2010 Daily Bible Reading Plan

Here’s a quick overview of the Bible Reading Plan we are using in class obtained from the ESV Study Bible

This plan has four readings each day, divided up into four sections:

• Psalms and Wisdom Literature
• Pentateuch and the History of Israel
• Chronicles and Prophets
• Gospels and Epistles

The introduction to the plan explains:

In order to make the readings come out evenly, four major books of the Bible are included twice in the schedule: the Psalms (the Bible’s hymnal), Isaiah (the grandest of the OT prophets), Luke (one of the four biblical Gospels), and Romans (the heart of the Bible’s theology of salvation).The list of readings from the Psalms and the Wisdom Literature begins and ends with special readings that are especially appropriate for the opening and closing of the year. The list of readings from the Pentateuch and the History of Israel proceeds canonically through the five books of Moses and then chronologically through the history of the OT, before closing the year with the sufferings of Job. The list of readings from the Chronicles and the Prophets begins with the Chronicler’s history of the people of God from Adam through the exile, followed by the Major and Minor Prophets, which are organized chronologically rather than canonically.

You can print out this PDF, which allows you to cut out four bookmarks that you can insert at the appropriate place as you go through your Bible reading. You can then check off the boxes provided by each reading as you complete it. I used these to read through the Scriptures this past year and found them very beneficial.

If the four readings turn out to be difficult to keep up with, I recommend you drop one of the OT readings, and then read the Psalms section, the NT passage, and one of the OT readings. Again, this plan is not to promote guilt in us and to get us down when we miss our daily reading, but to cultivate a lifetime of joyful anticipation of opening the Word consistently. If you get behind, don't sweat it - either pick up at the current day's reading, or wait for a good window of time where you can do some extended reading. I pray that for each of us the Word would become the daily food that we cannot live without.