Many people make use of read-the-Bible-in-a-year plans, and often decide, around this point on the calendar, to undertake the task over the incoming year.  There are countless options from which to choose, but the following is a weekly schedule that I’ve constructed over the past year, taking account of both the timeline and the themes involved in God’s great letter to mankind.  I hope you will use it.  Whether you use this plan or another; whether you follow it strictly or space it out over two years or more; even if you simply start at Genesis 1.1 and turn each page in order until you reach Revelation 22.21, the important thing is to read God’s word.

• Week 1:

Proverbs 8-9; Genesis 1;

Psalm^* 8; Genesis 2; Psalm 148;

Genesis 3-14; Psalm 91;

Genesis 15-20; Psalm 113;

Genesis 21-22

• Week 2:

Genesis 23-38; Psalm 25; 1 Chronicles 1

• Week 3:

Psalm 119; Proverbs 1-5; Genesis 39;

Psalm 4; Genesis 40;

Psalm 13; Genesis 41-50; Proverbs 30

• Week 4:

Psalm 128; Job^† 1-37

• Week 5:

Job 38-42; Psalm 104;

Exodus 1-4; Psalm 53;

Exodus 5-15

• Week 6:

Exodus 16-17; Psalm 47;

Exodus 18-32

• Week 7:

Exodus 33-34; Psalm 103;

Psalm 67; Exodus 35-40;

Leviticus 1-11

• Week 8:

Leviticus 12-27

• Week 9:

Numbers 1-15; Psalm 27;

Numbers 16-17; Psalm 90

• Week 10:

Numbers 18-21; Psalm 149;

Numbers 22-25; Psalm 81;

Numbers 26-32; Psalm 136;

Numbers 33-34

• Week 11:

Numbers 35-36;

Deuteronomy 1-16

• Week 12:

Deuteronomy 17-34

• Week 13:

Psalm 105; Joshua 1-10;

Psalm 33; Joshua 11-17;

Psalm 118; Joshua 18

• Week 14:

Joshua 19; Psalm 16; Joshua 20-24;

Judges 1-5; Psalm 44;

Judges 6; Psalm 86;

Judges 7-8; Psalm 94;

Judges 9

• Week 15:

Judges 10; Psalm 83;

Judges 11-15;

Proverbs 7; Judges 16-19; Psalm 10;

Judges 20-21; Ruth

• Week 16:

1 Samuel 1-2; Psalm 77;

Psalm 131; 1 Samuel 3; Psalm 1;

1 Samuel 4-7; Psalm 106;

1 Samuel 8-11; Psalm 121;

1 Samuel 12-15; Psalm 50;

Psalm 19; 1 Samuel 16; Psalm 23

• Week 17:

1 Samuel 17; Psalm 144;

1 Samuel 18; Psalm 88;

1 Samuel 19; Psalm 59;

1 Samuel 20; Psalm 17; Psalm 56;

1 Samuel 21; Psalm 34; Psalm 57;

1 Samuel 22; Psalm 52;

1 Samuel 23; Psalm 54;

Psalm 7; 1 Samuel 24;

Proverbs 31; Psalm 14; 1 Samuel 25-31

• Week 18:

2 Samuel 1; Psalm 21;

2 Samuel 2-4; Psalm 145; Psalm 76;

2 Samuel 5; Psalm 18;

2 Samuel 6; Psalm 24;

2 Samuel 7; Psalm 2;

2 Samuel 8; Psalm 60;

2 Samuel 9-10; Psalm 20;

2 Samuel 11-12; Psalm 51;

2 Samuel 13-17; Psalm 3

• Week 19:

2 Samuel 18-19; Psalm 15;

2 Samuel 20-23; Psalm 63;

2 Samuel 24; Psalm 6;

1 Kings 1; Psalm 72;

1 Kings 2-4; Psalm 87;

Song of Solomon

• Week 20:

1 Kings 5; Psalm 132;

1 Kings 6-8; Psalm 30;

1 Kings 9-11; Proverbs 10-26

• Week 21:

Proverbs 27-29; 1 Kings 12-16; Psalm 42;

1 Kings 17-18; Psalm 58; Psalm 93;

1 Kings 19; Psalm 43; Psalm 97;

1 Kings 20; Psalm 36;

1 Kings 21-22; Psalm 64; Psalm 68

• Week 22:

2 Kings 1-3; Psalm 46;

2 Kings 4-10; Psalm 26;

2 Kings 11-14; Jonah; Psalm 139

• Week 23:

Psalm 82; Amos; Hosea 1-3; 2 Kings 15;

Hosea 4-14; Joel; 2 Kings 16-17

• Week 24:

Nahum; Micah; 2 Kings 18-19; Psalm 124;

Psalm 102; 2 Kings 20; Psalm 116;

2 Kings 21; Habakkuk;

2 Kings 22; Psalm 135;

2 Kings 23-24; Psalm 74;

2 Kings 25

• Week 25:

Proverbs 6; 1 Chronicles^‡ 2-10; Psalm 78;

1 Chronicles 11-16; Psalm 99;

1 Chronicles 17; Psalm 101;

1 Chronicles 18; Psalm 108;

1 Chronicles 19-21

• Week 26:

1 Chronicles 22-28; Psalm 110;

1 Chronicles 29; 2 Chronicles 1-8; Psalm 45;

2 Chronicles 9; Ecclesiastes

• Week 27:

2 Chronicles 10-14; Psalm 28;

2 Chronicles 15; Psalm 115;

2 Chronicles 16-18; Psalm 39;

2 Chronicles 19-20; Psalm 125;

2 Chronicles 21-23; Psalm 126;

2 Chronicles 24; Psalm 134; Psalm 35;

2 Chronicles 25-26; Psalm 48; Isaiah 1-5

• Week 28:

Isaiah 6; 2 Chronicles 27;

Isaiah 7; 2 Chronicles 28;

Isaiah 8-35

• Week 29:

2 Chronicles 29; Psalm 95; Psalm 133;

2 Chronicles 30-31; Isaiah 36-39; Psalm 147;

2 Chronicles 32; Isaiah 40-55

• Week 30:

Isaiah 56-66; 2 Chronicles 33; Jeremiah 1-10

• Week 31:

Zephaniah; Jeremiah 11-20; 2 Chronicles 34-35;

Jeremiah^§ 22-23;

Jeremiah 26; Psalm 5;

Daniel 1; Psalm 141

• Week 32:

Jeremiah 25;

Jeremiah 45-47;

Jeremiah 36;

Jeremiah 35; Psalm 127; Daniel 2-4;

Jeremiah 24; 2 Chronicles 36;

Jeremiah 29;

Jeremiah 27-28;

Jeremiah 48-49

• Week 33:

Jeremiah 50-51;

Ezekiel 1-18

• Week 34:

Ezekiel 19-23; Jeremiah 37;

Ezekiel 24-32; Jeremiah 32-34; Psalm 79;

Jeremiah 21

• Week 35:

Jeremiah 38; Psalm 69;

Jeremiah 39; Ezekiel 33-35; Obadiah;

Jeremiah 52; Lamentations; Psalm 137;

Jeremiah 40-44;

Jeremiah 30-31

• Week 36:

Ezekiel 36-48; Daniel 7-8;

Daniel^‖ 5; Psalm 75

• Week 37:

Daniel 10-12; Ezra 1-4;

Daniel 9; Ezra 5; Psalm 150;

Haggai; Zechariah 1-6;

Ezra 6; Psalm 96;

Psalm 120; Daniel 6; Psalm 73

• Week 38:

Zechariah 7-14; Psalm 114;

Esther; Psalm 9;

Ezra 7; Psalm 85;

Ezra 8-10

• Week 39:

Nehemiah 1-4; Psalm 62;

Nehemiah 5; Psalm 66;

Nehemiah 6-7; Psalm 122;

Nehemiah 8-13;

Malachi

• Week 40:

Psalm 89; Luke 1-2; Psalm 84;

Luke 3-4; Psalm 146;

Luke 5-8;

Psalm 80; Luke 9-11

• Week 41:

Luke 12-16; Psalm 49;

Luke 17-21; Psalm 109;

Luke 22; Psalm 38;

Luke 23-24

• Week 42:

Acts 1-2; Psalm 100;

Acts 3-4; Psalm 112;

Acts 5-6; Psalm 12;

Acts 7-8; Psalm 130;

Acts 9; Psalm 41; Psalm 70;

Acts 10; Psalm 117;

Acts 11; James

• Week 43:

Matthew^¶ 1-15; Psalm 123;

Matthew 16-20

• Week 44:

Matthew 21-25; Psalm 31;

Matthew 26; Psalm 22;

Matthew 27; Psalm 71;

Matthew 28; Psalm 98;

Psalm 142, Acts 12-14;

Psalm 143; Galatians^#

• Week 45:

Acts 15-16; Psalm 129;

Acts 17; 1 Thessalonians; 2 Thessalonians;

Acts 18-19;

1 Corinthians 1-14; Psalm 111

• Week 46:

1 Corinthians 15-16;

2 Corinthians;

Psalm 32; Romans 1-11

• Week 47:

Romans 12-16; Acts 20; Psalm 11;

Acts 21-23; Psalm 140;

Acts 24-26; Psalm 138;

Acts 27; Psalm 61;

Acts 28; Ephesians

• Week 48:

Philippians; Colossians; Philemon;

1 Timothy; Titus; 2 Timothy;

Psalm 92; Mark 1-5

• Week 49:

Mark 6; Psalm 65;

Mark 7-13; Psalm 55;

Mark 14-16; 1 Peter

• Week 50:

Psalm 107; Hebrews 1-9;

Psalm 40; Hebrews 10-13;

2 Peter; Jude;

John 1-5

• Week 51:

John 6-21

• Week 52:

1 John; 2 John; 3 John;

Psalm 37; Revelation 1-7;

Psalm 29; Revelation 8-22

* The Psalms and some selections from Proverbs are placed to complement themes in the narrative portions (and later, the letters).

† It is unknown where Job fits on the timeline, but somewhere roughly contemporary with Israel’s patriarchs is likely.

‡ 1-2 Chronicles covers much of the same time as 1 Samuel through 2 Kings; but with its focus on the southern kingdom of Judah, it will be paired with the prophets whose mission was to that kingdom and its remnant.

§ Beginning with chapter 21, Jeremiah becomes increasingly disorganized with respect to the timeline.  While there may be good thematic reasons for its order in the canon, this schedule attempts to put the remaining chapters into chronological order.

‖ Daniel also is not all arranged in chronological order, and will again be scheduled according to the timeline.

¶ All the Gospels cover the same timeline already traversed in Luke.  The remaining three are arranged to accentuate changing themes in the affairs of the church during the course of its first several decades.

# Paul’s letters are arranged in the canon according to length.  On this schedule, they (and the rest of the letters) are arranged chronologically, to the extent possible.

There is a branch of religious scholarship called eschatology—the study of last things.  Its chief aim is to predict the details of the end of the present age, because while every Christian school of thought agrees that Jesus will return, other questions remain, such as what specific events will precede his coming, and what sort of age will then commence.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

(1 Corinthians 15.22-25)

Paul’s concern here was not to lay out a detailed schedule, but rather to answer a false teaching being entertained in the church at Corinth, to the effect that “there is no resurrection of the dead” (v12).  Perhaps that should tell us something about the relative importance of eschatological inquiry. As we consider this passage, it illuminates the silliness of our piddly arguments about minor details in two ways.

First, Paul said that Jesus “must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet” (v25).  His point relies on the unstated observation, made explicit by the author of Hebrews, that “At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him” (He 2.8).  Jesus himself said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me (Mt 28.18); but his reign is not yet fully established.  When it has been fully established, then he will hand his kingdom back to his Father.  He reigns now, on account of his resurrection—his victory over death.  His death was, in turn, his victory over sin.  And yet, sin and death persist in this world, so it’s clear these spiritual enemies have not been destroyed!  How can this be?

This mirrors one of many “foolish, ignorant controversies” that primarily serve to “breed quarrels” (2Ti 2.23).  At one extreme are those who profess Christ, and insist that his sovereignty is the whole issue—that is, individuals have no ability to affect their own eternal destiny in any way, because God “has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills” (Ro 9.18), and therefore every minuscule event is a reflection of God’s sovereign will.  At the other extreme are those who profess Christ, and insist that “the god of this world,” Satan, is the one behind practically every minuscule event (2Co 4.4).

Both sides have a point; but both take it too far!  At one extreme, they use a caricature of God’s sovereignty to absolve themselves of the responsibility to wrestle with moral decisions, and to justify themselves while judging others.  At the other extreme, they use a caricature of Satan’s sovereignty to…absolve themselves of the responsibility to wrestle with moral decisions, and to justify themselves while judging others.  Why do these opposite extremes lead to the same sins?  Because they’re both wrong!  But what is the truth?  Jesus does reign today, but while his kingdom is partly in the world, it does not dominate the world.  One day, every knee will bow before the King; but today, the great majority rebel and deny his authority.

But when will this happen?  If the process of putting all things under Christ’s feet has already begun, when will it end, and how will it look?  Phrases like “the last days” appear frequently in the Old Testament, informing most eschatological models.  In the New Testament, Paul and Peter wrote of the “last days” in terms of future expectation:

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.

(2 Timothy 3.1)

…scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.”

(2 Peter 3.3-4)

Yet, while these imply the “last days” were, at the time of their writing, yet to come, the author of Hebrews frames it differently:

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son…

(Hebrews 1.1-2)

Peter also, at the very birth of the church, said the “last days” were the present time:

“For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel: ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh…’”

(Acts 2.15-17)

The last days had already begun, nearly two thousand years ago!  Yet, paradoxically, they are also coming.  The period of Christ’s reign—while his kingdom is established on earth, but does not dominate it—is the final age, as Paul also wrote that “the end of the ages has come” upon us (1Co 10.11).  Clearly, there is an end in view—Jesus’ return, which will be, so to speak, the last of the last days.  But in broad terms, we’re already in the midst of  the last days, and understanding this helps us to avoid much of the confusion about the end of the world.  This is good, because we’ve been barking up the wrong tree.

“But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”

(Mark 13.32)

Do you really think we will prove Jesus wrong on this point?  As in every controversy among those who profess to follow Christ, the answer is not to be found in arguing endlessly about our own ideas or interpretations.  Our job is simple: be ready.  “Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come” (Mk 13.33).

Jeremy Nettles

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations more numerous and mightier than you, and when the Lord your God gives them over to you, and you defeat them, then you must devote them to complete destruction. You shall make no covenant with them and show no mercy to them. You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for they would turn away your sons from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. But thus shall you deal with them: you shall break down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and chop down their Asherim and burn their carved images with fire.

“For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.”

(Deuteronomy 7.1-6)

Is God’s point here that interracial marriage is wrong?  This passage has been used to support that position, but it’s not what God said!  To begin with, this was an instruction for the nation of Israel, and we are not today under that law.  But that’s no excuse to ignore the point God was making!  Even when that law does not bind us, it still tells us about God’s character—which is to say, about righteousness.  Jesus tells us that the Law of Moses boiled down to just two commandments:

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

(Matthew 22.37-40)

Considering that both of these are repeated for Christians—numerous times!—we shouldn’t carelessly toss out whatever we don’t like about the Old Testament, since it’s all God’s commentary on his two most basic expectations for us to fulfill.  No, we still have to reckon with what God said to the ancient Israelites.  Why did he prohibit them from marrying members of any other races?

Well, in the first place, he didn’t!  The prohibition was narrowly tailored, covering

“the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations…”

(Deuteronomy 7.1)

So does that mean members of other nations were fair game?  Not exactly.  When Ezra and Nehemiah held authority among the Israelites returned from Babylonian exile, they both discovered that Jews had been intermarrying with Gentiles, including Ammonites, Moabites, Egyptians, and Philistines—nations not mentioned by name in God’s prohibition (Ezr 9-10, Ne 13.23ff).  Yet both of these leaders concluded this was wrong, and needed to be rectified!

However, there are also examples of godly Israelites who married foreigners, with no hint from God that it was even ill-advised, let alone immoral!  Examples of these situations involve names like Moses, Rahab, Ruth, and Uriah.  Why do these seem to have received some kind of special exemption?  In part, it’s because God’s prohibition concerned systematic intermarriage, not the occasional, individual choices these righteous individuals represent.  And in part it’s because what they were doing was categorically different from what God warned against, which was the erasure of the distinction between Jew and Gentile.  God even built a related provision into the very same law:

“When you go out to war against your enemies, and the Lord your God gives them into your hand and you take them captive, and you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you desire to take her to be your wife, and you bring her home to your house, she shall shave her head and pare her nails. And she shall take off the clothes in which she was captured and shall remain in your house and lament her father and her mother a full month. After that you may go in to her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife.”

(Deuteronomy 21.10-13)

Well, doesn’t that contradict what he’d said back in chapter 7?  No!  There, his concern was to keep his chosen people from becoming like the nations around them.  In contrast, the practice he endorses would have Gentile women becoming Israelites, and leaving their past lives, associations, and bonds.  The problem, as Nehemiah observed in his circumstance, was that

half of their children spoke the language of Ashdod, and they could not speak the language of Judah, but only the language of each people.

(Nehemiah 13.24)

These were not Gentiles drawn into God’s kingdom; rather, they were Jews drawn away from it!

So, does this matter to us, today?  Of course it does!

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

(2 Corinthians 6.14)

This is broader than marriage; it reaches to the core of who we are and how we see ourselves.  The Christian lives in the world, but is not of the world.  Jesus wants “a people holy to the Lord” (De 7.6), just as he told Israel.  He wants his followers to be different—to be righteous.

“If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.”

(John 15.19)

Does this describe you?

Jeremy Nettles

Honor widows who are truly widows.

(1 Timothy 5.3)

These words begin a set of instructions for the church to financially support its worthy widows.  This principle showed up in the early days of the church, when there was a “daily distribution” for them (Ac 6.1ff), but it wasn’t new then, either.  In the Law of Moses God proclaimed that “He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing” (De 10.18). This principle undergirds several commandments, including the following:

“When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.”

(Deuteronomy 24.19)

But the specific application in Christ’s kingdom is more reminiscent of God’s instructions to Israel regarding their tithes:

“At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns. And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.”

(Deuteronomy 14.28-29)

Those who dedicate their lives to serving in the church have a right to “get their living by the gospel” (1Co 9.14)—corresponding to Israel’s Levites; and the church ought to care for its members who face pressing physical need—corresponding to “the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.”  But lest we all begin seeking a handout, Paul continues:

But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.

(1 Timothy 5.4)

He gives further stipulations regarding who should be “enrolled” (v9), dealing with each widow’s particular circumstances and prior habits.  It’s not intended as the default option, but rather to provide for a select few.

When the church was established, of course, there were no social services sponsored by local, state, or federal governments, to provide a baseline income for the less fortunate.  In our country, the Social Security program goes without saying—although for how much longer it is unclear.  This program began in 1935, and payments began at age 65.  At the time, life expectancy in the USA was about 61 years.  Plenty of people lived well past this age, of course, but the idea was that workers would continue working until they either died, or were no longer physically capable of earning their living.  Today, life expectancy is nearly 79 years, and recipients can start receiving benefits as young as age 62!  This means that, instead of taking care of the relatively rare cases in which a person outlives his useful working life, we generally assume the public will pay for 15 years or more of each person’s declining years.

Leaving aside questions about whether such a scheme is sustainable, now let’s consider the ancient world of pre-1935, and specifically the situation in the Mediterranean in the first century AD.  Men and women both worked, but in very different spheres.  Both would earn money, but men could make far more, due to greater physical strength and consequent job sorting, as well as mothers’ primary job, managing the household, which was indispensable, but brought the family no direct income.  If a woman’s husband died, she could be left in quite a pickle, and most would look to remarry.  What if she were too old to remarry?  Surely her relatives would help out!  But what if she had none?  That could be a difficult situation, indeed!

Our word, widow, and the Greek χῆρα-chēra both have a precise meaning, but both originally come from the more general idea of bereavement—hence Paul’s “truly widows” comment in 1 Timothy 3.3.  He didn’t mean to diminish the widowhood of the woman whose husband died, but whose children remained; rather, he meant that such a woman was not entirely bereft of family and providers.  In cases where a devout woman was totally alone and destitute, the church was to provide, in the same way another widow’s earthly family might all chip in to make sure their great-aunt Betty has food, shelter, and clothing.

In a way, it’s good that society has learned enough from Christianity to implement this kind of charity in widespread fashion; but on the other hand, when it’s done by forcibly taking money from the unwilling, it’s far less meaningful than when it’s a gesture of love.  When it’s treated as an entitlement rather than a gift, it encourages the taxed and the recipient of their taxes to resent each other—and it gives the children of aging parents a convenient excuse to dishonor father and mother!  It makes it hard for contributors to give cheerfully to support people from whom they are totally disconnected, and on top of it all, it undercuts the church’s need to show love, because the state can handle it, instead!

This issue is complex in our modern world, and it gets too little attention.  But although these instructions from God often find no clear opportunity for direct implementation, they still teach us about our responsibilities, and encourage us to deliberately find ways to love brothers and sisters in need.

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.

(James 1.17)

Jeremy Nettles

When the seventh month came, and the children of Israel were in the towns, the people gathered as one man to Jerusalem. Then arose Jeshua the son of Jozadak, with his fellow priests, and Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel with his kinsmen, and they built the altar of the God of Israel, to offer burnt offerings on it, as it is written in the Law of Moses the man of God. They set the altar in its place, for fear was on them because of the peoples of the lands, and they offered burnt offerings on it to the Lord, burnt offerings morning and evening. And they kept the Feast of Booths, as it is written…

(Ezra 3.1-4)

The returning exiles were excited to rebuild the temple.  This was no small task, and they had to start somewhere.  Before the temple itself, and even before its foundation, they undertook to construct the altar in its proper place.  This allowed them to begin properly keeping laws that had fallen into disuse. 

It’s fitting that they built the altar first, and that it took place in the seventh month.  Counterintuitively, this was the start of the Jews’ calendar year—although the religious year began in the first month.  Thus, while the Law established the first day of the seventh month as “a day for you to blow the trumpets” (Nu 29.1), over the centuries it came to be named Rosh Hashanah, or “head of the year.”  Nine days later came the Day of Atonement (or Yom Kippur), which was the annual observance of a ritual of purification for the priesthood, the populace, and their place of worship.  But that’s not all!  “On the fifteenth day of this seventh month and for seven days is the Feast of Booths to the Lord” (Le 23.34).  Coinciding with the end of the year’s harvest season, this festival was a time to remember God’s blessings given over the previous year, as well as to camp out in temporary dwellings—booths—in memory of their forefathers’ wilderness wandering.

This means the Israelites had three major holidays in the space of 21 days, culminating in a weeklong celebration during which each Israelite male was supposed to “appear before the Lord your God at the place that he will choose” (De 16.16).  This is fairly similar to our own culture’s holiday season, beginning with Thanksgiving, and followed a month or so later by Christmas and New Year’s Day.  There are major differences, of course—the primary one being that God didn’t ordain any of our holidays.  But we can all imagine the Jews’ rush to complete the preparations for their altar, not to mention the numerous gifts they brought to God, to match the occasion!  We can sympathize with them, as they surely ran into unexpected delays, shortages, and other roadblocks, which threatened to ruin their plans, and distracted their focus away from their reasons for celebrating.  We can imagine how much this mattered to them, even though they fully expected another holiday season to arrive in just a year’s time.

For the Israelites, this particular holiday season represented a return to a way of life their parents and grandparents had related to them, but one which most of them had themselves never known.  They grew up in foreign lands, but learned of their nation’s history, God, temple, and rituals; of their sin and punishment; and of God’s promise to restore them to their homeland and the society he’d designed for them.  In exile, they’d celebrated their feasts, as best they could.  But now, although the restoration was incomplete, they had the opportunity to observe them properly, in the place God had chosen, to make his name dwell there.  This served as a symbol of things to come.  They were excited to obey God’s commandments, and to draw nearer to the ideal God had envisioned for them, a thousand years prior.

This episode in Israel’s history is uplifting for Christians today, because we sympathize with Israel throughout the Old Testament.  In part, it is also because we see in Israel’s restoration a shadow of God’s plans for humanity, and more specifically, for us! 

Then everyone who survives of all the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Booths. And if any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, there will be no rain on them. And if the family of Egypt does not go up and present themselves, then on them there shall be no rain; there shall be the plague with which the Lord afflicts the nations that do not go up to keep the Feast of Booths.

(Zechariah 14.16-18)

God always wanted to redeem all the nations, not just Israel, from sin and slavery.  He did this through his Son, whom he crowned King in Jerusalem—both the earthly and heavenly cities!  Now, we observe a lifelong Feast of Booths, in which we give thanks daily for the physical and spiritual harvest God provides, and patiently endure our own period of living in temporary dwellings in the desert while we await the promised rest, in God’s presence.

In the meantime we also have holidays instituted by men, and sometimes struggle to discern how we ought to approach these.

One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord.

(Romans 14.5-6)

Whatever your choice regarding our own holiday season, do it in honor of the Lord—first, be sure to observe the feast God has prescribed, on the first day of each week!  Then, if you wish to keep the traditions of men, do your best to redeem them for Christ, and observe them in a way that honors him and foreshadows the blessings he has promised.

Jeremy Nettles