Daily Reading Passages

Click below to see the passages online. Although, I recommend that if you can you read these in your own Bible. That way you can underline, comment, and become familiar with your own Bible.

Exodus 29:1 - 30:10

Matthew 26:14-46

Psalms 31:19-24

Proverbs 8:14-26

Coaching Comments

The Old testament reading for today, Exodus 29:1 - 30:10, continues with detailed instructions on how the Hebrews were to set up the Tabernacle, everything in it, and how they were to set up the priesthood. This is one of those passages that has a lot of detail and doesn't feel like it has much applicable spiritual content for us.

The thing to remember as you read this is that God is working to define a culture. These artifacts that are being made, this Tabernacle, these practices are going to be with Israel for generations. Everything God sets up in these chapters will continue for hundreds and hundreds of years. God's goal for all of this is twofold: First, through these items, their detail, and their quality, He's painting a picture about his glory. Second, He is laying out the system that will point to and prepare for the coming of the messiah. So in v. 42, God says that the sacrifices and these items will last for generations to come and that they will create the place where He will meet with Israel. He's primarily referring to meeting Israel at the Tabernacle in the desert, but this will also set up His meeting with them through the person of Jesus Christ when He comes into the nation that is now being formed.

In the New testament reading today, Matthew 26:14-46, we begin the painful process of the passion week. Today's reading gives us Judas setting up his betrayal of Jesus, the final supper they all shared together in the upper room, and Jesus' time of pain in the garden.

It's kind of interesting to be reading this New Testament passage following the Old Testament passages we've been reading recently. In the Old Testament passages God was setting up certain ordinances - practices, rituals - that are meant to help of Israel remember who he is, and who they are in relationship to Him. Here, in the New Testament we see Jesus doing exactly the same thing at the last supper, taking the common elements of bread and wine and creating a new ordinance for his followers for precisely this same reasons.

On the way out of the upper room, Jesus tells the disciples that they will all run from him that night. Peter, in all his boisterousness, says that will never happen. There's a warning of some kind in that for us. Then we see Jesus and the disciples heading to Gethsemane. Here, Jesus' soul is being crushed by the pain of what is to come, the weight of sin is already pressing down on Him.

The story of the garden is all about verse 39. In this verse Jesus says two sentences. And the break between them, the period, is the longest one in all of scripture. That period represents an almost impossible divide between wanting safety, security, and comfort on the one hand, and being willing to obey God's will, on the other. Our whole struggle of obedience and faithfulness rests in that tiny little dot.

Today's Psalm Reading is the final part of the 31st Psalm. Psalms 31:19-24 This passage begins by talking about taking refuge in God. David was in many situations where he had to hide from his enemies, and speaking spiritually, he knows the the only safe hiding place is God. Then, in thinking about the safety God has given him, he praises and worships God again. The whole Psalm ends when a short section of encouragement to be strong and put our hope in God. David's experience was that this worked. He recommends it to us.

In today's Proverb reading, Proverbs 8:14-26, we continue with Wisdom explaining her characteristics. One interesting point in this passage is the combining of what we might think of as secular wisdom and spiritual wisdom. Here Wisdom tells us that it is by her qualities that good leaders rule, but then she also says that her path is the way of righteousness. It's easy for us to think that what it takes to be wise out in the marketplace is so different from what God asks of us. It's pretty common in discussions of this kind for someone to say, "Oh, but that doesn't really work in my industry. I know what God wants from us, but in my business you have to play by different rules." But this passage seems to be saying that the path God expects from us, the path of righteousness, is also the path of sound judgment, and wise leadership.

2007 Cohort Comments