Church,
A small group of women and I have spent the past 10 months reading the Day-by-Day Chronological Bible published by the creators of the Christian Standard Bible. I’m being 100% genuine when I say that reading the bible in this way has been so impactful for my overall comprehension of God’s story! You should know that some people in this group have been studying God’s word for a couple years, and others have been studying God’s word for a couple decades. No matter how long each woman has been reading the bible, a constant remark within our signal chat is how helpful this tool is for reading the bible in its own context.
Let me give you an example of ‘reading the bible in its own context’. 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles often provide different accounts of the same historical narrative. The prophetic writings are letters of warning about God’s impending judgment if people refuse to repent, and they are promises that the Lord would provide deliverance for his people.
The publishers of this bible have put 2 Kings 21 and 2 Chronicles 33 together in one day’s worth of reading. These two chapters tell the same story of a King named Manasseh who leads Israel into idol worship, in effect making Israel liable to God’s judgment. God sends this King into captivity into Babylon, ultimately waking Manasseh up and spurring him on to repentance. 2 Chron 33 says that he returned to Jerusalem and removed the places of idol worship that he had set up.
In the next day’s reading, we read the book of Nahum. At the time of King Manasseh the prophet, Nahum, was prophesying to both the Jewish exiles who were in captivity and to the Assyrians. Nahum shares that God’s judgment will fall on Assyria, and Nahum also shares God’s ultimate plan of salvation for his people. Imagine the relief that God’s people must have felt after hearing that God intends to rescue them!
Now, if we were to just open up the bible to Nahum, we would probably need to do some digging to figure out when this book was written and who it was written to. Could we blindly read Nahum and still be led to worship God by its words? Of course! This is the word of God! However, because of the structure of the chronological bible, we are already familiar with Nahum’s context because we have just read it. The prophecy becomes even more rich and impactful when we are anchored into its biblical context.
This is just one example of many, many beautiful connections. The creation story uses Genesis 1&2, John 1:1-3, and Psalms 8&104. Most of the psalms are sprinkled into the stories of King David from 1&2 Samuel. The gospels are organized so that we read all accounts of the same stories during the life of Jesus. Reading the bible this way is truly a worshipful experience.
A couple of months ago, I asked the publishers of the Day-by-Day Chronological Bible if they would be willing to let me use their plan to read through this bible with our whole church in 2025. Keeping it real - I didn’t think publishers were real people. I fully expected to send my request via email and never hear back from anyone.
That is not what happened. Holman Bible Publishers quickly and earnestly gave me their permission to use their plan with our church. So, guys! It’s happening! We are going to spend 2025 reading chronologically through God’s word together as a church. We will provide the chapter references for you on a handout that will be published every 6 or 8 weeks, and I want to highly encourage you to join us in this bible reading plan.
My prayer for us is multifaceted. I pray that we will all see that God’s word is one cohesive story that tells us who God is and how he is redeeming his people to himself through the saving work of Christ. I pray that this bible reading plan would make us into a church who knows and loves the word of God. And finally, I pray that reading this plan together helps us to disciple one another into holiness. Will you plan to join me?
Sincerely,
Samantha Metheny
Director of Operations
