Why Is The OT Soooo Boring?

If you haven't said it yourself, you've heard it: "Why read the Old Testament? It's sooo boring."

And yes, unless endless lists of genealogies excite you, then yeah, boring. Now, let me tell you a story.

I had a religion professor once who talked about the end of the Book of Mormon. I don't know if I remember anything else from that class, but I remember what she said that day. She said that she had an idea of how Moroni felt, alone, the last of his people, protecting a written history of family and culture and language that he would never be able to pass on--no one to relieve the burden of history. This professor was the only member in her family, got baptized when she was a teen, went on a mission, became a professor, never married. She did do a lot of genealogy work. And she was the only one in her family who was even interested. So, here she is, late sixties, a room full of boxes of family history, her history, names and people, with no one to take care of them when she will die. She said that she was planning on giving them to a niece, but who knows, they must just gather dust in some attic for another hundred years. All that effort, never used, never appreciated.

So yeah, genealogies are boring, except to the child who is able to find their grandfather's name, great-great grandfather, back and back down the family tree to the very roots. The OT tells about Christ's family. About our spiritual family.

So you either learn to love the genealogies, or that's the part you practice your speed reading on. Just remember, to someone, that's the history of their family, the record of tombstones that should be visited, and visited often.

Why am I saying all this? Because I'm starting the Book of Chronicles, which is mainly genealogy from Genesis to 2 Kings, mixed with the religious history of the law during the time of the kings. And, I'm going to try to make it not so boring.

Stay tuned.