What I Learnt from One Year of Reading the Bible

1. The Law is Merciful 

The Mosaic Law condemned adultery with a strong verdict of stoning both parties unto death. 

Strangely, David and Bathsheba were never dragged out and stoned unto death, despite being adulterers and murderers. 

Did the Mosaic Law suddenly close its eyes to this gross trespass or did it decide to have mercy on David and Bathsheba? 

Psalm 51 was written as a sincere repentance from David’s side concerning the murder of Uriah and his adultery with Bathsheba. It talks about deliverance from bloodguiltiness. 

“Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God,

The God of my salvation,

And my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness.” 

God had mercy on David but not without punishing him severely. This was the time of the Law, and David was its foremost follower. How did he escape death by stoning? Surely not because he was a king, since the law showed no partiality. It was because God decided to show mercy to him. 

2. Bithiah the Adoptive Mother of Moses married an Israelite

Moses’ adoptive mother Bithiah, the one and same who named him Moses, a.k.a Pharaoh's daughter, married into the Israelite household. She married Mered who belonged to the tribe of Judah. Mered was a descendant of Caleb Jephunneh and had many children by this convert to Judaism. It never ceases to make me wonder how God managed to rescue Bithiah from Pharaoh’s house and place her in His own. See the whole account in 1 Chronicles 4:18. 

3. Jesus owned a house in Capernaum

Jesus owned a house in Capernaum where he lived and worked as a carpenter. He did not live at home in Nazareth but owned or rented his own place in Capernaum, the house which he showed to Andrew. 

4. The Armour of God is First Talked about in Isaiah

The Armour of God was never Paul’s invention after looking at a Roman soldier but appears in Isaiah 59:17. Isaiah describes the armour as such: 

The Lord looked and was displeased

    that there was no justice.

He saw that there was no one,

    he was appalled that there was no one to intervene;

so his own arm achieved salvation for him,

    and his own righteousness sustained him.

He put on righteousness as his breastplate,

    and the helmet of salvation on his head;

he put on the garments of vengeance

    and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.

Our God is a Man of War according to Exodus 15:13. He makes himself ready for battle. This is hard to reconcile with our watered down version of a passive, loving, and forgiving God. But it is true. Our God is a man of war who taught the Israelites how to fight, who expected them to fight and who left a remnant of the Canaanites so that they would learn war by fighting against them.  

5. Jacob never loved anyone except Rachel 

Even though Jacob was not buried next to Rachel, he loved her the most and did so with a steadfastness that is hard to imagine today. Even though Leah, Rachel’s sister, was Jacob’s first wife, he never loved her an iota compared to Rachel. For Jacob, Rachel was his world and with her gone, her two children became his whole world - Joseph and Benjamin. Seeing Leah unloved, God made a law that no Israelite man could not marry two sisters while both were alive. This is also the basis, in some ways, of the saying that one cannot serve two Masters, he will either love one and hate the other or vice-versa. 

6. Isaac never took another wife

There is no record of Isaac having taken another wife except Rebekah. He loved Rebekah dearly and is the only Patriarch whose marital life was peaceful because his marriage was arranged by God Himself and he accepted the wife God chose. 

7. Mary Magdalene could never have been Jesus’ wife as suggested by Dan Brown

Mary Magdalene when she sees Jesus, presumes Him to be the Gardener. But when it is revealed that it is indeed Jesus, her first words betray her. “Rabboni!” That is “Teacher” in Hebrew. No wife would ever address her risen husband however dearly beloved as Teacher. It isn’t possible. The case closes. 

8. Jesus was a toddler when the wise men came to worship him

Mary was in the house with Jesus the toddler when the wise men came to see him. Presumably they lived in Bethlehem for a few years before fleeing to Egypt and then permanently moving to Nazareth. 

9. Giving thanks for your breath

The angel of Lord says to Belteshazar that he never thanked God for the breath of life that God had given him. The week before I was laughing at those who thanked God for such silly things in prayer until I read those words.