As of this morning, for the first time in my life, I have finished reading the book of Isaiah.
Unfortunately, by some curious little quirk, my Bible-retention abilities only seem to start working after about the third time of reading something.
It came to my attention recently that I'm very poorly acquainted with much of the Old Testament. Now, books of history are good. They're fun, and exciting, and sometimes there's bad stuff happening, but you can still see it all in your mind. Books of the law are really, really boring. I know I should read them and get acquainted with them to further my understanding, but boy - there's a lot of information in there, and much of it is hard to care about. I'm working on it.
Books of prophecy have kind of a goofy effect. I'm pretty well-acquainted with the New Testament, so I can now and again recognize something as, "Hey! I know when that happens! Cool!" But there's also a lot about how this kingdom will fall, and that king will be smited, and I
really don't know the history as well as I should (and I also suspect that much of it isn't covered in the Bible - it is
Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth, after all). So, reading about things that are going to happen, but I don't know if they've already happened, or they're going to happen, etc.
Remember the Ethiopian in the chariot, reading about the prophecies of Christ, and how he didn't understand and asked for an explanation? I'm baffled on understanding everything that DOESN'T relate to Christ. I suspect that I should locate some sort of related reading material to lend some context. Which would be fun - as long as I'm not going to be quizzed on dates later, I rather enjoy history.
So, gradually overcoming the hold of intimidation that I have regarding the Old Testament. A few years previous, we had, "It's big, it's scary, and it's boring." I still have a lot to read, and perhaps starting with the second-largest book was not the best plan, but hey, we're making progress.