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Our mission is to inspire the world with the life-changing message of the Bible.

Printed in China.

You know that the Bible should inform your way of life.

If you could use some greater understanding of God’s Word, this is the book for you.

52 Weeks to Know Your Bible provides weekly overviews of individual books or sections of scripture, along with devotional insights for applying what you’re learning to life.

This devotional study includes a reading for each weekday, plus a wrap-up and review page for each weekend. Along the way, you’ll learn:

• the big picture of God’s love for humanity

• details on key people, places, and ideas

• and why it all matters to you today

Quoting the fresh-yet-familiar text of the Barbour Simplified KJV Bible, 52 Weeks to Know Your Bible offers powerful wisdom and encouragement for men of all ages. Spend the next fifty-two weeks getting to know God's Word better—it will undoubtedly improve your life!

WEEK 1 Genesis

MONDAY

Created for a Purpose

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

Genesis 1:1

From its opening verse, scripture addresses one of the most fundamental questions of humanity: How did the universe—including us—come into existence? Genesis 1:1 answers that question with authority.

The rest of Genesis explores creation, humanity’s fall into sin, some of the first milestones of human existence, and the early unfolding of God’s plan of redemption. It starts with a truth from which everything else in life flows. If the universe came into being through chance, life would truly be about survival of the fittest, without any clear indication of why we exist, what morality is, and who sets the rules. The human pursuit of pleasure and self-centered goals would be our chief end. But a divine Creator changes everything. Life suddenly has far greater purpose and meaning. There is a higher power to whom we answer. Eternity comes into focus.

The everlasting God does exist. He created all things by powerfully speaking them into existence—all for His glory and our good. His wisdom and plans supersede ours, and we answer to Him. This means our greatest achievement in life is to know, worship, and serve our Creator.

Divine creation changes everything.

Dear God, thank You for creating everything, including me. The universe is Yours, and Your purposes reign. Help me to seek You and find You.

TUESDAY

Image Is Everything

So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

Genesis 1:27

Animals can’t say it. Neither can trees, flowers, or rocks. Neither can mountains, oceans, or babbling brooks. Neither can the sun, moon, planets, or stars. But we can.

Of all the remarkable things God created in the universe, only humans are made in His image. As much as the first few chapters of Genesis are a testament to sovereign, divine creation, they also speak to humanity’s place in it. God has elevated us to special status. We are not gods, and we fall far short of God’s glory. But as image-bearers of our Creator, we do share certain likenesses to Him.

He loves, and so do we. He enters into deep personal relationships, and so do we. He communicates, and so do we. He is creative, and so are we.

Why did God bestow this special status on us? Because he wants us to be in close fellowship with Him. He wants us to be His representatives on earth, showing all creation what He is like. As we love Him and love others as He loves, we will begin to do this.

God carefully crafted you in His image. You bear the mark of the King of heaven. If that’s not both humbling and motivating, what is?

God, thank You for creating me in Your image. Help me to represent You well.

WEDNESDAY

A Fall and a Promise

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.”

Genesis 3:15

The fall of humanity came quickly.

Created in God’s image, designed without fault, and placed in a perfect environment where God Himself dwelled, the first man and woman chose to disobey the Creator’s divine order in favor of a lie. When Satan, God’s age-old enemy, questioned God’s goodness and tempted Adam and Eve to eat forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, they chose prideful rebellion over humble obedience. They desired to elevate themselves to god status. They thought they knew best.

They didn’t. Ever since that tragic day, God’s perfect creation has been corrupted by sin’s curse and every human is born into a rebellious, alienated status from their Creator (Psalm 51:5; Colossians 1:21). We only need to read the daily headlines—and indeed, look inside our own hearts—to see the pervasiveness of sin’s curse.

But God, in His grace, didn’t leave us in this miserable condition. He promised that one of Eve’s descendants would crush Satan’s head (Genesis 3:15), defeating sin and its penalty of death forever.

Your sin has separated you from your Creator, but he has made a way for you to be reconciled through Jesus.

God, I know I’m a sinner in need of Your grace. Thank You for sending Your Son to break sin’s curse and save me.

THURSDAY

A Flood, a Promise, a Nation, and Salvation

“I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.”

Genesis 12:2

Once sin entered God’s good creation, things devolved so badly that God had to cleanse the earth of wickedness by sending a worldwide flood, preserving only Noah and his family in a great ark (Genesis 6–9).

Noah’s family began repopulating the earth. Centuries later, things weren’t much better. That’s when God called a man named Abram (later renamed Abraham) to leave his pagan country and relocate hundreds of miles away in Canaan. There, God would give Abraham a son in his old age to start a new nation called Israel (Genesis 12).

God chose this nation to be His special people. He would graciously set His affection on them like no other nation in history. In fact, Israel would bring forth God’s promised Redeemer—the serpent slayer, the one who would save us from sin and its curse.

From the time of God’s initial promise to Abraham, twenty-five years passed before his promised child, Isaac, was born. That’s a long wait. But God always keeps His promises. He fulfilled His promises to Abraham, and every promise he has made to you in scripture has found their “yes” in Christ (2 Corinthians 1:20).

When you trust in Christ, sin will not have the last say in your life.

Thank You, Lord, that all Your promises find their “yes” in Jesus.

FRIDAY

Trickster Turned Patriarch

“I will go down with you into Egypt, and I will also surely bring you up again.”

Genesis 46:4

Abraham had Isaac. Then Isaac had Jacob. And Jacob? Well, he was a tricky dude.

He swindled his older brother Esau out of his birthright and stole Esau’s blessing. Jacob was a liar and a hoodwinker. He was not a guy you’d want your daughter to marry. Just ask his uncle Laban, who made Jacob work fourteen years for the hand of his daughter Rachel.

At his weakest, most vulnerable moment, when Esau was coming toward his small traveling party with hundreds of armed men, Jacob had an encounter with God that changed his life forever.

God reminded Jacob that he would be a conduit of the Lord’s blessings to Abraham’s lineage—and indeed the whole world. Jacob’s twelve sons eventually produced the twelve tribes of Israel, God’s chosen nation. Even when a famine threatened the lives of Jacob’s family, God had sovereignly sent Joseph ahead of them to save the brothers who once nearly murdered him.

By the time Genesis ends, Joseph is second-in-command in Egypt, and Jacob and his big family are living there as well. God’s promise to make Abraham’s descendants into a great nation is starting to take shape, although they are on foreign soil, away from the land of promise.

God, I know Your promises aren’t always fulfilled immediately. Thank You for being a God who always keeps them.

WEEKEND REVIEW

Here’s what we learned this week in our overview of Genesis:

• The eternal God created the universe and everything in it, including us, by His power. The truth of divine creation should affect every area of our lives.

• God created us in His image, a remarkable blessing that gives us great purpose in life as His representatives on earth.

• Humanity quickly rebelled against God, bringing sin’s curse to every corner of the universe and separating us from our Creator. But God, in His great love, had already established a plan of redemption through His Son, Jesus Christ.

• God called Abraham out of his pagan background and promised to make a great nation out of his descendants, through which would come the promised Redeemer.

• With divine sovereignty, God worked through Jacob and his twelve sons—including their many shortcomings— to initiate the first stages of His redemptive plan for humanity.

Genesis is an amazing book, filled with beginnings, downfalls, promises, fulfillments, long waits in between, and anticipation for blessings to come. Genesis reveals our utter sinfulness and our need for redemption. It also reveals a God who is mighty to save. God is incredible and worthy of all our praise.

Lord, thank You for what You have revealed to me in the book of Genesis. Please help me to apply these truths to my life as I seek to become more like You.

WEEK 2 Exodus

MONDAY

The Great I Am Calls Moses

And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob.

Exodus 2:24

As the book of Exodus begins, seventy members of Jacob’s family were in Egypt—Joseph, his brothers, and their families. Then the babies started coming. Before long, the Israelites “increased abundantly and multiplied, and became exceedingly mighty” (Exodus 1:7).

When a new pharaoh rose to power in Egypt, he viewed the Israelites as a threat. He enslaved them and subjected them to hard labor. In His mercy, God heard the cries of His people and called Moses—an Israelite baby adopted into the house of Pharaoh, an Egyptian prince turned runaway—to return to Egypt and free the people. God’s method of communication with Moses was a burning bush that miraculously didn’t consume in the flames.

Moses wasn’t too keen on returning. Decades earlier, he had fled Egypt after killing an Egyptian taskmaster who had been abusing one of his Israelite countrymen. But God’s will prevailed.

When Moses asked God, “Whom shall I say sent me?” the Lord answered, “I Am That I Am.” Yahweh—the eternal, all-powerful, self-existent Creator and ruler of all things—would be with him. That same God is with you today.

God, You are the great I Am. Thank You for hearing the cries of Your people when we call to You. I worship and praise You .

TUESDAY

Plagues, Passover, and an Exodus

And it came to pass, the very same day, that the Lord brought the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt by their armies.

Exodus 12:51

When Moses told Pharaoh to let God’s people go, the Egyptian king refused—and drastically increased the Hebrews’ workload. When Moses did miraculous signs to authenticate himself as God’s representative, Pharaoh’s court magicians copied them. This world-changing deliverance business was harder than it looked.

Then God sent ten terrible plagues on Egypt while sparing Israel. At every turn, Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let Israel go. So God sent one final plague—the most terrible of all.

At midnight, every firstborn male in Egypt—humans and livestock alike—died. But God again spared Israel as every Israelite home obeyed His command to cover their doorframes with the blood of a spotless lamb. When God saw Israel “under the blood,” He withheld judgment and passed over them. Through sacrifice, the people were saved. Brought to his knees, Pharaoh finally relented and let God’s people go. When he changed his mind, God divided the Red Sea, allowing Israel to pass through safely before destroying Pharaoh’s pursuing army in the returning waters.

For generations to come, the Jewish Passover would be both a celebration and a sign in Israel—a celebration of God’s deliverance and a sign pointing to the true Lamb of God (John 1:29) who would provide the perfect sacrifice to save God’s people.

God, thank You for passing over my sins through Christ, the true Lamb of God.

WEDNESDAY

Law from the Mountain

“If you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people. For all the earth is Mine.”

Exodus 19:5

A few months after leaving Egypt, the Israelites arrived at Mount Sinai, south of the promised land of Canaan. They would soon learn a great deal more about the God who had powerfully redeemed them from slavery.

As they encamped near the mountain, the Lord descended upon it in fire, smoke, and lightning. The earth trembled and the people were terrified. Then God called Moses up the mountain, where the Lord gave him the Ten Commandments and the rest of the Old Testament law (found in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). The Ten Commandments include laws that instruct us how to love God (laws one to four) and others (laws five to ten).

God is not legalistic. He didn’t give the law to create a standard of performance-based love. Rather, he knows how wayward our sinful hearts are. As Creator, he knows how life in His universe works best. He gave the law to show sinners how to live in relationship with a holy God, and to reveal to us how much we need a Savior.

The law doesn’t save; it illuminates. As Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

Lord, thank You for the blessing of Your good laws and Your Word.

THURSDAY

The Golden Calf

And the Lord said to Moses, “Go, get down. For your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.”

Exodus 32:7

We humans are a forgetful lot. It’s true now, and it was true in the days of ancient Israel.

God had delivered His people from four hundred years of Egyptian slavery with a mighty hand. Then he parted the Red Sea to save Israel from Pharaoh’s pursuing army. On Israel’s trek to Mount Sinai, he miraculously provided bread from heaven and water from a rock, and He fought for the people against the enemy Amalekites.

Yet shortly after these events, while Moses lingered on Mount Sinai to receive God’s laws, the people grew impatient and forgetful. They told Aaron, Moses’ brother, “Make us gods that shall go before us” (Exodus 32:1). Aaron fashioned a calf-shaped idol out of melted gold. It was one of the most egregious—but certainly not the only—warning signs that Israel would never be able to keep God’s good rules.

Were it not for Moses’ mediation, God might have wiped out Israel on the spot. Instead, He pronounced judgment on the idolatrous but mercifully spared the nation as a whole.

God is worthy of worship, and no form of idols—whether graven images or inner desires—should ever replace Him in our hearts.

Lord, You alone are worthy of worship. Help me to be fully devoted to You.

FRIDAY

God with Us

Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

Exodus 40:34

One of the major narrative threads that runs throughout the Bible is that the eternal Creator and Ruler of the universe desires to live among His people. This is incredible!

We see it from the opening pages of Genesis with “the Lord God walking in the garden” (3:8) where he had placed Adam and Eve. We see it in the final pages of Revelation, which tells us “He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people” (21:3) in the new heavens and new earth. In between these bookends, scripture consistently points to God making His presence known among those who call Him Lord.

That’s why God told Israel at Mount Sinai to build a tent of meeting for Him. God literally wanted to “tabernacle” with His people. The tabernacle’s construction, daily upkeep, and use for worship included a litany of detailed instructions because sinners cannot approach a holy God flippantly. How kind of God to want to dwell with us! But as Hebrews 12:28–29 says, “Let us. . .serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.”

God, thank You for desiring to dwell with us. Thank You for giving us Your Spirit. Help me to make time to worship You and fellowship with You daily.

WEEKEND REVIEW

Here’s what we learned this week in our overview of Exodus:

• After Joseph and his brothers died, their families grew exponentially. When a new Egyptian pharaoh enslaved the Israelites, God called Moses to return to Egypt and tell Pharaoh to let God’s people go.

• God brought ten devastating plagues on Egypt, including the death of all firstborn males. But God spared Israel from all the plagues, including the last one as He passed over all Israelite homes because of the blood of a spotless lamb on their doorframes. Pharaoh finally let Israel go; but when he changed his mind, God saved Israel with a mighty miracle at the Red Sea.

• When Israel reached Mount Sinai, God descended on the mountain in awesome glory and gave the Old Testament law, including the Ten Commandments, to Moses.

• While Moses was on the mountain receiving the law from God, Israel worshipped a golden calf. God judged the evildoers, and Moses’ intercession saved the people as a whole.

• God gave Moses instructions for how to build a tabernacle, a portable tent where Israel was to worship God and where He would graciously make His presence known to them.

Aren’t you glad we serve a God who saves His people and goes to great lengths to dwell with us?

Lord, thank You for saving Israel and making Your presence known to them. Thank You for doing the same today to everyone who calls on Your name.

WEEK 3 Leviticus

MONDAY

A Letter of the Law

“For I am the Lord your God. Therefore you shall sanctify yourselves, and you shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Leviticus 11:44

Let’s just address the elephant in the room right away. Leviticus might be the hardest book in the Bible to read. It’s filled with laws, laws, and more laws.

Many of the religious ordinances in Leviticus seem pretty antiquated to us today, such as laws regarding food, skin diseases, and various bodily functions. But just as Leviticus was critical for the early Jewish nation, so its underlying themes are relevant to us today: Unholy sinners need sacrificial atonement to approach a holy God. The Old Testament law and the sacrificial system centered in the tabernacle (and later, the temple) was meant to be a temporary vehicle—and incredibly significant symbol—that pointed God’s people to their great need for true spiritual cleansing. This restoration would ultimately come only through God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

As such, the first fifteen chapters of Leviticus deal with the five major offerings (burnt, grain, peace, sin, and guilt), the establishment and activities of the priesthood, and various laws on ceremonial cleanness and uncleanness.

God was teaching His people about His holiness, the great depths of their sin, their great need for redemption, and His surpassingly great love for them. It’s a lesson we’d be wise to explore as well.

Lord, thank You for making me holy in Your sight through Christ’s finished work on the cross. Help me to live a life pleasing to You.

TUESDAY

The Day of Atonement

“This shall be an everlasting statute to you, to make an atonement for the children of Israel once a year for all their sins.”

Leviticus 16:34

In the outer court and the Holy Place of the tabernacle, Jewish priests went about the daily work of mediation, standing in the gap between a sinful people and a holy God. But not in the Most Holy Place.

This special sanctuary, separated from the rest of the tabernacle by a thick curtain, is where God graciously manifested His presence above the ark of the covenant. The Most Holy Place was off-limits to everyone except the high priest one day a year—the Day of Atonement. This prohibition was actually an act of God’s mercy, for anyone who entered into His presence without making atonement for their sins would be consumed by His holiness.

On the Day of Atonement, the high priest would go through an elaborate ceremony to ritually cleanse himself and the tabernacle. Then he would sacrifice one goat and one bull. He would also lay his hands on a live goat and release it into the wilderness, symbolizing the transfer of Israel’s sins onto the scapegoat and God casting them out of His presence forever.

This weighty day was to atone—or make payment—for the sins of the people because “without shedding of blood there is no remission” of sins (Hebrews 9:22, consider also Leviticus 17:11).

Jesus, thank You for atoning for my sins on the cross once and for all.

WEDNESDAY

A Holy Life

“You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, which if a man does, he shall live by them. I am the Lord.”

Leviticus 18:5

The laws and liturgies of Leviticus might feel archaic to us today. It’s important to remember that when God gave Israel the law, every other nation on earth was filled with pagan idolatry. The law—such as the daily living regulations of Leviticus 18–22—was not only a call for Israel to live righteously before a holy God, but a call to be different. Set apart. Holy.

As God told Moses, “You shall not do what is done in the land of Egypt, where you dwelled, and you shall not do what is done in the land of Canaan, where I am bringing you. You shall not walk in their ordinances. You shall do My judgments and keep My ordinances, to walk in them” (Leviticus 18:3–4).

Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament law for us, yet the call to be holy still remains. When the apostle Peter exhorted believers like us who were living in the new covenant era of Christ’s redemption, he referenced the oft-used phrasing of Leviticus: “Be holy in all manner of conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy’ ” (1 Peter 1:15–16).

Today, God still calls and empowers His children to live righteously before Him and to be different than the world.

Lord, set me apart in holy living for Your glory.

THURSDAY

Feasts, Festivals, and Holy Days

“These are the feasts of the Lord, even holy convocations, that you shall proclaim in their seasons.”

Leviticus 23:4

Have you ever forgotten something? It could have been a birthday, an anniversary, an important event, a big meeting. . .or just that your glasses were on your head as you frantically combed the house for them. Of course, we all have. Forgetting sometimes comes all too naturally to us.

In giving Israel the Old Testament law and establishing them as his chosen people, God didn’t want the people to forget His steadfast love or His mighty deeds on their behalf. He commanded them to observe various feasts, festivals, and holy days. It was God’s way of saying, “Remember and worship Me.”

Leviticus 23–25 outlines the major remembrances on Israel’s calendar, including the weekly Sabbath in honor of God’s rest (that is, His stopping work) after the six days of creation. The annual festivals were Passover, Firstfruits, Weeks, Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and Booths. Each remembered a different act of God or a blessing from Him.

God knows the human heart. He knows we are easily distracted and quick to forget. Yet He wants us to regularly reflect on His greatness and His goodness to us. He wants us to continually glory in our status in Christ. How can you do this in your life?

Lord, You’ve been so good to me through Your Son. Help me to worship You and remember all Your glorious deeds.

FRIDAY

Blessings and Curses

“If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments and do them. . .I will give you peace in the land.”

Leviticus 26:3, 6

Before finishing His law-giving to Moses and Israel, God told the people what they could expect from Him in a way that was both exhilarating and terrifying. In Leviticus 26, the Lord described the incredible blessings that would flow from heaven if they obeyed Him, as well as the frightening judgment that would occur if they rejected Him.

Through faithful obedience, the people could expect physical safety, military victories, generational fruitfulness, agricultural bounty, intimate fellowship with God, and life! But if they rejected God, the people could expect the removal of God’s protection, military defeats, droughts and famine, hunger, sickness, disease, exile and death.

Yet even if they acted faithlessly against God, He would remain faithful to them. Even in their exile God said, “I will remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord” (verse 45).

For ancient Israel, the choice was theirs—blessings or curses. This choice is ours today, as well. “God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he shall also reap” (Galatians 6:7).

God, help me to seek You and faithfully obey. Thank You for Your promised blessings to me through Christ.

WEEKEND REVIEW

Here’s what we learned this week in our overview of Leviticus: God gave Israel the Old Testament law and sacrificial system centered within the tabernacle to show unholy sinners that they needed sacrificial atonement to approach a holy God.

• On the Day of Atonement each year—and only then— Israel’s high priest would enter the Most Holy Place, make sacrifices to symbolically cleanse the nation of sin, and send into the wilderness a scapegoat, which represented God’s removal of Israel’s sins.

• God gave Israel the law to help them live righteously before a holy God, and He called them to be different than the surrounding nations. The familiar refrain of Leviticus is “Be holy, for I am holy.”

• The feasts, festivals, and days of remembrance commanded in Leviticus were to help Israel always remember God’s goodness to them.

• Before ending His law-giving, God reminded Israel that obedience would bring blessings, while disobedience would bring curses.

While some of the laws of Leviticus don’t fit our modern-day context, the book’s underlying message certainly does: We are sinners who need God’s forgiveness through a perfect sacrifice. That sacrifice came through the life, death, and resurrection of God’s Son, Jesus Christ. Through faith in Him, we can be made right in God’s sight and walk in God’s ways.

Lord, You are holy and I am sinful. Thank You for removing the guilt of my sins through Your Son’s blood. Help me to trust in You and live for You.

MONDAY

Complaining Along the Way

And when the people complained, it displeased the Lord.

Numbers 11:1

The book of Numbers is more or less a travelogue of ancient Israel. It begins with God’s people striking camp at Mount Sinai and heading toward the Promised Land, full of hope and expectation. Then it takes a major detour after the bad report of the spies and Israel’s subsequent rebellion, resulting in forty years of wilderness wandering until the unfaithful older generation died. The book ends with the younger generation of Israel perched on the doorstep of Canaan.

The first twelve chapters of Numbers describe the people’s departure from Mount Sinai toward Canaan. There are multiple censuses and various instructions for ceremonial cleansings, offerings, tabernacle laws, and more. Here is where we also see the rules regarding Nazarite vows that will feature prominently in the lives of Samson and others. Along the way, trouble arises. The people began complaining about a lack of meat and about the manna God had miraculously sustained them with, causing Moses to plead with God to kill him rather than force him to lead the obstinate nation alone. God answered with help for Moses, judgment on Israel, and more meat than the people could stomach.

Following God isn’t always easy, but ungratefully presuming we know better than the Lord God Almighty never ends well.

Lord, even when the path before me is hard and inscrutable, please help me to praise Your name.