1 Kings 15-20 - Jumpin' Jehoshaphat!

The readings - days 108 and 109 - 1 Kings15-20

Kings continues with a few chapters the various lines of succession in the two kingdoms (Israel and Judah), and descriptions of the various nefarious characters that take over the thrones.

Well... the nefarious characters that take over one of the thrones, anyway. A good general rule of thumb seems to be that Israel sucks, while Judah tends to be alright. Time and time again, the kings of Israel fall in with idols, false gods, bad business of all kinds, and generally prove to be quite an irritant for God.  Down in Judah, however, things seem to trend towards God, rather than away from Him.

Pop quiz! Anyone remember which kingdom David's line continued in? Anyone? Anyone?

Deut 24-34 - And that, as they say in France, is that

The readings - Days 66-69 - Deuteronomy 24-34

Is it fair to just clump the entire last 10 chapters of Deuteronomy - indeed, the closing chapters of the epic Pentateuch - into one post, and a comparatively short one at that?

Probably not.

But, as I tell myself to further justify the decision that has already been made to do just that, that's the way it is. I have never been overly concerning myself with the notion of making exhaustive commentary on every little thing in each reading, so I feel like giving a cursory nod to the conclusion of a book that has been itself largely focused on reiterating the message and details of previous books is probably acceptable.

Day 3 - Genesis 8-11

I like this project already.

So Genesis 8-9 sees the dwindling of the flood and its aftermath, and brings us up to the death of Noah at the ripe old age of damn-near-a-thousand.

Two things occurred to me when reading through these chapters this time, and I have a feeling it'll be a recurring theme for me (not that I'll necessarily subject you to it every time I notice it. No fear.):

The first is that it absolutely astounds me that anyone can get anything at all out of the Bible by approaching it from the aforementioned literalist interpretation. I just don't get it. The language, imagery and symbolism is so rich, and the story so beautifully laid out that I just feel like it'd be highway robbery to boil it down to mere documentation.