This evening I’m trying to maintain motivation to keep going with Chapter By Chapter by looking at how far I’ve come.

There are 1,189 chapters in the Bible, which is daunting, but I’ve already written about 405 of them, which is 34%, more than a third.

Back to it!

I don’t think Paul Simon was thinking of Psalm 88:18 when he wrote “The Sound of Silence”, but the NIV translation sure sounds like it:

You have taken from me friend and neighbor—
darkness is my closest friend.

Spent the last afternoon of this mini-vacation writing summaries of psalms; I’ve finally crossed the halfway point (all the way to Psalm 77). I might finish by New Year’s after all.

All the times I have read Esther, and today I realized for the first time that she was an orphan. Somehow the fact that Mordecai was raising her didn’t clue me in on that obvious implication until today.

It’s not hidden! I’m just blind.

Re-read your Bible. There’s treasure you haven’t seen.

A few weeks ago, I published Why Does Daniel Go By His Hebrew Name, But His Friends Go By Their Chaldean Names?.

Tonight, I was looking through old Twitter threads (as you do), and found the original: I first tweeted that thought on March 27, 2018.

Only took me six and a half years to write.

Five more chapters tonight; progress meter up from 25.2% to 25.7%.

I’m working on Judges, one of the most frustrating—and yet relatable—books. Every time Israel descends again into apostasy, you want to scream, “Not again!” And then you look at your own life, and you understand.

“Remember for my good, O my God, all that I have done for this people.” ‭‭Nehemiah‬ ‭5‬:‭19‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Nehemiah could not have known how spectacularly God would answer his prayer. The good he did is remembered in his own words throughout time and around the world.

To be fair, this undying remembrance is not “for his good,” but it is for ours, and we glorify God because of Nehemiah, so perhaps it is for his good after all.

That was an exhausting study/writing session, but I’ve completed chapter 300 of 1189 (25.2%).

Only 54 more sessions that hard to go, and I’ll be done!

(Writing. I’ll be done writing. Editing and publishing are another matter.)

Things I never noticed: the night of the transfiguration is the first time we see Moses in the Promised Land. He finally made it!

(Via a post on r/Bible this morning)

I am editing a series of books I am writing, and despite the fact that I typed every word of it, it’s helping me see and understand new things in the Bible.

Tonight’s example: the repetition of the Abrahamic covenant (Genesis 12) to his son Isaac (Genesis 26) and to his grandson Jacob (Genesis 28).

Finished writing chapter notes on Deuteronomy last night, completing the Torah.

Today’s goal: editing. Then I can get them cleaned up for publishing.

Unfortunately, I had to change my YAML scheme recently to make Pandoc happy, so it’s no longer as easy as just running gmake.

My Bible reading plan today started three new books: 1 Timothy, Proverbs, and Ezra. It feels like they should be more connected, but I think that’s just how the timing worked out.

One observation is that they’re from three very different eras: Rome, David/Solomon, and Babylon.

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