We Made It!
A year ago last Tuesday, I invited everyone who saw my site to read through this Bible plan during the year of 2022. (I also offered a shell script that I wrote to help automatically follow it using kjv(1), but the exact method of reading through it doesn’t matter. Personally, I prefer to read from paper whenever possible.) I recommended that plan because:
- It covers the entire Bible (or, optionally, just the New Testament) in one year;
- It requires just five days of reading per week, allowing you time to catch up if you fall behind;
- It places the events of Scripture in (or very near) chronological order;
- It spaces the Gospels evenly throughout so that the good news of Jesus Christ is kept at the forefront all year;
- It is so simple that you can just jump into it.
If you missed the boat this year, no worries. You can start whenever you want! But for everyone who did read all the way through the Bible this year (especially if it was your first time doing so), take a moment and contemplate all that you’ve read:
The Old Testament
- GENESIS. “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” You could preach a month of sermons on this fact alone. Genesis is the book of beginnings. In it we see God’s perfect creation, the tragic fall of mankind, and the blessed hope that God will provide a route for our salvation.
- EXODUS. In this book we learn of God’s overwhelming might in the face of all human power, even the power of a global empire. He chose Moses, a man “not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since [God had] spoken unto [him], but slow of speech, and of a slow tongue” (Exodus 4:10), and who was already an old man besides, to defeat Pharoah himself - the undisputed king of the ancient Near East superpower. It wasn’t even close. Moses later received the Ten Commandments upon Mount Sinai, and his brother Aaron established the Israelite priesthood and sacrificial system that, for thousands of years, prefigured the perfect sacrifice of Christ.
- LEVITICUS. Leviticus is to the Exodus as the Epistles are to the Gospels. It records the details of the walk, worship, and service of a people redeemed from the land of slavery and the house of bondage. The key word of this book is “holiness,” occurring 87 times (see Lev 19:2). In this book we begin to apprehend the holiness of the LORD God.
- NUMBERS. A dry read for some. Nevertheless, if you keep the right perspective, you will find astounding truth even in a 4,000+ year-old census. These were real people who lived and died and were faithful to God, and though their names may not exactly roll off your tongue, each individual person was important to God himself.
- DEUTERONOMY. The fifth and last of the great Books of Moses. It contains the parting advice of Moses to his people before his death at the cusp of the promised land. It summarizes the wilderness wanderings of the people of Israel and unfolds the moral judgement of God on the same.
- JOSHUA. “Moses my servant is dead; now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, and all this people, unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.” Though Moses’ sin of pride kept him out of the promised land at last, God was still faithful to his promise. Joshua, son of Nun, delivered the people of Israel at long last from the wilderness and into the land of promise. (Could there be a plainer prefiguring of Christ? Remember that “Joshua” or “Yəhōšūa” (יְהוֹשֻׁעַ), which was the name of Jesus, means “The LORD is salvation.”)
- JUDGES. The Judges were thirteen men raised up to deliver Israel during the age of apostasy and strife following the death of Joshua. Through these men, God continued his personal government of Israel. “Every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Jud 17:6). This book highlights the utter failure of Israel (and, by extension, all human governments) and the persistent grace of God.
- RUTH. The wonderful story of Ruth, a Gentile woman grafted into the nation of Israel because of her great faith. She became the great-grandmother of David - meaning she has the honor of being one of Christ’s very ancestors according to the flesh. Teach your daughters about her rather than any feminist icon.
- 1 SAMUEL. The personal history of Samuel, the last of the thirteen Judges. The priesthood, established so long ago under Aaron Moses’ brother, had suffered moral failure under Eli when Samuel attempted to make the office hereditary counter to the instructions of God. However, as a prophet Samuel was faithful, and his testimony begins the long line of the writing prophets. In this book we see the Israelite theocracy under the Judges come to an end, and the line of kings begin with Saul.
- 2 SAMUEL. As 1 Samuel marks the failure of man in Eli, Saul, and Samuel, this book marks the restoration of order through the enthroning of King David, a man after God’s own heart. David himself, in his last words, describes the millenial kingdom which is yet to come.
- 1 KINGS. Records the death of David, the reign of Solomon, the building of the Temple, the death of Solomon and with it the division of the kingdom. Includes also the ministry of the prophet Elijah.
- 2 KINGS. Continues the history of the two divided kingdoms up to the Babylonian captivity; the translation of Elijah to heaven and the ministry of Elisha in his stead. During the period covered in this history, the prophets Amos and Hosea prophesied in Israel while Obadiah, Joel, Isaiah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, and Jeremiah prophesied in Judah.
- 1 CHRONICLES. This book declares the history of the kingdom of Israel from the death of Saul, through David’s reign until his death and the acession of his son Solomon.
- 2 CHRONICLES. Continues the history begin in the first Chronicles, from Solomon to the Captivities.
- EZRA. The first of the post-Captivity Books: records the return of the faithful Jewish remnant to the land under Zerubbabel, by decree of Cyrus of Persia. These faithful Jews who did not bend the knee in Babylon returned to lay the foundations of the temple. Ezra followed and restored the law and ritual. Most of the nation remained in Babylon where they were flourishing. Only the miniscule remnant had a heart for God.
- NEHEMIAH. Fourteen years after Ezra returned to Jerusalem, Nehemiah led a company there who restored the walls and the civil government.
- ESTHER. A mere remnant returned to Jerusalem, desiring to serve God, but the mass of Israel preferred to remain in Babylon where they were comfortable under Persian rule. Even so, God did not forsake them. This book demonstrates the secret care God showed them through a faithful woman named Esther whom he allowed to rise to the throne of Shushan.
- JOB. Job is probably the oldest of the Bible books; this is generally thought because it contains no reference to the Law of Moses, someting that would have been impossible to ignore in these circumstances. The problem addressed in Job is: “Why do the godly suffer?” Job, a man perfect and upright, was allowed to come to ruin, that his faith in God might be tested. Though his worldly goods were destroyed, his family ruined, his wife and friends deserting him, Job never cursed God for any of this, but demonstrated the ability to truly love even in the face of intense suffering.
- The PSALMS. The inspired prayer- and praise-book of ancient Israel. There are songs of joy and of sorrow; of praise and of suffering; they run the gamut from tranquil worship to abject terror. Many are prophetic of all that was in the mind of Christ at the point of his death (see Psa. 22, Psa. 60.)
- The PROVERBS. “How much better is it to get wisdom than gold! and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!” (Prov 16:16) In this book, we learn the importance of wisdom through a collection of proverbs (wisdom sayings) collected by King Solomon and passed down to his son. We would do well to heed his instruction and seek wisdom with all our strength. “Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding!” (Prov 23:23)
- ECCLESIASTES. The book of the man “under the sun,” reasoning about life, i.e. the best man can do with the knowledge that there is a God who will put things right by judgement. It is declared “vanity” for man to place his trust in earthly things, but the conclusion is legal, the best that man apart from the redemption of Christ can do.
- The SONG OF SOLOMON. Primarily this book is the expression of marital love as rightly created and intended by God, and the vindication of such love against the twin errors of lust and asceticism. The love of a man for his wife prefigures the love of Christ for his church.
- ISAIAH. The chief of the writing prophets. Of all the other Old Testament prophets, none else have such a clear view of grace and redemption. The church is not explicitly mentioned, but the person of the Messiah and his blessing of the Gentiles is clear.
- JEREMIAH. Of all that prophesied to the Jews before the great captivities, only Jeremiah faithfully proclaimed the word of the Lord. While others dismissed the clouds of war gathering on the horizon, Jeremiah was clear: the people had sinned greatly and they would die in captivity. Nevertheless, his vision included not only the captivity, but the return of the remnant after 70 years, the world-wide dispersion of the Jews, the final regathering, the kingdom age, and the final day of judgement.
- The LAMENTATIONS of Jeremiah. When the people were carried away captive, Jeremiah set down this inspired account of the love and sorrow of God for the very people he was chastising - a sorrow wrought by the Holy Spirit in Jeremiah’s heart as well.
- EZEKIEL. The first of the Captivity prophets, Ezekiel was carried away to Babylon between the first and final deportations of Judah. Like Daniel and the Apostle John, Ezekiel prophesied out of the land in a vision heavy in symbolism. Unlike the pre-exile prophets, whose ministry was mainly to one of the two kingdoms, Ezekiel is the voice of God to “the whole house of Israel.” The purpose of his ministry was to keep before the generation born in exile the knowledge of the sins that had brought their nation to this low state, and to sustain their faith with promises of national restoration.
- DANIEL. Like Ezekiel, Daniel was also a captive in Babylon. His visions of the future extend even past our own epoch: he saw the manifestation of the man of sin (Antichrist), the great tribulation, the return of the Lord, the resurrections, and the judgement.
- HOSEA. Hosea depicts Israel as God’s adulterous wife, repudiated, but ultimately to be cleansed and restored.
- JOEL. Joel likely ministered during the reign of Joash and may have even known Elijah when he was young; he certainly was a contemporary of Elisha. The plagues of insects (a sign of God’s punishment) give occasion for Joel to point to the greater fury of the coming “Day of the LORD.”
- AMOS. Amos, a humble herdsman, prophesied during the reign of Jeroboam II, who presided over the Northern Kingdom at the absolute apex of its power. Nothing could have seemed more unlikely than Amos’ predictions, but within fifty years the kingdom was utterly destroyed.
- OBADIAH. Obadiah, writing under Athaliah’s bloody reign (2 Kings 8:16-26), was likely the first of the writing prophets. He saw Edom’s future of humiliation at the Day of the Lord, but also their inclusion in the future kingdom.
- JONAH. The man Jonah is actually mentioned by Jesus Christ (Matthew 12:39-41); his preservation in the great fish being a sign or type of our Lord’s own burial and resurrection. Jonah himself was a bigoted Jew, unwilling to testify to a Gentile city; he typifies Christ as one raised from the dead and carrying salvation to Jew and Gentile alike.
- MICAH. Micah, along with Jeremiah, also gave warning of the coming captivities, but was rejected. Like many of the other writing prophets, his vision too included the future kingdom of the Messiah.
- NAHUM. Nahum’s prophecy of the destruction of Nineveh is confirmed by the secular historian Diodorus Siculus. The city was destroyed nearly a century after Nahum’s writing, exactly as predicted. This serves as a signpost to God’s holiness, which must deal with sin in judgement.
- HABAKKUK. Written on the eve of the Babylonian captivity, Habakkuk’s testimony guards against idolatry and pantheism. Habakkuk is more concerned that the holiness of God should be vindicated than that his people should escape judgement.
- ZEPHANIAH. Zephaniah points out that the superficial revival under Josiah (see Jer. 2:11-13) would only delay the inevitable captivity.
- HAGGAI. A prophet of the restored remnant after the 70 years’ captivity, Haggai admonished and encouraged the builders to complete the temple in Jerusalem.
- ZECHARIAH. Like Haggai, Zechariah was also a prophet to the remnant. Both advents of Christ are seen in his vision (Zech 9:9 with Matthew 21:1-11 and Zech 14:3,4).
- MALACHI. Malachi, “my messenger,” the last of the prophets to the remnant. His message contains the love of God, the sins of the priests and the people, and the day of the Lord. Like Zechariah, he sees both advents of Christ and predicts two forerunners (Mal. 3:1 and 4:5,6). He gives the moral judgement of God on the remnant: he had established his house among them yet again, but their worship was formal and insincere. In the four hundred years leading up to the ministry of Christ, this cold formality would ossify into the Pharasaical system our Lord so despised.
The New Testament
- The Gospel according to MATTHEW. Matthew, also called Levi, was a Galilean Jew who worked for the Roman government as a tax collector. This made him a despised figure nearly everywhere. Nevertheless, Christ called him away from that filthy vocation and this man who was formerly despised gave us “the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the Son of David, the Son of Abraham.”
- The Gospel according to MARK. The gospel of Jehovah’s “Servant, the Branch” (Zech 3:8). Where the other Gospels declare the deity, the teachings, or the life of Christ, Mark declares his mighty works. This is the Gospel of the servant character of the incarnate Son. “For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.” (Mk 10:45).
- The Gospel according to LUKE. Luke’s Gospel declares the “Son of Man,” emphasizing Christ’s humanity in addition to his deity. Luke relates those things that demonstrate how entirely human Christ was; for instance, this Gospel gives the most complete account of his childhood and youth. This guards against the spirit of Antichrist, which denies that Christ came in the flesh (1 John 4:3). However, Luke is careful to protect the kingship and divinity of Christ: Luke’s is the Gospel of him that is called “the Son of the Highest” (Luke 1:32).
- The Gospel according to JOHN. John reveals the mystery of the Incarnation of the eternal Word and Son of God, himself God, in Jesus Christ.
- The ACTS of the apostles. Here Luke continues the account of Christianity he began in his Gospel. In the “former treatise” he told what Jesus “began both to do and teach”; here, what Jesus continued to do and teach by way of the Holy Spirit. In the Acts, we have the record of the first Christian martyr, demonstrating that God’s word never returns void.
- Paul’s letter to the ROMANS. This book is possibly the greatest treatise on human nature ever produced.
- Paul’s 1ST letter to the CORINTHIANS. The first Pauline letter on Christian conduct. While answering questions regarding marriage and the use of food offered to idols, Paul was more upset about deepening division and contentions in the church, including an instance of sexual sin that had not been judged (1:10-12; 5:1).
- Paul’s 2ND letter to the CORINTHIANS. Here Paul confronts the Jewish legalizers in the church who viewed him distrustfully and argues his apostolic authority (10:1-13:14). He pleads for the maintenance of the churches in grace as against the law-teachers and hair-splitters.
- Paul’s letter to the GALATIANS. Paul’s great defense of the pure message of the Gospel against the Judaizing legalizers; no admixture of law-conditions can be permitted which qualify or destroy the Gospel’s message of pure grace.
- Paul’s letter to the EPHESIANS. In this book Paul sets forth the believer’s exalted position through grace; the truth of the body of Christ; and how we are to walk in this position.
- Paul’s letter to the PHILIPPIANS. Here Paul writes an epistle on the Christian experience. Unlike other epistles, soundness of the church at Philippi is assumed - we see no corrections as we do elsewhere. Rather, it is an exhortation to abide in the faith whatever your present circumstances. “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Phil 1:21).
- Paul’s letter to the COLOSSIANS. This epistle contains Paul’s corrections to the church at Colossae: First, a warning against the error of ascetic legalism (“touch not, taste not”), by which its practitioners mortified the body; Second, the error of false mysticism, “intruding into those things which he hath not seen” - the result of speculation by philosophers (rather “leaning on one’s own understanding”).
- Paul’s 1ST letter to the THESSALONIANS. Here Paul confirms young disciples in the truth, exhorts them to pursue holiness, and comforts them concerning “those who have fallen asleep.” Written A.D. 54, this epistle demonstrates how rich in doctrine the primitive Church already was: in a mission of about one month, Paul had taught all the great doctrines of the faith (Election, 1:4; the Holy Spirit, 1:5, 6, 4:8, 5:19; Assurance, 1:5, the Trinity, 1:1, 5, 6; Conversion, 1:9; the second coming of Christ, 1:10, 2:19, 3:13, 4:14-17, 5:23; the Christian walk, 2:12, 4:1; Sanctification, 4:3, 5:23, the day of Jehovah, 5:1-3; the Resurrection, 4:14-18; the tri-partite nature of man, 5:23.)
- Paul’s 2ND letter to the THESSALONIANS. The Thessalonian converts were “shaken in mind” and “troubled” by interlopers who had spread the false teaching that their persecutions were part of the “great and terrible day of the LORD,” from which they had been taught to expect deliverance by Christ. “Let no man deceive you by any means,” Paul advises, “for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition (Antichrist).” Today you can take comfort in the same: there is still time to place your trust in Christ.
- Paul’s 1ST letter to TIMOTHY. As churches increased in number, the question of church order and discipline became more important as the apostles couldn’t be everywhere at once. In this leter, Paul reveals “how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God.”
- Paul’s 2ND letter to TIMOTHY. As 1 Timothy is focused on corporate Christian behavior, so 2nd Timothy is focused on individual Christian behavior, particularly in an age of apostasy. It is also touching because it is the last written word of Paul that has been preserved, having been authored shortly before his martyrdom - a fact of which Paul himself was aware (4:6-8).
- Paul’s letter to TITUS. Much as with 1 Timothy, this letter of Paul is concerned with the due order of the churches. The distinction is that 1st Timothy is primarily concerned with doctrine, Titus with the order of the churches themselves.
- Paul’s letter to PHILEMON. Onesimus (“profitable”), a slave of a man called Philemon, who was a Christian living in Colossae, had robbed Philemon and fled to Rome, where he was converted to the faith by none other than Paul. Paul sent him back to his former master with this letter in hand, which is a jewel of forgiveness and love.
- (Paul’s?) letter to the HEBREWS. The author of Hebrews is not known for certain, though some take it to be Paul. Regardless, the character of this book is Pauline to the core: it follows the method of Paul’s synagogue addresses. It was written to confirm Jewish Christians by showing that Judaism had come to an end through Christ’s fulfillment of the entire law. Hebrews is a series of contrasts between the good things of Biblical Judaism and the better things of Christ.
- The letter from JAMES. James the Just (martyred A.D. 62) authored what is, via historical analysis, believed to be the very earliest Christian epistle that has been preserved through inspiration. It is not, as some vainly suppose, a polemic against Paul’s doctrine of justification (Galatians and Romans having not yet been written), but is an exposition on “religion” (that is, outward religious service) as the expression and litmus-test of true faith. He does not ewxalt works as against faith, but faith as producing works.
- The 1ST letter from PETER. This letter presents all the foundational truths of the Christian faith, with emphasis on the atonement. The main theme is preparation for victory over the suffering which is sure to come.
- The 2ND letter from PETER. This letter and Paul’s second letter to Timothy have much in common. In both, their authors are aware that their own martyrdom is near (1:14, see also John 21:18,19), yet both are joyful. ALso, both forsee the apostasy in which the history of the church will end. Peter identifies the root of the apostasy as proceeding from false teachers who deny the truth of the redemption (2:1).
- The 1ST letter from JOHN. A letter from the Apostle John to his “little children” who are in the world. The sin of believers is treated as a child’s offence against his father, but one that has been met by the Cross, and “Jesus Christ the righteous” is now his “advocate with the Father.”
- The 2ND letter from JOHN. John’s second letter gives the essentials of the Christian walk in a day when “many deceivers are entered into the world” (v. 7). The key phrase is “the truth,” by which John means the body of revealed truth, i.e. the Scriptures. The Bible, as the only authority for doctrine and life, is the believer’s resource in an age of apostasy.
- The 3RD letter from JOHN. John’s third letter is written not as from an apostle, but as an elder: John is addressing a faithful man in a church in which one Diotrephes had rejected the apostolic letters and authority and was refusing the work of his ministry. John gives this faithful man comfort and encouragement to stand fast in the primitive simplicity. As John’s second letter gives the personal walk of a Christian in the day of apostasy, this letter goes further to the personal responsibility in such days of believers in the local church.
- The letter from JUDE. In this brief letter, Jude the brother of James predicts the apostasy of the professing church and describes its effects. Contrary to many sectarians over the past centuries who have tried to shoehorn their theological enemies into this description (the Protestant Reformation, the Great Schism, etc.) Jude is clear that this apostasy had already set in! Keep in mind this was written around A.D. 66. (v. 8-16)
- The REVELATION given to John. A vision of the end of days, having as its main subject the person of Jesus Christ: as the one “which is, and which was, and which is to come,” as relating to his churches; as in his offices of High Priest, Bridegroom, King, and Judge.
Staggering, right? Over the past year, you’ve read “the Bible,” but it’s not just one book. You’ve really read sixty-six distinct books and letters written over thousands of years, spanning multiple nations, cultures and languages, and preserved right down the centuries to our day. Though they are myriad, all sixty-six of these books are perfectly harmonized around one single truth: God himself came into the world in the person of the man Jesus Christ, died for our sins, was dead three days, and is now alive forevermore, having crushed death to death! All those who trust in him may have eternal life!
What Now?
The sky’s the limit! Now that you’ve got a bird’s-eye view of the entire Bible, you can start anywhere you want to begin studying more in depth. I haven’t yet decided where I’ll start focusing in 2023, but I’ll likely write about some of it. In the meantime, I hope this year of reading through the Bible has been as fruitful and illuminating for you as it has for me.