If you don't
have a One Year Bible or prefer something online, this link will take you to
the day's reading, http://oneyearbibleonline.com/daily-oyb/. This
site allows you to select from several languages and several English
translations.
APRIL 20
I had a little mini insight in today's reading. It didn't come because
I'm smart, but because I've been reading like this for so many years and the
bell finally went off. I'm saying all this because if you read The One Year
Bible year after year, the Spirit will do the same thing for you.
I mentioned yesterday that one of the cities the Levites were given is
a city of refuge: Ramoth in Gilead. I mentioned that there is a place in the
Bible where the three words are spelled as one: Ramoth-gilead. This is the
scene of a very spooky portion of Scripture. Actually, a lot of things happen
there. You see Ahab (not from Moby Dick, but similar) getting set up to fall
into God's judgment and you see a godly king, Jehoshaphat, making a devastating
mistake. Then you witness Michaiah, a lone, starved prophet, open a window to
let us see what actually takes place spiritually before the throne of God in
heaven as He uses the demonic to judge the disobedient and rebellious on earth.
The entire event is in 2 Chronicles 18, but look particularly at vs. 18-22. You
can get some real insight out of this. I have always been intrigued by this
story, but I never realized that what Ahab was using to lure Jehoshaphat into
fighting with him had once been a spiritual city, a city of the Levites, a city
of refuge. What a noble cause to use to entice Jehoshaphat into bonding with
him and his evil. You can imagine Jehoshaphat thinking, "Of course God
will bless us if we try to recapture this city from Syria, that had once been a
godly and holy city of Israel." This makes sense to me why a good man like
Jehoshaphat was fooled. I think that's pretty cool and very instructive. And it
is only because of reading The One Year Bible, year after year.
Joshua 21:1-22:20
Joshua 21
Vs. 1-45 This is the final act of establishing the people in the land.
The Levites were given cities to live in, with land to plow and keep their
animals. God spread the Levites throughout Israel. Since they no longer needed
to pack up the tabernacle, they would be organized to minister at the
tabernacle in shifts. In the meantime, they were to have a teaching ministry
among the people. So, rather than gathering the Levites around the tabernacle
in Shiloh, they were spread out. According to the Bible Knowledge Commentary,
"someone has estimated that no one in Israel lived more than 10 miles from
one of the 48 Levite towns." (p. 364)
V. 11 We have heard of this city before. It is Hebron, but when Caleb
conquered it, it was the city of a giant among giants. I don't think Caleb had
a problem giving this city to the Levites. The Levites were to be a good
influence in Israel.
V. 17 I never noticed this before, but the city of Gibeon, where the
guys tricked Joshua and made a covenant with him, became a city of Levites.
V. 18 This is the future city of the priests and the hometown of the
prophet Jeremiah.
V. 38 This is Ramoth-gilead.
Vs. 43-45 This states the completion of the administration of Joshua
and the essential conquest and division of the land. If only the people would
have continued to follow the Lord.
This summary didn't mean that the fighting was over, and it didn't
signal the completion of the Abrahamic covenant. Everything here is still
partial, but the doors are open for the people to take the land by following
God in faith.
Joshua 22:1-20
This is an interesting event. It hints to future problems, but at this
point, it shows Israel's very solid focus on obeying the Lord.
Vs. 1-6 Notice what Joshua says in v. 5, and see how many individual
commands you can get out of this. If you have trouble, find the infinitives
introduced by the word "to." This verse would not only make a great
sermon or devotional, but it also describes the life of a disciple. And what is
all this about love? I thought we didn't hear about loving God in the Old
Testament.
Vs. 7-9 As Joshua sent them back, he commanded them to share with those
who had been left behind to protect their families and property and to begin
farming the land. God and Moses had already laid the groundwork for this.
Vs. 10-20 Tomorrow we'll read the answer of the 2.5 tribes as to why
they built the altar. That these people built an altar is interesting. They
could have built a Mt. Rushmore of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses. This altar
showed that they regarded the worship of God at the tabernacle to be the
unifying symbol of Israel. It was still a bad idea.
Notice that the people are totally unified in their response in vs.
11-12 and 16.
V. 13 Notice that they sent Phinehas to lead the people in
understanding what had happened.
Notice the references to how the sins of a few hurt the whole congregation in 17, 18 and 20.
V. 19 They offered the solution of letting the 2.5 tribes join them on
the west side of the Jordan.
Since there is no mention of Joshua, it seems that Joshua has retired
and that the new guys like Phinehas were leading the people. More on this story
tomorrow.
Regarding discipleship, the thing I see in this account is the
necessity to be constantly training the next generation of leaders. Phinehas
had good family connections, but we also see him in action as a man who had a
heart for God. When he mentions the fiasco at Baal-Peor in v. 17, it was
because he himself took the lead in that situation when everyone else was
paralyzed. It is interesting for me that the priests had an up-and-coming
leader in Phinehas, but the nation had no one to follow in Joshua’s footsteps.
The next leader we will see is Othniel, who was close to Caleb and who was
probably influenced by Caleb. In the case of the rest of the judges, no one
looks like they were "discipled" for leadership.
Since our focus in this life is to be constantly making more and better
disciples, it shouldn't be rare to find leaders who have come up in a group to
assume leadership from the past generation and groom leaders for the next
generation. In working in the harvest, making disciples, who make disciples, we
should be pros at developing men and women who have hearts for God, and who are
convinced that their mission in life is to follow Christ in the harvest, making
disciples, who make disciples. It is hard to break that chain of generational
preparation if we embrace our mission as makers of disciples from and for the
harvest.
Luke 20:1-26
We have read these events before in Matthew and Mark. Jesus is close to
His crucifixion, and here, He's in the pressure cooker of controversy and
conflict.
Vs. 1-8 So, as a disciple advising other disciples, what principle
would you pull from this event that would arm people in your group to give a
good answer in this kind of conflict?
Vs. 9-19 I don't know about this one. Would you advise your guys to be
this pointed? It kind of cuts against our cultural sense of being
"politically correct."
V. 16 One note here is that Luke records the Pharisees saying, Surely not. In Romans, Paul (a former
Pharisee) uses this all the time. In Romans 3:6 it is by no means.
Vs. 20-26 I'm always amazed when I read this. I wish I could teach
myself to come up with these kinds of answers. As a "near"
application, I think it is fair to tell the people we are helping become
disciples, not to complain about government and to do the work of a disciple in
the harvest, bearing much fruit, glorifying the Father and so proving to be
disciples of our Lord. Jesus said that if we seek His kingdom first, He'll take
care of the rest.
Psalm 89:1-13
Ok, so this is interesting. This guy, Ethan, is the brother to the guy
who wrote the psalm yesterday, Heman. Names are hard to track down, especially
since the names vary in spelling over years and books. Some guys even had more
than one name. Also, it is hard to know when they lived because sometimes the
head of the clan is named and then only the "famous sons" are
mentioned with names skipped in between. But check this out. Look at 1 Kings
4:31 and then at 1 Chronicles 2:6. You find the same names together. These men
were known to be wise, and so it's mentioned that Solomon was more of a wise
guy than both of them put together. It means that they probably lived before
Solomon and during the time of David.
Now, it says that they were together (if it's the same guys) when David
brought the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem in 1 Chronicles 15:15-19.
This psalm will be spread over today, tomorrow and the next day. If
both men were with David during the time he fled from Absalom, I wonder if (and
this is just pure speculation) these psalms were meant to complement each other
somehow. In the betrayal of Absalom and the civil war that took place, Psalm 88
seems to capture the extreme darkness of the days of running and uncertainty,
and Psalm 89 seems to remember the glorious establishment of David by cries to
God to restore David again.
(In v. 51, which we will read on April 22, it sounds like the verbal
abuse David took at the hands of Shimei in 2 Samuel 16:5-9. I'm saying this now
to suggest that that event might be the framework of this psalm.)
All of this is a bit harder when a psalm is spread out over so many
days. Then on the 23rd we get two psalms because they were both written by
Moses. Go figure.
Vs. 1-4 Notice how God's steadfast
love and faithfulness are linked
to God's sworn promise to David. Implied in what is said here is that God
should be praised as a result of all of this. This sounds very much like David.
Vs. 5-7 The heavens praising the Lord here are the angelic realms where
God is ruling and served.
Vs. 8-10 Even the dangerous forces of nature are subject to God. Their subjection
to His power is seen as His faithfulness to mankind.
Vs. 11-13 Even the majesty of creation praises the name and sovereign
power of God.
Tune in tomorrow for the rest of the story.
Proverbs 13:15-16
Amen!
Please Read
the Following Disclaimer
I'm writing the Reading Notes to and
for those who are following a One Year Bible and are 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, that is, 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 and important discipleship manual we have and it is the 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, or whom we are to be following. 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, as disciples, 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, making disciples in the harvest.
If you would like a more descriptive
commentary that is still readable and concise, I'd recommend the Bible Knowledge Commentary (BKC).
I read the BKC in doing background for the Reading Notes and refer to it quite
often. I also make reference to maps or charts in the BKC, though I will only
note where those resources can be found. Often you can do a search for these
and find them in Google books. Buying both volumes of the Bible Knowledge
Commentary would be a good idea.
I am not endorsing any particular
One Year Bible translation; in fact, I read something you probably don't, Die
Revidierte Lutherbibel, 1984. Unless noted, all Scripture quotes are from the
ESV Bible.
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. Often there is a breadth of opinion on certain events, both
historical and prophetic. Many of my views come from my church background,
theological training and my personal study.
I'm
doing this with discipleship in mind, meaning, I'm writing out thoughts that
will keep discipleship and our growth as disciples applied to what we are
reading. Remember, the real focus of the Reading Notes is to be a
supplement, a disciple’s commentary, giving motivation and insight so that we
will keep following our Lord in the harvest, reaching the lost and making
disciples, who make disciples. Being in
the Word every day, sitting at Jesus’ feet, learning directly from Him, is the
essential essence of being and making disciples.
May the Lord bless you as you follow Him in the
harvest, reaching the lost and making disciples, who make disciples. Dan
If you would like documents
containing an entire month of the Reading Notes, go to https://sites.google.com/site/dlkachikis/reading-notes.
If you would like a full
presentation of discipleship read Simply
Disciples*Making Disciples.
Or if you are struggling with
insomnia and would like a long boring dissertation on disciple making, these
can both be found on https://sites.google.com/site/dlkachikis/reading-notes.
Reading Notes ©, Dan Kachikis
2011, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2018
The One Year Bible © by
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton Illinois 60189
The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version® (ESV®) Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of
Good News Publishers.
All charts/graphics/outlines
from the Bible Knowledge Commentary are used with the permission of David C.
Cook.
© 1983, 2001 John F Walvoord and Roy B Zuck.
The Bible Knowledge Commentary is published by David C Cook.
All rights reserved. Publisher permission
required to reproduce.
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