Tag: Bible

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Bible Study Deeper Chronological Study Faith Judges the Word of God

Deeper OT Chronological Study 1: Judges 2:6-9

I talked about starting to share on the blog my Bible study time, so I can expand more on what I am reading, researching, and learning.  This post is the first of what I just decided is going to be a series called Daily Bible Study: Deeper Chronological Study of God’s Word.  That may change, but for now, it works.

For this more in-depth study, I started with six different Bibles and a commentary.

  1. Chronological Life Application Study Bible NLT
  2. Tony Evan’s Study Bible CSB
  3. Tony Evan’s Bible Commentary CSB
  4. NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible
  5. The Message Devotional Bible
  6. ESV Student Study Bible
  7. Hebrew – Greek Key Word Study Bible NASB

 

No, I am not crazy.  I just know that God has been calling me to study His Word deeper for about three years now, and I have been a bit disobedient.  I also prefer a paper Bible instead of using the app on my phone to prevent distractions.  My initial reading and studying are done in those Bibles and commentary, and then I move to my computer to type up my notes, look up answers to questions I have, and give me somewhere to have all my notes in one place.

I’m going to use this first passage to walk through my process.  I told you in this post that I was starting in Judges and why.  I also said I was starting in my Chronological Bible, so that is how this study will flow.  While the first chapter of Judges talks about the Israelites and the Promised Land, the story of Judges really starts with the death of Joshua, which is told in Chapter 2 verses 6-9.  So that is where we begin.

Reading

The first thing I do is read the passage and use my reading highlight method in the Chronological Life Application Study Bible NLT.  What sticks out for me is the Israelites serving the Lord through their leader’s lifetime.  Those leaders actually saw “the great things” the Lord had done for Israel.  Joshua had the honor of being called the servant of the Lord.

 

Here is a reminder of my reading highlight method.

 

 

Studying

Here is where I created a new process.  I used the same methodology as I did for creating my reading highlight method.  What did I want to get from this passage?  What is important?  What will help me dive deeper?  There is some overlap with what I highlighted above, but that just shows how important it is.  I decided on Application, People, Places, Time, Prayers, God/Jesus/Holy Spirit.  I assigned these colors that I can use to underline in my Bible, but most importantly are how I will be color-coding my notes.

 

My studying highlight method.

 

For me, seeing the people and places are really important in the Old Testament because I learned that the names have particular meanings.  Those meanings often help you dive deeper into the understanding of why and how certain things happened and take place.  So in this section, it helps to change the color of the people, places, and even the name of God used.  Then in the next two parts, is where I dive deeper.

Thoughts and Questions

I also wanted my thoughts and questions to standout.  So I assigned them colors as well.

 

As mentioned above, the questions that I had here were mostly related to the meanings of names and places.

Most commonly, my question was, “What Does LORD Mean?” and this is because there are so many different ways to say God/Lord depending on what you are trying to say.  So far as a Christian, I’ve really only heard or say God, Lord, and recently added Abba. But I’ve learned that there are so many more names for God that are typically phrases.  LORD in all caps here, reflects Yehovah/Jehovah or the proper name of God.  Self-Existent or Eternal.  YHWH.  I eventually want to do a study of the different names of God, but for now, I just want to know the meaning of each one.

Meanings

I used a combination of my Hebrew – Greek Key Word Study Bible NASB and the Blue Letter Bible app to determine the meanings.  I started with trying to find the meaning of Joshua in the Bible, but the order of the Old Testament dictionary is based on the transliteration of the Hebrew spelling.  So because I do not know Hebrew, I needed help.  I pulled up the Blue Letter Bible app and used the Interlinear/Concordance Study, which I learned from Katie Orr.  This allowed me to pull up the verse, select the word in the verse, and then find the Strong’s number.  I then went back to my Bible to look up the Strong’s number.

This was also when I decided that I will probably only use the dictionaries in this Bible instead of the Bible itself.  When I try and use the Bible, because I am starting in Judges, the Strong’s number isn’t always next to the word that I need, if it has been used previously in the first six books of the Bible.  So I am now down to five Bibles, one commentary and technically, a dictionary.

Extra Resources

Finally, in the study portion, I read all footnotes, study notes, and any extra resources that any of the Bibles I am using provides.  I usually note alternate spellings, meanings, or words.

*The bolded purple doesn’t have a meaning.  I just picked a random color for my text.  And I underline what I feel is important in the passage or sometimes what repeats.*

Cross-References

Next, I look at the Bibles that have cross-references, and I document them. At this time, I was questioning what a cross-reference was.  The passages seem to be similar in topic or theme with the verse that I am studying.  So I grab the full verse of the cross-reference from YouVersion Bible and underline the part that speaks to the verse I am studying.  I honestly wish that I could use one Bible for this, but I realized that out of the four Bibles I am using that have cross-references, each one uses different ones. But I don’t mind looking at all four because it is fascinating to see how the Bible connects to itself.

Summary

In my Bible, there is a piece of the book of Judges (2:6-9) that parallels and follows the end of the book of Joshua that outlines his death.  It also shows how the Israelites followed the Lord throughout his life and that of the leaders who outlived him.  If you know anything about Judges, you know it’s a book of cycles where Israel failed to obey the Lord and continuously needed to be delivered.  What was it about Joshua and these leaders that made it easy for Israel to follow their lead in following the Lord?  Why weren’t they able to do the same when that generation passed away?

Do you identify with the Israelites? Especially now in quarantine, do you find yourself not following the Lord in the same way you did before when you were going into the church building every Sunday or meeting up for small groups?  Do you have a relationship with God, or do you just follow others that have a relationship with God?

Prayer

YHWH, help my faith depend on You instead of the leaders and those in my community.  Help me to let them guide me but to know that ultimately You are the one I should rely on; that way when they are no longer there, I can still follow You.  In Jesus Name, I Pray, Amen.

*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases using the links included in this post.

 

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Bible Study the Word of God

Bible Study Update

Behind the scenes, I started my Bible study of the book of Judges last month.  And while I began to share the Bible study tools I am using on IG, I have yet to share anything from my actual study time.  I wanted to share why.

I mentioned here that I didn’t really know what my studying would look like because I was going to let the text lead me.  I could be doing 1 verse a day or 1 chapter a day.  I wanted to dive into cross-references, really sit with my questions, use commentary, and other trusted resources like Kay Arthur and BibleTalk.TV.

But can I share that I was struggling a bit because I was a bit unorganized?  Going from knowing precisely what I am going to read every day, what I am going to highlight, and then spending some time reflecting and talking to God about what I read and how I should apply it seemed so easy.

I know my current process will be/is a lot for many people.  Not everyone is meant to do a study like this.  I mean, I am using six physical translations of the Bible and a commentary.  But God has been calling me to go deeper into His word since 2017, I think.  And real talk, I’ve ignored it mostly until now.  Because who am I to do this?  Like I have zero plans to be a pastor and am 99.9% sure that isn’t my calling or gifting.  As of right now, I have actually no idea what will come from this in-depth study.  But I couldn’t ignore it anymore.  I repent for this disobedience, by the way.

I really think my habit has just been shaken a bit, and that is why I feel discombobulated.  As of now, my studying has been broken up based on the subheadings provided in the primary Bible I am using.  The headings are not God’s Word, but they do help set up what is about to happen in a passage.  (My last chronological Bible didn’t have these.)  Starting off, this gave me 18 verses one day and 17 verses the next day, which was a lot with how I am doing my studying.  Which would then have me dragging my studying of one passage over a day or two.  But I would want to start a new passage each day (I have no clue why I set this for myself), so even if I weren’t finished, I would move on.

Then after four days and getting into the second chapter of Judges, I took some time off to “try and catch up.”  But I was all over the place so I would keep saying I would come back later.  Even though I would have the urge to study the Bible, I would push it off because I wasn’t comfortable with my process.  So here is the thing about Bible study.  It’s going to look different to everyone, but what is essential is that you are doing it in a way that works for you.  So when something doesn’t work, you have to figure out what the issue is.  Because if I keep going down this path, I am going to do more than take some time off.  I’m going to quit altogether.  That’s the enemy’s goal.

I looked at what didn’t feel comfortable to me.  What was making me feel unorganized and confused?  Here is what I recognized:

  1. I didn’t have a plan.
  2. I didn’t have a process.
  3. I didn’t have a place

I didn’t have a plan

Although I was using the passages as guides on what to read each day, it honestly required too much thought to figure out where I left off (hello brain fog). So I realized I needed a loose plan that tells me what I should cover over the next 30 days.  So for whatever reason, I have this idea that I would do a passage a day.  Well, I think if I saw what verses I was covering, I would feel better.  But I could also easily see where I may need to add a day or two extra to spend more time on (hello 18 verse passages).  I took a moment to do this while watching a YouTube video one day.  It took me less than 10 minutes to plan out Judges and planned out a minimum of 40 days worth of studying.

I didn’t have a process.

What I knew was I wanted to use all six bibles and the commentary that I had.  I knew that I wanted to use my highlighting method in at least one of those Bibles.  I wanted to check cross-references, etc.  But when it came down to actually being in my study time, I was lost.  And when it moved to a second day, I couldn’t remember what I had already reviewed. So while I don’t want my time with God to be regimented and become legalistic, I know my learning style.  I need checklists and “procedures” until I build the habit even if I am the one creating them.  Again, hello, brain fog.  I don’t want to waste time trying to figure out what I need to do or where I left off.  I want to be able to immediately jump into the text and allow the Holy Spirit to guide me.  Just a reminder, my personality is very much Type-A.  So for me, doing all of this doesn’t take me off my purpose.  It actually helps me accomplish my purpose.  Because as you can see, when I get overwhelmed, I’m ready to quit.  My time with God is too valuable to abandon.  As I did above, I put on a YouTube video and started typing up my process.  It took me about 5 minutes because, honestly, after I wrote it out for one Bible, it was a copy and paste situation for the other Bibles.  And just a small tweak for the commentary.

I didn’t have a place.

I’ve mentioned in some other posts that I am currently deep cleaning our home room by room (or at least I was).  I didn’t want to do my studying in my office because I knew I would eventually get to cleaning it, and one of the projects was redoing the tops of my desk.  So I was most comfortable doing my study time on my bed.  But I couldn’t leave everything on my bed, so it was starting to become a bit of work to pull everything out.  Now that I have finished my desk (see the pics here), I have the space to spread out, and I feel physically comfortable again.

Another struggle I had was I started second-guessing myself with beginning with the book of Judges.  I was feeling a bit guilty about missing Genesis through Joshua.  And I have been really wanting to get into some Psalms lately. (I’ve been reading them randomly to satisfy this.)  Well, this is the benefit of me doing a chronological study and using cross-references.  The cross-references are sending me back into the Pentateuch and Joshua to get background information.  And while I won’t come across any Psalms in the book of Judges, once David comes on the scene in 1st Samuel, my craving to go deeper into the Psalms will be fulfilled.  Plus the fact that I love reading the Psalms in a chronological Bible because I better understand why the Psalm was written.

Getting Started Again

After taking a bit of time off, going through all the emotions and feelings with the current atmosphere in our country, and just plain old missing my time with God, I decided to start over.  I now have my plan, process, and place altogether.  I made some adjustments, and I now feel comfortable again.  I won’t say that in the future, I may not need to make changes, but right now, this is working.  Which means I have a starting point if I do need to make changes.

Another thing I finally settled on, with the help of a friend, is I also now know how I am going to share my studying with you all.  While I knew I wanted to share on social media like I usually do, I felt this type of studying required more dialogue then social media allows.  So I will be doing a blog post to accompany each passage.  This will enable me to go into depth about the questions I am asking, what I am finding, etc.  I hope you join me.  Keep an eye out for the first blog post on my Chronological study starting in Judges.

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All 66 Books

All 66 Books: Mark

Need some background info on this series? See here and here.

Netflix has “The Gospel of Mark” on their streaming service and it is a word for word reading and account of the book.  I watched it (along with Matthew and Luke).  According to Crossway, it takes 1 hour and 23 minutes to read the book of Mark.

Just a reminder, it’s best to let scripture interpret scripture. I like these resources because they help me better understand scripture, but I may not agree with everything they say. As in all things, pray and invite God to help you in your time of reading and studying. Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you and use discernment when using resources outside of the Bible itself. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 NIV)

Here are some additional resources I recommend looking into after you read Mark through on your own:

The Bible Project

BibleTalk.TV

Drop me a comment if you have taken the 1 hour and 23 minutes to read Mark.  Do you know any other great resources for this book?  Leave them below!

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All 66 Books

All 66 Books: Joshua

Need some background info on this series? See here and here.

I read Joshua in my Chronological Bible.  According to Crossway, it takes 1 hour and 42 minutes to read the whole book of Joshua.

Just a reminder, it’s best to let scripture interpret scripture. I like these resources because they help me better understand scripture, but I may not agree with everything they say. As in all things, pray and invite God to help you in your time of reading and studying. Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you and use discernment when using resources outside of the Bible itself. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 NIV)

Here are some additional resources I recommend looking into after you read Joshua through on your own:

The Bible Project

Drop me a comment if you have taken the 1 hour and 42 minutes to read Joshua.  Do you know any other great resources for this book?  Leave them below!

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All 66 Books

All 66 Books: Deuteronomy

Need some background info on this series? See here and here.

I read Deuteronomy using my Chronological Bible after the book of Numbers.  I hate to keep repeating this, but here is yet again another one of the books that I always struggled to get through when I would start reading the Bible at Genesis (and that is if I made it through Leviticus and Numbers).  But one of the churches we went to when searching for a church home was doing a walkthrough of Deuteronomy, and it piqued my interest.  While reading it, I found so many gems, and it was a bit shocking how much it talked about the Word of God.  According to Crossway, it takes 2 hours and 24 minutes to read the book of Deuteronomy.

Just a reminder, it’s best to let scripture interpret scripture. I like these resources because they help me better understand scripture, but I may not agree with everything they say. As in all things, pray and invite God to help you in your time of reading and studying. Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you and use discernment when using resources outside of the Bible itself. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 NIV)

Here are some additional resources I recommend looking into after you read Deuteronomy through on your own:

The Bible Project

Drop me a comment if you have taken the 2 hours and 24 minutes to read Deuteronomy.  Do you know any other great resources for this book?  Leave them below!

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All 66 Books

All 66 Books: Numbers

Need some background info on this series? See here and here.

The book of Numbers was after Leviticus in my Chronological Bible. This is another one of the books that always causes me to abandon my Bible reading so I was thankful that I was able to read it through. Truthfully The Bible Project videos below helped a bunch with preparing to read this book and understand why it was important (Yes, I cheated and watched them before I started).  According to Crossway, it takes 2 hours and 57 minutes to read Numbers.

Just a reminder, it’s best to let scripture interpret scripture. I like these resources because they help me better understand scripture, but I may not agree with everything they say. As in all things, pray and invite God to help you in your time of reading and studying. Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you and use discernment when using resources outside of the Bible itself. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 NIV)

Here are some additional resources I recommend looking into after you read Numbers through on your own:

The Bible Project

Drop me a comment if you have taken the 2 hours and 57 minutes to read the book of Numbers.  Do you know any other great resources for this book?  Leave them below!

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All 66 Books

All 66 Books: Leviticus

Need some background info on this series? See here and here.

My reading of Leviticus was after Exodus in my Chronological Bible. This has always been the hardest book for me to read.  Honestly, I skip or skim through it most of the time.  But I took the time to read every word this go-round. And now I can’t wait to do a deeper study on the Tabernacle.  According to Crossway, it takes 2 hours and 3 minutes to read Leviticus.

Just a reminder, it’s best to let scripture interpret scripture. I like these resources because they help me better understand scripture, but I may not agree with everything they say. As in all things, pray and invite God to help you in your time of reading and studying. Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you and use discernment when using resources outside of the Bible itself. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 NIV)

Here are some additional resources I recommend looking into after you read Leviticus through on your own:

The Bible Project

Drop me a comment if you have taken the 2 hours and 3 minutes to read Leviticus.  Do you know any other great resources for this book?  Leave them below!

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Faith the Word of God

Instructions, Decrees, Precepts, Statues, Commands, Words, and Ordinances

I’ve mentioned a time or two that I have finished my Day by Day Chronological Bible after I finished reading the full Bible for my All 66 Books series.  So it was time to think about what I wanted my Bible time to look like going forward.  I knew that I wanted to spend the majority of the time studying because so much of the past year has been focusing on reading.  But I was stuck on what I wanted to study.

Topical Studies

I knew that I didn’t want to do topical studies.  Not that there is anything wrong with them, and I believe that in some seasons, they are necessary.  But for me, I’m really trying to focus on the metanarrative of the Bible.  I want to read it in as close of a manner as it was written without the chance of potentially taking verses out of context.

Chronologically

Which leads me back to chronologically reading.  Do I want to find a way to study the Bible in chronological order?  Can I admit I am not all that excited to study Genesis?  Or really much of the Torah/Pentateuch.  This makes me feel kind of bad because there is so much to learn from those books.  But I know from previous experience that if I start with those books, I will, without a doubt, not continue with my habit or reading and studying God’s Word.  But I know that if I pick a book that holds my interest first, then the habit will be built.  And then if I wanted, I can go back to the Torah/Pentateuch.

Old Testament vs. New Testament

When I think about where I want to start, I often think about the Prophets and the Epistles.  The Epistles because they are the closest to how we should be living life today as the church.  But I have officially read through them at least twice in the past 12 months alone.  And while I would love to do an in-depth study, I am kind of ready for something different.  The Prophets because I’ve never studied them before, but I feel like I am called to them.  But one thing I learned from reading the Bible chronologically was that the prophets are very much intertwined into many of the history books.  So if I am going to read the Prophets, I really need to go back to Judges and start there.

My Decision

So I think that is what I am going to do.  I am starting with the book of Judges.  I am drawn to Judges because I believe it was the first book where I had my ah-ha moment when it came to the Bible.  I was clearly able to see the cycle of sin, crying out to God, God sending a judge, repentance and then sin again.  And I strongly feel that we are repeating history and doing the same thing.  Except God has already sent Christ to forgive us of our sins once and for all.  Plus God is the only Judge we need and now the only one we have.

Then I am going to read the Bible in chronological order from there.  I think after I finish the Old Testament, I am going to go back later to read the Torah/Pentateuch before I move onto the New Testament.  I’ll share my day to day study on IG/FB in my current Bible reading post that I do each day.  Here is the thing.  I don’t know what this will look like.  I don’t know if I will do 1 chapter a day.  Or 1 verse a day.  Because I am going to allow the text to guide me.  I’m going to look at cross-references.  I am going to follow my questions.  I’m going to look at multiple translations.  I’m going to look into Inductive Bible Studying and BibleTalk.TV lectures.  But I really do want you to follow along with me if you can.  So I will try to be as organized as possible with this.

One final thing that I will be doing is reading the four gospels monthly and in different translations each month.  I’m mainly doing this because I know me, and I will most likely end up craving more time in God’s Word.  Adding in a reading plan allows me not to push myself too far ahead in my studying.  I got this idea from Eva Kubasiak‘s Bible Study Summit, where Kelli Cross said that she is following along with Annie F. Downs to do this plan.  Although I didn’t start in January, it gives me eight months to read through the Gospels 8 times.  I can’t wait.  I created this snapshot for me to use while doing it.

So I do hope that you join me.  I would love to talk to others about what we are studying.  Let me know in the comments if you will be joining me.

*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases using the links included in this post.

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All 66 Books

All 66 Books: Revelation

Need some background info on this series? See here and here.

I decided to read the book of Revelation after talking about the second coming in a group Bible Study I was doing.  I’ve been told so often that many Christians stay away from this book because it’s considered scary.  I didn’t get that when I read it, and I knew it was essential to know the details of Jesus’ return.  After all, people weren’t prepared during His first coming, and I am not trying to be like them.  According to Crossway, it takes 1 hour and 10 minutes to read Revelation.

Just a reminder, it’s best to let scripture interpret scripture. I like these resources because they help me better understand scripture, but I may not agree with everything they say. As in all things, pray and invite God to help you in your time of reading and studying. Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you and use discernment when using resources outside of the Bible itself. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 NIV)

Here are some additional resources I recommend looking into after you read Revelation through on your own:

Precept For Life/Inductive Bible Study

Revelation(Chapters 1-3)

Dallas Theological Seminary

Revelation

The Bible Project

BibleTalk.TV

FYI this message is taught as Daniel/Revelation.  Videos 1-5 are Daniel, and 6-12 are Revelation.

Drop me a comment if you have taken the 1 hour and 10 minutes to read Revelations.  Do you know any other great resources for this book?  Leave them below!

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All 66 Books

All 66 Books: Exodus

Need some background info on this series? See here and here.

Exodus was the next book after Job in my Chronological Bible. I think this is one of the books I am most familiar with, as so many people know the exodus story and about Moses.  According to Crossway, it takes 2 hours and 51 minutes to read the book of Exodus.

Just a reminder, it’s best to let scripture interpret scripture. I like these resources because they help me better understand scripture, but I may not agree with everything they say. As in all things, pray and invite God to help you in your time of reading and studying. Allow the Holy Spirit to guide you and use discernment when using resources outside of the Bible itself. “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15 NIV)

Here are some additional resources I recommend looking into after you read Exodus through on your own:

The Bible Project

Drop me a comment if you have taken the 2 hours and 51 minutes to read the book of Exodus.  Do you know any other great resources for this book?  Leave them below!