February 1, Reading Notes

Exodus 13:17-15:18

Ex. 13:17-14:9

The Lord led Israel, and in a way that made no sense to the Egyptians. Introduced here, is the cloud and the pillar of fire which will be with them for another 40 years.

What we should think about as disciples, is when God leads us in a way that makes no sense to others, He has His reasons. We should be confident in following Him, not in “knowing” why He’s leading us into a dead-end.

There were many reasons for this stage of the wandering, the most important being to make a covenant with Israel at Mt. Sinai, and to form them into a nation. It will take God about a year to get them in shape with order and laws (religious and civil) and policies and government and a central place to worship. By the time they hit Kadesh Barnea, He has them ready to go.

Pharaoh and his boys are mad. With a hardened heart, his foolishness is intensified to the point of complete irrationality. If they haven’t beaten God yet, why do they think this is a good move? But now, the final step to Israel being without threat in the wilderness will be accomplished. With this next defeat, the Egyptian military will be reduced to a national police force just trying to rebuild and protect a ruined country.

Ex. 14:10-14

God says He will get glory from Pharaoh. When you read Romans chapter 11, the issue of God “using” Pharaoh (and the unbelieving in general) comes up. And just to be fair, we all have a hard time imagining God twisting someone’s mind to do His will without giving them a chance to believe. In all of what we understand and do not understand, all the conflicting thoughts of God’s election, foreknowledge and our freewill will come together and will prove, as Paul says, “God’s righteousness.” In a sense that we don’t see, in the angelic world God is in court and the accuser searches God’s actions to see if He is playing according to the rules. I think this is why the angels attest to God’s holiness. It’s not because they’re assigned this duty for our sake, (for great verses and great songs), but for them, and the issues at play in the angelic conflict, God’s holiness and righteousness is important to them.

A key verse on this is Romans 9:22 “What if God, desiring to demonstrate His wrath and to make His power known, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction?” So here is my thought. What if God, in His foreknowledge, knew that a child to be born would never accept Him in faith and would always be in rebellion? In God’s vast wisdom and planning and foreknowledge, He could surely move events around that person and even use that person’s responses to His purposes. Paul’s point is that God would have a price to pay also, that is, enduring the rebellion of this person for 70 years. God could just “snuff him out.” If you’ve been a school teacher or had a horrible tenant in a rental house, you’ll know enduring this kind of rebellious person is not a delight. We think God can just “put this out of His mind,” because He’s in outer space or someplace, but I don’t think so. God is here and I think sin seriously grieves God. We’re just used to it.

Also, regarding freewill and God’s ability to “direct” us, you wonder what rights we really have. For example, in the last election, they did surveys on how different groups voted. There were the ethnic groups, and then gender groups and religious groups, but I never found one on how the prison population voted. I’m sure that would have been a substantial block of people and it would be interesting to see what issues were important to them and, so, how they voted. Oh, that’s right, they can’t vote. They lost the right to vote because of their crimes. In all societies, those guilty of crimes lose rights and often their freedom. They have the basic rights (basic defined by the culture) but many freedoms are removed. We’re “guilty” too, right?

Now, if you look at the entire scope of things biblically, that is “in reality,” our biggest foe is Satan, standing before God and proving, by what we do, that we deserve judgment and death. Whatever role Satan was supposed to have for good, has been used by him for evil, giving him power when we mess up, like giving the board of directors the right to run the company because the true owner is in jail (and they put him there). Along with this, God had to save us, not violating any rules of righteousness and justice. Satan watches this. Yet God does have the right, since we are guilty before Him, to direct us and manage us just like you would direct people in prison who have lost their rights because of their crimes. For those who will never trust or obey Him, He is perfectly free to direct as He pleases. Look at Pharaoh, the wealthiest and most powerful man on earth at that time. All of that privilege was also from God. He hardened His own heart against God. He was already in rebellion, and that being the case, God made it worse and engineered Pharaoh’s actions, as a guilty man, to lead to God’s glory. Anyway, that’s just my take on things.

I wonder how the people of Israel could doubt God when there was a pillar of cloud/fire right with them. Miracles do not make people believe. Sometimes they only expose the heart of unbelief.

Note that instead of crying out to the Lord, they go after Moses.

Ex. 14:15-31

An amazing event and the lesson for us as disciples, is to follow the Lord no matter what. God can deliver.

15:1-18

My only observation here is that this song is very heartfelt, I’m sure, but the people will soon forget all this and complain. Emotion is never the measure of true devotion and commitment to God. Being a disciple means giving up your life to follow Christ in the Harvest. Following Christ has less to do with emotion than raw devotion, love and faith. I love emotion, but seeing this reaction of the people and seeing how much the church loves worship and is allergic to reaching lost people, I don’t put any weight on great bands and worship in church. I think we are conditioned to think that feeling gushy toward Jesus is the goal. Jesus says, “why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not do what I say?” And below, there is a parable to this effect.

Matthew 21:23-46

Matt. 21:23-27

I remember reading this the first time and identifying with the irrational hardness of heart of the Pharisees. They were afraid to give a straight answer, just like Pharaoh, and just like I used to be without Christ.

Matt. 21:28-32

This parable underscores Jesus’ first principle of discipleship; obedience, not emotion; following, not talking.

Matt. 21:33-46

I’ve often thought that this entire scenario is irrational on the part of the people running the vineyard. Why would they get the land if they killed the heir? There is no rational reason. In the same way, when suppressing the truth is the goal, there is no rationality. We might see this on the part of unchurched people where it is pitiable and understandable. Where it is hits us as disciples the hardest, is when you see this kind of suppression and irrationality on the part of believers, churches and leaders. I have been in churches where there was no fruit, but rather a rigid, self-righteous guarding of the truth and church tradition. In those churches I have felt that they knew nothing of the love of Christ and true mission of the bride, and that if Jesus had shown up, they would have opposed Him and thrown Him out.

Psalm 26

As disciples, following our savior in the harvest, can we bow our heads and say these words to Him with this sincerity and meaning?

Vs. 6-8 mention something important to David and us, praising God and being in His dwelling, tabernacle, whatever. It’s a way of saying “to be close to you.” Whether we find it in a room or in a chair in a corner, I think it needs to be the constant yearning of a disciple to be close, confined, connected to Christ, quiet and alone, to enjoy His presence. As important as the harvest is, the strength of our hearts, what gives us the ability to withstand the conflict and pressure of this earth, is quietness with the Lord, with His Word, in prayer in that place where we meet Him.

Proverbs 6:16-19

So, as a disciple, which of these do you need to avoid. I found a couple.

If you’re reading along and don’t have a One Year Bible, click on this link Every Day in the Word. If that doesn't work, go to http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/devotions/ and click on “Every Day in the Word.” 

I'm writing these comments to and for those at New Song who are following a One Year Bible and involved in a discipleship cell. We're meeting weekly and discussing the texts, not necessarily my comments. We're growing together, learning to become and make disciples who make disciples. We will all be leading others in this process and training them to do likewise.

The comments I'm writing are in no way exhaustive, but meant to give some leading thoughts on how the text applies to us as disciples and to encourage and stimulate our growth in reading the Bible, with the effect that we will grow as disciples and encourage the growth of others as disciples growing in the word. If you would like a more descriptive commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary. It's keyed to the NIV, so the result is, the commentators are constantly telling you what the Greek or Hebrew is. That never hurts.

I am not endorsing any particular One Year Bible, in fact, no one in our church reads the version I do, die revidierte Lutherbibel 1984.

Anyone reading along with us is welcome to do so and encouraged to take their own notes and make their own observations. If the comments made do not agree with your particular tradition or understanding, that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any point of view, but only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as I understand it.

January 31, Reading Notes

If you have been reading with us for this month, congratulations are in order. You’ve read through Genesis and you’re into Exodus, you’ve almost finished Matthew, you’ve read 24 Psalms and you’re 6 chapters wiser than…well, I don’t know, a door knob. For some of you, this is a major achievement and it will only get better. You’ll discover a lot of great things about the mind and heart of God. Most importantly, you’ll grow in your love for Jesus and your commitment as a disciple in the harvest. And next year, if you do this, you’ll be surprised how much you’ve remembered and how much more you’ll see as the Spirit weaves His Word into your life and heart as a disciple.

Exodus 12:14-13:16

Ex. 12:14-20

Oddly enough, in Matthew, Jesus is entering the Passover week. He won’t be cleaning out the leaven, but maybe cleansing the temple was dealing with a kind of “leaven” that had permeated the people and their minds. Jesus’ ministry spanned 4 Passover feasts and culminates at a Passover. Anyway, back to the OT.

Some notes:

First, the Passover is the major identity symbol, festival, event of the nation of Israel from this point on. Sure, there were other things, the land, the temple, circumcision, the Sabbath, but this was now the beginning of their year and God built a memorial of redemption into the beginning of the year. What is interesting is that it points to their spiritual identity born out of redemption. Circumcision and the Sabbath show that the people are separated (holy) for God, but the Passover shows that they were saved by God.

From this point on God is making a nation and giving them ceremonial and cultural laws, many of which will only apply to Israel as God’s nation. This will be important to remember, since some of these laws are very binding on them and very narrow. The laws are meant to highlight God’s holiness, the reality of sin and their need for forgiveness/being close to God. For now, this is just to say that while the laws and rituals were binding in them, they are not binding on us. Yet there is something, some aspect of understanding God and His plan or His holiness, that we can learn from. The following law on leaven is a case in point.

Note that if anyone violated this law to have no leaven in the house or to eat what was leavened, they would be expelled from the nation. That’s pretty hard. It applied to them and not to us, but the question is, “What was the point, and what can we understand about God?”

In the NT, leaven is used negatively as something bad, that slowly works its way into a church or teaching or a person and eventually dominates them. In one instance, leaven is used positively regarding the “invisible,” growing kingdom of God in this world. So, this custom on leaven is one “object lesson” that God uses to teach us, and that would be woven into the culture and ceremony of Israel as a warning.

In the immediate context, leaven has something to do with their being ready for action, and putting aside comfort in order to obey God. Think about this, because I think this really applies to us as disciples and hurts us.

Because of haste, the women were to make bread without taking the time to knead in yeast. This fits with them eating the lamb while fully clothed for travel with their knapsacks on their backs. The unleavened bread dough, was to be taken with them, wrapped into the shawl on a woman’s shoulder. The point of all of this was the real-time need for them to be ready to roll.

I’ve seen reenactments of Passover feasts, but I’ve never seen one where everyone was standing, eating in a state of readiness, clothed for action and ready for an emergency. I guess we missed that. The next notable time you see the Passover in the OT is in another state of emergency as Joshua is ready to go into the land. The last two times you see the Passover in the OT (and two of the best) the southern kingdom is in desperate need of redemption. When Jesus celebrates the Passover with His disciples and redefines it to symbolize the new covenant in His blood, it was a night of emergency and readiness and redemption.

Redemption and readiness is the context of the Passover and that is all in the larger context of emergency. There is an emergency going on right now, bigger than AIDS, bigger than the climate, bigger than terrorism, bigger than getting “supersized” at McDonalds. God’s people are to be ready, and for this time of redemption and grace, we need to be willing to do away with “leaven,” to be willing to live wholly for God and even put away some comforts and exercise restraint, to be focused and on the ready, to work in the harvest, reaching the lost, making disciples who make disciples.

Ex. 12:21-28

How humbling and moving…when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and they worshiped and obeyed. We need to do likewise and to obey, meaning serving Christ in the harvest. Never be ashamed to say, “The blood of Christ.” Explain it, but don’t be ashamed to say it. On account of the blood of the Lamb of God, we are saved.

Ex. 12:29-39

Moses said Pharaoh would never see his face again. Here, either it was just a message sent, or Pharaoh, being in mourning, never looked up or unveiled his face.

A lot of the stuff they were given by the Egyptians was jewelry, used, unfortunately, for the calf and then, to make the tabernacle and the priests clothing. Remember, they were slaves with no credit cards or other resources.

Ex. 12:40-51

This is an historical summary, recapping and adding to some of what was said to Moses before the Passover.

Note that future Passovers could be celebrated by any foreigner with one stipulation, those males had to be circumcised. The male represents the head of his family, so the women and children were covered.

Circumcision was the symbol of being separated to ….the promise to Abraham, of making a nation through which all the nations would be blessed. Again, for the heart of faith, circumcision was linked to the plan of redemption.

You’ve noted that many Egyptians moved out with Israel in the Exodus. It might have been that the men were required to be circumcised first. For an Egyptian to be circumcised would have been a big deal, hopefully, symbolizing their faith in the redeeming God of the Hebrews.

Ex. 13:1-16

This law of the firstborn is mentioned here because the Passover lamb had to be a firstborn. God, again, as a good educator is establishing some cultural and ceremonial things into the life of Israel that He will use again referring to Christ. Luke refers to this law when Joseph and Mary take Jesus into the Temple and meet Simeon.

V. 8 mentions something we’ll see a lot more of in Deuteronomy. The people were to teach these things to their children. Just like us, the kids would naturally say, “Hey, how come we have such strange customs?” The parents’ answers would all be linked to redemption and God’s mercy and power and love. In Deuteronomy, God says that parents should always be talking to their kids about the Lord and what He has done. It should be as natural as air, weaving it into all kinds of things. After quoting Deuteronomy 6:7 “and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise,” Howard Hendricks would say, “so, when else do you live?”

Vs. 9 & 16 were taken literally and perverted by Israel in the Phylacteries. Properly understood, what God had done was be on their hand, controlling all they did, and as frontlets on their eyes (like horses,) focusing their vision, all of this keeping their redemption and mission as a nation controlling their hearts and lives.

Again, I can still hear Hendricks’ Philadelphia brogue after reading Deuteronomy 6:8, “And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” This was to control all that you did and all that you thought, the doorpost of your house being the most intimate areas of your life, to the city gates, being the most social areas of your life.

God is a great teacher. As disciples in the harvest, investing in the lives of others, this teaching is definitely for us. God’s love and redemption is to be the topic of our passion, controlling all we do and see and think from the intimacy of our homes, to our presence in our communities.

BTW, all of this was just a parenthesis, giving a fuller description of what God told Moses before the Passover. Tomorrow we’ll be back to the real-time adventure and Pharaoh gets mad and the Lord intensifies his hardness to make him really, really stupid, with a cherry on top.

Matthew 20:29-21:22

Matt. 20:29-34

A couple of notes:

There were two cities of Jericho, an old one and a new one. To leave one Jericho was to enter the other. A road filled with beggars and merchants went between the two. Matthew says “leaving” and Luke says, “entering,” and this is the explanation. Also, Matthew says there were two beggars, but Luke only names the spokesman, Bartimaus.

It is significant that they were told it was “Jesus (Lk. of Nazareth)” but they cry out “Son of David.” Remember, the widow in Sidon said the same to Jesus. Again, the emphasis here is on the “promised one,” signifying that these blind men saw something in the reports that those with sight were blind to.

Very cool that they kept crying out when everyone told them to shut up. They knew their chance was passing and they had to act now. What faith. I wish more lost people were this “blind.”

Matt. 21:1-11

This is a very sad portion of Scripture for me. Luke says Jesus weeps here. They are visited by their maker, the author of life, their King and their redeemer, and even with all the religiousness of their response at His entrance, in a couple of days they will be yelling to crucify Him. The power of sin is beyond comprehension. They missed the day of their visitation.

Notice that unlike the blind men, the crowds are calling Him Jesus, the prophet from Nazareth of Galilee.

Matt. 21:12-13

Jesus cleansed the temple on the first Passover during His ministry (Jn.2:13) and when confronted, foretold His death. This time, Jesus will die.

Matt. 21:14-16

So who do you really identify here as “blind and lame?”

Matt. 21:17-22

Obviously the lesson here was not to show His disciples how to show off power. The tree symbolized “faithless” and “fruitless” Israel. The curse was made as they passed it, going into Jerusalem for the day, and they saw the effect when they were on their way back to Bethany that evening. “Immediately” means that, though not cut down, it was totally withered when they returned. That didn’t normally happen to a tree.

So, is the lesson here on the power of faith to make things wither or fly into the ocean, or the power of faith to bring life and fruitfulness? In another place Jesus uses this same illustration to tell about the power of prayer, but here, since the tree represents a faithless, fruitless generation, it might also signify that even a small amount of faith, can bring life and the blessing of God.

Psalm 25:16-22

Amen!

Proverbs 6:12-15

Interesting here that God is warning us that “secret” communication is a sign of insincerity, dishonesty and a bad heart. Since reading this, I’m careful about what is going on in my heart when I “wink” at someone behind another person’s back. Is it for non-verbal affirmation in a tough situation, or am I being a dipstick? People who are not honest will eventually be dealt with by the Lord.

If you’re reading along and don’t have a One Year Bible, click on this link Every Day in the Word. If that doesn't work, go to http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/devotions/ and click on “Every Day in the Word.” 

I'm writing these comments to and for those at New Song who are following a One Year Bible and involved in a discipleship cell. We're meeting weekly and discussing the texts, not necessarily my comments. We're growing together, learning to become and make disciples who make disciples. We will all be leading others in this process and training them to do likewise.

The comments I'm writing are in no way exhaustive, but meant to give some leading thoughts on how the text applies to us as disciples and to encourage and stimulate our growth in reading the Bible, with the effect that we will grow as disciples and encourage the growth of others as disciples growing in the word. If you would like a more descriptive commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary. It's keyed to the NIV, so the result is, the commentators are constantly telling you what the Greek or Hebrew is. That never hurts.

I am not endorsing any particular One Year Bible, in fact, no one in our church reads the version I do, die revidierte Lutherbibel 1984.

Anyone reading along with us is welcome to do so and encouraged to take their own notes and make their own observations. If the comments made do not agree with your particular tradition or understanding, that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any point of view, but only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as I understand it.

January 30, Reading Notes

What’s great about doing this reading with other people, like in a discipleship cell, is that you can discuss and hear other observations and try out some of your own and have people tell you that you might have overlooked something. For example, I was talking about this stuff with my wife, who told me that the comment I made about the magicians not being able to “create life,” had a problem because they were able to turn their sticks into snakes. I objected because I don’t consider snakes a valid life form, just like I don’t consider cauliflower a valid food unless you smother it in a cheese sauce, whereas I still wouldn’t like snakes even in cheese sauce. Anyway, where was I, oh yeah, she made a good point. Talking this stuff out in a group makes it fun and the Spirit leads you to other insights.

One other thing. This morning I read my German One Year Bible. In the German, the word they use for “fly,” means “biting fly.” That kind of puts a different curve on the curse of flies. Being a city boy, I automatically think of the common house fly, or in Latin, “buzzio obnoxyous.” If it was, in fact, a biting fly, that adds as the Germans would say, a little “music” to that plague.

Exodus 10:1-12:13

Ex. 10:1-20

Note that God does a great job of “coaching” Moses through all of this. He encourages Moses and lets him know what’s going to happen, even up to Pharaoh’s negative reaction. When we read this, it is very “one dimensional.” We don’t feel the emotion or see what was happening. Moses had to have been under tremendous pressure. Imagine walking into the White House or the capital of Tehran and delivering this message. God is being very good to Moses and Aaron in this very pressurized and deadly situation.

Also, this is the second time the Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart. That’s 2 out of 8, meaning that Pharaoh is winning in the “who can harden my heart more times” contest.

Egypt is now totally ruined economically. If something like this happened to the USA, it would knock us out of “superpower” standing and the country would be laid waste. What we don’t see, regardless of what country we call home, is that nationally and personally, we owe God a lot more than we think.

Egypt would never return to its former glory or strength, economically or militarily; and, interestingly, in this “superpower” vacuum, Israel would be able to grow, unhindered, as a nation. I guess God knew what He was doing.

Ex. 10:21-29

Obviously it must have been a supernatural darkness if lamps wouldn’t work.

God hardens Pharaoh’s heart (3 out of 9) and Pharaoh, rather than repentant and open, is angry and bitter. This is sort of like getting into a fight and you know you should have stopped but you didn’t and now the other guy has inflicted such damage on you that your pride won’t let you stop even though you know you should.

Ex. 11:1-10

Apparently before Moses left Pharaoh, he warned him of what was to come and, since Pharaoh wouldn’t listen, Moses left angry with his hardness of heart. When Jesus heals the man with the withered hand, the same thing happens. Jesus asks the Pharisees a question and they won’t answer and it says, “Jesus looked around Him in anger, grieved at their hardness of heart.” Interesting parallel.

Ex. 12:1-13

Lots to say here.

First, if you don’t know already, figure out what month this “first month” of their year is on our calendar.

Second, God is laying in place a national/cultural/personal tradition that will prepare them for the coming of the Christ. Talk about long-range planning. Think about the different parts of this preparation that connect to Jesus, salvation, and our redemption.

As disciples, our life and our call to follow Christ into the harvest, to reach out to dying people, begins with our appreciation and love for Him saving us. The Passover is a great picture of all of this.

When I read that they were to eat the meal fully ready to leave, it makes me think of how we, as disciples, are supposed to live on this planet. We are to be ready to work, to help, to share with others, to encourage and make disciples. Down here, we are always in the harvest.

Matthew 20:1-28

Matt. 20:1-16

Unfortunately, I probably would have been one of the guys complaining at the end of the story. So, what was the proper mindset?

First, there is appreciation for even getting hired (saved) to begin with. I find it easy to take my salvation for granted and think that I deserved it. The wonder of Him saving me is something that I should never “get over.”

Second, there is a focus on the harvest. We had a yard with two cherry trees and since it was rainy in Germany, the cherries would get ripe and then you’d have to “mach schnell” to get everything off the trees before the birds ate them or the cherries rotted. They’d rot right before your eyes. Everyone was busy with other things, and I was busy, too, but I remember being out there alone, working as quickly as I could, wishing anyone would help. I think, with an eye on the harvest, we don’t care who comes in the last hour and how much they are paid if we have a heart like our savior, not wanting any to perish.

Matt. 20:17-19

I don’t know if it’s just me, but doesn’t it seem like Jesus is “coaching” His disciples just like God was “coaching” Moses? He’s telling them, again, what is going to happen so that when it happens they remain strong, don’t “freak” too badly, and hold on to their faith.

Matt. 20:20-28

I’m not sure of all that was going on in the head of James and John’s mother. Did she believe Jesus was about to die? Did she think there would be a showdown in Jerusalem, with the boys emerging victorious? We’ll have to ask her.

Anyway, there is a lot of amazing stuff here for us as disciples. Are we willing to drink the cup? Are we willing to die as He died for the sake of saving lost people? Are we willing to be the servants of all? Read 1 Cor. 9:19ff. Let this section sink into you. Verse 28 is worth a million dollars if we could ever internalize it and live it. As disciples of Jesus, we are to do the same thing and live the same way in the harvest.

Psalm 25:1-15

I know I’ve been maimed forever. I just can’t read these psalms of David without my own heart being pulled at because of some of the terrain the Lord has taken me through. And, I believe, I hope, I’m closer and more useful to the Lord as a result of it.

What stands out to me is the crying out, the call to wait on the Lord, the desire to be taught and know the ways of the Lord and then the mention of friendship with the Lord.

Proverbs 6:6-11

Ok, grasshopper, look at the ant. (an old “kung-fu” joke)

For me, two thoughts help this “parable” apply to me.

First, this illustration has to do with anything that requires preparation, not simply getting ready for winter.

This could be anything from training for a career to preparing to meet God. The winter part intensifies the need, that is, “if you don’t do it now, you’ll die later.” I often think this is what made the northern Europeans a very organized and serious people. If you don’t prepare, you die. And thanks to that, we have IKEA!

Second, I qualify as this fool. And don’t be so smug, you do too. We all do at some point, in some area of our lives. And as if the deadening power of our own sin wasn’t bad enough, we have Satan telling us to sit back, relax, don’t sweat, God is in control, “hey, flip over to that channel,” or “hey, go and see what’s on youtube.”

Especially in the western world, our lives become overwhelmed with distraction and drifting, personally and in our churches. As disciples, God gives us purpose and focus in Christ and in the Harvest, and it rounds out our lives with love and family and meaning. We have Jesus as a model, who came to seek and to save that which is lost. Like David says above, we need to cry out and learn His ways and seek His friendship. And then you have Jesus saying that to follow Him you have to lose your life. But then you receive it back again in Him.

What God is asking us, as disciples, to do here, now, on earth, in the middle of this desperate tragedy, requires focus and work and sacrifice. What we get in return is secondary (although great). It is still work. We’re yoked to Jesus, but it is still work. But, love gives you wings.

A quote I like from Oswald Sanders’ Spiritual Leadership: “The heights by great men, reached and kept, were not attained by sudden flight, but they, while their companions slept, were toiling upward in the night.”

Great disciples are great leaders/servants, reaching out and making disciples, because they make and take the time now, to get closer to their Lord, instead of getting lulled to sleep by distraction.

If you’re reading along and don’t have a One Year Bible, click on this link Every Day in the Word. If that doesn't work, go to http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/devotions/ and click on “Every Day in the Word.” 

I'm writing these comments to and for those at New Song who are following a One Year Bible and involved in a discipleship cell. We're meeting weekly and discussing the texts, not necessarily my comments. We're growing together, learning to become and make disciples who make disciples. We will all be leading others in this process and training them to do likewise.

The comments I'm writing are in no way exhaustive, but meant to give some leading thoughts on how the text applies to us as disciples and to encourage and stimulate our growth in reading the Bible, with the effect that we will grow as disciples and encourage the growth of others as disciples growing in the word. If you would like a more descriptive commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary. It's keyed to the NIV, so the result is, the commentators are constantly telling you what the Greek or Hebrew is. That never hurts.

I am not endorsing any particular One Year Bible, in fact, no one in our church reads the version I do, die revidierte Lutherbibel 1984.

Anyone reading along with us is welcome to do so and encouraged to take their own notes and make their own observations. If the comments made do not agree with your particular tradition or understanding, that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any point of view, but only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as I understand it.

January 29, Reading Notes

Exodus 7:25-9:35

Ex. 8:1-15

Notice that the magicians did the same miracle and that Pharaoh hardened his own heart.

Ex. 8:16-19

Some say that the reason the magicians couldn’t imitate this miracle was that Satan’s power does not extend to the creation of life. I’m not sure that the frog “event” just involved rounding up all the already existent frogs, but I can see that. To take dust, and turn it into living things (gnats) is definitely a “class A” miracle, and I guess it shows us something about the spiritual world.

Note the repeated phrase regarding Pharaoh’s hardness, “as the Lord had said.” God was encouraging Moses and Aaron in this conflict by already telling them what would happen, and thereby, to expect this and to be strong and go forward. For us as disciples, this is why it is important to live in the Word. God tells us stuff like this all the time. A case in point is what Jesus tells his disciples in John 13-17. We are to expect opposition; God says so. But in opposition, we also can expect God’s presence and working to bear fruit.

Ex. 8:20-32

Notice that with the 4^th plague, God makes a division between the people of Israel and the people of Egypt. This means that Israel had also experienced the other stuff. God is a good teacher. Why do you think God let them experience the first three and now will keep them separate? In a way He does the same with us. He allows us to experience tough times so we’ll appreciate his blessing and the privilege of being able to follow Him as disciples in the harvest. I know I can take a lot for granted unless He teaches me to value it.

Isn’t it interesting that God could “ruin the land” by something as simple as frogs, gnats and flies? We have all this technology and think we’re so strong, and God can humble us with things we don’t even think about. I’ll bet the Egyptian FEMA was completely unprepared.

Ex. 9:1-7

So, pausing at the 5^th plague, overlooking the fields of dead animals, what do you think “Joe” Egyptian was thinking? Does it seem to you that things are escalating? It seems interesting that we don’t hear anything of the Egyptians themselves crying out to God. FYI, in Revelation, when similar things are happening, people don’t cry out to God either, they just keep getting madder at Him and kill His people.

Ex. 9:8-12

Ok, finally, God hardens Pharaoh’s heart. I’ll throw out something here we’ll see later with others, especially King Ahab, that when people have their hearts set to be stubborn or disobedient or stupid, God intensifies their bent. That means, they would naturally have done it anyway and so God intensifies their stubbornness to the point that their sin is visible to everyone. I don’t think Pharaoh would have changed his mind here and that God forced Him to resist. I think God intensified his hardness to the degree where it had no semblance of rationality. The effect will be that Pharaoh’s own people will start yelling at him.

Ex. 9:13-35

Note that God gave fair warning. There were Egyptians who feared the Lord and, as we will read later, many Egyptians went with the people of Israel when they left Egypt.

Note that Pharaoh hardens his own heart.

Notice that we are reminded that it was all going as God said it would. As disciples we need to remember, too, that Jesus has promised both joy and opposition as we work to bear fruit in the harvest.

Matthew 19:13-30

Matt. 19:13-15

The disciples were repeat offenders regarding stiff-arming children. Children have a God-given ability to believe and trust. Anyone who has worked with children know, that properly taught, kids can make a valid, strong, saving commitment to Christ at a very young age. To ignore this openness allows sin to grow in their lives, and allows their hearts to become distrustful and complicated like this next guy.

Matt. 19:16-22

This guy was a nice guy and Mark says that Jesus loved him. Loving him meant extending the offer to follow, but, in love, Jesus had to put His finger on the idol in this person’s life. If you look at this challenge Jesus gave him, you can see a couple different areas where there would have been conflict, but the real answer was in really believing in Jesus and wanting to follow Him.

So many of the verses dealing with following Christ end with the idea that He must be our passion, our Lord and the most important thing/person in our life. If this is so, following is natural. If this isn’t the case, following becomes doing religious things, like going to church and giving money to convince ourselves and others that we are followers.

Matt. 19:23-30

Lots of good stuff here, so just a few notes.

Almost all who live in the western world are rich according to biblical standards. How hard is it to depend on Christ and follow Him when we can buy comfort and convenience? I think we fool ourselves thinking it is easy to follow Christ in the land of milk and honey and live lives that are only shadows of what it means to follow Christ in this dying world. I’m challenging myself on this one all the time.

Lots of people “wax elephants” regarding the “eye of the needle.” Just to simplify, Luke, the doctor, uses the word for “surgical” needle. No kneeling camel would have gotten through there.

The crux of the matter in following Christ in the harvest, bearing fruit, making disciples who make disciples, is what are we willing to give up, sacrifice. Jesus sacrificed and we are to follow Him in this. But we are scared silly thinking of what we’ll have to give up. I’m amazed, given the deadly gravity of the situation on earth and people around us, that God decides to give us anything. I watched “Band of Brothers” and “The Pacific” and when you see what these guys had to endure in battle, not only the conditions of heat or cold but the maggoty rice, you think that God could expect the same from us. But instead He “richly bestows on us everything to enjoy.” The real paradox here, and what separates the men from the boys, is that the true closeness to Jesus and the true riches of his blessings and joy are found in the middle of the harvest field. Those who dwell on the outskirts only know the blessings of the outskirts.

Psalm 24

Once again a beautiful Psalm. Note that verses 7-10 were used by Handel in the “Messiah.”

Proverbs 6:1-5

The thing to look at here, which will come up again, is the warning about being deeply connected to others who have different values. Many preachers will use these verses to say that God is against co-signing for a loan for your kids or a relative. Well there might be some wisdom even there, but still, I think the force here is against making yourself responsible or liable for someone with very different values. This would be along the lines of what God says via Paul about being unequally yoked to unbelievers. Actually, I’ve met some believers I wouldn’t go into business with. The principle and warning is here. We need to bring this before the Lord before we make a tight connection with anyone.

As disciples, we need to be understanding, and ask God about everything. In our desire to help the lost and needy, we don’t need to be God for them. God will take care of people without us having to take a second mortgage out on the house. In the same way, when we hook up with other Christians in the harvest, who are different enough to keep us from doing God’s work, that can also lead to malfunctions. There is a good reason for different churches and different confessions. Sadly, if we all had to work together, we’d probably never get anything done.

If you’re reading along and don’t have a One Year Bible, click on this link Every Day in the Word. If that doesn't work, go to http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/devotions/ and click on “Every Day in the Word.” 

I'm writing these comments to and for those at New Song who are following a One Year Bible and involved in a discipleship cell. We're meeting weekly and discussing the texts, not necessarily my comments. We're growing together, learning to become and make disciples who make disciples. We will all be leading others in this process and training them to do likewise.

The comments I'm writing are in no way exhaustive, but meant to give some leading thoughts on how the text applies to us as disciples and to encourage and stimulate our growth in reading the Bible, with the effect that we will grow as disciples and encourage the growth of others as disciples growing in the word. If you would like a more descriptive commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary. It's keyed to the NIV, so the result is, the commentators are constantly telling you what the Greek or Hebrew is. That never hurts.

I am not endorsing any particular One Year Bible, in fact, no one in our church reads the version I do, die revidierte Lutherbibel 1984.

Anyone reading along with us is welcome to do so and encouraged to take their own notes and make their own observations. If the comments made do not agree with your particular tradition or understanding, that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any point of view, but only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as I understand it.

Prayer Update, January 27, 2011

I just want to send a quick update for prayer.

Laura and I are leaving tomorrow to go to "boot camp" with Acts 29 in Orlando. Since New Song doesn't have a mother church and we are not connected to a network, we are hoping to become part of the Acts 29 church planting network. This won't give us finances, but it will give us accountability, "community," and access to some resources.

If you want more info on Acts 29: http://www.acts29network.org/

We're going to be driving through Memphis and Atlanta and staying with the Youderians in Orlando. One big goal is to spend some time with Mom Youderian.

So pray for safety and the Lord's will in all of this. I've done a lot of work on the application for Acts 29 and Laura & I will be given an assessment on Friday, Feb. 4, to see if we are accepted. All we want is the Lord's will.

Pray for an opportunity that we have to do a Good News Club in an elementary school here. It kind of looks like we're getting a green light, but the light hasn't gone on yet.

Pray for our youth group, Outbreak. We're slowly starting up, but need to be in our community doing this.

Pray for financial support to rent a building in our area. The Lord has led us to a guy who is managing this building for a woman. He is a great Christian guy who goes to a church we have worked with, is on the city council and is now in the state legislature. The landlady is also a believer and would love this place to be used for outreach. She's willing to give us a great deal on the rent, including a couple months free rent and will adjust the rent according to the fixing up we do. We're looking at $2000 rent plus about $700 in utilities per month. What we need is to find some people who are willing to give 20-30-40 dollars monthly support to New Song. Anyway, pray for this need and ask the Lord whether this is something you could help us with.

When we get back from Orlando, I'll be making some personal calls to people the Lord puts on my heart. If you think you might be one of these people, feel free to head me off at the pass and start supporting us now. :)

This past month, any spare time I've had has been consumed by caring for my mother. Before Christmas it looked like her health was slipping and then she began having confusion and falling and ended up in the ER 3 times in 2 weeks. This past week, the Lord amazingly opened a door for her to go into a very, very nice nursing home. In spite of the place being great and a gift from God, it is a tough change and adjustment for her. I've also been surprised at the emotional energy it's taken from me. It is great to be close to the Lord in times like this. So pray for Janet (my mom) as she and the staff get used to one another. I think she'll like it.

Thanks for praying with and for us. If you're interested, follow along with us in reading through a one-year Bible in 2011. I post my notes on http://www.pastordan.net

In Christ, Dan and Laura

New Song Community Church

2108 E. Sheridan Bridge Ln.

Olathe, KS 66062

913 375 4664

dgkachikis@gmail.com

January 28, Reading Notes

Exodus 5:22-7:24

Ex. 5:22-23

One of the challenges we have as disciples, is telling and showing people from God's Word, what they are to do, and then watching them, and listening to them endure hardship for their actions. We encourage them from the Word to tell the truth.  So, they don't lie at work and get fired. We tell them to pray, but it seems like things get worse. We tell them to live for Christ, and they get laughed at by their spouses or friends. Learning though patience and hardship is not the exception, it is the rule. This is why many people give up as disciples. Jesus did not say the way was easy, He said being yoked to Him made it easier. He is the Key, and the love thereof.

Moses has over a million people mad at him and the turn of events here is killing him. This was supposed to lead to an easy victory. In his thinking, every play would be a touchdown or at least a first down. He never thought they'd lose yards or get hit at the line of scrimmage.

Moses was learning, as all true disciples must, that when you are following, there has to be absolute, strong, patient, confidence in the Lord. You never assume you know the path He will take. You just follow. You learn that God uses all the malfunctions of men and of happenstance to accomplish His will. You learn that sometimes the blown play or the "sack" is setting you up for the touchdown. As the bumper sticker says, "With Christ, the only way to lose is to quit." And even here, He might let you get to the place of quitting, to lift you up and renew your heart in a way that makes you stronger in Christ than you ever would have been if you hadn't been defeated.

Here, Israel has doubted God and Moses, and Pharaoh has grown arrogant, and Moses has grown humbler than ever. The stage is set.

Ex. 6:1-13

Just for interest, circle in this sections where God speaks and where Moses speaks. God appreciates that Moses is a "D-1" and needs direct commands and coaching.

Just a couple things.

First, God confirms the promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, points to the land promised, and now the redemption of the people out of slavery. This promise would have been the content of their faith in God. The sacrificial system would point them to the reality of sin and their need for forgiveness, but the prime object of Faith is the covenant-keeping God who promises. These people had the account of history, even as Moses is writing it here, that goes back to the promise of redemption at the fall, the saving of Noah and the promise to Abraham.  Since they had this history, the person of Faith would understand that the God of the Covenant had a greater plan than just giving a couple million people a homestead.

I say all of this because the unfolding of the plan of redemption was progressive. They didn't know about Jesus, but there was Yahweh who chose them and made promises of redemption. Here and there, there is hint at the future, for example, the dying words Jacob spoke to Judah, but it would take faith to see beyond those vague references to the redemption God was working for all of mankind. What kind of faith? Faith focused on Yahweh, who promises and keeps covenants, and then they would sense the scope of God's work. The heart of flesh would only understand their need as immediate, and the promises, as nationalistic.

Notice in v. 9 that the heart-broken people reject Moses in spite of the encouragement God has just given him. Maybe God gave Moses that strong encouragement to help him withstand the rejection of this bitter people? For a disciple, God's encouragement doesn't always signal success, but perhaps rather, that God is preparing us to endure what's coming. Encouraging thought, huh?

God is now telling the discouraged Moses what to do in command form. Moses' words in v.12 are explained by what happened in v. 9. God charges, commands, orders, Moses and Aaron to "just do it."

Ex. 6:14-27

This partial genealogy begins with Reuben in order to place the tribe of Levi in its proper place in the sons of Jacob. The genealogy of Levi is the only real focus here and therefore doesn't go beyond Levi. The purpose is to show where Moses and Aaron came from. This is like a formal introduction, I suppose.

Interesting that Moses named his son after the first born of Levi.

In this list there is a cast of characters who will have the stage for bad and for good in the next 2 books. The greatest of these is Phinehas, who is referred to as a hero throughout all of Israel's history and is alluded to in the last OT book, Malachi. Cool dude.

By the way, this last thought comes from reading the Bible every year and making little connections year after year until, like doing a puzzle, you slowly see the picture. Very cool.

Ex. 6:28-7:9

The time marker "on the day" indicates, I think, the chapter should have begun here.

Notice the ages given for Moses and Aaron. Most people wouldn't go back and re-read the story of Moses, but with his age in mind, you will begin reading next year and see what he does when he is 40 and you'll read the next sections understanding that Moses was prepared by God for 40 years in the wilderness.  This will help you understand Moses and God in a deeper way. And that's another reason why reading your Bible through every year is an "awesome" thing. (Just wanting to see if Jeff is reading.)

I don't want to say much about the hardening of Pharaoh's heart. As you read, make a note in your Bible when Pharaoh hardens his own heart and when is says God hardens Pharaoh's heart. There might be a lesson in that.

Ex. 7:10-13, the battle begins

Note that Pharaoh's boys were good at magic…tapping in to Satan's power. This should blow your mind, but not scare you. For all the power of the unseen spiritual forces, God doesn’t draw our attention to them that often, meaning, God thinks we know enough. If we know they're there and we follow Christ in the Spirit and in the Word, we'll be OK. The effect was that these signs by his magicians hardened Pharaoh's heart, even though the magicians had to go out and get new sticks.

Ex. 7:14-24

Your observations here are better than anything I have to say. Just a couple of notes. The "ministry" of Moses and Aaron here is what the "ministry" of the two witnesses in Rev. 11:3 will look like. When they declare a judgment on earth, a seal is broken in heaven, and all "hell" breaks loose on the hard of heart.

Also, since it is mentioned later that those plagues didn't affect Goshen, where the Israelites lived, I assume that some of the delta area of the Nile was also turned to blood. This wouldn't have been to punish Israel, but to encourage them by showing them what God was doing down yonder at Casa de Pharaoh.

Matthew 18:23-19:12

Matt. 18:23-35

For the disciple, true biblical forgiveness rests in and is empowered by our own forgiveness from God. This forgiveness springs as much from a heart that has received mercy, as it does from a heart that is grounded in a biblical/spiritual perspective of reality. We all are dead, we all are hopeless debtors. This reality of our salvation and the grace given to us on this planet, makes a disciple live an "other worldly" life, that is, a life of full understanding of what is happening on earth and in heaven. That's why Matt. 5:39-48 seems so unreachable to people. It is because we are grasping on to our rights and life on earth as if this is all of reality, and that life on earth should be good.

Now, if we as disciples cannot forgive others, and I'm not saying "trust" or "accept their version of reality" or "kiss twice on each cheek" or "go on vacation with;" I'm saying "placing the right to demand justice or payment in God's hands," then it shows that we have a faulty understanding of our own debt and the forgiveness we have received.

In my experience, any person and even a disciple, who arrogantly withholds forgiveness of this kind and cannot do good for an enemy, will not be released from the penalty and punishment for his own ongoing sins. God takes even his disciples to task in those areas of failure and restoration we walk through on a daily basis, until we learn to forgive from the heart as He forgives us. This kind of situation always has more to do with us and God, than us and some other person. Christ loves His followers too much, than to let us get away with this misunderstanding of His sacrifice and grace.

Matt. 19:1-12

Just some notes here.

Vs. 4-6 are very clear teaching on marriage. It is a union first, and then a sexual “one flesh” union. It is between a male and a female. “Male and Female” is the only way to be "one flesh" in God’s eyes.  It is how God created us. It is what God wants. All other variations are wrong. God is not open to discussion, but will forgive the variations if people will agree to His way and repent. 

So yes, sex outside of marriage is sin.  Adultery is sin.  Homosexuality is sin.  And it is God who says so and He loves us and will forgive and restore us, if there is agreement with Him and if we repent.  He is not going to change this order of creation anymore than He’ll change the direction of the rotation of the earth because we demand it of Him.  He is the creator.  He knows what is best for us and He will forgive us.

V.6, Jesus is teaching that God never intended people to divorce. God joins together and means it to be forever. That's a pretty heavy thought. It is a spiritual union whether we agree with Him or not.

Vs. 7-9, God allowed divorce and remarriage, because of our unwillingness to listen to Him, just like Pharaoh. He has built the need for completeness so deeply in us, as the essence of us, that it is irresistible to us. We may not understand it and just relegate it to hormones and sexual behavior, but it is a very deep spiritual need and will drive us whether we understand it or not.

In adultery the "covenant" is broken. This is inevitable in divorce and remarriage. Somehow, in all of this dysfunctional humanity, God allows for restoration and forgiveness and order and renewal, but it always has a price.  Grace can overcome the effects.

Vs. 10-12, The disciples are shocked because marriages back then always had an escape clause, just like today. To think of marriage being "permanently" was scary to them.

Jesus says that for the kingdom, some people make the decision (and Paul adds, have the gift) to live without marriage for the purpose of serving God. They are figurative, not literal, eunuchs. I have only met a couple people in my life who have this gift. It is the exception, not the rule. It is the grace of God to them, either for a lifetime or for a period of time, totally focused on serving Christ as a disciple in the harvest, that the need for completion is satisfied, or held in check, without marriage and oneness.  For most of us, a few hours is all we can stand.  That is not the gift.  In fact, some of us don’t understand this “gift” as a “gift.”  Sorry, Paul.

Notice that it is "he who has ears," so not everyone will "hear" or be able to do this. Of all the things certain groups have enforced on their clergy, abstinence from marriage has been one of the most damaging and the most unbiblical. And they've used these verses to enforce or prove their teaching. In 1 Tim. 4:1-3 Paul says that forbidding marriage comes from lies and the doctrines of demons. Satan knows we need marriage, too, and saying we shouldn’t do it, is a good way to warp us.

Psalm 23

Enjoy!

Proverbs 5:22-23

Beware! A lack of discipline will always catch us, as disciples, in the keester. We are to hear Christ's Word and do it, following Him in the harvest, reaching the lost, making disciples who make disciples. Accept no substitutes, even if they look “holy” or “Christian”.  At times we need distractions and down time, but it takes discipline to say "no" to distractions and follow and work and sweat and strain and bring forth fruit with patience in the harvest .

Especially where sin is involved, we need discipline, and we need to allow God to use events and people and responsibilities to help us as He prunes us to make us fulfilled and fruitful in the harvest. Read Hebrews 12:1-13 for some motivation on this point.

If you’re reading along and don’t have a One Year Bible, click on this link Every Day in the Word. If that doesn't work, go to http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/devotions/ and click on “Every Day in the Word.” 

I'm writing these comments to and for those at New Song who are following a One Year Bible and involved in a discipleship cell. We're meeting weekly and discussing the texts, not necessarily my comments. We're growing together, learning to become and make disciples who make disciples. We will all be leading others in this process and training them to do likewise.

The comments I'm writing are in no way exhaustive, but meant to give some leading thoughts on how the text applies to us as disciples and to encourage and stimulate our growth in reading the Bible, with the effect that we will grow as disciples and encourage the growth of others as disciples growing in the word. If you would like a more descriptive commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary. It's keyed to the NIV, so the result is, the commentators are constantly telling you what the Greek or Hebrew is. That never hurts.

I am not endorsing any particular One Year Bible, in fact, no one in our church reads the version I do, die revidierte Lutherbibel 1984.

Anyone reading along with us is welcome to do so and encouraged to take their own notes and make their own observations. If the comments made do not agree with your particular tradition or understanding, that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any point of view, but only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as I understand it.

January 27, Reading Notes

Exodus 4:1-5:21

Ex. 4:1-17

Now I wasn't there, but my feeling from this whole exchange is that Moses is trying to get out of following God due to self pity. He was ready when he was 40, but now he's an old man and just throwing up excuses. God is merciful and patient with him, but even God gets ticked off.

As disciples we talk ourselves out of working in the harvest. We knock on a door and hope no one is home. We drive out to the place where we're doing our work looking for excuses to get out of making contacts. I hate it when I do that. I recognize it for what it is and go back and knock on a few doors just to spite myself.

Ex. 4:18-31

It is probably good to have a map of the area to get an idea of what is happening here.

When Moses ran from Egypt, he traveled completely across the Sinai Peninsula, east of the northern point of the gulf of Aqaba into the land of Midian. No wonder the Egyptians never found him. God is speaking to Moses at Mt. Sinai (Mt. Horeb, same place). He leaves and goes back north along the gulf and then east into Midian. There he says good-bye to his father-in-law. He gathers the wife and son and heads back to Mt. Sinai. God has already spoken to Aaron, and he is on the way to meet Moses at Sinai.

But back at the motel there is this strange thing going on. My take on it is this. Moses told Zipporah that Gershom had to be circumcised. She put down her foot and said no son of hers would be turned into a "girlie-man." Moses didn't press the issue until he got a deep and hard sickness in the inn. It was obvious to both Moses and Zipporah that God was doing this to Moses and that it was because of the circumcision issue. In God's ironic sense of humor, Moses is now too sick to do the cutting, so this very, very mad mother grabs the knife and goes after this teen boy who has never seen his mother this crazy, with a knife in her hand, made out of sharp stone. How sharp does stone get? I can't imagine it gets sharp enough for this purpose. She doesn't care. She'd use a car key if she had one. Anyway, she finishes and expresses words of adoration to Moses as she wipes the bloody foreskin against his feet. Although the operation had nothing to do with his vocal chords, Gershom is unable to speak for weeks. (I wasn't there so some of this might not be completely accurate.)

The meeting with Aaron and Moses seems to indicate that they had had a close relationship before Moses left Egypt. In a very abbreviated form, their meeting with the elders of Israel is mentioned and apparently, for now, it was a hit and all is well.

Ex. 5:1-21

There are lots of interesting things in these verses, but for me v.20-21 are important for us as disciples. Following Jesus in the harvest means going against the flow. Leading people to trust Christ or to live as disciples will create opposition. A disciple is not better than his master. When opposition comes and life gets hard, it tests our devotion to Christ, to just simply follow. That is exactly what is happening here. Even with the signs they had seen from Moses, their hardship stripped away their faith. They would rather be silent and live like slaves, although they are God's people, than deal with the wrath of unbelieving men.

A disciple is devoted to Jesus. Jesus' salvation and love and grace overwhelms our vision and our desire for life on earth. His truth frees our hearts to give our lives as he did, to make disciples in a lost, dying world.

Matthew 18:1-22

One note in this entire section is that you see Jesus using two illustrations that he's used elsewhere, here, though in a different context. For me, this adds a fuller sense of Jesus as a teacher. Jesus taught the same messages and preached the same sermons over and over. He probably had some stories or illustrations that he used over and over. Here, for the second time in Matthew, he uses the "eye-hand" illustration in a slightly different way. Also, he uses the lost sheep story in this context.

Matt. 18:1-14

So, how do you connect these paragraphs? Don't give yourself a headache, but do try to make sense of how these 4 paragraphs flow together in Jesus' thought.

There are a jumble of thoughts in the context that might help thinking about the paragraphs: the truth-suppressing teaching of the Pharisees, the thought that one disciple is better than another (comparison and degrees of worth), humility, pride, etc…

Jesus is saying that humility and simplicity of faith is the goal. Anything that complicates us, our motives, our focus, our purpose in life, gets in the way of faith. Faith in following Christ must be first. Age, intelligence or education are not factors if a person has true faith. So, what is the warning all about? What causes one of these little ones to stumble or sin? Pharisaic expectations applied to faith? Unbiblical religious requirements? These beliefs hamstrung the faith of a lot of people in Israel. And the same happens today.

But liberal teaching does the same thing. "You'd have to be a fool to think that God did that without evolution." "God couldn't have done that in 7 days." "We don't have to believe all the Bible is trustworthy in every point because…." These are all crazy arguments on both the conservative and the liberal sides, and those with very simple faith stumble when all of this is laid on them as "truth."

Earlier, the "eye-hand" warning applied to doing something we like, that is doing us harm. It was personal. Here, it has something to do with our influence or modeling or leadership toward others. In the New Testament letters you find the writers fighting against two extremes that cause stumbling, traditionalism (Galatians and Hebrews) and liberty (1 Corinthians and Rom. 14). In both cases, faith in following Christ in the harvest is destroyed. Paul had the right approach in 1 Cor. 9:19ff. Jesus says that if what you are doing causes someone to stumble in their faith or growth in Christ as a disciple, get rid of it.

Funny how Jesus brings this section back to the focus on salvation. In the immediate context you would have to say that it is important to God that we work to save children, whereas most ministry is focused on adults. It still is true that most people come to Christ between ages 5-16. Go CEF!

Matt. 18:15-22

So, Jesus has mentioned "sinning" and "offense," so it is logical that He would answer the question, "what do we do if we find a brother doing this." Having given a warning about making others sin or stumble, Jesus is now going to give a warning about not forgiving .

Just some notes here.

First, this procedure is for personal offense against a person.

Second, this order is a command. We should use this order.

Third, as with anything, there are exceptions to the rule, for example, a rape victim is not required to have a personal meeting with her attacker before calling the cops.

Fourth, the church has spiritual authority. People might not agree with it and just leave to go to another church, but that particular group of believers has the authority to make a judgment and God will consider it binding. Look at 1 Cor. 5.

Fifth, although we are to forgive 70x7 when they ask for forgiveness, if someone has stolen $10,000 from you, forgiving doesn't mean entrusting them with another $10,000. There is a difference between forgiveness, restitution, trust and restoration of a relationship. I've learned to be cautious around people who try to push forgiveness too far too quickly.

Psalm 22:19-31

There's a lot of "salvation" going on in this portion of the psalm. A great way to end a psalm that begins with the foreshadowing of the afflictions that Jesus suffered.

In a sense it is the same for us as disciples. When we value our salvation, and when we see how He saves us from danger as we work in the harvest, it moves us to give greater and more confident praise of God to others.

Proverbs 5:15-21

Ok, who says obeying God is all work?

There is a lot of wisdom here and safety for the married man. Do this with the intensity of verses 18 & 19, and the other verses of warning will be just that, warnings. How else do you say it? Men should make their relationship with their wife their greatest passion and hobby. If men will lead and take the time necessary, there is a satisfaction here for both that goes to the soul and makes that thing that happens at the end seem trivial and anticlimactic. But that's all I'll say or I'll lose my PG-13 rating.

But here too, Solomon, like us, got distracted with all his work and hobbie. He became attracted to sensuality in other women, many of them, I'm sure, putting on a wild show so they could become part of his city of wives. But that one woman who really loved him, with whom the need of his soul would be satisfied, the one he wrote about in Song of Solomon, got lost….and so did he.

If you’re reading along and don’t have a One Year Bible, click on this link Every Day in the Word. If that doesn't work, go to http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/devotions/ and click on “Every Day in the Word.” 

I'm writing these comments to and for those at New Song who are following a One Year Bible and involved in a discipleship cell. We're meeting weekly and discussing the texts, not necessarily my comments. We're growing together, learning to become and make disciples who make disciples. We will all be leading others in this process and training them to do likewise.

The comments I'm writing are in no way exhaustive, but meant to give some leading thoughts on how the text applies to us as disciples and to encourage and stimulate our growth in reading the Bible, with the effect that we will grow as disciples and encourage the growth of others as disciples growing in the word. If you would like a more descriptive commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary. It's keyed to the NIV, so the result is, the commentators are constantly telling you what the Greek or Hebrew is. That never hurts.

I am not endorsing any particular One Year Bible, in fact, no one in our church reads the version I do, die revidierte Lutherbibel 1984.

Anyone reading along with us is welcome to do so and encouraged to take their own notes and make their own observations. If the comments made do not agree with your particular tradition or understanding, that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any point of view, but only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as I understand it.

January 26, Reading Notes

The value of reading a One Year Bible is about to be displayed. In about 20 chapters we will, figuratively speaking, enter the wilderness. Most people begin to lose interest after Ex. 20 when God begins giving Israel all the cultural/ceremonial laws of the nation of God. Thankfully, you'll also be reading a Gospel and the Psalms and Proverbs during your wilderness wandering in the OT. Not only that, since we're doing this together, the comments and "togetherness" of this will help you get through to the action of Joshua and beyond. Enduring the wilderness of Exodus-Leviticus-Numbers-Deuteronomy will do you a lot of good. Not only will you be fit from your journey, but having gone through it, you'll see some things you've never seen before.

Exodus 2:11-3:22

Ex. 2:11-15

Note the passage of time here. We find out later that Moses is 40 when he does this. I guess he was sort of "grown up." Note also that between vs. 20-23 another 40 years go by.

You find people saying that miracles happened in the Bible all the time, one right after the other. Then they say that the reason miracles don't happen now, like they did in the Bible, is that we don't ask the Spirit. We have put God in a "box." Apparently they don't pay attention to the Bible itself and the passage of time. And also, God's actions here were not dependent on the faith of a person or any group of people. He acted according to His purposes in His time.

Note that Moses had the right idea. He knew the details of his birth and felt God was with him and that God might use him to deliver the people. Good perception. Then Moses acts without consulting God, serving God from the gut, and in a hormonal moment kills an Egyptian.  As the up and coming ruler of Egypt, he could have just ordered him to stop, but that doesn’t look good in an action movie.  The result is a disaster. Now, God uses the disaster, but it is wrong all the same to think that the end justifies the means.

Moses' idealism got an overhaul when he thought people would appreciate what he had done for them. It takes you a long time to realize that your service, as a disciple, is to Jesus and is not dependent on recognition from people. To serve for recognition always leads to a bad result.

Ex. 2:16-25

V.17, I can imagine that with the loss of his dreams, Moses (Charlton Heston?) looked like someone you didn't want to mess with, especially if he was wearing a lot of eye make-up like the Egyptians in the movies.

Just like Joseph, Moses names his son in terms of his disappointment with life. It would be like a kid saying, "Hey, Dad, how did you decide to name me, "over qualified" and my brother, "they didn't call me back?"

What God was waiting for was the readiness of the people to be saved. The most unthankful thing you can do is to try to save people who "don't need it." This crying out to God was apparently from every person and at a great intensity of need. It wasn't God who was now ready. It was the people.

As disciples, I really think in praying and asking God for fruit, His "waiting" is really His waiting on us to be at the point of personal need and investment so that if He gives us what we're asking for, we'll really want it and appreciate it. Few people really know how to pursue God in desperation and crying out. If we're hungry, we go to the refrigerator, or pull out a piece of plastic at the store or drive thru. We don't wait on the Lord, desperately seeking His answer. He waits to see if we mean it. Most often we don't.

Ex. 3:1-6

So now Moses is 80. Not exactly the time when you think you'll finally be "useful."

So, who is the Angel of the Lord? His words give Him away.

Find a map. Note that Moses is a long way from Egypt.

Note also that the Promise has picked up a "Phrase of Authenticity," the God of A, I, and J, shorthand for "the God of the Promise."

Ex. 3:7-22

Some notes here:

I think Moses is going to feel sorry for himself because of his blown attempt back when his biceps didn't sag. We'll see that self pity more tomorrow, but it begins to shine through here.

The name of God is first given here. While the other names are descriptive, (El Shaddai= God Almighty or God of Power), "I am" means "to be," or "is."  It isn’t “the God who is ever living,” it is simply “Ever-living.”  His essence, not his character or ability.

Here is some trivia. This name was messed up in English for years because of the effects of Babel. The Hebrew consonants are YHWH. The Germans and old English pronounce those letters as JHVH. The Jews didn't want to pronounce the name of God, so they substituted the word "Lord" or Adoni. Someone took the consonants JHVH and put them together with the vowels of Lord and a new word appeared in English "JaHoViH," which became the word "Jehovah," which actually is no name at all, but came to signify the name of God, which was really probably pronounced "Yahweh." Anyway.

Finally, God gives Moses a short summary of what will happen. The most important parts are Pharaoh's opposition and then the exodus of the people. If God can tell Moses that he'll win, then all should be well, right? Wrong. Moses still has some problems.

Matthew 17:10-27

Matt. 17:10-12

I always wonder how they knew one of those guys was Moses and the other Elijah. Did they have name badges? The question of Elijah came up because it was prophesized that Elijah would come before the Christ. Jesus had already said that John the Baptist was Elijah, in that he came in the spirit and power of Elijah and that his assignment was very similar, trying to turn the people to God before the coming judgment on the nation. Jesus uses this opportunity to say that just like John, He, too, will suffer at the hands of men.

Matt. 17:14-21

The thing that strikes me here is that the disciples must have given up trying to heal the child. Faced with difficulty and the on-looking crowd, they gave up.

Jesus' rebuke of the faithless generation probably includes the crowd and the disciples. His words to the disciples indicate that if they'd had faith, it would have worked. Elsewhere Jesus says that that kind of demon only came out with prayer and fasting. Apparently, they were looking for "quick and easy" and with the pressure of the crowd, they didn't persist and cry out to God.

Matt. 17:22-27

It is good to ask why certain stories are included by the writer. What you're looking for is a logical connection.

So here, standing alone, you have this little story of Peter fishing and finding money in a fish’s mouth. Cool. Interestingly, the story only involves Peter, not the other guys. Also, Peter, the future leader, is being confronted by the IRS. So why this event?

I don't know. I wasn't there. But, I think the answer has to do with verses 22-23 and Peter. When Jesus told the disciples he was going to die, they were all greatly distressed. The emphasis here is on greatly. It was hitting them that Jesus was going to die and now they are very afraid and depressed.

So, it looks to me like Jesus decides to pull the lead disciple out of the pits by showing Him that He still has everything under control and can provide for them as needed. That Peter has to go fishing, like he did before when he let down the nets, was confirmation that "following" is necessary to see God provide. I think after this, Peter helped rally the troops.

Psalm 22:1-18

Just a couple of notes here:

First, notice the need to cry out. Just like in Exodus.

Second, this is a psalm that is quoted often by Jesus or about Jesus (the Messiah) and therefore is called a "Messianic Psalm."

In this psalm, how many points of connection can you find to Jesus?

How many verses do you recognize having to do with His crucifixion?

Proverbs 5:7-14

These verses are a continuation of what Solomon is telling his son about adultery. Here, Solomon is talking about the life changing effects and how his son/or we, will hate himself if he falls into it, sees his life unravel, and later understands what a fool he was. Us, too. In spite of what the media shows us or says, sexuality outside of God's design (in or outside of marriage) hurts people. With the right precautions, a fire is a great thing in your fireplace. It's not so good in the middle of your living room, regardless of precautions.

If you’re reading along and don’t have a One Year Bible, click on this link Every Day in the Word. If that doesn't work, go to http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/devotions/ and click on “Every Day in the Word.” 

I'm writing these comments to and for those at New Song who are following a One Year Bible and involved in a discipleship cell. We're meeting weekly and discussing the texts, not necessarily my comments. We're growing together, learning to become and make disciples who make disciples. We will all be leading others in this process and training them to do likewise.

The comments I'm writing are in no way exhaustive, but meant to give some leading thoughts on how the text applies to us as disciples and to encourage and stimulate our growth in reading the Bible, with the effect that we will grow as disciples and encourage the growth of others as disciples growing in the word. If you would like a more descriptive commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary. It's keyed to the NIV, so the result is, the commentators are constantly telling you what the Greek or Hebrew is. That never hurts.

I am not endorsing any particular One Year Bible, in fact, no one in our church reads the version I do, die revidierte Lutherbibel 1984.

Anyone reading along with us is welcome to do so and encouraged to take their own notes and make their own observations. If the comments made do not agree with your particular tradition or understanding, that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any point of view, but only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as I understand it.

January 25, Reading Notes

Genesis 50

Gen. 50:1-14

So, what are your impressions, observations, feelings reading this section?

Gen. 50:15-21

I wonder if Jacob really told them to say this to Joseph. Joseph's statement, "you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good," is famous. If you've been following these reading notes, you understand a little more of the process God used to bring Joseph to this point of maturity and understanding. If you do see this process, and hadn't seen it before this year, then praise God. That kind of spiritual growth in understanding, is what this is all about. God uses His word to form our hearts so that, as we enter situations or when events happen to us, these truths, these observations and confirmations from the Spirit, give us patience and hope and perspective. We make a decision here, or we are patient there, where we wouldn't have been before, but this is the Spirit working maturity in us. Without the Spirit and the Word, we'd be sunk, but with them active in our lives, though we are slow in learning and keep on falling, He lifts us up, shows and confirms to us the way, and leads us on in hope. This is what makes being a disciple (living close to and following Jesus in the harvest) a joy, and the only way to fly.

Gen. 50:22-26

Joseph's life had a happy end….just like a Disney movie. Joe was 17 when sold to the Midianites, 30 when he was brought out of prison and set over Egypt, 39 when he was reunited with his father, 56 when Jacob died and 110 when he died. All of that is in the text and easy to figure out. What is more important is for you to be able to see this and then sit back and see the different periods of his life and how the Lord blessed him in terms of relationship and family and peace. His life looks much different, in those respects, than Jacob's. Following the Lord, being Jesus' disciple and hearing and doing His Word, makes the difference. Circumstances do not dictate a disciple's joy and heart and relationships and peace, the Lord does.

Joseph knew the exodus was coming and reminded Israel that God would fulfill His promise.

Exodus 1:1-2:10

I just have some thoughts and notes here.

First, timewise, Israel grew in Egypt about 430 years, from Jacob moving there to the exodus. This length of time you get from a Bible handbook or study Bible. You can figure this out from the Bible itself, but you've got to be a lot better at math than I am. The question that interests me is, "How long were they slaves?" Again, a reference work might have that length, but you can also figure from the text that it was at least 100-130 years. I say this because Moses leads the people out of Egypt when he was 80, so they were slaves at least that long. And, the slavery began before his birth.

Second, God used the slavery. What a funny way to prepare Israel to build a new nation. When you read what they went through, think about what that might have "positively" built into the people. Also, the slavery gave them the "need to leave" Egypt, heaven on earth. As disciples, we need to understand that God can use all sorts of things in our lives and in the lives of those we are reaching out to or leading as disciples. It might be uncomfortable, but we need to be slow to judge God's allowance of difficulties in our lives.

Third, God, in His timing and wisdom, knew the right time to begin things. It is hard to say here that the people were spiritual. The fulfilling of the promise was not dependent on them, it was fully dependent on God. He let 350 years go by and then suddenly it was time. Moses was born. And then we'll see 80 years of preparation in Moses' life, 40 of which were lived in defeat in the wilderness.

The hardest thing for a very energetic disciple is waiting on the Lord when He is slowly preparing things, and most often, us, for the work He has in mind.

Ex. 2:2... I wonder if I would have gotten thrown in? Glad I wasn't there. Just a random thought.

Matthew 16:13-17:9

Matt. 16:13-28

These are very important verses in following Christ. In fact, they are just important verses. Jesus has watched the progress of the twelve and knows that the year before Him will lead to His sacrifice. Now He needs to prepare them further, but are they ready?

Your observations here are more important than anything I have to say. Imagine that Jesus is talking to you. Where do you need to be more focused on Him and live more sacrificially?

First, notice the progression here. Verse 21 shows you that until this point (2 years?) Jesus did not reveal this.

Second, although Peter was just trying to help the "poor depressed Messiah" see the glass as "half full," Jesus rebukes "the Rock" who does not yet have the maturity to see the plan according to God's wisdom. We disciples get in trouble on this one all the time, assuming we know God's plan as if we were God, and then we try to get Him to approve our plan as His. We can actually hinder, and not help, the work of God.

Third, the charge to His disciples was to give everything for following Him. Following Jesus had had its ups-and-downs for them. Now, they would be having more downs, although they were heading to the greatest event on earth. To really endure and succeed as disciples will cost us everything. Jesus is pretty clear about that.

And the reward is …..

Matt. 17:1-9

Seeing the Glory of Christ.

Jesus only takes the 3 with Him. He apparently discerned in them, a deeper faith, commitment and understanding. They all became key leaders in the early church in Jerusalem.

Since both the reading in the OT and the NT has to do with God making us ready and forming our commitment as disciples through hardship, you might find some encouragement in these videos.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgeMHHbFslk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfZaMOuv2RI

Psalm 21

I think for us as followers, verses 5-7 say it all. Substitute My for His and Me for Him, I for The King and I for He. You'll get the idea.

Proverbs 5:1-6

Just speaking to the guys here, if God has thought to address this issue, it must be a big one. None of us are "supermen" and it would be better, if you know you can't handle it, to have somewhat distant and awkward relationships with women than be stupid and think you can be the friend of all. Many men in ministry have messed around here and gone down. Obviously, the women in church are not these women, you'd hope, but this is really saying more about the weakness of the man, his temptability. This is very tricky, and especially if you realize that both David and Solomon, the guy writing this, both became victims and were never the same again. I'm sure that we're no better.

For most men following Christ, the problem will not be physical adultery, but visual adultery. Jesus says visual adultery is basically the same thing, and it will kill your heart. It never delivers what it promises and it messes up your relationship with your Lord and your wife.

The answer? Turn the TV off, turn in early, and focus everything on "the wife of your youth." God's advice. Remember, like in Genesis, the true desire and need, deeper than anything sexual, is completeness and connection. You can't charge a battery by only connecting it for 10 minutes. It usually takes 40 minutes to an hour to charge a battery properly. Anything less, and the things don't fill up properly and they run out quickly. And the man has to lead in this. God made it that way, so quit complaining. If you don't think your wife takes enough interest, blame God, not her. That's how He made her so that you would have to initiate, develop warmth and lead. God's way is always the best way.

For women, I would just say to "try" to understand that your husband is probably 90% OK, but always vulnerable. Never forget that. All the stuff of life beats on him so that even the best and most godly get down and fatigued and sink into themselves. This, more than lust, draws them to escape and pornography.

A man likes to know that if he really was in trouble emotionally, and on the verge of "death" emotionally, someone would be interested in reaching in and saving him. I know it's self-piteous and silly, but you just have to go with it. Men need respect and attention, not some wild woman that Hollywood tells them they need, who, incidentally, is mentioned in this proverb. Mostly, godly men following Christ are solid, but where they fall, is in thinking, rightly or wrongly, in stress and emotional fatigue, that they are really alone. Know your husband, because he probably won't tell you. In their weakness, they'll quietly test you to confirm that they really are alone. What he needs is the safety and security of being home and accepted and complete.

I have no idea why I like the following video, but it really resonates with me on the points just mentioned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p916yeFa2Xk

If you’re reading along and don’t have a One Year Bible, click on this link Every Day in the Word. If that doesn't work, go to http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/devotions/ and click on “Every Day in the Word.” 

I'm writing these comments to and for those at New Song who are following a One Year Bible and involved in a discipleship cell. We're meeting weekly and discussing the texts, not necessarily my comments. We're growing together, learning to become and make disciples who make disciples. We will all be leading others in this process and training them to do likewise.

The comments I'm writing are in no way exhaustive, but meant to give some leading thoughts on how the text applies to us as disciples and to encourage and stimulate our growth in reading the Bible, with the effect that we will grow as disciples and encourage the growth of others as disciples growing in the word. If you would like a more descriptive commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary. It's keyed to the NIV, so the result is, the commentators are constantly telling you what the Greek or Hebrew is. That never hurts.

I am not endorsing any particular One Year Bible, in fact, no one in our church reads the version I do, die revidierte Lutherbibel 1984.

Anyone reading along with us is welcome to do so and encouraged to take their own notes and make their own observations. If the comments made do not agree with your particular tradition or understanding, that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any point of view, but only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as I understand it.

January 24, Reading Notes

Genesis 48-49

When we read the story about Jacob and Esau, there were two incidents where Jacob unrightfully took something from Esau. The first thing Jacob took from Esau was his birthright, that is, the firstborn was entitled to inherit everything from the father. The second thing Jacob stole was the blessing. Now, while the birthright was cultural/legal, the blessing seems to be specific to this family in that God has promised a spiritual blessing to them through Abraham. It could be that the thought of spiritual blessing went back even further, since Abraham could have known Noah and Noah might have known Seth or Enosh. This lineage (Adam to Noah to Abraham) is the lineage that is carrying the promise of a coming redeemer (made to Adam and Eve) into the future and to all mankind (the promise made to Abraham).

Gen. 48

Jacob "adopts" the two sons of Joseph to be number one and two in Israel. God apparently led Jacob to do this, but it wouldn't really turn out quite like he must have thought. Putting Manasseh and Ephraim into the equation here would not have made anyone mad. It would be 400 years until the exodus and when Jacob blesses his sons in the next chapter, these young men, not boys, are not mentioned. In essence, Joseph gets two tribes, though in 400 years no one will care.

What is interesting here, is that Ephraim seems to get both the birthright and the blessing. Now, while these two men will become tribes in Israel, and we'll see that the blessing to Ephraim seems to have an interesting "moment" during the 40 years in the wilderness, it is hard to say that the tribe of Ephraim has any good effect or any notable contribution in Israel's later history.

Even here, where God nudges Jacob to cross his hands so that the younger, Ephraim, receives the firstborn right and blessing over his older brother Manasseh, God makes his choice for the lineage of the blessing in another way.

As disciples, we obey the Lord, now, as He directs. We don't need to worry if God makes other choices tomorrow that seem to indicate what we did yesterday was meaningless. Too often we see a decision the Lord makes and then "write the story" of how that decision or event is going to work out for His glory. Then, our "story" or what we have told everyone was "absolutely God's plan or will" dissolves. The problem is not with the Lord, it is with us assuming that the "leading," or "event," or "healing" of today will be something other than what it obviously is, "the leading for today," not tomorrow. We are servants, workers in His harvest, but He is God, our Lord and we follow whether it makes sense to us or not. If He tells us to dig a hole today and it gets filled in tomorrow, that is His business. (Those of us who were in the military already understand this as standard operating procedure. ) We are servants of God and followers of Christ and workers in the Harvest.

Gen. 49

Now, most of these blessings are cryptic. Who knows what they all mean besides God. The tribe of Dan becomes the first tribe to fall into full blown idolatry. Is that seen in the "blessing" on Dan? Who knows? God knows.

Glean from these blessings what you can, from what is obvious. And one other thing, in Bible study methods there is a thing called "the law of proportion." That means, in making observations, look for the length of the blessings. Two blessings stand out as having a larger proportion of text, and therefore, of Jacob's attention and blessing.

Verses 8-12 are very important verses.

V. 31, call me sentimental, but I think it is "sweet" that God chose Leah to be buried in the family tomb with Sarah and Rebekah, the women "of the promise." Leah was unloved, yet was blessed by God and bore more children than any of the other women. And through Leah came the Christ.

Matthew 15:29-16:12

Matt. 15:29-39

Jesus' "attractional" ministry had the effect of gathering a crowd for Him to teach. I really believe that the healings and feeding were only, merely, (searching for other "lessening" adjectives) tools. Faith and welcoming Christ as Savior and Lord was always the main point. The effect of feeding the 5000 (read John 6) was the exposing of the crass need fulfillment of the people. The people who ate were the people who rejected Jesus. This is why disciples should never be fooled by numbers. People (and Christians are people) use churches. Good leaders and disciples who make disciples, focus people on the necessity of living faith, following Christ into the harvest, as disciples making disciples in the harvest. Church is never ever about a crowd. Crowds too often distract us from the mission. 

This "feeding" had several purposes. It gave the disciples more training on what to do with a large group, and it gave them confirmation that they could depend on God. The people were mostly Gentiles, showing both the people and the disciples, that Jesus and His offer would be going to the Gentiles. And it set them up for what was about to happen with the Pharisees.

Matt. 16:1-4

Jesus had already rebuked the Pharisees and Sadducees regarding seeking signs, but He added a new "picture" here. Jesus points them to their ability to look at the sky and understand the weather. So then, why couldn't they figure out what is happening with Him in Israel at that time. The miracles, healings, and feedings were hard things to ignore. Jesus is telling them that they are suppressing truth by purposely missing the obvious. The real issue was simply sin. They didn't want to believe, regardless of the evidence.

Matt. 16:5-12

So what is the "leaven" of the Pharisees? I think it is teaching that allows people to disregard the obvious truth. Since Jesus is warning His disciples, it means they could do that, too. And they almost did, except that God gave them the gift of tongues to show the Jewish Christians that God had opened the door to the Samaritans and to the Gentiles. That was the purpose of that gift and God had to do it because the believers in Jerusalem would have rationalized and warped the truth to keep the Gentiles out and to disregard the obvious leading and working of God. The disciples were very susceptible to this "leaven." Acts ch. 11 confirms all of this.

So we laugh at the disciples in the boat acting like the 12 stooges, "Hey, do you got bread? No, I don't got no bread. Nuts, I think Jesus wants bread. Holy cow, we're in trouble. Whose job was it to get bread? Hey, I have a candy bar. You can't put that on bread. Aw, shut up you two. Remember? We don't got no bread." I'm sure this was a moment when Jesus just shook His head.

But what about us? How often do we ignore the obvious in our devotional life or in our families? Especially in terms of disciples and churches doing what they are supposed to do, you get the idea that they have made a pact to distort the obvious and redefine church and success to include not working in the harvest” and  “not bearing fruit.” The "leaven" of the Pharisees is still among us.

Psalm 20

I'm sure there is one verse in this psalm you can latch on to as a disciple. I found one that spoke to me, but in general, my heart resonates with the need to cry out to the Lord for help.

Proverbs 4:20-27

Forget Solomon and imagine that this is the Father speaking to you and that the "word" is not simply these proverbs, but the entire Word of God. His Word is for the heart of faith that sees through the eyes of faith that God deeply loves us and is trying to help us in this world of death. That pleading that Solomon is doing is really the Father pleading with you. The strength and joy and desire of a disciple is to follow Christ into the harvest, abiding in Him and His Word, bearing fruit to the glory of the Father.

If you’re reading along and don’t have a One Year Bible, click on this link Every Day in the Word. If that doesn't work, go to http://www.gnpcb.org/esv/devotions/ and click on “Every Day in the Word.” 

I'm writing these comments to and for those at New Song who are following a One Year Bible and involved in a discipleship cell. We're meeting weekly and discussing the texts, not necessarily my comments. We're growing together, learning to become and make disciples who make disciples. We will all be leading others in this process and training them to do likewise.

The comments I'm writing are in no way exhaustive, but meant to give some leading thoughts on how the text applies to us as disciples and to encourage and stimulate our growth in reading the Bible, with the effect that we will grow as disciples and encourage the growth of others as disciples growing in the word. If you would like a more descriptive commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary. It's keyed to the NIV, so the result is, the commentators are constantly telling you what the Greek or Hebrew is. That never hurts.

I am not endorsing any particular One Year Bible, in fact, no one in our church reads the version I do, die revidierte Lutherbibel 1984.

Anyone reading along with us is welcome to do so and encouraged to take their own notes and make their own observations. If the comments made do not agree with your particular tradition or understanding, that's OK. Nothing I've written is meant to criticize any point of view, but only to express the truth of what God has written to us, as I understand it.