Thursday, March 7, 2013

The Bible Challenge: Day 66

The scriptures read are Deuteronomy 7-9, Psalm 55, and Luke 13.

Deuteronomy 7-9. Moses gives a pep talk to the Israelites before they enter the promised land. Well, it's more like a sermon. Of the fire and brimstone variety. Moses reminds them of their many rebellions and sins against God. And yet he says that God loves them, not for their intrinsic goodness but out of love and faithfulness to the promises he made their ancestors. Moses reminds them of the manna. That's the context of the "man does not live by bread alone" verse. He retells the golden calf incident and how he smashed the first copy of the Ten Commandments after that. (To be continued)

Psalm 55. The psalmist is upset by all the evil surrounding him but especially by his betrayal by a friend. "Sweet was our fellowship; we walked together in God's house...He harmed his ally, he broke his pact; his talk was smoother than butter, yet his mind was on war." Other good verses: "Oh, that I had the wings of a dove." "I am clothed with horror." "Cast your burden on the Lord and he will sustain you." Loving this Tanakh translation.

Luke 13. Jesus puts the kabash on always attributing disasters to God's judgment. (BTW, I looked up kabash to see why the blogger software says it's misspelled. I not only found I was right but that kabash is a Hebrew word for "subdue!")

He heals a woman with severe muscles contractures--on the Sabbath-- and gets attacked for doing so. Jesus says if you can untie a donkey and take him to drink on the Sabbath, he can release this woman from the forces that have imprisoned her in her own tortured body.

After some parables about how the kingdom starts small and then gets huge, Jesus is angry/sad about how much he loves Jerusalem but how its history reveals little love for God's messengers.

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