Daily Reading Passages

Click below for access to the passages. Biblegateway.com is an excellent site with many versions of the Bible. The link below opens in NIV.  Youversion.com is a new site that allows you to annotate your own Bible, make notes, and comments once you create an account. That link opens in the TNIV version. Other versions are available at both sites.

Coaching Comments

 The Old Testament reading, Leviticus 11:1 - 12:8, starts to get into the laws about clean and unclean things. To modern ears this stuff is going to sound strange and archaic. Most of us with Christian background have only come across the clean and unclean laws in the context of the Gospels where they get shown as very empty legalistic practices. But, if we have an assumption that God is not arbitrary, that is, that God does what He does for a reason, then there is something here for us beyond a detailed list of irrelevant laws.

Remember as we go through Leviticus, that these laws are the foundation of a whole new culture God is building. The Hebrews were slaves in Egypt for 400 years, their heritage mostly lost. If they were going to build a new community, the would do it in the only way they knew how, which would be to model it after what they grew up with in Egypt. So God gave them detailed instructions on a whole new kind of community.

In the clean and unclean laws different things were identified as clean or unclean. Clean things were things that were acceptable, appropriate, and available with full freedom. Things that were unclean were not acceptable, and not only that but anyone who did them became "unclean" themselves. That meant they would have to remove themselves from the public life of the community and go through a process of purification. Please note, these "unclean" things weren't necessarily "sin" the way we think about it today. But in each case there was something in God's mind about that thing that contaminated the person and their ability to be with in the community, and of course, that would limit their ability to participate in the acts of worship .

Now, I've heard some pretty convincing conversations from certain scholars that have suggested that the basis of the clean and unclean laws was actually a pre-scientific system of hygiene control. And it's quite interesting, if you inventory the things that are declared unclean, the foods that were unclean, and other practices that were unclean, you end up with a list of things that are either questionable or unhealthy. For example,people are not allowed to touch dead animals, they're not allowed to touch blood, they're not allowed to take eat certain kinds of animals. If you were able to remove these things from a pre-scientific society that didn't understand things like washing hands and the concepts of germs, you would see a radical drop in contagious disease. So while there certainly was a religious aspect to the whole issue of clean and unclean things, it may have in fact been God's way of helping build a healthy and strong community.

The New Testament reading for today (Mark 5:21-43) gives us a close look at two amazing healing episodes. Again Jesus' power is emphasized. A woman is healed just by touching His clothes. And then, another girl that He had been traveling to to heal from sickness, died, and that healing turned into a resurrection! Everywhere Jesus went He stretched the expectations and preconceptions of who He was.

Psalms 38:1-22, our Psalms reading today, is a song of contrite confession and grief. This is one you're not likely to see made into a worship song, although we might be better for it. David is in the darkest places of despair, grief and brokenness. And in this place he confesses his sinfulness and cries out to God to come and rescue him. Unlike so many of the Psalms that we've read, this one does not end in a statement of faith. This one is just David's aching soul-cry for God's restoration.

Today's Proverbs reading (Proverbs 10:8-9) gives us two short statements. The first one contrasts the wise and the foolish. The wise accepts commands and counsel. The fool, by implication, does not, preferring to follow their own path. The result, says this proverb, is ruin. The second statement contrasts a person who walks with integrity and one who does not. In proverbs integrity means someone who lives with honesty and abides by God's way of living. Living this way brings security, but those who try to hide things (live without integrity) will be found out.

2007 Cohort Comments