COMM UNIT Y BIB L E RE AD IN G

Week 20
Weekly readings
13 May 2024 2 Sam 16–18 John 1:1–18
14 May 2024 2 Sam 19–20 John 1:19–42
15 May 2024 2 Sam 21–22 John 1:43–2:12
16 May 2024 2 Sam 23–24 John 2:13–25
17 May 2024 1 Kings 1–2 John 3
18 May 2024 1 Kings 3–5 John 4:1–26
Devotional
Witnessing about light – John 1
Witnessing about light is a strange task if your aim is for people to see the light and believe in the light. Light
illumines by itself. When you want someone to see a light, you don’t witness about the light, but you hold up the
light. If you have a torch in your hand, and you want someone to see the torch, you don’t say, “This is a torch.”
You hold up the torch. But John 1:7 says that John the Baptist “came as a witness, to bear witness about the light.”
So as strange as this task is, that was John’s mission. And it is ours too.
So what do we learn about our task when it is described as witnessing to the light?
1. We learn that Christ, the Light of the world (John 8:12), shines not like a physical torch before the physical
eye, but like a spiritual glory before the spiritual eye.
2. We learn that the light of Christ, this spiritual glory which we see with the eyes of the heart, shines mainly
through the gospel.
3. We learn that people need to have the eyes of their hearts opened to see the light of Christ in the gospel.
4. We learn that the miracle of spiritual sight through the gospel happens when witnesses tell blind people to
look at Christ and then describe what they will see when they look there.
There is a mental analogy to this spiritual reality. Consider a typical optical illusion like this one:
Suppose someone only sees one picture in this illustration. They are “blind” to the other. Then you
“witness” to them: “Look at this, there are two pictures: a girl’s face and a man playing a
saxophone. That very witness opens their eyes to both pictures.
It’s only an analogy, because in the spiritual realm the process is not merely mental or natural. It is
spiritual and supernatural. But we can get some idea of how it is possible to be spiritually blind and
yet God can use a witness to open our eyes.

So we witness about the light, even though we know that people are blind to this light. But that does not daunt us,
because we know that God’s eye-opening power accompanies the witness about his Son.
Resources
We start two new books this week! Find some resources to help you read though these books here: John https://
bibleproject.com/guides/book-of-john/ ; 1 Kings https://bibleproject.com/guides/books-of-kings/
Anyone reading through the rst three Gospels – Matthew, Mark, and Luke – will immediately notice their striking
similarities. The three tell many of the same stories, sometimes with identical wording, and follow the same basic
storyline. Because of these similarities, these three are called the “Synoptic Gospels” (synoptic means “a common
perspective”). While ninety percent of Mark’s stories appear in either Matthew or Luke, ninety percent of the
Fourth Gospel – the Gospel of John – is unique.
The author of 1 and 2 Kings is as much a theologian as he is a historian. He’s writing a prophetic history of how
the word of God in the Torah and the prophets was the true Lord of Israel’s story. This theological history
explains why Israel and Judah are in exile— its kings and people have resisted the word of God. They’ve persisted
in their rebellion leading all the way up to exile. The author pits each new king against a prophet(s) to help you see
that God’s prophetic word ultimately determines Israel’s history. It’s actually the prophets and the word spoken
through them that drives the books.
Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for the light you have shone into our lives. Help us to see in your light, live in your
light, and know our mission to witness to it, in Jesus we pray, Amen.
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