Read the Bible with Me!

Welcome to the Pauline Family's "Year of the Bible"! I'm reading the Bible clear through this year, and I invite you to read along with me. But first, let us pray: 

I praise you, my God, with all people.
May they thank and adore you!
You have written your greatness in creation,
your Law in consciences,
your eternal promises in the Bible.
You are eternally faithful and always lovable!
As I read Sacred Scripture today, open my mind to hear your voice and understand your loving message.
Amen.

Today's three chapters are Numbers 20-22.

That's one mysterious rock we read about today. 

But what was it that constituted such a serious betrayal of God in this moment that Moses would be forbidden entrance into the Promised Land because of it? When I read this passage in prayer, putting myself in Moses' place, I find myself failing to communicate God's mercy, with the gift of water as a sign of God's abundant goodness. 

According to an embellishment of the Exodus story Paul must have learned, the rock with its gushing water followed the people across the desert for the rest of their journey. They never worried about thirst again. St Paul said, "They drank from the spiritual rock that followed them. And the rock was Christ" (see 1 Corinthians 10:4). 

Jesus had told the Samaritan woman at the well that he would offer "living water" (fresh, not stagnant well water) that would become a "fountain springing up for eternal life" inside a person (see John 4). And the old hymn calls Christ Crucified the "Rock of Ages, cleft for me." We will find that the Psalms, especially, will use the metaphor "Rock" for God himself! "Blessed be the Lord my rock!" (See Psalm 18 and Psalm 144.)

If those Scriptures (dozens of passages) are telling us anything, it is that the water that would be pouring forth from that rocky mountainside was a powerful symbol of the grace of the Holy Spirit to pour forth from Christ crucified and give life to the world. 

Start reading here.

If you are looking for a solid but approachable companion to the Bible, I can wholeheartedly recommend A Catholic Introduction to the Bible: The Old Testament by Brant Pitre and John Bergsma. Although the authors are top-level Scripture scholars, they write for "real" readers. Notes include recent findings from archaeology and ancient manuscripts.