Meet the Bible: A Panorama of God's Word in 366 Daily Readings and Reflections

by Philip Yancey, Brenda Quinn

Overview

The story of the Bible starts with the simple statement, "In the beginning, God created . . ." From that first sentence of Genesis, the story of salvation unfolds in strange and wonderful mingling of the commonplace and the miraculous, the human and the transcendent. But if you were born after the baby boom, chances are the Bible seems more like an item of passing interest than a book of depth and meaning for the twenty-first century. If you're not familiar with the Bible, it can be difficult to put into perspective the puzzle of kings and prophets, giants and seven-headed dragons, shepherd boys and itinerant preachers, Old Testament law and New Testament grace. Meet the Bible introduces you to the full, epic sweep of the Bible -- the characters, the places, the times, the stories, and the meanings of this Book of books -- and shows you that even the most obscure passage can hold relevance for your life once you understand what to look for. Award-winning writer Philip Yancey and author Brenda Quinn are your guides on this one-year reading tour of the Bible. Each day's reading includes Scripture, contemporary commentary, and questions for contemplation -- all designed to offer insight into how the passage fits into the overall story of the Bible, and how it can speak to your life today. Meet the Bible takes you through the twists and turns of the Bible's many narratives, the high points and the low points, the good characters and the bad, as well as the eternal thoughts and descriptions of God and his Son, Jesus Christ. Here are stories to remember, images of real people and circumstances closer to your own life than you've ever imagined. By the time you've finished the year's worth of reading, you'll have gained a panoramic view of the whole Bible and a firm understanding of its ideas and teachings. If you've never read the Bible, or hardly know the Bible, or would just like to read the Bible in a fresh new way, Meet the Bible offers an inspiring mix of timeless wisdom and contemporary insight that will cause faith to ignite within you. Direct excerpts from Scripture give readers a panoramic tour of the Bible’s key passages, personalities, events, and ideas as the Old Testament sweeps into the New Testament. Culturally relevant commentary from Quinn and Yancey sheds light on each day’s passage, examining the twists and turns of the Bible’s many narratives, the high points and the low points, the good characters and the bad, as well as the eternal thoughts and descriptions of God and his Son. Reflections every five days provide life application for the week’s Scripture readings.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780310873174
Publisher:	Zondervan
Publication date:	05/11/2010
Sold by:	HarperCollins Publishing
Format:	eBook
Pages:	704
Sales rank:	516,134
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Philip Yancey previously served as editor-at-large for Christianity Today magazine. He has written thirteen Gold Medallion Award-winning books and won two ECPA Book of the Year awards, for What's So Amazing About Grace? and The Jesus I Never Knew. Four of his books have sold over one million copies. He lives with his wife in Colorado. Learn more at philipyancey.com.

Brenda Quinn, former staff editor for Serendipity House and editorial coordinator for MOPS International, Inc., is cowriter of study guides for both "The Jesus I Never Knew" and "What’s So Amazing About Grace?" She coauthored the devotional "Meet the Bible" with Philip Yancey. Brenda lives with her husband and son in Colorado.

Read an Excerpt

Creation
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And God said, 'Let there be light,' and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light 'day,' and the darkness he called 'night.' And there was evening, and there was morning --- the first day.
And God said, 'Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.' So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse 'sky.' And there was evening, and there was morning --- the second day.
And God said, 'Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.' And it was so. God called the dry ground 'land,' and the gathered waters he called 'seas.' And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, 'Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.' And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning --- the third day.
And God said, 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth.' And it was so. God made two great lights --- the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning --- the fourth day.
And God said, 'Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.' So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. God blessed them and said, 'Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.' And there was evening, and there was morning --- the fifth day.
And God said, 'Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that move along the ground, and wild animals, each according to its kind.' And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.'
So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
God blessed them and said to them, 'Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.'
Then God said, 'I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground --- everything that has the breath of life in it --- I give every green plant for food.' And it was so.
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning --- the sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array.
By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so on the seventh day he rested from all his work. And God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done.
Everything, truly everything, begins here. The story of the Bible --- more, the history of the universe --- starts with the simple statement 'In the beginning God created,' and the rest of the chapter fills in what he created: stars, oceans, plants, birds, fish, mammals, and, finally, man and woman.
Genesis 1 says little about the processes God used in creation; you'll find no explanations of DNA or the scientific principles behind creation. But the opening chapter of the Bible does insist on two facts:
Creation was God's work. 'And God said . . . And God said . . . And God said . . .' --- the phrase beats in cadence all the way through the chapter, a chapter that mentions the word God thirty times. And in this first chapter, the very first glimpse we have of God is as an artist. Butterflies, waterfalls, bottlenose dolphins, praying mantises, kangaroos --- they were all his idea. This entire magnificent world we live in is the product of his creative work. All that follows in the Bible reinforces the message of Genesis 1: behind all of history, there is God.
Creation was good. Another sentence tolls softly, like a bell, throughout this chapter: 'And God saw that it was good.' In our day, we hear alarming reports about nature: the ozone layer, polluted oceans, vanishing species, the destruction of rain forests. Much has changed, much has been spoiled since that first moment of creation. Genesis 1 describes the world as God wanted it, before any spoiling. Whatever beauty we sense in nature today is a faint echo of that pristine state.
Captain Frank Borman, one of America's Apollo astronauts, read this chapter of Genesis on a telecast from outer space on Christmas Eve. As he gazed out of his window, he saw earth as a brightly colored ball hanging alone in the darkness of space. It looked at once awesomely beautiful and terribly fragile. It looked like the view from Genesis 1.---PY
Daily Contemplation
When was the last time you really noticed the beauty of the natural world? What do you notice today?

Table of Contents

Contents Editor’s Note Part 1 Beginnings Day 1: Genesis 1:1 – 2:3: Creation (PY) Day 2: Genesis 2:4 – 25: Adam and Eve (PY) Day 3: Genesis 3:1 – 24: The Fall of Man (PY) Day 4: Genesis 4:1 – 24: Cain and Abel (PY) Day 5: Reflection: Did God Really Say . . . ? (BQ) Day 6: Genesis 6:1 – 7:24: The Flood (PY) Day 7: Genesis 8:1 – 22: The Land Dries (BQ) Day 8: Genesis 9:1 – 17: God’s Covenant Rainbow (PY) Day 9: Genesis 11:1 – 9: The Tower of Babel (BQ) Day 10: Reflection: God Becomes a Parent (PY) Day 11: Genesis 12:1 – 20: The Call of Abram (BQ) Day 12: Genesis 13:1 – 18: Abram and Lot Separate (BQ) Day 13: Genesis 15:1 – 21: God’s Covenant with Abram (PY) Day 14: Genesis 16:1 – 16: Hagar and Ishmael (BQ) Day 15: Genesis 18:1 – 15: The Three Visitors (BQ) Day 16: Reflection: God Calls (BQ) Day 17: Genesis 18:16 – 33: Abraham Pleads for Sodom (BQ) Day 18: Genesis 19:1 – 29: Sodom and Gomorrah Destroyed (PY) Day 19: Genesis 21:1 – 21: Isaac’s Birth (BQ) Day 20: Genesis 22:1 – 19: Abraham Tested (PY) Day 21: Genesis 24:1 – 30, 50 – 66: Isaac and Rebekah (BQ) Day 22: Reflection: Beneath the Surface of Faith (BQ) Day 23: Genesis 25:19 – 34: Jacob and Esau (BQ) Day 24: Genesis 27:1 – 40: Jacob Gets Isaac’s Blessing (PY) Day 25: Genesis 27:41 – 43; 28:10 – 22: Jacob’s Dream at Bethel (BQ) Day 26: Genesis 29:1 – 30: Jacob Marries Leah and Rachel (BQ) Day 27: Genesis 29:31 – 30:24: Jacob’s Children (BQ) Day 28: Reflection: God Shining from the Shadows (BQ) Day 29: Genesis 31:1 – 21: Jacob Flees from Laban (BQ) Day 30: Genesis 31:22 – 55: Laban Pursues Jacob (BQ) Day 31: Genesis 32:1 – 21: Jacob Prepares to Meet Esau (BQ) Day 32: Genesis 32:22 – 32: Jacob Wrestles with God (PY) Day 33: Genesis 33:1 – 20: Jacob Meets Esau (BQ) Day 34: Genesis 35:1 – 15: Jacob Returns to Bethel (BQ) Day 35: Reflection: Wrestling with God (BQ) Day 36: Genesis 37:1 – 36: Joseph’s Dreams (PY) Day 37: Genesis 39:1 – 23: Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife (BQ) Day 38: Genesis 40:1 – 23: The Cupbearer and the Baker (BQ) Day 39: Genesis 41:1, 8 – 43, 53 – 55: Pharaoh’s Dreams (PY) Day 40: Reflection: A Life Motto (BQ) Day 41: Genesis 42:1 – 26: Joseph’s Brothers Go to Egypt (BQ) Day 42: Genesis 42:27 – 38: Joseph’s Brothers Return to Canaan (BQ) Day 43: Genesis 43:1 – 2, 8 – 31: The Second Journey to Egypt (BQ) Day 44: Genesis 44:1 – 18, 27 – 34: A Silver Cup in a Sack (BQ) Day 45: Genesis 45:1 – 46:4; 47:11; 49:33; 50:14 – 21: Joseph Makes Himself Known (PY) Day 46: Reflection: Why Forgive? (PY) Part 2: Birthing a Nation Day 47: Exodus 1:1 – 2:15: The Birth of Moses (BQ) Day 48: Exodus 3:1 – 22: Moses and the Burning Bush (PY) Day 49: Exodus 4:1 – 17: Signs for Moses (BQ) Day 50: Exodus 7:14 – 8:15: The Plagues of Blood and Frogs (BQ) Day 51: Exodus 8:16 – 9:7: The Plagues of Gnats, Flies, and Livestock (BQ) Day 52: Reflection: Prayer of a Reluctant Servant (BQ) Day 53: Exodus 9:8 – 35: The Plagues of Boils and Hail (BQ) Day 54: Exodus 10:1 – 11:10: The Plagues of Locusts, Darkness, and Plague on the Firstborn (PY) Day 55: Exodus 12:1 – 30: The Passover (BQ) Day 56: Exodus 12:31 – 42: The Exodus (BQ) Day 57: Exodus 13:17 – 14:31: Crossing the Red Sea (PY) Day 58: Reflection: Spiritual Amnesia (BQ) Day 59: Exodus 16:1 – 26, 31: Manna and Quail (BQ) Day 60: Exodus 18:1 – 27: Jethro Visits Moses (BQ) Day 61: Exodus 19:1 – 6, 17 – 19, 20:1 – 17: The Ten Commandments (PY) Day 62: Exodus 32:1 – 35: The Golden Calf (PY) Day 63: Reflection: Traveling on God’s Wings (BQ) Day 64: Leviticus 26:3 – 43: Reward for Obedience and Punishment for Disobedience (PY) Day 65: Numbers 9:15 – 23: The Cloud above the Tabernacle (BQ) Day 66: Numbers 11:4 – 23, 31 – 34: Quail from the Lord (PY) Day 67: Numbers 12:1 – 16: Miriam and Aaron Oppose Moses (BQ) Day 68: Reflection: God’s Puzzling Ways (BQ) Day 69: Numbers 13:1 – 3, 17 – 33: Exploring Canaan (BQ) Day 70: Numbers 14:1 – 44: The People Rebel (PY) Day 71: Numbers 20:1 – 13; 21:4 – 9: Water from the Rock; The Bronze Snake (BQ)