Have you ever started a new year with the goal of reading the Bible straight through, Genesis to Revelation, and finish by December 31st? I know people that do, my dad was one of them. In addition to preaching and studying texts for teaching Sunday School, he made it a point to read straight through each year and did that like 30 times. We should read the Bible and that’s one way to do it. But many people have tried and failed and sometimes instead of trying something else they just quit.

I started the Read the Bible series of posts on March 1 with the goal of reading one chapter each day. That will take a little more than three years, all other things being equal, but the level of analysis into the history and challenges with translation choices is much greater than would ever be possible with a one year deadline looming overhead. We started at Genesis 1 and have proceeded steadily forward one chapter at a time. Exodus has 40 chapters and we will wrap that up Friday morning. I’m going to take Saturday off but I might post the outtakes and bloopers from the Exodus audio recordings that day. Then here is the big announcement:

On Sunday, June 1st, we will jump to the New Testament and begin reading The Gospel According to Matthew. I know I have said this before, possibly before the series actually started, so it may not be news to the regular followers. But as one might expect, the numbers have been slacking off as the narrative (story telling) has given way to exposition ever since Exodus 21 or so. TV shows, especially budget heavy sci-fi programs, will have two or three episodes in a row with a lot of talking and then an episode with a lot of action. Some referred to the Walking Dead series as the Talking Dead because of the wordy episodes in between the action ones. The original Star Trek series, and others based on that model, would have bottle episodes where everything happens in one place, perhaps on the ship, so you don’t have to build other sets or film on location. With the exception of the Golden Calf sequence of events, the second half of Exodus has been a lot of talking. Not just talking, much of it is repetitive and its details about materials and measurements that do not have a direct application in the lives of Christians. Everything about the sacrificial system and the priesthood is about Jesus and that’s good to know; but some folks lose interest in how many rings were in each curtain and how many cubits the courtyard spanned.

So if you started the journey with us and dozed off, I hope to rouse you before we start Matthew on Sunday morning. I also started the series without a lot of promotion outside of the regular Master’s Table fan base, if there is such a thing. I’m going to invite my friends in real life and those I’ve made on Facebook to join us. The format is pretty well established and the production value has improved since those early chapters in Genesis. Matthew has 28 chapters and the month of June has 30 days. So we will spend June in Matthew’s Gospel… before shifting gears again to the Old Testament and beginning Leviticus.

Approximately 75% of the Bible is the Old Testament, there is nothing I can do about that. And while some of it is exciting narrative with lots of things happening, or poetry that we all enjoy such as the Book of Psalms, sometimes the Bible has lengthy passages of history or lists of names and genealogies. Interestingly enough, Matthew starts with genealogy but it’s less than one full chapter and ends in Jesus being born, so that’s nice. I plan to read the entire Bible and know that some of you will hang in there for the duration. But if I already lost you talking about acacia poles layered in gold and rings, pins, and pegs, that’s why I came here to say “Hey, we’re about to start Matthew!”