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Tara Leigh Cobble
Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Leigh Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. Welcome to our June Reflections and Corrections episode. Let's start with the Reflections. We recently finished our 16th book of the Bible and are currently working our way through two others. So let's get the 30,000 foot view on where we are in the chronological timeline of the Bible's overall metanarrative. The Bible is one unified story. Way back in Genesis, God set out to build a relationship with one particular family. But things go terribly wrong when they fracture the relationship through sin. But their sin doesn't surprise God. He already had a plan in place to restore this relationship even before it was broken. And he continues working out that plan. Immediately, undeterred and unhindered by their rebellion. He sets apart a man named Abraham to be the patriarch of the family. And he gives this family a name, the Israelites. They're a bunch of busted people who lie, cheat and steal. God blesses them despite their sin, but sin still has its consequences. One of the long story lines of consequences of the 400 years they spent enslaved in Egypt. God sends a man named Moses to demonstrate his power to the Egyptian ruler, who reluctantly agrees to let the Israelite slaves go. They flee to the desert, led by God and his servant Moses. And then, little by little, God gives these people the basic rules of how to have a stable society. All they've ever known is slavery under a cruel dictator. They've never seen good leadership demonstrated. They're a bunch of uncivilized, ungrateful people who have only just met God and Moses, and they're not keen on obeying either of them. But in the midst of their sin and stubbornness and foolishness, God knows that what their hearts need is Him. So he sets up camp among them in the desert. More than anything, he wants them to remember who he is to them, the God who rescued them out of slavery. He's trying to point them back to the truth that people who recognize him as God can rely on his pattern of faithfulness even when they are unfaithful. But they keep forgetting. And every time they forget, they either get fearful and disobey or they get prideful and disobey. Their disobedience lands them a 40 year sentence in the desert wilderness. In the meantime, all the first generation dies off and God raises up a new leader, Joshua, to lead them into the promised land. Joshua appoints plots of land for all the tribes and commands them to eradicate their enemies who live there. The Canaanites they spread out in the land. But it's so nice to not be in slavery or in the wilderness that this new life of luxury and ease makes them forget God. So they never fully conquer the land completely. There are still pockets of Canaanites all around. God has warned them repeatedly about the consequences of this, which are their enemies. The Canaanites will become a snare and lead them away into apostasy. And that's exactly what happens. After Joshua dies, God raises up military leaders or judges to drive out the enemies who are leading them astray. But this doesn't deal with the problem of their hearts leading them astray. The Israelites do whatever they want, which results in near anarchy at times. And things grow continually worse in the Promised Land. Despite this, there are pockets of faithfulness among the Israelites and even among foreigners whose hearts have turned toward Yahweh. People like Rahab and Ruth, pagans who turn to follow God and his people and abandon their lifestyles that may fit with cultural norms, but that are actually unrighteous. God has been telling us all along that he's going to build his people from among every nation, and we're starting to see more and more evidence of that coming to pass. Then God raises up a prophet named Samuel, who takes on the task of leading the people. But what the people really want is a king. God tells Samuel to give the people what they want, but that it's not going to go well for them. Their first king is Saul, a fearful man who makes rash decisions without consulting God. After Saul dies in battle, a shepherd named David is positioned as Israel's second king. He is a man after God's own heart, but he's still deeply flawed. He makes a few wicked decisions that mark him for life, but they don't mark him for eternity. God shows him astonishing amounts of mercy and grace. David is succeeded on the throne by his son Solomon. Solomon is known as the wisest man who ever lived, but he has a bit of a problem with womanizing and worshiping other gods. Yahweh is generous to him nonetheless, and gives him the distinguished assignment of building Israel's first temple, the place where God came to dwell among the people in the midst of the promised land. Despite having such a weighty role, he still also builds worship sites to pagan gods and has a divided heart. And God says there will be consequences for this sin. God raises up his servant Jeroboam, who serves, we call him Jerry, to oppose his reign. When Solomon dies, his son Rehoboam officially takes over the throne. We call him Rey, but King Rey is harsh toward the people and lots of people don't want to follow him. And that's how the nation state of Israel is divided into two separate kingdoms, which is the consequence God promised to Solomon for his sins. Since Solomon heart was divided, his kingdom would be divided as well into the northern kingdom of Israel led by King Jerry and the southern kingdom of Judah led by King Ray. But God has promised to continue the line of kings through the tribe of Judah. He always seems to be on their side especially, but he takes good care of the northern kingdom of Israel as well. The northern kingdom has a string of exclusively bad kings, but God still sends the prophet Elijah to help set things straight. Elijah has a pretty lonely life of speaking hard truth to the kings and the people, but he has a rich intimacy with God that sustains him nonetheless. Okay, that's all for the reflections part of this episode, and I'm thrilled to report that so far in June, by God's grace, there aren't any glaring mistakes I made or things I want to retract or correct. So we don't have any corrections to add for this month. Thank God. We're at the halfway point of our trip through Scripture, and I hope that from day one until now, you're seeing more and more that he's where the joy is. The Bible Recap offers tools that equip millions around the world to read, understand, and love the Bible. We want to help people encounter God in a way that transforms their entire lives. To find out more, visit thebiblerecap. Com.