February's BOTMs: James, Judges, & Mark

[Catherine (semi active)]

Hi! I hope you'll join us for February's BOTMs, James, Judges, & Mark. Feel free to just read at your own pace and share your thoughts, but here are some additional way to participate:

✿ Memorize Verses

Here’s a list of verses I like from our BOTMs: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1e... (still being updated)

Choose 9 of them (or any other verses you’d like, from the list or not) to put in this bracket according to which number it is:

[ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ]
[ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ]
[ _ ] [ _ ] [ _ ]

When you memorize a verse, put an X in the bracket. Try to get 3 in a row, then another 3 in a row, then maybe even a blackout! Post your bracket here and update us on how you’re doing.

✿ Youversion Plans

I’m not sure if I’m going to do Youversion plans this month, as I always fall behind, but please feel free to choose one and invite me to it! https://www.bible.com/reading-plans

Please add me as a friend if you haven’t- I’m Catherine C and my profile’s the same as the one on GR, or you can tell me what your profile is. If you haven’t made a free account on Youversion yet, sign up HERE! https://www.bible.com/sign-up

✿ BibleProject Videos

Here are video overviews by BibleProject:
~ Judges: https://bibleproject.com/explore/vide...
~ James: https://bibleproject.com/explore/vide...
~ Mark: https://bibleproject.com/explore/vide...

✿ Discovering the Gospel series

Here’s a short video on how Judges fits into the biblical storyline and connects to Jesus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olwO8...

✿ Sermons

I listen to Tim Keller & Gospel in Life. Sermons on:
~ Judges: https://gospelinlife.com/all-resource...
~ James: https://gospelinlife.com/all-resource...
~ Mark: https://gospelinlife.com/all-resource...

✿ Bible Commentary

~ Enduring Word: https://enduringword.com/
~ BibleRef: https://www.bibleref.com/

If you have other resources, please share them with us! Thank you so much! :D

[Myra]

Im in!

[Catherine (semi active)]

Woo hoo, thanks Myra! I'm excited to read with you:)

[Zara]

Brilliant!

[Catherine (semi active)]

:D

[Elijah]

I just finished James 1. Lately, I've been overly preoccupied that I have left out my time with God. This has caused me great anxiety. However, I'm beginning to see that it is more important to gain heavenly riches than worldly riches. "For the sun is no sooner risen with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perisheth: so also shall the rich man fade away in his ways." (James 1:11)

May the Lord help me to focus more on Him rather than on this world.

[Catherine (semi active)]

Woo hoo! (about finishing James 1 and your revelation)

I was reading James 1 in NIV; I really like that translation. Amen:) Thank you for sharing!

[Catherine (semi active)]

Hmm, I learned a lot in the past month, I just forgot to write it down, which means that I forgot...(I heard that the shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory, and at least for me, that's so true)

One thing I do remember from Judges was Jephthah. I'd never heard of him, but he was by far my favorite judge. It seemed to me like the judges that were supposed to be the most promising (the son of Gideon- I thought that since he saw God's greatness firsthand, he might lead Israel better) always ended in tragedy, while the judge that didn't seem promising (Jephthah, whose mother was a prostitute and led a gang of scoundrels) ended up to be (at least, from my interpretation) the best.

At first I was horrified by the second part of Judges 11 (I thought Jephthah actually sacrificed his daughter), but after reading Enduring Word's commentary I felt much better. Here it is (link here: https://enduringword.com/bible-commen...)-

"a. He carried out his vow with her which he had vowed: Some people think that Jephthah did really offer his daughter as a burnt offering. If he did, this was clearly an example of misguided zeal for God because God never asked him to make such a foolish vow or to fulfill it so foolishly.

b. She went with her friends, and bewailed her virginity…. She knew no man: These words indicate that it is more likely that Jephthah set his daughter aside according to the principle of Leviticus 27:2-4, where persons set apart to God in a vow were not required to be sacrificed (as animals were) but were “given” to the tabernacle in monetary value.

i. We know that there were women who were set apart for the tabernacle service; they were called the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting (Exodus 38:8; 1 Samuel 2:22). It is likely that Jephthah’s daughter became one of these women who served at the tabernacle.

ii. His daughter and her friends were rightly grieved that she was given to the tabernacle service before she was ever married. Probably most of the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle were older widows.

iii. By sending his unmarried, only daughter to the service of the tabernacle for the rest of her life, it shows how seriously both Jephthah and his daughter took his promise to God.

iv. Many commentators object and see no other option than to say that Jephthah fulfilled his vow in a horrible way, by the human sacrifice of his own daughter. “The attempt to commute the sentence of death to one of perpetual virginity cannot be sustained.” (Cundall)

v. Yet her committal to be one of the women who assembled at the tabernacle still seems like the best explanation because Jephthah is listed as a hero of the faith (Hebrews 11:32). It is hard to think of him as doing something so contrary to God’s ways as offering his daughter as a human sacrifice and still being mentioned as a man of faith in Hebrews 11"

[Catherine (semi active)]

What do y'all think? Which judge was the most godly? What did y'all think of Judges 4:21? Gideon? Did he ask for too many signs from God? Judges 19 broke my heart. Is it just me, or is there something similar in Genesis? Have I read this passage before this month without me remembering it?

What did you learn while you were reading?

(I greatly appreciate people's responses; I can often get too much in my head and I'm afraid that I'll have an interpretation/view of God that is wrong and unbiblical.)

[Catherine (semi active)]

I really liked Enduring Word's introduction of Mark. It's here (https://enduringword.com/bible-commen...), but here are my favorite parts:

"a. For this reason, the Gospel of Mark is a “busy” book. In this Gospel, Jesus seems the busiest, quickly moving from one event to another. One of the key words in the Gospel is immediately, occurring more than 40 times in Mark. We see Jesus as a servant – busy meeting needs and busy being God’s Messiah.

d. To the hard-working and accomplishment-oriented Romans, Mark wrote a gospel that emphasized Jesus as God’s Servant. Because no one cares about the pedigree of a servant, the Gospel of Mark has no genealogy of Jesus.

ii. When Bible translators go to a people who have never had the Scriptures in their own language, they usually begin by translating the Gospel of Mark. Mark is the most translated book in the entire world. One reason is that it is the shortest Gospel, but the other reason is that this Gospel was written for people unfamiliar with first century Judaism. Mark wrote it for the Romans."

Just reading Mark 5:33, EW's commentary on Mark 5 made me go "WHOA!" It never fails to amaze me that Jesus actually wants to listen to what I have to say, no matter how ungrateful or self centered what I say is.

"i. We must tell Him the whole truth about our sin. We come to Him as the Great Physician and He asks, “What seems to be the problem?” So don’t leave anything out.

ii. We must tell Him the whole truth about all our suffering. He wants to know where it hurts, so tell Him.

iii. We must tell Him the whole truth about the other doctors and cures we tried.

iv. We must tell Him the whole truth about all our hopes, because He wants to know what He can do for us."

😍

[Catherine (semi active)]

And James is awesome, because it helps me to more fully understand/apply verses like 1 John 2:3 "We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands" and the verses in John about "If you love me, you'll keep my commands." The verse that's stuck out to me the most is James 4:17: 'If anyone, then, knows the good they ought to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.'

Scary🫣

[Elijah]

Catherine wrote: "Hmm, I learned a lot in the past month, I just forgot to write it down, which means that I forgot...(I heard that the shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory, and at least for me, that's ..."

That is one side of the issue I haven't thought about. Thanks for sharing the excerpt. I'll need to read more to understand that recount of Jephthan and his daughter.

[Elijah]

*Jephthah

[Catherine (semi active)]

Thanks for your reply! I look forward to hearing your thoughts:)

[Janice]

I really learn so much from all your comments!

[Catherine (semi active)]

Aw, thank you for reading them, Janice! You know when you hear/read something really cool and you want to share it with someone? Tim Keller, the pastor that I like to listen to, talks about that a lot in reference to the Gospel- your enjoyment of something isn't complete until you share it with someone. So thank you! :D

[Catherine (semi active)]

I realized that when I copied and pasted the info from last month's BOTMs in my first post, I forgot to change the BOTMs to James, Judges, & Mark from Joshua & Deuteronomy 😂

[Catherine (semi active)]

Huh, I'm watching this video on Judges (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olwO8...) and Tim Keller seems to have a poor view of Jephthath, and everything I've heard about Judges so far (not much tbh) is that the judges got worse and worse. The first time I read about Jephthath I didn't think he was that bad, though. Guess I'll have to take another look at that.

[Elijah]

I just read Judges 11 today. After rereading the chapter, I think I can see the reasoning behind Enduring Word's commentary excerpt. There's no explicit mention of the action of Jephthah burning his daughter on an altar, so that might give some commentators room for explanation. I haven't thought of Enduring Word's perspective before, but it seems that many other commentators also present the same view.

For now, I still lean toward the more literal view that Jephthah did indeed sacrifice his daughter as a burnt offering. There are still a few bits and pieces in Enduring Word's reasonings that make me hesitant to change my views.

[Elijah]

No matter how people explain the passage, I think it's pretty much certain that Jephthah's vow was too rash. Maybe God wants to show us that making a rash vow often has unbearable consequences.

[Catherine (semi active)]

Yeah, the literal view would make sense, since the general theme of Judges is the moral degradation of Israel. That's very true, about the warning against rash vows; I suppose if God needed us to know who happened to Jephthah's daughter He would tell us:) Thank you for sharing! :D

[Elijah]

Finished Mark 6 yesterday. I think the parable in Mark 4 of the seeds that fell among thorns is a good reminder of how I sometimes behave. Too often I know God's principles but fail to act on them because of my love of the world. I still need to love the Lord more and make Him my main focus in life.

[Catherine (semi active)]

Awesome! So do we all, all throughout our lives; reading James has really helped challenge me to put my faith in action. "If anyone knows the good they ought to do and does not do it, it is sin for them" (James 4:14) really startled me.

Gospel in Life has a lot of sermons on Mark (https://gospelinlife.com/all-resource...)- I've only listened to a few of them, but they were so, so good. I'm going to listen to more of them and think about Mark leading up to Easter, so I'll keep this thread open:)