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

Today's Old Testament reading (Genesis 26:17 - 27:46) is much shorter than we've had so far. It starts with some more land and water issues. These might seem picky and uninteresting, but remember that for these people in this place and time, water was the only thing that would allow them to survive. If God was going to keep His promise to give them the land, it would have to include access to water. One interesting historical note: Beersheba is a real place in Israel. You can go there today. And here we are reading about its very origin as the location of a well, dug by Isaac. This is one of the most compelling things about scripture to me. Christianity (and our Jewish roots) is not a mythological religion. It is rooted in real history, real geography, real people - and the real action of God in these places and times.

The remainder of today's reading shows us the jealousy and tension between Jacob and Esau - remember the "inheritance for oatmeal" negotiation we saw a while ago? That comes back with a vengeance. Mom cooks up a plan of trickery to get her favorite son blessed. Son goes along with it, lying his way through the moment. Dad doesn't seem to know any better until its too late. Jacob lives up to his name, and Esau plays the victim. It's a sad and twisted family scene. This leads us into years of conflict and animosity between Jacob, Esau and their family members.  Esau actually swore that he would kill Jacob as a result, requiring Jacob to flee. But Jacob's flight was predicated once again by a lie by his mother. It's amazing to think that with all this plotting and scheming that God was actually working through this twisted mess.

Today's reading in the New Testament reading is Matthew 9:1-17. Here Matthew gives us three more scenes from the opening of Jesus' ministry. First, see Jesus heal a man who was paralyzed. This is the famous story, told in more detail in Luke 5:17-26, where the man's friends bring him and let him down through the roof. Interesting note: When Jesus "saw their faith," referring to the friend too, not just the man, he gave the healing. That's an enigmatic encouragement to us to have faith on behalf of others, and to act in accordance with that faith. This is also one of the first moments Matthew records of conflict with the religious leaders.

The next story is the calling of Matthew Levi as a disciple, and the wonderful story of Jesus having a party with the dregs of society and the outcasts. A better model for the church cannot be found. Jesus' answer to the Pharisees who accuse him should be etched on the walls of every church building in America.

Finally we get a short scene where Jesus interacts with some of the disciples of John the Baptist who come to ask Jesus why his disciples aren't ascetics. Jesus answers that there will be time for that later, but how can they be morose when He is present among them? We also get Jesus' strange statements about patching a garments and using new wineskins. These two verses have been made to say a host of different things, and the image of the new wineskin has been interpreted in countless ways. In this context, Jesus is simply saying to the Pharisees, "Your model of religion is incapable of making the transition necessary. God wants to do a new thing, and it requires a whole new way of being."

We pick up the last three verses of Psalms 10 today. (Psalms 10:16-18) It just wraps up yesterday's text with a brief statement about the authority of God, and a call that He would protect those who cannot take care of themselves. This is a recurring theme we will see throughout the Old Testament.

The reading from Proverbs is Proverbs 3:9-10. This is a short saying about letting God be a higher priority to us than our material goods and wealth. It's also phrased in the context of a promise. If we honor God with what He gives us, He will in turn give us more that we can use to honor Him. For me this ties into the New Testament principle of being faithful in little things being the path to greater trust.

2007 Cohort Comments