Over 30 years ago my wife and I were trying to figure out how to help people stay with daily Bible reading. It is a difficult daily discipline. As we thought about it we realized that having to read every day, day after day, can be a barrier. If you ever miss a day you have to read double the next day and it really adds up from there. People get discouraged and quit. So we decided to see if we could build a reading schedule with a little slack in it. My wife did the math. I worked out the readings. It was very well received from the beginning.
This is one of my favorite questions because it shows the reader is thinking. First, no one knows when Job lived or when his book was written. It is undated. However, it certainly seems to be from the period of time before Moses, and many scholars believe it is possibly the oldest book of the Bible. Job may have lived before Abraham! However, it is a hard book to start a year’s worth of Bible reading with. Genesis is such a natural beginning point. Finding a place to put Job once the story of the Bible gets going in Genesis and then into Exodus becomes very difficult. So we decided placing it at the end would be best.
The gospels are split up so we are regularly reading about Jesus all through the year.
The reason we start with Mark and then read Galatians is very simple: these books have short chapters and are short books. We are trying to build the habit of Bible reading by helping people have success. “Oh, that wasn’t so difficult and didn’t take that long” is what we want readers thinking all through January. Once Bible reading becomes more regular and habitual we stretch the reader to longer books.
In your Bible, the book of Jeremiah is not in chronological order. That makes reading straight through the book difficult because completely different time periods and kings appear in close proximity, even though they were separated by many years (for example, compare Jeremiah 24:1, 25:1, and 26:1). In keeping with our commitment to present the Old Testament in sequential order, we have arranged Jeremiah chronologically. That is why it appears to be out of order. It’s actually in order!
The plan is posted for our Patreon community (go HERE) by December 1. The general public can download the Schedule on December 26.
I don’t post a profile or information about me here because I want the Bible to be front and center, not me. I am a Christian who believes the Bible is the authoritative, inspired, inerrant word of God. I fear that if I talk about me on the site then someone who doesn’t share my views – even of the Bible’s inspiration – might decide the reading plan isn’t for them. But everybody needs to read the Bible! Young, old, new believers, non-believers, seasoned Christians – everybody needs the Word of God. So I keep myself out of it and put the Bible forward!
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