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 for today, Leviticus 24:1 - 25:46, is bringing us rapidly toward the conclusion of Leviticus. We get a continued listing of various instructions and laws, and one incident.

There are a few instructions about the bread and oil used in the tabernacle. Then we see an incident where a fight broke out, and in the course of the fight, one of the participants "curse the Name," that is to say they said something derogatory about God Himself. This man was taken into custody and tried, and at the guidance of God through Moses, was stoned to death.

This gives a good opportunity to stop and talk briefly about the name of God and the role it played in the Hebrew mind. First, you'll note that from time to time I refer to God as Yahweh God. This word "Yahweh" is the English transliteration of a Hebrew word that represents the formal, proper name of God. It's actually YHWH, since Hebrew doesn't have the equivalent of English vowels. Another name you might be familiar with is "Jehovah." This comes from the same word, but along a different linguistic path. "Jehovah" is the English transliteration of the Greek transliteration (JHVH, found in many ancient Greek translations of the Bible) of the original Hebrew word.

This Hebrew word, YHWH, is the name God revealed for Himself, and it was especially holy and sacred to the Jews. It still is. In fact, Jews will never speak or pronounce this word. This tradition is carried on in the Old Testament. Take a look at your Bible. You will notice in the Old Testament that when you see the word "Lord" written it appears in two different ways. One way is "Lord" (capital with lower case letters) in the same font as the rest of the text. This is the translation of the Hebrew word "adonai" which means, "lord" in the sense of my immediate authority. (Lord of the castle, or you are my Lord, my boss.) You will also notice from time to time the word "Lord" written either in a different font or in all upper case letters LORD. This is where the Hebrew actually uses the word YHWH, but out of respect, it is translated as LORD.

Now, you might ask why this is necessary? Well, In the Hebrew culture the true name of something was powerful and important. Revealing ones true name to someone was a mark of great intimacy, and even was believed to give that person a little bit of power. The name represented the inner character. This is why God talks at times about giving us a "new name." Someone's name was a representation of the character of that person, and so, to disrespect the name was the same as physically disrespecting the person.

Other points of interest in the text include the "eye for an eye" law, which you've often heard referred to. This sounds brutal to us today, but in the context of the times it was actually a way to make sure that punishments were fair and commensurate with the crime. This was a world where the powerful rules and made the laws. A powerful person in Egypt who was slightly offended could have the offender brutally punished. This law was a basic standard that said that the punishment ought to be equal in weight to the crime.

We also get the concept of the Jubilee. This is an amazing and wonderful concept that really gives us an insight into the vision God has of community. Within this section we have rules about fair lending practices, not taking advantage of each other financially, and a clear reminder that all of what we have really belongs to God and we are just stewards of it. This life is not about hording and accumulating wealth. It's not ours to keep anyway.

In the New Testament reading for today, Mark 10:13-31, we have two scenes: Jesus with the little children, and Jesus with the rich young ruler.

The first scene is short and sweet. Parents want Jesus to bless their kids. The disciples get in the way. Jesus rebukes them, blesses the children, and then uses them as an example of what it means to accept the kingdom of God. Make no mistake here. Jesus is not saying that we are to be "honest like little children," or "sweet like little children." Anyone who had children knows that these interpretations have nothing to do with real kids. Jesus is saying (as we can clearly see in the next story) that we are to come to Him fully dependent like children, knowing that we cannot provide for ourselves and anything we need we must get from Him.

(By the way, this is a helpful illustration of the importance of interpreting scripture contextually. The writers of the Biblical books were not dummies. Additionally, they were led by the Holy Spirit. So, the sequence of the stories is often times just as important as the stories themselves. Our tendency is to take individual scenes and stand them on their own, when the original intent was that they should be reflected on and interpreted side by side. In this case the "little children scene" is an intentional contrast to the "rich young ruler" scene. In the first, people considered to be weak and lowly were kept from Jesus, while someone powerful was allowed access. (That sounds normal...) But, it was the weak ones that Jesus held up as an example, and the powerful one who couldn't grasp what it took to follow Jesus. In this way, both stories, side by side, provide commentary on each other.)

That leads us into the story of someone who was intent on providing his own way, and earning his place with God - the rich young man. He came to Jesus with strong religions credentials, and yet Jesus challenged him to do more. He was unable or unwilling, and the disciples were shocked. Now that may seem strange to you, since in our culture we have both a fascination and a skepticism with the wealthy. But it was common thought among the Jews of this time that wealth was a visible indicator of God's blessing, which came to those who were righteous, and poverty was a visible punishment from God for sin. So, the disciples thought this guy was a shoe-in. This interaction, and Jesus' teaching about it, turned the disciples world-view upside down.

We read the remainder of the 44th Psalm, Psalms 44:9-26, for our Psalms reading today. This is a dark passage. This is an expression of a heart who feels like God is set against him, that no matter what he does, God seems distant and unforgiving. The writer feels that he has not done wrong in order to be punished. He feels that he has kept himself pure and dedicated to God. And yet, even in the face of this, it seems that God has abandoned him. It brings to mind the story of Job.

This is a dark place to be, and in many ways it seems contradictory to the life of faith and abundance that God has promised us. And yet, it is actually not that uncommon, either in scripture or in the records of the lives of faithful people throughout history. A Spanish monk in the 14th century named John wrote about this experience and called it the "dark night of the soul." He came to be called Saint John of the Cross. This season of the spiritual journey that he wrote about is a time of great testing when the faithful follower of Jesus is not allowed to experience manifestations of God's presence, even though they are being faithful. Spiritual acts that once brought refreshment seem meaningless and empty. Favorite passages of scripture seem dry. It is a season where God is building into the faith of the person, so that they are not dependent on the "feeling" of God's presence, and can continue to have faith even when there is no visible manifestation of God's reality. This type of experience seems to show up in th spiritual journals of all the great models of our faith, and certainly in the lives of the faithful people that I have known. This Psalm voices the heart of that moment, crying out to God for a touch of His presence.

The Proverbs reading, Proverbs 10:20-21, continued the contrast between the mouth (words) of the righteous, and the judgment necessary to know when and what to say. Our words have the power to nourish many. That's an important reminder!

2007 Cohort Comments