Introduction
I suggest that every believer ought to be a part of a small Bible reading group. Our group reads one or two chapters a day from the New Testament and exchanges emails with our takeaways. Two tangible benefits flow from participation in our group. First, we engage the Bible in community. Second, we share some of the events going on in our lives.
So that I retain a record of my reading, I use a Bible that allows me to take notes. The specific New Testament is the Journaling New Testament Inductive Edition by Crossway. The translation is the English Standard Version.
Matthew 1-2
The genealogy of Jesus shows that the Bible does not hide sin. More specifically, Matthew says that David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah. No mention of Bathsheba by name and comment that she was Uriah’s wife and not David’s. Matthew 1:6 (ESV) reads:
6 and Jesse the father of David the king. And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah,
Mathew mentions the exile to Babylon so he does not hide God’s judgment on His people. Matthew 1:11 (ESV) reads:
11 and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.
The fact the bible does not hide sin gives me encouragement. First, it shows that the Bible is reliable. It is akin to an admission against interest[i]:
an admission of the truth of a fact by any person, but especially by the parties to a lawsuit, when a statement obviously would do that person harm, be embarrassing, or be against his/her personal or business interests. A third party can quote in court an admission against interest even though it is only hearsay
Second, it shows that God uses sinners. Since I am a sinner, I receive encouragement.
If you are reading this post and are not a Christian, unless God intervenes, your eternal destination is hell. But, your destiny can change.
Today can be the day of your salvation! Please see my blog (https://stevebelsheim.com/2020/04/20/for-god-so-loves-you-2/) for a description of how you can be saved. You can also go to another article at my blog (https://stevebelsheim.com/2020/10/20/there-is-hope-even-when-there-seems-to-be-no-hope-2/ ).
Please send me any comments to steve@stevebelsheim.com or use the comments feature of the blog.
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[i] The link to the dictionary at https://legal-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/admission+against+interest