I am half way through a bible study curriculum that my church offers. It takes 3 years to complete, and goes through each book of the Bible, one week at a time. For the past year and a half I have been studying the Old Testament and a people crying out for a deliverer, longing for a redeemer, begging for a king to save them. We have been studying people like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, the 12 Tribes, Noah, King David, and Queen Esther. Learning about the Laws, Feasts and Offerings God required of his people in Leviticus. We studied the Shema in Deuteronomy, read of prophets foretelling and warning them of their sin. Studied as God’s chosen people, over and over, and over again repeated the cycle of turning from God, being defeated, begging God for Mercy and then being restored to Him (sounds familiar). I understood a deeper meaning of the “kinsman redeemer” from the book of Ruth that forever deepened my view of Christ as MY personal Redeemer. I learned about suffering from Job, pushed through completing the Psalms (in a week!), devoured Proverbs, personally related to Jonah, admired Daniel, and forced myself to finish Hosea…..to close the semester a few weeks ago with the book of Micah. So far we have completed, week by week, the Pentateuch books (Genesis thru Deuteronomy), the Kingdom books (Joshua thru 2 Kings), the Post Exilic books (1 Chronicles thru Esther), the Poetical books (Job thru Song of Solomon), the Major Prophets (Isaiah thru Daniel), and just finished the Early Minor Prophets (Hosea thru Micah).
