Today I’m starting the second year of the two-year Bible plan. If you’d like to begin with Day 1 of Year 1, you should begin with John 1.
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For several years, I did a “Read Through the Bible in One Year” plan. I think it’s important to read the entire Bible, every word of it, and I’m glad that I’ve done that, but, I’ve found that the whole Bible in one year is a lot to absorb. It doesn’t give me much time to reflect and meditate on what I’ve read, so I decided I wanted to do a “Read Through the Bible in Two Years” plan. Simple enough, right? Wrong.
So, I made my own and I’d love to have you join me.
The plan is set up to read through each book of the Bible from beginning to end, alternating between Old Testament and New Testament books. I tried to keep the Old Testament books in chronological order. For example, Job is read after Genesis and before Exodus. I also intentionally placed New Testament books with related Old Testament books to help us see the connections in the text. For example, Hebrews is read between Leviticus and Numbers. I love to read one chapter of Luke every day from December 1-24, so each year ends with reading the book of Luke.
You’ll also notice that the Bible reading plan is set up week by week rather than day by day. One week you will devote every day to the four chapters of Philippians. In this weekly format, you could read the whole book on the first day of the week, then reread little parts the other six days … or you could read half of each chapter every day. You decide. Another week you’re assigned to read fourteen chapters of Leviticus – you might read several chapters one day and just one chapter another. Having a week by week format allows you this flexibility, but still keeps you on target.
Read the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 27, Song of Solomon 2
I’ll be using David Guzik’s commentary to better understand the book of “Song of Solomon.” Read it here or download the “Enduring Word Commentary” free from the Apple Store or the Google Store or read Mr. Guzik’s commentary in the Blue Letter Bible app, also available from the Apple Store or Google Store.
Additionally, he has sermons available for you to watch or listen to on his Enduring Word website here.
I’ve excerpted a few of my favorite parts.
I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, by the gazelles or the does of the field, that you not stir up or awaken love until it pleases.
Song of Songs 2:7 ESV
Guzik writes, “It is like letting a flower grow until it naturally blooms, instead of trying to force a flower to grow and blossom. This isn’t repression – the rejection and denial of the feelings, often in shame; this is suppression – the conscious restraint of natural impulses and desires.”
Catch the foxes for us, the little foxes that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.
Song of Songs 2:15 ESV
Guzik writes, “Clearly the maiden speaks poetically here, using the little foxes as emblems of that which would damage the love relationship she shares with her beloved. The idea is that their relationship is like a fruitful vineyard and the little foxes will damage the vineyard unless they are stopped and caught. Glickman lists several “little foxes” that may trouble couples:
· Uncontrolled desire that drives a wedge of guilt and mistrust between the couple.
· Mistrust and jealousy that strains or breaks the bond of love.
· Selfishness and pride that refuses to acknowledge wrong and fault to one another.
· An unforgiving attitude that will not accept an apology.
My beloved is mine, and I am his;
Song of Songs 2:16a ESV
Guzik writes, “Charles Spurgeon preached eight sermons on Song of Solomon 2:16-17, and in one of them titled The Interest of Christ and His People in Each Other, he meditated on the meaning of each aspect.
“Ways that I belong to Jesus, ways that I am my beloved’s:
· I am His by the gift of His Father.
· I am His by purchase, paid for by His own life.
· I am His by conquest, He fought for me and won me.
· I am His by surrender, because I gave myself to Him.
Ways that Jesus belongs to me, ways that He is mine:
· He is mine by connection in the same body; He is the head and I am part of His body.
· He is mine by affectionate relationship; He has given me His love.
· He is mine by the connection of birth; I am born again of Him.
· He is mine by choice; He gave Himself for me.
· He is mine by indwelling; He has decided to live inside me.
· He is mine personally, He is mine eternally.
Which is the greater miracle — that he should be mine, or that I should be his?
Charles Spurgeon
Heavenly Father, Thank you for making me Yours. What a miracle! I’m not worthy of that kind of love. Indeed, while I was yet a sinner, Christ died for me. Yet, You have made me worthy by Your love. And, You are mine. What a miracle! You dwell in me, and You live with me. Even death cannot separate us. Thank You. I pray Your blessings on my marriage. Make us one, wholly devoted to one another and to You, a three-fold cord that cannot be broken. Bless my children with godly marriages that reflect Christ and His bride. For Your glory and our good. Amen.
All I Have is Christ – Sovereign Grace Music
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Read the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 26, Song of Solomon 1
I’ll be using David Guzik’s commentary to better understand the book of “Song of Solomon.” Read it here or download the “Enduring Word Commentary” free from the Apple Store or the Google Store or read Mr. Guzik’s commentary in the Blue Letter Bible app, also available from the Apple Store or Google Store.
Additionally, he has sermons available for you to watch or listen to on his Enduring Word website here.
I’ve excerpted a few of my favorite parts.
David Guzik writes, “The best way to see this book is as a literal, powerful description of the romantic and sensual love between a man and a woman, observing both their courtship and their marriage. It does not give us a smooth chronological story, beginning with the introduction of the couple to one another and ending with their married life together. Instead, it is a collection of “snapshots” of their courting and married life, with the pictures not necessarily in order. Yet, because God deliberately uses the marriage relationship as an illustration of the relationship that He has with His people, we find that this great song of songs illustrates the love, the intensity, and the beauty of relationship that should exist between God and the believer. This is clearly a secondary meaning, sublimated to the plain literal meaning, yet nevertheless valid and important.
“The fact that this “greatest of all songs” focuses on romance and marital love shows us what a high regard God has for the institution of marriage. We might expect that the songs of songs be a song that only praises God instead of one that celebrates love and sensuality within marriage. This idea is decidedly contrary to the negative view towards marriage that came early in the history of the church…. In 386 Pope Siricius commanded that all priests live as celibates, and later this order was extended to include deacons in the church. In this period, many people who were ordained as priests were already married. Leo the Great (440-461), out of concern for these wives, did not allow priests to put their wives away but commanded that the priest and his wife live together as brother and sister — that is, without any sexual relationship. This command led to the rule that a married man could not be ordained as a priest unless he and his wife took a vow that they would live as celibate, and then led further to the refusal to ordain anyone who was or had been married.
“This idea that the truly spiritual cannot or should not be married and enjoy sexual love is not based in the Old Testament. The Old Testament has no word for a bachelor; in Old Testament thinking, there were to be none. Every patriarch was married, all priests were married, and as far as we know every prophet was married except for Jeremiah, who was uniquely commanded by God not to marry (Jeremiah 16:2). Since the office of high priest was hereditary, the high priest had to marry…”
“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine;”
Song of Songs 1:2 ESV
Mr. Guzik comments, “Charles Spurgeon, the great preacher of Victorian England, followed the custom of his age and understood the Song of Solomon primarily as a poetic description of the love relationship between Jesus Christ and His people. In his sermon titled Better than Wine, he drew forth two main points:
Christ’s love is better than wine because of what it is not:
It is totally safe and may be taken without question — you can’t take too much.
It doesn’t cost anything.
Taking more of it does not diminish the taste of it.
It is totally without impurities and will never turn sour.
It produces no ill effects.
Christ’s love is better than wine because of what it is:
Like wine, the love of Christ has healing properties.
Like wine, the love of Christ is associated with giving strength.
Like wine, the love of Christ is a symbol of joy.
Like wine, the love of Christ exhilarates the soul.
Guzik continues, “Marriage-eligible women today should have the same perspective [“rightly do they love you”], considering that the Apostle Paul summarized the responsibility of a wife towards her husband in Ephesians 5:33 with one word: respect. Though it is common – in the words of a modern film – for women to select a man for who he almost is, or to choose him for the man she can make him to be, this is unwise. An unmarried woman should ask herself the serious question: “Can I genuinely respect this man as he is right now? Do I respect him enough to submit to him the way the Bible says a wife should submit?” The maiden of the Song of Solomon had already asked and answered this question.”
Like modern women, the Shulamite maiden worries that her appearance is not good enough but her beloved. Guzik writes, “There is an old story about a thief who broke into a department store and stole nothing; but he switched the price tags. The next day an expensive Swiss watch was marked as being worth $1.50; a fine leather handbag was marked for $1.75. A simple rubber ball for a child was marked for $150.00 and three pencils were marked for $175.00. If people bought or sold at those prices, you would think they were crazy. Yet all the time people value precious attributes and characteristics in other people very cheaply (especially when it comes to love and romance), and they assign high value to attributes and characteristics that are actually worth little.”
Heavenly Father, Thank you for the gift of marriage, for love that remains steadfast even when we’re no longer young fillies and handsome stallions. Thank you for men who faithfully study and teach your Word with honesty and integrity. We pray your blessings on David Guzik, his ministry, and his family. Keep his heart, mind, and life pure and devoted to You. Please teach us and transform us by Your Spirit at work in us. Help us to pursue You single-heartedly. Amen.
Love Never Ends – 1 Corinthians 13:4-10 – Corner Room Music
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Read the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 25, 2 Chronicles 9
2 Chronicles 9:1-2 ESV — Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions, having a very great retinue and camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. And Solomon answered all her questions. There was nothing hidden from Solomon that he could not explain to her.
Luke 21:12-15 ESV — But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict.
1 Peter 3:15 ESV — but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
2 Timothy 2:15 ESV — Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
Read the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 24, 2 Chronicles 7-8
God is good and faithful. His love is steadfast. He always keeps His promises. He is trustworthy. AlI the time.
2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV — If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
2 Chronicles 7:19-22 ESV — “But if you turn aside and forsake my statutes and my commandments that I have set before you, and go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will pluck you up from my land that I have given you, and this house that I have consecrated for my name, I will cast out of my sight, and I will make it a proverb and a byword among all peoples.
And at this house, which was exalted, everyone passing by will be astonished and say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land and to this house?’ Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore he has brought all this disaster on them.’”
Read the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 22, 2 Chronicles 5
2 Chronicles 5:11-14 ESV — And when the priests came out of the Holy Place (for all the priests who were present had consecrated themselves, without regard to their divisions, and all the Levitical singers, Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun, their sons and kinsmen, arrayed in fine linen, with cymbals, harps, and lyres, stood east of the altar with 120 priests who were trumpeters; and it was the duty of the trumpeters and singers to make themselves heard in unison in praise and thanksgiving to the LORD), and when the song was raised, with trumpets and cymbals and other musical instruments, in praise to the LORD, “For he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever,” the house, the house of the LORD, was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the house of God.
Romans 15:1-6 ESV — We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, to build him up. For Christ did not please himself, but as it is written, “The reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.” For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Read the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 21, 2 Chronicles 3-4
2 Chronicles 4:1 CSB — He made a bronze altar 30 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 15 feet high.
Hebrews 13:8-13 ESV — Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited those devoted to them. We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.
Romans 12:1 ESV — I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.
Read the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 20, 2 Chronicles 2
Behold, I am about to build a house for the name of the LORD my God and dedicate it to him for the burning of incense of sweet spices before him, and for the regular arrangement of the showbread, and for burnt offerings morning and evening … The house that I am to build will be great, for our God is greater than all gods. But who is able to build him a house, since heaven, even highest heaven, cannot contain him? Who am I to build a house for him, except as a place to make offerings before him?
2 Chronicles 2:4-6 ESV
Building a GREAT Temple for a GREAT God – FormerAtheist58
What an Awesome God – Phil Wickham
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Read the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 19, 2 Chronicles 1
If God asked you what you’d like Him to give you, what would you say? A big house? A good job? A long, healthy life? A skinny body and a beautiful face?
Here in 2 Chronicles 1, Solomon is beginning his reign as king of Israel. He senses the great weight of leading God’s people, and he recognizes his immense need for knowledge and wisdom.
Do we? Really, do we? Do we think a good college education is enough to equip our kids for life in this world? Do we think we can get all the answers we need from Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia, or from bloggers and influencers?
Food for thought today.
“Give me now wisdom and knowledge to go out and come in before this people, for who can govern this people of yours, which is so great?”
2 Chronicles 1:10 ESV
The law of the LORD is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple;
the precepts of the LORD are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the LORD is pure, enlightening the eyes;
the fear of the LORD is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the LORD are true, and righteous altogether.
More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward.
Psalm 19:7-11 ESV
Heavenly Father, Thank You for giving us Your Word. It is precious. It is the greatest treasure we could ever receive. Help us to know and understand it, every word, and to apply it correctly to our daily lives. Bless our families with knowledge and wisdom. We ask for this rather than fame or health or riches or long life because we know that wisdom and knowledge are more valuable than all these. Be glorified in us. Amen.
Wisdom Song – Laura Woodley Osman
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Read the Bible in 2 Years: Psalm 18, 1 Chronicles 28-29
As David was nearing the end of his life, he wanted to equip his son and equip his people to continue worshipping God with their whole hearts and lives. What at your end-of-life goals?
“And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought. If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever. Be careful now, for the LORD has chosen you to build a house for the sanctuary; be strong and do it.”
1 Chronicles 28:9-10 ESV
“Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.”
1 Chronicles 29:11-13 ESV
What’s that LAST thing You Want to Say to your Children Before You Die? – FormerAtheist58
Take my Life and Let it Be – Norton Hall Band
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