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NUMBERS 2:
Yesterday in Numbers chapter 1, God ordered a census of the men capable as soldiers in war. And we heard the list of the clan leaders of the 12 listed tribes— excluding Levi. (The number of tribes remains at 12 because the tribe of Joseph is split in two.)PSALM 26:
This poem is a personal lament. It is similar to Psalm 25 but does not contain confession. David asks for God’s vindication based on his personal integrity and shows his love for God by his devotion to God’s sanctuary.LUKE 18a:
Yesterday we heard about the suddenness of the coming of Jesus as the Son of Man, and that believers will be suddenly taken out of a context that looks like ‘business as usual’. Jesus again said that first He must suffer and be rejected.I want to challenge everyone to dig deeper into God’s Word— including myself. The last verse of Luke 17 says,
37 The disciples asked him, “Where, Lord?” Jesus answered, “Wherever there is a dead body, the vultures will gather.”
Greek does not differentiate between ‘vulture’ and ‘eagle’. Because of the presence of the word ‘dead body’, translators chose to translate ‘vulture’, but how would it change your ideas if we read this as ‘eagles’? Also, it is possible that Jesus’ response was a common proverb. If that is so, what did Jesus mean by quoting that proverb? When you have questions about words in the translation you are using, one easy thing to do is to switch versions temporarily to the NET, in order to read the many excellent footnotes there. -
NUMBERS 1:
Numbers is the 4th of Moses' 5 books. In this book we will see that unbelief hinders God's blessings for Israel. HC Mears says, “Numbers might be called the Wilderness Wanderings,” because it chronicles the journey. And “Numbers might be called the book of the March and the Roll Call. ... It might, too, be called the Book of Murmurings, because from beginning to end it is filled with the spirit of rebellion against God.”“Leviticus dealt with the believers' worship— Numbers deals with
the believer's walk. In Leviticus we see the believer’s privileges— in Numbers the wilderness is the drill field.”
Important lessons from the Book of Numbers:
We must trust God, not people. God will supply all we need, including food, meat, water, leaders, and land. We must worship God according to his instructions.PSALM 25:
Psalm 25 is the first acrostic poem we encounter in the psalms. An acrostic poem is one where every line starts with a new letter of the Hebrew alphabet.In older translations which followed the KJV, verse 14 contains the word ‘secret’, but that word is better translated as ‘friendship/friend’. Here we read of the privilege of an intimate relationship with the Lord. I am reminded of a few years ago when things were not going well for me in relation to the leaders of my organization. Psalms like this were very comforting to me.
LUKE 17b:
Yesterday in Luke 17a Jesus taught about the importance of forgiving others, the importance of believing fully and being humble servants. Then we heard of the healing of 10 men who had a contagious/dreaded skin disease.
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Saknas det avsnitt?
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LEVITICUS 26-27:
Yesterday in Leviticus, we heard about the Sabbath year and the year of Restoration/Jubilee. Before the Year of Restoration, property could be bought back//redeemed. In the Restoration year property was returned to the original owners and poor people who had become enslaved were set free. I suspect these laws were never done in all of Israel's history. If they were, perhaps only once— fifty years after Israel entered the land of Canaan. In the final two chapters of Leviticus which we read today, we hear the LORD’s prophecy that the people of Israel would fall into sin and rebellion against God. They would be warned many times and be sent into exile. In exile, God said that they would repent and God would still remember his covenant with the people of Israel. The book ends with a list of regulations.PSALM 24:
Today we read one of the most majestic psalms, Psalm 24! This ends with the song for welcoming the triumphant Messiah into Jerusalem.The words of the fourth and final section of Psalm 24 are sung in Handel’s Messiah, “Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.”
In the first line, “Lift up your heads, you gates,” we have a poetic personification of the gates. This has been translated in the NET as “Look up, you gates.” But gates don’t have heads and they can’t look up. I like the GNT in that verse: “Fling wide the gates, open the ancient doors, and the great king will come in.”
LUKE 17a:
Yesterday in chapter 16 we heard two longer parables— both very insightful: The parable of the shrewd manager, and the one about the rich man and Lazarus. Both of them show this lesson:Use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. Then, when your earthly possessions are gone, they (those friends) will welcome you to an eternal home.
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LEVITICUS 25:
Yesterday in Leviticus we heard about the seven important yearly celebrations of the Jewish religion. Then we heard about oil and bread for the tabernacle. Following that, we heard about the example of a law-breaker who was stoned to death for his crime of blasphemy.PSALM 23:
Today we read the most famous psalm of all. My wife has often said: Psalm 23 is so often quoted at funerals, but this is a psalm about living, not dying!LUKE 16:
Yesterday in Luke 15, we heard the three-part parable of the lost sheep, lost coin, and lost son. There is much treasure to dig for there! Consider taking some time to reflect on that wonderful chapter. -
Today I would like to give pointers for understanding Jesus’ parables. I consider the parable to be one of the greatest of all teaching devices, and a legacy of the Greatest Teacher. I will end this episode by sharing a non-Biblical parable.
One little detail to understand is that the word ‘parable’ (Greek paraboles) had a wider meaning than we normally think of in English, and you may see this sometimes in the New Testament. In English, we normally think of a parable as a story that points to some deeper meaning. However, as an example, the word ‘parable’ is used for a one-sentence figurative teaching in Mark 7:17 where it refers back to Jesus’ statement in verse 15:
GW “Nothing that goes into a person from the outside can make him unclean. It’s what comes out of a person that makes him unclean.”
In verse 17, the disciples ask Jesus to explain that ‘parable’.
With that footnote, I want you to know that I will really just be talking briefly about what we normally think of as parables, the story type.
In the episode notes, I give links to more complete and scholarly information than what I will present to you. In particular, I recommend viewing the 6 minute video from bibleproject.com entitled The Parables of Jesus. Also in the episode notes, I have links to both a video and a good summary about Interpreting Parables by Bob Utley.
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Bob Utley’s Special Topic page on Interpreting Parables:
http://www.freebiblecommentary.org/special_topics/parable_interpretation.htmlBob Utley’s video on Luke 15:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f76EvjGy7JwDon’t miss the cool video from BibleProject.com! Title: The Parables of Jesus
I appreciated the original thinking and humorous examples in this short article:
https://www.1517.org/articles/understanding-jesus-parables=======
As I was thinking about what to mention to you, I was reading a historically-interesting commentary by Christopher Wordsworth from 1856, and I almost stumbled into a common error in interpreting parables, which is thinking of them as allegories. An example of this is Luke chapter 15, where we have the parable of the Lost Sheep, the Lost Coin, and the Lost Son. Wordsworth gives an allegorical interpretation, assigning an identity to all the characters. In this case, the shepherd is Christ, who searches for his lost sheep. That’s not too bad. But seeing the woman who loses one of her coins as a picture of the church, is definitely stretching things. Similarly in the Parable of the Lost Son, the father is interpreted as God, the younger son as the Gentiles who repent, and the older son as the Jews.
One of the things that leads people to take an overly allegorical approach to the parables has to be Jesus himself, in his foundational teaching about the parables found in Mark 4, Mat. 13, and Luk. 8. In Jesus’ explanation of the Parable of the Sower, He might almost contradict my last point about allegorical interpretation. It just happens that the Parable of the Sower (also called the Parable of the Different Kinds of Soil) has clear allegorical elements (the birds, path, rocky soil, etc), whereas for many other parables it doesn’t help to seek an allegorical identity for the various participants. A second thing that is unusual in the Parable of the Soils is that it has clear multiple teaching points, whereas most parables have a single, simple point.
I have mentioned all this heavy stuff to bring us around to this simple point: When we get too fancy in our interpretation of parables, we tend to miss the main point, which is to ask, “How does this apply to me?” The cool thing about parables is that Jesus intended them to be multi-purpose. People who were ready to believe in Jesus would get one interpretation, and the religious leaders criticizing Him would understand Jesus’ meaning very differently. Both groups got a correct interpretation, as Jesus intended, even though the interpretations were different.
This propensity of parables to be interpreted differently has a plus side and a negative side. On one hand, we must remember that parables are not good for determining doctrine. Let’s not decide the timing of Jesus’ second coming based on parables, but some of the parables clearly illustrate something about Jesus’ second coming. The plus side is that the Holy Spirit may use Jesus’ parables to say something very pointedly appropriate for you.
I have been amazed that in the Parable of Different Kinds of Soil I sometimes find that I am dangerously close to living amongst thorns, way too concerned with the cares of this life. But in a few months when I come across the parable again, I find that I have moved over to the rocky soil, meaning that I might glibly say that I love God’s Word, but on that day if I am honest, I have to admit that my roots are dangerously shallow.
Another illustration of a personal application for me is this, which I don’t think I have ever shared with anyone before: When I read the story of the prodigal son, I am reminded that I acted like the prodigal son, when I was young and thoughtless, by asking for part of my inheritance early. I didn’t realize that this was tantamount to wishing my father dead. How this must have hurt him! I wish I could tell him how sorry I am that I ever did that.
Don’t look to parables for decisions about moving to another city, quitting your job, or selling your house. That’s not what I mean by a personal application.
Finally, here are three final pointers:
Understanding the context and the audience Jesus was speaking to is key to understanding what Jesus was saying. You can see a progression in Luke’s Gospel that leads from more general parables about the Kingdom of God, to Jesus’ identity as the king who will return, and to whom everyone will give an account. Look to see if the Gospel writer or Jesus himself tells what He was driving at. And also take note of any surprising twist in the story. Such twists often give an important clue to the meaning.Let me illustrate that idea of a surprising twist found in some parables. One of my favorite booklets that we printed to display our translation in Indonesia is a collection of 25 parables. If I am in Indonesia, I like to have that booklet handy in my bag. There was one devout Islamic taxi driver that took me to my home at least six times. Because of frequent traffic jams in Jakarta, a 20 minute trip can take two hours on bad days. So I started reading the parables to him. He was interested, and it was way better than trying to debate with him about our religions. After many of the parables he would say, “OK, yeah. I think we Muslims could agree with that one.” That continued until we got to the Parable of the Vineyard owner in Matthew 20. That’s the one where the vineyard owner gives all the workers the same pay for a full day’s work, even though some workers only worked for one hour. He responded, “What?! He did that? That’s crazy. That’s unfair!” This gave me an opportunity to talk about God’s kindness. We call it grace. God wants to be generous with us, because none of us can manage to earn our salvation. God designed this counterintuitive situation so that all glory would go to our Savior, and none would go to us.
As I will not be living in the same place in Jakarta when I go back (in July 2022), it is not likely that I will take that route again with the same taxi driver. It is not appropriate for me to share his name. But you can join me in praying for that taxi driver that I read parables to.
To give you a chance of hearing a parable for the first time (like Jesus’ followers had), I’ll read The Innovator by G. Williams Jones, from his book with the same name, published by Abingdon Press, copyright 1969.
The complete name of the book is The Innovator and Other Modern Parables.
Announcement: If anyone knows of any of the heirs of G. William Jones, please ask them to contact me.
May the Lord bless you ‘Real Good’!
Phil
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LEVITICUS 21-22:
In yesterday’s reading in Leviticus, we heard various laws that are for preserving the holiness of God's people, and various kinds of punishment for disobedience.PSALM 21:
Psalm 21 is a companion to yesterday's psalm, which was for the nation and the king in time of war. Today’s poem is the corresponding victory song.I have made a comment about the psalmists switching back and forth between seeming to pray to God, and then speak about God. I said that in Hebrew, many parts where the psalmist seems to speak about God can still be understood as praying to God.
In Psalm 21, not only does David pray to God using the 3rd person, but he speaks of himself also in the 3rd person.
Let me show you what I mean. The NLT gives the ancient title, “For the choir director: A psalm of David
Verse 1, “How the king rejoices in your strength, O Lord!”
David being the writer, but talking about himself as ‘the king’ can be considered ungrammatical in today’s English, and translating literally here may prevent readers from seeing this Psalm as a very personal prayer. I will read several verses adapted from the GNT to show you how I wish this psalm was translated.
21:1 O LORD, I— the king you have chosen, am so glad
because of the strength you have given me.
2 You have given me my heart's desire;
you have answered [my//his] request.
3 You came to me with great blessings
and set a crown of gold on my head.
4 I asked for life, and you gave it,
a long and lasting life.
5 My kingly glory is great because of your help;
you have given me fame and majesty.
6 Your blessings are with me forever,
and your presence fills me with joy.Luke 14:
As we heard yesterday, Luke chapter 13 contains 4 parables. Jesus sternly warned the people to repent, and he grieved for the persistent stubbornness and hardness of heart of the people of Jerusalem. In both that chapter and today’s chapter, Jesus healed people on the Sabbath, using those occasions as opportunities to teach and rebuke his enemies. -
LEVITICUS 19-20:
Yesterday in Leviticus we learned about the rule that all sacrifices must be done at the tabernacle, also the prohibitions of eating anything containing animal blood, and forbidden sexual practices.PSALM 20:
Today we will read Psalm 20, which is a prayer for the nation of Israel and their king, asking for national security in a time of war.LUKE 13:
In the second half of Luke 12, Jesus taught about being ready for his return, and to be ready for the division that would come about because of Jesus himself. -
LEVITICUS 17-18:
Yesterday in Leviticus we learned about regulations concerning uncleanness caused by bodily discharges of all kinds. Then we heard the procedures for the high priest to perform yearly on the day of atonement.PSALM 19:
Today’s Psalm— Psalm 19, is a famous poem celebrating the heavens and God's creation, and secondly celebrating the perfection of God's Word.LUKE 12b:
In yesterday’s reading in the first half of Luke 12, Jesus warned about hypocrisy, and one of our biggest fears— fearing what other people will think of us. Here is a clear translation of two important verses from that part:Luke. 12:8 PET “I tell you the truth, everyone who says publicly here on earth, ‘I am a follower of Jesus’, I, the Son of Man, will also acknowledge them as my followers in the presence of God’s angels.
9 But those who deny me here on earth, saying they are not my disciples, I will also say that they are not my disciples in the presence of God’s angels.
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LEVITICUS 15-16:
Yesterday in Leviticus 14 we heard about sacrifices following the healing of skin diseases and after getting rid of the diseased infection in a house. Note that the infection in a house is probably more serious than mildew, which is the word used in some translations. Did you happen to notice in that chapter Who is said to cause such infections? (14:33) Chapter 15 is about defiling bodily discharges.Chapter 16 is about the Day of Atonement, and the chapter contains a translation problem in the word or name ‘azazel’. If you are interested in finding out more about ‘azazel’, check out the footnote in the NET at Leviticus 16:8. The truth is that we don’t know what ‘azazel’ means, and little linguistic clues saying “the word might be related to” another word can never provide certain answers. We don’t even know if it was a name. So in a case like this, I think it is better to translate the term in a generic way, rather than being too specific.
PSALM 18:
Psalm 18 reveals David’s intimacy with God. Even though he frequently refers to himself, we see that God— and not himself, is the center of his spiritual life.LUKE 12a:
The religious experts and Pharisees remembered the stinging rebukes that Jesus gave them in Luke chapter 11. When they were trying to trap Jesus in Luke 20, they even tried to butter Him up by saying, “Teacher, we know that you speak and teach correctly, and show no partiality, but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.”These days, the whole concept of ‘truth’ has fallen on bad times. Now everyone gets to create their own truth— that is, until your truth conflicts with my truth. Then your truth is wrong and my truth is right. So these days we are being trained to show partiality to everyone. If you speak out, you might offend someone. But, just think, following Jesus’ example, it is often more loving to not show that kind of blind ‘partiality’ and to help people realize that there really is something called ‘the truth’, and where it can be found.
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LEVITICUS 14:
After hearing about the serious skin diseases in Leviticus 13, today we hear of the regulations if someone is healed from one. Note that these regulations were probably very seldom performed— until perhaps when Jesus caused a wave of men who had been healed to come with offerings.Note that our modern translations use either ‘serious skin disease’ or ‘contagious skin disease’ instead of calling these ‘leprosy’ as in older translations. Leprosy— also called Hanson’s Disease, is a very different disease from the ones described in Scripture.
PSALM 17:
This is one of David’s poems. Olsen quotes Spurgeon commenting on this psalm: “David would never have been [called] a man after God's own heart if he had not been a man of prayer. He was a master in the sacred art of supplication.”LUKE 11b:
Yesterday in the first half of Luke 11, Jesus taught about prayer, and persistence in prayer, and He refuted those who slandered him saying that he worked by the power of Satan. Jesus also taught that demons can leave on their own, but the spiritual vacuum will result in more demons than before. -
LEVITICUS 13:
Yesterday in Lev. 11-12, we learned the animals considered clean and edible, and those that were considered unclean and detestable. Then we heard about the sacrifices for purification after a woman gives birth.PSALM 16:
Today we read Psalm 16. E.C. Olsen says that the Old Testament is like a sundial. “It is not difficult to read the hour marks on a sundial. Anybody can read them and at any time, but one can only tell time when the sun shines upon the sundial. Thus, while the Bible is the Word of God and can be read by all at any time, only the man who has received the Lord Jesus Christ is able to tell divine time by the Bible. It is only as the “Son” shines upon the pages of Scripture, particularly the Old Testament, that we are able to understand, to see and to appreciate that Christ is to be found on every page of Scripture.” With the Son shining on it, we see that the 16th Psalm is a Messianic Psalm.LUKE 11a:
Yesterday in Luke 10b, Jesus agreed with a law expert in the most important commandments but taught the man the meaning of who is one's neighbor. And Jesus visited Martha and Mary.Just a footnote here if you happen to be new to reading God’s Word: In the story about the man who fell among robbers, Jesus skewered the religious elite. Because those who went by on the other side were members of that class, first a priest and then a Levite, who could work in the temple. And the one who helped the victim laying bleeding on the road was a Samaritan. The Samaritans were the hated race that came into the land of Israel while the Israelite people had been taken away in captivity to Babylon. Everyone would have considered it quite normal for a Samaritan to leave a wounded Jew there on the road and go right on. Loving our neighbor as God wants us to, means that we will go out of our way and do things that are unexpected, including
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Yesterday in Leviticus, Aaron and his sons started their work, and the glory of the Lord was revealed. But right after that Nadab and Abihu died because they offered an unauthorized kind of fire to the Lord.
There are important lessons for us in that story. We will see other stories also were others who wanted to ‘do it their way’ instead of God’s way were severely punished or died like Nadab and Abihu. Such stories show that God expects, and has the right to demand, that He be approached according to the way He has specified and in a way that shows reverence for his holiness. In our time in many Christian churches, it seems that we have forgotten all about reverence for our holy and all-powerful God. Many of you will know the song, “I can only imagine.” The writer wonders what it will be like to meet Jesus. He sings, “Will I dance for you Jesus, or in awe of You be still.” I recommend not trying to dance for Jesus when you first meet him! Remember that the apostle John was so very close to Jesus during his earthly life. But when John actually met Jesus in heaven, he fell at his feet like a dead man. In our time, we can praise Jesus for the access He has given us to our Holy Father. However, any time we approach God in prayer, we should remember to do so in an attitude of deep awe and reverence.
PSALM 15:
Today in Psalm 15 we will hear about the kind of people who will be welcomed into God's presence.LUKE 10:
Yesterday in the first half of chapter 10 of Luke, Jesus sent the 72 disciples out ahead of Him with interesting instructions. A sent-out worker will be given his pay as he trusts in the Lord to provide it. And there were strong words for the villages which received most of Jesus' miracles.You may notice that there are textual differences among Greek manuscripts that show up as footnotes in our translations. In that story I just mentioned, older or more conservative translations use the text that where Jesus sends out 70, not 72. If you are interested in such things, you will find a blog post at dailybiblereading.info about which Greek text I believe is the best to follow.
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LEVITICUS 9-10:
Yesterday in Leviticus, we heard more regulations for the priests (mainly), and then heard the story of the ordination ceremony that Moses performed for Aaron and his sons.PSALM 14:
Psalm 14 can be classed as a messianic psalm because of v7. (However, the messianic nature of that verse is not made clear in all translations.) David shows us what God sees when He looks at this world. And that is why Paul quoted from this psalm in Romans 3.LUKE 10:
In the second half of Luke 9, Jesus came down from the mountain to find a crowd, and he healed a demon-possessed boy. Jesus predicted his death and talked about the cost for anyone wanting to be his disciple. -
LEVITICUS 7-8:
In yesterday’s reading in Leviticus, we heard about sin and guilt offerings and about the ordination offering for priests. In today’s reading, it sounds to me that for repayment offerings (repayment being a sin which would usually be intentional), the person offering the sacrifice would not be entitled to receive any of the meat.In today’s reading, Lev. 8:17, we read that “He (Moses) took the rest of the bull, including its skin, flesh, and intestines, and burned it outside the camp, just as the Lord had commanded.
Note that there are many times in Scripture where it says that one leader or another performed some large work, but it is clear that they ordered that the work is done. (An example would be statements like King X built the city of Y.) It would have taken Moses a long time to burn up the skin, flesh, and intestines of a bull, so it seems to me that we should understand that he didn’t do this by himself.PSALM 13:
David starts Psalm 13 by crying out “How long?” and ends with a note of praise. We can be thankful for his difficult experiences which give us these Psalms.LUKE 9b:
Yesterday in Luke we heard of Jesus sending out his disciples, and afterward the feeding of the 5,000. Peter rightly declared what position Jesus was filling. Jesus predicted his death. He said that some standing there would not die before seeing the Kingdom of God. Perhaps he meant his three disciples who saw the transfiguration because His kingship was clearly foreshadowed there.In yesterday’s reading, we read again Jesus’ statement about what it takes to become his disciple. The metonymy that Jesus coined is to ‘take up your cross’. As I said before, this means that we make the decision to follow the Lord no matter what, even to the point of death by crucifixion. Differing from Mark’s account of this statement, Luke adds the word ‘daily’. That decision I just explained, that taking up of our cross, its a daily commitment.
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LEVITICUS 5-6:
Yesterday we read about sacrifices given for unintentional sins and for peace offerings. And I said that we would hear about offerings for intentional sins today.PSALM 12:
In Psalm 12, we hear of trusting in God's promises even in the midst of hard times.Translation note:
6 The [words//promises] of the Lord can be trusted;
they are as genuine as silver
refined seven times in the furnace.[The Hebrew word here is not specific to just promises. But on the other hand, in this context, this verse is responding to the Lord’s promise in verse 5. So GNT’s translation is fine. However one can see the influence of the GNT on other translations by looking at this verse.]
LUKE 9:
Yesterday to the woman healed of bleeding, Jesus said, “It is because you believe in me that you are healed.” And to Jairus, He said, “ Don’t be afraid. Just keep on believing in Me.”Translation notes:
8 Others were saying that [the prophet] Elijah had appeared, and still others that one of the prophets of long ago had come back to life.
18 One day when Jesus was praying alone, the disciples came to him. “[What role do the crowds say that I am fulfilling?//Who do the crowds say I am?]” he asked them.
19 “Some say that you are [taking the role of] John the Baptist,” they answered. “Others say that you are [taking the role of the prophet] Elijah, while others say that one of the prophets of long ago has come back to life.”
20 “What about you?” he asked them. “[What do you say about me?//Who do you say I am?]”
Peter answered, “You are God's Messiah.”
22 He also told them, “[I, the//The Son] of Man must suffer much and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law. [I//He] will be put to death, but three days later [I//he] will be raised to life.”
26 If you are ashamed of me[, the Son of Man,] and of my teaching, then [I//the Son of Man] will be ashamed of you when [I come in my//he comes in his] glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. -
LEVITICUS 3-4:
Yesterday in the beginning chapters of Leviticus, we heard about burnt offerings and grain offerings. In the first chapter, did you happen to notice how many things were being done by the person bringing the offering, not the priest?Andrew Bonar states about Leviticus:
“There is no book in the whole compass of that inspired Volume which the Holy Spirit has given us, that contains more of the very words of God than Leviticus. It is God that is the direct speaker in almost every page; His gracious words are recorded in the form wherein they were uttered.”Note this in our reading in Leviticus today: By and large, the sacrificial system was set up to forgive unintentional sins. (Some small exceptions will be noted in tomorrow’s reading in Leviticus.) It is good to draw a distinction— as the book of Hebrews does, between unintentional and intentional sins. Each of us should feel uncomfortable because each of us can look back and remember sins we committed intentionally. Let us make the firm commitment to never trample upon our Savior’s kindness by sinning intentionally. But we can praise the Lord for this verse spoken by Paul in Acts 13:
38-39 NET “Therefore let it be known to you, brothers [and sisters//0], that through this one forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by this one everyone who believes is justified from everything from which the law of Moses could not justify you.”
PSALM 11:
Psalm 11 is a song of trust in the Lord.LUKE 8b:
Yesterday we read the parable of the sower or different kinds of soil. Jesus taught about the importance of hearing and doing what is in God's Word, and that was echoed again when his mother and brothers came to see him.
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LEVITICUS 1-2:
Yesterday in the final chapter of Exodus, the worship in the completed and the dedicated tabernacle was started.Leviticus is a continuation of Exodus, in the same way, that Exodus is a continuation of Genesis. Leviticus also starts with the word ‘And’. The title once again comes from Latin Vulgate which was based on the name in the Septuagint. So the name does not come from the Hebrew. But because of the name Leviticus with its obvious relationship to the Levites, many think that this book is a handbook only for the priests. Not so. Wenham (from Constable) states:
“It would be wrong, however, to describe Leviticus simply as a manual for priests. It is equally, if not more, concerned with the part the laity should play in worship. Many of the regulations explain what the layman should sacrifice. They tell him when to go to the sanctuary, what to bring, and what he may expect the priest to do when he arrives. Most of the laws apply to all Israel: only a few sections specifically concern the priests alone, e.g., chs. 21—22. The lay orientation of the legislation is particularly noticeable in ch. 23, where the whole emphasis lies on the days that must be observed as days of Sabbath rest.”
Many New Testament concepts are foreshadowed in this book, such as the seriousness of sin in God’s sight, the necessity of atonement of sin, the holiness of God, and the necessity of a mediator between God and Man. H.C. Mears summarizes the themes of the first three books of the Bible,
“In Genesis we see humanity ruined, in Exodus, humanity redeemed, and in Leviticus, humanity worshipping.”
One can’t read this book without being thankful to Christ Jesus for His sacrifice which fulfills for us the incredibly detailed laws about sacrifice under the old covenant.
PSALM 10:
E.C. Olsen says this Psalm has “a triple theme: the silence of God, the despair of the humble, and the pride of the wicked.” This Psalm doesn't give us all the answers, but we know God understands how we feel about these things.LUKE 8:
At the end of Luke 7, we read about how Jesus was anointed by a sinful woman, and how Jesus answered the silent criticism of Simon, the Pharisee. -
EXODUS 40:
Yesterday in Exodus we read about Bezalel making the outside articles for worship— like the altar for burnt offerings. There was a listing of materials used, and then we heard of the making of the priests' clothes— all according to how Moses was instructed by God. Moses inspected everything and blessed the people. The stage is set for the start of worship according to God's instructions.
PSALM 9:
Psalm 9 is a song celebrating God sitting on his throne and judging justly.
LUKE 7b:
Yesterday we read about Jesus healing a favorite slave of a Roman officer and the raising of a widow's son from death. We start today’s rereading where Jesus was speaking about John the Baptist.
In our reading today at the end of Luke 7, Jesus says to a woman who has been forgiven many sins, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”
Jesus said, “Your faith has saved you.” I want to emphasize again: Jesus did NOT use ‘faith’ to mean such things as inner fortitude, vague hope, blind trust, denominational faith, or many other meanings. Remember that in Greek, ‘faith’ is simply the noun form of ‘believe’. So Jesus’ statement can be translated, “It is because you believe in Me that you’ve been saved.”
Then Jesus told the woman, “Go in peace.” Have you ever thought of what ‘peace’ means in a place like this? Jesus wasn’t telling her that she would have absence of war. You would be right in telling me that this is a spiritual peace. But if you told someone, ‘Go with spiritual peace’, it kind of sounds hollow. What we’re talking about is an inner peace that one can have even in the midst of the world falling apart all around you. After much discussion, what we came up with for the Indonesian language is, ‘go with the feeling of calm in God’s protection’ or another way to say it, ‘go with the calm assurance of being sheltered by God’. This is the realistic kind of inner peace that we who love the Lord have according to Romans 8:28.
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EXODUS 38-39:
In the two chapters we heard in Exodus yesterday, we heard of the building of the tabernacle, the Covenant Box, and the other furniture of the Holy Place and Most Holy Place. Everything was done precisely as God had described before. The actor ‘he’ as we start chapter 38 is again Bezalel.
PSALM 8:
Today we read Psalm 8. Verses 4-8 from this Psalm are quoted in Hebrews 2 but frequently misunderstood. The term “the son of man” does not refer to Jesus in this Psalm or in Hebrews 2, and the NLT and the GNT are correct in not using that term here. This is a psalm of praise for the awesomeness of God, expressing amazement at the place of _mankind_ in God's creation.
The first verse of Ps. 8 in literal translations, “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!”
This verse contains a type of figure of speech called a metonymy. Metonymy is when something small is used to stand for something big, like in the saying, “The pen is mightier than the sword”— where both ‘pen’ and ‘sword’ are metonymies. So in the sentence, ‘how majestic is your name in all the earth’, ‘name’ stands for the whole person of God, or in this case, it might stand for God’s reputation. Although English clearly uses metonymy, we don't so often use it based on ‘name’. A more natural metonymy for English and a good translation for this verse would be, “O Lord, our Lord, your glorious fingerprints are visible everywhere on earth!”
LUKE 7a:
Yesterday, in Luke chapter 6 we read the Beatitudes, and Jesus taught about loving others and not judging them. Jesus taught using the figures of trees and their fruit, and building houses upon a rock foundation.
One of the most frequently misquoted verses in Scripture was included in yesterday’s portion of Luke 6, “Do not judge others and you will not be judged.” But if we take that to the extreme, we would not be able to recognize good and bad people, as Jesus talks about in verse 45. And there are many other places where Christians are called upon to make judgments— especially those who are shepherds over a flock of believers. But the key is not bringing judgment against others if we might be found to be guilty of the same fault.
- Visa fler
