MARCH
31
We've made it a
quarter of a year! Don't worry about getting behind, just keep toning those
"read the Bible every day" muscles. Eventually it will get a lot
easier. Remember, put the Bible somewhere where you can see it and just read a
page or two in passing. Some days it might not work, but some days I’ve done
this and have been able to catch up a day.
This also means
that you've read about a quarter of the Bible. That's something to celebrate.
I'd suggest taking your Bible (and favorite friend) and going out to McDonalds,
getting a Senior Coffee © and their Cinnamon Melts ©J and enjoying
today's reading.
Deuteronomy 16-17
Deuteronomy 16
These are the
feasts again. Thanks to Laura, I'm seeing at
the place (He) will choose, all over the place. I never saw that before.
Remember, these feasts and festivals were meant to focus their hearts on God
and His love and deliverance. This was not just for their celebration and joy,
but also for their protection. This was a way for God to be sure they would
always remember what He had done for them.
What also
stands out to me more and more is how God keeps mentioning that He brought them
out of Egypt and their slavery and made them the most honored nation under
heaven.
Vs. 1-8 Israel
was to celebrate the night God delivered them. This would launch them into the
week-long Feast of Unleavened Bread, reminding them how God led them out of
bondage. The final day was to be a Sabbath celebration. This feast was to have
been attended by all the men, and it could only be attended in the place where
the Lord made His name dwell. That would be at the tabernacle. It would be a
national gathering.
Vs. 9-12 The
Feast of Weeks was the Feast of Firstfruits and took place seven weeks and a
day from the Sabbath celebration that ended the Feast of Unleavened Bread. This
was a celebration of God giving them fruit and blessing. This was Pentecost and
a day to remember the freedom God had given. In the New Testament, this was
also the day the church was born and the Holy Spirit began to indwell those who
believed in Christ.
Vs. 13-15 This
feast called the Feast of Booths or Feast of Tabernacles began with the Day of
Atonement. For seven days the people lived in tents, remembering the years in
the wilderness when God fed them and made them a nation. Remember Nehemiah
8:17. The people never celebrated this feast after Joshua died.
Vs. 16-17 This
would have taken a lot of faith for all the men to take their families, leave
home and spend a week in Jerusalem. But, it would have been their salvation,
and the thought of their salvation would have been fresh in their minds.
Vs. 18-20 The
mention here of the judges and officials seems logical since these guys would
be models of obedience to the community and they would make sure that the
people held to these feasts. You could imagine someone giving a judge a bribe
to let him stay at home, instead of going to the feast and wasting his time.
Vs. 21-22 These
things were not only planted or put up near altars but they were everywhere.
The judges would see that this didn’t happen. It didn't matter how artistic and
beautiful the poles were; Israel was not to imitate the Canaanites.
Deuteronomy 17
V. 1 Since God
was giving the best to Israel, they were to be bold and liberal in giving the
best in return.
Vs. 2-7 To
understand this section, we need to remember that for the past 38 years, Israel
has been averaging 400 funerals a day. Why? Because someone rebelled against
the Lord and many were swept with them into bitterness and sin. This wasn't an
open license to conduct "witch hunts," but rather this was a way of
keeping the nation pure. If any Israelite wanted to live in another country,
and eat pork chops, and worship other gods, and not hold the Sabbath, all they
had to do was leave and they were free. It was a big world and Israel was only
a small piece of real estate. No one had to live in Israel.
Notice that vs.
4 and 6 indicate that there was a process. This wasn’t to happen quickly; in
fact, if it did happen it was to be a testimony to the nation to obey the Lord.
Vs. 8-13 If the
situation was beyond them and they needed an answer, they just had to go to the
place the Lord chose to set up the tabernacle and ask the priest. What was so
special about the priest? He had a special pouch on his ephod (bib apron) where
he had the Urim and Thummim, remember? Amazingly, you never hear of Israel
using this except on a couple of occasions. Probably, they didn't believe it,
or didn't want God's answer, and didn't want the hassle of having to travel all
the way to the tabernacle.
Vs. 14-15 God
knew the people would need a king someday. In fact, Jacob’s blessing of Judah
in Genesis 49 shows that the kings would come through Judah.
Vs. 16-17
Solomon, the wisest man in the world, broke all of these. In fact, the first
thing Solomon did was make a marriage alliance with the Pharaoh of Egypt.
Building an army showed a lack of confidence in God and pride in one’s own
leadership. And, as it says here, to get horses, you had to go back to Egypt.
Gathering wives was also forbidden and Solomon had them in excess. When Solomon
grew older, his wives influenced him to build altars to their gods and
sacrifice there. Just think of that. Solomon built the temple to Yahweh as a
young man.
Vs. 18-20 When
it says "law," it is probably referring to the five books of Moses,
or maybe only Deuteronomy. Under the supervision of the Levites, the king was
to make his own copy of the law and he was to read from it every day of his
life. I doubt that the wisest man in the world did that. I would say that David
definitely did this when he was king in Hebron for seven years, and that Psalm
119 was a byproduct. I would also bet that Josiah made a copy of Deuteronomy.
So what would
writing out and reading the first five books of the Bible do for a king? At
this point, we can ask that of ourselves. What does it give you? You get
creation, the fall, and the redemptive plan of God working though Noah, to
Abraham, to Israel. It gives you a perspective of life and this world, and it
fills you with mission. More than everything else you see God's love in working
to free men from sin and death.
Notice too that the king was to read from his copy of the Word every
day of his life. We know of no kings who actually did this, even David. My
personal guess would be that Josiah read every day. Still, in what we will read
we will see the incredible drifting of the nation under the kings. This
drifting might have been stopped if they had read the Word every day. Simply
said, if it was important for the kings of Israel to have been in the Word
every day, how much more important is it for us as disciples of our Lord to
meet with Him, at His feet, in His Word, every day. That is how we continually
grow in love for Jesus throughout our lives. And this is how the Holy Spirit
gives us the joy of heart and the strength of heart to get up and keep
following, every day.
As I was
reading this morning, I thought of how important it is for us as disciples to
be in the harvest and remember that God has rescued us. The further we get from
the harvest, the less we remember what it was that God freed us from. Our
salvation seems like a dusty trophy on a shelf. In Deuteronomy God constantly
reminds Israel that He is the Lord their God who led them out of slavery. The
same is true for us, as Jesus tells Simon the Pharisee, he who is forgiven little, loves little (Luke 7:47). How do we remember the value of our
own salvation and where we were? By making disciples of lost people, we are
constantly reminded of what it was that God freed us from and how needy we are
of His grace and help.
Israel needed
to go to the feasts to remember they were saved. As disciples, we need to be
led by the Lord to the foot of Calvary (the Lord’s Supper) and to follow Him
into the harvest.
Luke 9:7-27
As you read all
of this section, you can see how the parts fit together.
Vs. 7-9 Herod's
question shows that everyone was wondering who Jesus was. Especially now with
the Twelve going out and working miracles, there was more questioning.
Eventually this will lead Jesus to pop the question to the disciples regarding
His identity.
Vs. 10-11 The
disciples returned exhausted and Jesus took them on a trip to a lonely place.
Apparently they stayed too near to the shore and the crowds saw Jesus and ran
there before them.
Vs. 12-17 This
is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels. What you miss in Matthew,
Mark, and Luke is that immediately after Jesus fed the 5000, the people and
many disciples left Him as mentioned in John 6:60-71. As the crowds and many of
His disciples were turning away from Him, at that moment in John 6, Jesus asked
the Twelve if they were going to leave too. Peter came up big in John 6:68.
Vs. 18-20
Notice that Luke mentions that before Jesus questioned His disciples, He was
praying. Only Luke mentions that. When it says Jesus was praying alone, but the
disciples were with Him, it probably means that because of the proximity of the
crowd, Jesus was very near to the disciples as He was praying alone. I think
Jesus usually found a quiet, private place, but this time the crowd prevented
that. Jesus asks the disciples directly, "Who
do the crowds say that I am?" Peter shines again and Jesus makes him
the pope (JUST KIDDING!!!).
John doesn't
have this specific questioning of the Twelve, "Who do men say that I am?"
that Matthew, Mark, and Luke have.
Vs. 21-22
Notice that Luke leaves out Jesus' words of blessing to Peter in Matthew
16:18-19. Believe it or not, in Acts, there is a lot of tension in the
Christian church, especially coming out of Jerusalem. You see this in Acts 11,
15:1, and in Galatians 2:12. It might be that because Luke hung with Paul, and
Paul was being constantly hounded by Christians from the "circumcision
party," that Luke didn't want to confuse his Gentile readers with Peter
being the "big boss" and Jerusalem being the center of the world.
Vs. 23-27 Just
before these words, Peter rebuked Jesus and Jesus rebuked him back. Luke left
that out too. Since Jesus had just lost many disciples, these words to the
Twelve would have taken on more meaning. There was a price in following Jesus.
There would be glory; but they, like us, would always be tempted to stand out
of harm’s way and fail to announce their allegiance to Jesus and to His words.
We are always
tempted to keep quiet, but our joy in our salvation can get us past that. It
says that perfect love casts out all fear. If we are alive in the love of our
Savior, who can we fear?
Psalm 72
This psalm is
supposedly from Solomon. If so, it sounds like Solomon was having a good day.
Some think that this psalm has a prophetic element looking at Jesus' millennial
reign because of the absolute language used that couldn't be referring to Solomon.
Since so much
is said that would be self-aggrandizing if written by Solomon, I wonder if it
wasn’t written by David, perhaps the final thing David wrote, to make sure that
the people would accept Solomon as their king. There was a great deal of tension
and political intrigue when Solomon became king. Notice that it mentions a
“king of Sheba,” not a queen. And it does say that this psalm was the last of
the prayers of David.
V. 1 Looks like
this could be David asking God to bless his son.
Vs. 2-11 Look
at all the requests for blessing that begin with the word May.
Vs. 12-14
Israel and her king were to show compassion for the needy based on their
slavery and God’s grace to them.
Vs. 15-17 This
sounds like Deuteronomy. As a result, the people and the king would live long
and be blessed.
Vs. 18-20
Again, this sounds like David to me. The Lord is to be blessed and glorified in
all the earth.
Proverbs 12:8-9
In some
versions, v. 9 is expressed differently, indicating that there's something in
the Hebrew that isn't clear. There seems to be a wordplay being made on the
word despised in v. 8, so that it is immediately reflected in the word
for lowly in v. 9. Also, it isn't clear if the good man in v. 9 has a
servant or is, himself, a despised common worker.
The proverb
might look like this;
8A man is commended according to his good
sense,
but one of twisted mind is despised.
but one of twisted mind is despised.
9Better to be despised as a lowly servant and
do your work
than to play the great man and lack bread.
than to play the great man and lack bread.
It seems that
it is better to be despised for being humble, having good sense and doing your
work well, as opposed to looking like a big man, saying things that are foolish
and being secretly poor.
If you’re reading along
and don’t have a One Year Bible, click on this link http://www.esvbible.org/devotions/every-day-in-the-word/. If that doesn't work, go to http://www.esvbible.org/devotions/ and click on “Every Day in the Word.”
I'm writing these
comments to and for those who are following a One Year Bible and interested in
growing deeper as a disciple, following Jesus in the harvest. My hope is to see
the growth of a discipleship culture in the church. Groups of 3-4 disciples,
meeting weekly, encouraging each other to follow Christ and work to reach out
and make disciples who make disciples. The Bible itself is the most universal
manual we have and key to our growth and service in Christ. Nothing keeps us
more focused on why we are here or what we are to be doing. My comments are
only meant to provide some explanation of the events or to show the flow of
God's plan of redemption. My comments are in no way exhaustive, but are
designed to keep us focused on Christ and our role in His harvest. My hope is
that the people in these groups will grow in Christ and be willing, after a
year, to find 3 others to meet with and encourage in their growth as disciples,
disciples making disciples in the harvest.
If you would like a
complete description of this model of being and making disciples you can find
it in my book: Simply Disciples*Making Disciples.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B011WJIDQA?*Version*=1&*entries*=0
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, I read something you don't, die revidierte
Lutherbibel 1984.
Anyone reading along with
us is welcome to do so and is 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. Send comments or feedback to dgkachikis@gmail.com.
If you would like
documents containing an entire month of the Reading Notes, go to https://sites.google.com/site/dlkachikis/reading-notes. You can download these to use on your computer or to
print.
No comments:
Post a Comment