Spoiler Alert! 1 Kings is about a bunch of kings. King David dies. David's son Solomon takes the throne. God is all Beastie Boys with King Solomon and is like "So what, so what, so whatcha want?" Solomon says, "I want to be wise." Solomon is very wise. He builds the temple. God is happy. He has 700 wives and 300 concubines. God? Not so happy.
Read MoreDavid and Jesus are a story of similarities and differences. One of the most interesting similarities is that they share the label of "king." You could consider David THE King of the Old Testament while Jesus is THE king of the New Testament. But what the word "king" means when applied to them couldn't be more different.
Read MoreYou may have thought that Samson killed all of them, but those pesky Philistines are still around (and now they've got giants!). The Israelites and Philistines are having a standoff in the Valley of Elah and there's a big strong dude named Goliath who is taunting the Israelites (and Yahweh) and really wants to fight somebody. It's at this point that we meet David.
Read MoreAccording to my count Ruth is not only the first, but one of only two books in the Bible named after a woman (the other being Esther). I have to say that after all the violence and bloodshed in Joshua and Judges, Ruth is a breath of fresh air. The book begins just after Ruth's husband dies. She goes with her mother-in-law back to their hometown, Bethlehem...
Read MoreYou'd think that with a name like Judges, this book would be about really smart people that helped settle disagreements. Sorta like the Jewish People's Court. For sure it wouldn't be as bloody as Joshua, right? Wrong. Ancient Israel had a slightly different (and much more violent) definition of the word "Judge."
Read MoreJoshua is a brutal book. It's filled with death and destruction. On multiple occasions, the Israelites go into cities and kill every living thing. Men, women, children, animals... "not sparing anyone that breathed." All at God's order. As someone who is trying to follow God, what are you supposed to do with that? To be honest, it would be easier for me if Joshua wasn't in the Bible.
Read MoreOne cool thing about the Word series is that while researching a book, I come across some little scripture nuggets that I've never heard before. A lot of times it's something super weird, only a verse or two long and is buried in chapter upon chapter of laws, rules and guidelines (which helps explain why I've never heard it before). A couple of my favorite scripture nuggets from Deuteronomy...
Read MoreAfter the boredom of Leviticus, I was excited to move on to a new book with (hopefully) more action and less laws. Numbers starts out with a lot of counting and I was starting to think I'd need a few strong doses of coffee to get through this book when all of a sudden they finished counting and the cool stuff started to happen.
Read MoreOK, so if Genesis and Exodus were both the biblical version of a sweet action movie crossed with a crazy David Lynch film, Leviticus is like that slow moving foreign film where you don't really care about the characters or plot and spend most of your time trying to figure out what illness you're gonna fake so you can leave early.
Read MoreMuch like Genesis, Exodus is full of rich characters and great stories. Moses, the Ten Plagues of Egypt, the Parting of the Red Sea, the Ten Commandments, etc. It's tough to know which one to pick. Although I ended up going with God chatting with Moses via burning bush, that wasn't my first choice. I originally wanted to do the Ten Plagues, and actually worked on the design for a while.
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