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: 

Everlasting Father,

All time belongs to you, and all the ages. In signs, in songs, in words of promise, you reassured your chosen ones, “I am with you; fear not.” You taught them through the prophets to trust that your saving deeds were not limited to the past.

When Jesus came, he fulfilled “all that was written in the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms.”

The Church has found him everywhere in these same holy books.

Help me to find Jesus in my reading today, to listen to him, and to follow him with all my heart.

Amen.

Today's chapters are Isaiah 50-52.

It is probably impossible for a Christian to read the Suffering Servant passages in today's chapters and not envision Jesus on the last day of his life:

I gave my back to those who beat me,

my cheeks to those who tore out my beard;

My face I did not hide

from insults and spitting.

The Lord GOD is my help,

therefore I am not disgraced…

But these sufferings are not the whole story: 

My servant shall prosper,
he shall be raised high and greatly exalted.

As in so many other passages of Isaiah, this has already come about (in the Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus) and yet it is still to be fully completed, when Jesus comes in his glory. Then "all the ends of the earth can see the salvation of our God" and he will "startle many nations."

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 John Bergsma and Brant Pitre. Although the authors are top-level Scripture scholars, they write for "real" readers. Notes include recent findings from archaeology and ancient manuscripts, and how each book of the Bible has been understood by the Church Fathers and used in Liturgy.