Category Archives: Read the Bible

Read the Bible: Genesis 29

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Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are great men of the Old Testament, renowned for their faith but sometimes questionable in other aspects. They lived in a different time, in another culture, and remember this is before the Law was given to God’s people. Abraham lied, on two separate occasions, about his wife being his sister; Isaac later did the same thing with one of the same kings. Jacob stole his older brother’s birthright and later his father’s blessing. And now it’s Jacob’s turn to be on the receiving end of some deception. This is just the beginning of the drama for Jacob.

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Read the Bible: Genesis 28

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As we have gone through the book of Genesis one chapter at a time, this series has been a work in progress. I started Read the Bible as something of an experiment, not sure how well things would work out. There have been changes in an effort to get better; the goal is to settle down at some point once we have the bugs worked out. I know that some of you would like to read along as I read out loud. What I am reading begins with the KJV text and then I make adjustments to update some of the archaic language. It is not a published translation, I have no desire to create my own paraphrase; but I cannot read any modern translation in its entirety because of copyright laws nor do I want to read a public domain text such as the KJV or ASV. But what if, for the benefit of those who wish to see what I am saying, the text was included with each post?

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Read the Bible: Genesis 27

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Wow, this one has been a struggle. I’m not going to burden you with all the details of my life but surely this post or this series of posts are going to do great things or mean something to someone because the work has been opposed at every turn all day today (Thursday).

Jacob has previously taken his brother’s birthright. Jacob and his mother Rebekah are crafty, and Esau gets mad enough to kill somebody.

Read the Bible: Genesis 26

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We could call this section Like Father, Like Son. Isaac built his wealth and was blessed by God, and promised that his offspring would possess the nations they were living in. He redug wells that Abraham had dug and gave them the same names. But this chapter begins with Isaac lying to Abimelech about his wife being his sister. Abraham not only did that twice, and got caught both times, but one of the kings he did it to was Abimelech.

Read the Bible: Genesis 25

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I’ve been thinking today about the difference between teaching and preaching. A preacher should be able to teach, but a teacher should be able to teach without preaching. Teaching is about explaining things in ways that people can understand. The Read the Bible series isn’t really about teaching the Bible; the stated goal is to read the text and discuss it’s just I’m the only one doing the discussing. Anytime someone wants to jump in just start leaving comments and we can interact. Preaching involves not only reading the text and doing some teaching but giving application. It starts with “what do we learn from this passage” and transitions into “what are we going to do about it.” When you leave church after hearing a good sermon you should have some goals for the upcoming week. There should be one or more action points; you should be able to answer the question What does the pastor/preacher want me to do? Sometimes a well-taught lesson will lead us to do things differently or take action but a good sermon will provide application. Some of the passages as we read through the Old Testament, I’m not sure how I would preach those from the perspective of how should we respond? You can learn a lot about God by reading the Old Testament so I hope you hang in there and find it worthwhile.

Read the Bible: Genesis 24

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We’re going to read Genesis 24 from the English Standard Version (ESV). What I normally do is start with the KJV text and make adjustments; thou and thine becomes you and your, I update some of the other archaic language. In Genesis 1, for example, all modern translations say expanse instead of firmament. When there is no consensus I talk about the variants in the discussion. Sometimes the syntax is just backwards to how we talk. “Abraham said to Sarah, his wife…” instead of “his wife Sarah.” To be sure what I want to say actually gets said, I copy and paste the text, make the edits, then print a draft copy to read from. This is the longest chapter in Genesis, and while Sunday is most people’s day of rest, it is often the busiest day of the week for pastors.

Read the Bible: Genesis 23

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After having Isaac in her old age, at the age of 90, Sarah then lives to the ripe old age of 127. In Genesis 23 Abraham mourns his wife then purchases a field with a cave and buries her.

Heads up, chapter 24 is the longest chapter in the book of Genesis, 60 verses. I’m not quite sure how to handle that yet. We may split the chapter in half or I may try to do a lot of reading and not much discussion. A lot of discussion shouldn’t be necessary because parts of that narrative are very repetitive. It discusses itself, in a manner of speaking.

Read the Bible: Genesis 22

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In some ways, Abraham is like God the Father in that he was willing to offer up his only son. In some ways, Isaac is like Jesus in that he was the son of promise. At some point every analogy breaks down. The plan of salvation was God’s design and while Abraham was faithfully doing what he was told but it was a blind faith. Jesus willingly laid down his life; Isaac may have been an unwilling participant in this exercise. Substitutionary sacrifice is illustrated here when Abraham slays the ram… oh, spoilers. Maybe you better play the audio.

Read the Bible: Genesis 21

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Isaac is born, as God said in Genesis 19. Tensions flare again between Sarah and Hagar and Abraham is consoled that he will be the father of a great nation also. We take a deep dive in the discussion into Christian and Jewish belief compared to what Muslims teach.

The Dome of the Rock is built on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Seen at the bottom of this picture is the Wailing Wall, or Western Wall, which is all that remains of the Temple destroyed by Rome in A.D. 70. Jews still gather at the base of the wall to pray, because that is as close as they can get to the site of the former Jerusalem Temple. Muslims control the actual hill top and tensions between Jews, Christians and Muslims are always high.

Read the Bible: Genesis 20

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Chapter 19 was kind of long and I felt some things needed to be said. Good news: Genesis 20 is a shorter chapter, only 18 verses, and it gives us a break from some of the heavy stuff of the past two chapters. Abraham is traveling abroad telling people that Sarah is his sister, which we have seen before.

I presume at this point if you are listening to these recordings that you are familiar with The Master’s Table, and are most likely a subscriber of some type. We may try to offer Read the Bible as a podcast on other outlets in the future. It is also possible that you have come across a website or someone on social media that has stolen this content and reposted it. So in today’s broadcast we will add some type of identifier, probably a closing (outro) that identifies The Master’s Table and Clark Bunch as the original producer of this content. You can listen to it, download it, share it with others, just don’t pass it off as your work. Please give credit where credit is due and include a link back to The Master’s Table.