My 'One Year Bible' Journey

Today I read from the following books;

JUDGES 17:1 - 18:31
JOHN 3:1-21
PSALM 104:1-23
PROVERBS 14:20-21

In Judges today it talks about a man named Micah from Ephraim. He returned some silver to his mother that had been stolen. She was very happy and gave 200 shekels of silver to a silversmith who made them into "the image and the idol".

- There is an interesting write up on today's reading on Wikipedia. I'll paste the short writeup here along with a link to more information. I encourage you to look into this. One thing that I like about researching what I've read is to find all the other historical information that goes along with it. I am no historical scientist so most of the time I just except the fact that I can't grasp everything the bible talks about, but its awesome so see a sight that inputs historical events and places along with the biblical story, it adds a whole new level of reality to all this. Here is the write up I found on wikipedia....

The narrative, as it stands in the Book of Judges, states that a man named Micah, who lived in the region of the Tribe of Ephraim, stole 1100 silver shekels from his mother, but when his mother cursed about it he returned them. The mother then consecrated the money to Yahweh for the purpose of creating a carved image and silver idol, and she gave 200 shekels to a silversmith who made them into a carved image and an idol. These were placed in a shrine in Micah's house, and he made an ephod and teraphim, and installed one of his sons as a priest. A young Levite, from Bethlehem in Judah, who lived near Micah (some translations render the underlying Hebrew term as sojourning, though it literally means resident alien) and was wandering the land, passed Micah's house, and so Micah responded by asking him to be his priest, in return for 10 silver shekels a year, clothes, and food, to which the Levite agreed.
The Tribe of Dan, who at this time were without territory, sent five warriors from Zorah and Eshtaol, representative of their clans, to scout out the land (most Biblical scholars now believe that the Tribe of Dan originated as one of the Sea Peoples, hence remaining on their ships in the early Song of Deborah, and not having Israelite land to their name,[2][3] though conservative scholars argue[citation needed] that the Tribe of Dan were migrating due to being forced out of their original lands by the Philistines). In the text, when the scouts chanced upon Micah's house, they spent the night; when they chanced upon Micah's house, they recognised the Levite's voice (Biblical scholars believe this refers to recognition of his dialect or to priestly intonation[4]), and asked him what he was doing there, so he explained. Upon return to the rest of the tribe of Dan, the scouts told them about Laish, an unmilitarised town in fertile land that was allied with the Sidonians but was too remote for the Sidonians to be able to offer practical protection. The Tribe of Dan consequently sent 600 warriors to attack Laish, and during their journey passed Micah's house, which the five scouts then told them about.
The five scouts then went into Micah's house, and stole the idol, ephod, teraphim, and carved image, and took them out of the house, while the 600 warriors were standing at the gate. The priest asked them what they were doing, but was persuaded to go with them as then he could be the priest of a whole tribe rather just a house. When Micah discovered what had happened, he gathered his neighbours together and set off in pursuit of the warriors. When he reached them he was threatened with violence, so, realising he was outnumbered, gave up the pursuit and returned home empty handed.
The warriors eventually reached Laish, which they put to the sword and burnt to the ground. The Tribe of Dan then rebuilt the town, named it Dan, installed the idols, and made Jonathon the son of Gershom, and his descendants, as the priest. The idols remained in use until the captivity of the land and the idols remained in use until the house of God ceased to be in Shiloh. Scholars think that the former refers to the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel by Tiglath-pileser III in 733/732 BCE, and that the latter refers to the time of Hezekiah's religious reform;[5] an alternative possibility, however, supported by a minority of scholars, is that time of captivity of the land is a typographic error and should read time of captivity of the ark, referring to the battle of Eben-Ezer, and the Philistine capture of the Ark, and that the ceasing of the house of God being in Shiloh refers to this also.

This can be found by going to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micah
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That pretty much sums up what my old testament reading was about today.

In John today it talks about a man named Nicodemus of the Pharisees who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. He approached Jesus and said to him that he knows Jesus is a teacher that has come from God, because no one else could perform the things Jesus does. Jesus replies back to the man with "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

Nicodemus didn't really know what do to with this, he asked Jesus about it saying, obviously this doesn't mean coming from our mothers womb again. Jesus tells him that he must be born again of water and spirit. Today we also came across the most famous Bible verse of all time, John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

- I learned it differently in Sunday school but the verse will change slightly from Bible versions, however all the points of the Bible should all be the same, without any addition or removal of books, verses, or meaning. The way I learned it as a kid is; "God so loved the world, that he gave is only begotten son, and whoever believes in him shall not parish but have ever lasting life." Again, the meaning is exactly the same as above, just worded a little differently. -

Jesus then elaborates on that topic by saying things like "..whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."

The proverbs for today is; PROVERBS 14:20-21 "The poor are shunned even by their neighbors, but the rich have many friends. He who despises his neighbor since, but blessed is he who is king to the needy."