chapter. Keep turning one page after another; God is speaking and He wants you to hear Him. Are you discouraged? Are the cares of your heart many? Open the Bible and read it in faith. Eat, God will make sure that His Word will not return void, it will do what God intends to do with it in your life. Receive it with meekness and let God give the increase. Take the Bible today and read it.
This week we will finish Exodus, 1st and 2nd Peter, and start Leviticus and Hebrews after having a Catch-up Day on Thursday. My recommendation, if you are current in your readings, is to read 1st Peter (or Galatians again) in one sitting on Thursday.
The book of Exodus, which we have been reading and I spoke about in the last Webinar, is a book in which God wants to make Himself known to His people. He wants to make His Name known, His power known, His glory known. He redeems a people for Himself to set them free to worship and love Him, and obey Him. God, Yahweh is His name, gives Israel His Law, Ten Words, that are given in the context of grace to show them how to be blessed in their walking with Him.
Yahweh wants to dwell with His people and gives them instructions on how to build a meeting place, the Tabernacle, and how to approach Him. There is a need for a priest, a mediator before God and men. So God, in His kindness, provides priests for them. The shedding of a flawless Lamb’s blood is required to open a way to His presence; substitutionary atonement to forgive sins is necessary to come to the Holy of Holies. And in all these, God keeps pointing us to the Perfect Lamb who was slain for His people and the Perfect High Priest: Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God.
Be prepared to read the last four verses of Exodus with much excitement. These verses which tell us of God’s glory filling up the temple clearly point us to see how Jesus, the radiance of the Glory of God (Heb.3:1), fills all the earth with His glory. The Lamb of God who was slain is alive today and is King over all! In Hebrews you will read about the reign of Christ, about His supremacy over all things even now.
1st and 2nd Peter will continue to shed more light on what God was telling us in the OT about Jesus our High Priest and how now we are God’s temple. Peter will remind us of our calling to be holy and to suffer persecution, he will explain what our baptism means, and will teach of what virtues we must have in our lives to stand against the false teachers. You will be filled with gratitude as you read these two short epistles.
In Leviticus we will read about the Holiness Code and the annual calendar for the Israelites. But the heart of the book is in chapter 19:1. God wants us to be holy because He is holy and the fulfillment of this is only found in our love for God and our love for our neighbor (1st Peter and Hebrews have the principle of God’s holiness and the call of His people to live holy lives as one of their main themes, so keep an eye open to see the connections).
Friends, be ready to let the epistle of Paul to the Hebrews explain to us in detail many types and symbols that we have been reading about in Genesis and Exodus, and will be reading about in Leviticus in a very clear way. Hebrews will shed light on your understanding of the whole Redemption Story and its main character, Jesus, in a wonderful way.
I hope you can join us in our next Webinar on Monday at 10:00 AM PST. It is my prayer as I prepare these webinars that you will find them encouraging and that they will be a way to help you press on, and persevere, and in doing so, love wearing this new habit of coming to the Word every day.
May our prayer this week be, “Lord, I pray that as I think and mediate on your Word, my soul will take comfort. Remember the Word to your servant, in which you have made me hope.” Psalm 119: 52 and 49
Under His Sun and by His grace,
Becky Pliego and the team of Christ Church Ladies Fellowship
