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

Our Old Testament reading today, Leviticus 17:1 - 18:30, presents two different sets of standards, in our continuing journey through the law given by God through Moses at Sinai. The first chapter is about blood and the second chapter is about sex.

In chapter 17, God forbids two things, sacrifices anywhere other than at the tabernacle, and the eating of blood. First, God forbids the making of sacrifices anywhere other than through His appointed means - the tabernacle and the priests. Why? Well, blood sacrifices were not exclusive to the Jewish religion. In fact, they were the primary way of worshiping for nearly every religion in the region. So the concept of blood sacrifice was not unfamiliar. But in this law Yahweh God makes it exclusive. The people were not to offer sacrifices at any other alters, in any other places, to any other gods. This is one more step of God establishing His exclusive authority over Israel, and underscoring the fact that He alone is God.

Second, God forbids the eating of blood. This is probably the kosher law that most non-Jews are familiar with. The reason this time, is clearly theological. The blood is the life, and life belongs to God. God has given them the right to use blood (in the blood sacrifices) to atone for sin, but that is all. In every other case, to spill blood is to take on a prerogative of God alone.

In chapter 18, God gives a long list of sexual standards, and a couple other things. The key to this chapter is not in the details (although they are important) but in the reason for the details, presented both at the beginning and the end of the chapter. God's people are to be set apart. They are not to live like the people around them. The languid, wealthy culture of the Egyptians is not to be their model. The primitive and violent cultures of the Caananite tribes are not to be their models. They are to be different. One of the places where this will be most clearly seen is how they treat each other sexuality, and the relationships between people.

Each command through verse 18 rules out incest in some variety, focusing not only on the incest, but on the potential relational chaos that such behavior would cause. After verse 18 we get a quick selection of other prohibitions: sleeping with a woman during her period (remember that any contact with blood, in any way, made a person unclean), sex with your neighbor's wife, sex with another man, sex with animals, and one that seems out of place in this list, child sacrifice to the Caananite God, Molech. All of these things were practices of the surrounding people that God said defiled them, and the Israelites were not to participate in these practices. The consequence was that such a person would be "cut off from the people," which means excluded from their tribe and sent away.

In all these laws, God is working to intervene in these former slaves mindset about what is OK and what isn't, so that they can be formed into a cohesive culture where His character can be seen. The one thing they are clearly not to do is get their concept of what a good community looks like from the people around them.

In our New Testament reading, Mark 7:24 - 8:10, we see three more miraculous signs. But the interesting thing is not the miracles so much - they are the same kinds of things we've already seen. The interesting thing is the context. Verse 24 sets the stage. Jesus and the disciples head into the region of Tyre. This outside of Israel proper, and the population here is much more gentile than Jew. And so when Jesus casts a demon out of the Syro-Phonecian woman's daughter, the point is something more than just Jesus' power. This is the first place in Mark's gospel where Jesus extends his ministry to people beyond the core of Judaism. Jesus clearly kept His ministry focused on the house of Israel, but this little taste, reaching out to the Greek people in the area, was an important moment for His disciples to see.

A lot of people struggle with Jesus' response to this foreign woman who comes to seek His help. (Same story with a touch more detail: Matthew 15:21-28) It seems cruel and certainly condescending. For some, it's just Jesus' truthful response in the language of His time, making clear that His ministry is first to the Jews. Others have suggested that perhaps Jesus was speaking a little tongue-in-cheek, parroting the religious perspective that was common in Judaism, and that His disciples would expect from Him, only to show them His real intentions by healing the woman's child anyway. In either case, Jesus meets the woman's need.

The Psalms reading today, Psalms 41:1-13, follows a familiar pattern. David feels attacked and betrayed by men, and goes to God seeking deliverance, worshiping God for His strength. We've seen this pattern over and over again, to the point where it might feel monotonous. And yet, I wonder if there's some lesson in that for us. When I feel attacked or betrayed, my first instinct is not to go to God about it. My first instinct is to do whatever is necessary to protect myself, to make my point, to protect my reputation. Maybe all these Psalms are a challenge to us to take these moments to God instead of trying to reply in kind to the people who wrong us.

In our Proverbs reading today, Proverbs 10:15-16, we get an interesting contrast. The first pair says something that seems to be an observation of reality. Wealthy people take security in their wealth, and in some ways it protects them. Poor people's situations are made worse and worse by their poverty. That seems straight-forward and true. The second pair turns to the inner motivations. Those people who choose the righteous path are going to reap a paycheck of life. Those who follow a wicked path are going to find their income brings them punishment.

Taking these two side by side, it's an interesting reminder that what we can see externally about a person's financial condition doesn't really tell us about how they got their and the consequences of their choices. There are poor people who are choosing the path of righteousness, and that brings them life. There are wealthy people who got their through wicked means, and there are consequences for that. Wealth may look like security, but it's not really. Poverty may look like ruin, but it's not really. There is an internal reality that makes that determination.

2007 Cohort Comments