This week we will finish Habakkuk, and read Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah and Malachi AND with that, we will have completed our read of the Old Testament! Thirty-seven books in all. In 242 days. Seems like yesterday that it was New Year's Day and we were making a commitment to read daily and worrying if we could keep it up. Here we are. Well done, good and faithful servants.

In his introduction to Zephaniah, Eugene Peterson writes: "We humans keep looking for a religion that will give us access to God without having to bother with people." Of course the Biblical prophets were dead set against such a notion. At the heart of our faith is a relationship . . . first with God . . . AND WITH EACH OTHER. The prophets keep pointing to God and then to others and then to God and so on in hopes that we begin to recognize that the two cannot be separated. Love God. Love others. (See Zephaniah 3:12)

The prophet Haggai speaks to God's people as they return from exile and begin the process of rebuilding a life for themselves in the city of Jerusalem. The priorities of the people are immediately called into question when they focus on their own houses while the temple lay in ruins. It is a message that has relevance for us even today.

Together with Haggai, the prophet Zechariah, delivered a message about priorities: give first priority to the rebuilding of the temple and then everything else will quite naturally fall into place.

And finally, Malachi, "the prophet who wakes us up to the crisis of God during the times when the only thing we are concerned with is us." (Eugene Peterson) A powerful way to end the Old Testament; a reminder of how easily and quickly we turn in on ourselves. We are called to be vessels of God for one another.

Facebook Question

Join the discussion on the SPD One Year Bible Read-Along Facebook group page!

Here is great news: the 37 books of the Old Testament that you have just completed, lay a foundation for the New Testament you are about to read. You can not overestimate how important the stories and history and prophesy we have read are to the Gospel Good News! What may feel familiar in the coming weeks, is sure to take on new meaning given your faithful reading so far.

Keep up the good reading!