Genesis: I read about the creation of the world, the galaxy, the stars, the sun and moon, the land and the sea, all of the animals and Adam and Eve. Then there's the story of Noah, his family, the building of the ark, the animals being brought to the ark by God in numbers of two (one male, one female), he brought them. He flooded the entire earth and wiped out all of humanity because no one worshiped Him except for Noah and his family. I felt sad for God when I read this. Then there's Abraham and Sarah, Jacob and Esau and Joseph with his spectacular coat and dreams and his brothers plot to get rid of him.
Exodus: I read about the Exodus of God's chosen people (the Israelites) out of Egypt, the ten plagues cast onto Pharaoh's people (the Egyptians) for refusing to let Moses take God's people out to pray with everything they owned, the tenth plague changing Pharaoh's mind and setting them free, God parting the Red Sea for His children to escape the chariots of Pharaoh, the Ten Commandments written on stone tablets by God when he and Moses were on top of Mt Sinai for 40 days and God was in the cloud, the golden calf formed by Moses' brother Aaron, the building of the tabernacle, the specifications of the Priestly garments, the Sabbath Law and the Alter of Burnt Offering.
Leviticus: This is the book of God's laws from offerings to stonings to rules for priests to feasts. It contains the offerings that are brought into the Ark of the Tabernacle as substitutionary atonements for the sin the people committed. This is the only way the sin could be paid in full. An innocent animal had to die in order for the sin to be washed away. In fact, I heard it preached that when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, God killed the first innocent animal to pay for their sin and to cover their nakedness.
Here are some of the offerings: The Burnt Offering, The Grain Offering, The Fellowship Offering, The Sin Offering, The Guilt Offering. God made it possible for each person/family, no matter their financial status, to have access to atonement. If you don't have a ram or a bull, you can bring a pigeon or a bird. I always find this book fascinating to read.
Numbers: The first time I sat down to read this book, I thought I would die from boredom. Just the opposite. I thought it was going to be all lineage blah blah blah. At first it is, "Take a census of the whole Israelite community...," said God. But that's not the whole story. A widely used verse is in here, "For I know that those you bless are blessed, and those you curse are cursed," Num 22: 6 (end) and the story of Balaam's donkey can be found in Num 22:21. I was thrilled with the stories tucked into this book.
I started by listening on https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/dramatized/niv/Gen.1
You just have to keep track of where you are because there's not yet a feature to do that for you.
Then I wanted to read it out of my own Bibles. I use the New Living Translation and New International Version depending on the mental illnesses and physical disabilities.
Find what works for you.
Do some experimenting.
I like to mix it up so that I don't get bored.
Reading, listening or watching God's word .
It becomes something I look forward to each day.
After all, the God of the universe, of all creation:
- knows how many hairs are on my head
- collects all my tears in bottles
- keeps them in Heaven from all the days of my life
- knows my voice from all the other voices when I pray
- protects me from fiery darts I never know about
- provides all my needs
- gives good Gifts
- wrote the Bible so I'd have an instruction book and a love letter from Him
It doesn't get any better than that!
