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 is Numbers 19:1 - 20:29.

The first part, Chapter 19, gives specific instructions for how to restore someone who has become ceremonially unclean. After that we return to the things happening to the people.

We get a quick mention that Miriam, Moses' older sister, died. She was the one who took him in a basket to the river, so many years before. We also come to a crucial moment for Moses and Aaron. They were camped in a place where there was no water. And the people began t grumble again, saying they would have been better off if God had killed them with the other rebels, or never brought them out of Egypt. Moses approached God in frustration, and God gives him instructions to go out before the people and speak to a great rock in front of them. Then God would make water pour from the rock.

But in frustration, when Moses and Aaron gathered the people, they struck the rock with Aaron's staff, and claimed credit for the work, "So we have to provide water for you?" God honored His intention giving them water, but Moses and Aaron had disobeyed Him and crossed a line, and there were consequences even for them.

A little while later, Aaron was nearing the end of His life, and God have specific instructions for how to handle passing his role as High Priest on to His son, Eleazar. Shortly later, Aaron died, fulfilling God's words that he would not see the promised land himself.

Today we begin the third gospel, the one according to Luke. (Luke 1:1-25) Luke is an unique gospel for a number of reasons. It is part one of a two part book. The Gospel of Luke and the Book of Acts were written by the same person, to the same audience, and written to go together. Also, the Gospel of Luke is the one Gospel not written by a first-hand witness of Jesus. Matthew was written by an apostle, as was John. Mark was written by a disciple of Peter, so it gives us Peter's version of the story. But Luke was not one of the disciples. He may have never even met Jesus. So who was he? We believe that he was the Luke mentioned three times in the writings of Paul (Colossians 4:14, 2nd Timothy 4:11, and Philemon 1:24). This Luke was a Greek doctor, possibly a freed slave, who was educated. If this is the case, his writing was certainly influenced by and may have been motivated by Paul. The other interesting difference is how the book was assembled. The other Gospels were people telling their own stories. Many of the other books in the Bible are sacred histories, or prophetic. But the Gospel of Luke is the only historiography, a very early form of nearly journalistic bio-history. Luke gathered this information, as he clearly states in verse 1-4, from the testimony of credible and reliable first-hand witnesses. In other words, he tracked the story down by looking for the facts.

Luke opens the story with a birth other than the birth of Jesus - the birth of John the Baptist. Now, having read as much of the Old Testament as we have you are already better equipped to understand what's happening. Zechariah and his wife are descendants of Aaron. That means they are ancestral priests. Zecharish's particular family in the tribe is responsible for serving at the Temple only a certain time in the year, where he has the responsibility of burning incense before the Lord. He and his family are living out all those detailed instructions for the priests that we've recently read in Leviticus and Numbers.

When Zechariah was in the temple burning incense, he was inside the first curtain, the holy place. (Not the Most Holy Place, where only the High Priest could go.), so the people couldn't see him. While he was there an angel appeared and foretold the birth of his son. This son, to be named John, would be a permanent Nazirite, one dedicated to the Lord. We read about that particular vow recently as well. This man would be highly influential and would bring many in Israel back to a pure worship of God.

Psalms 56 (Psalms 56:1-13) is our Psalms reading for today. It is another lament and cry to God for protection. There are two parts of it that are prime for meditation and reflection. Verses 3 & 4 is a statement of faith that can remind us of our position in Christ and His care for us. When all is said and done, nothing can be done to us by humans that can undo what Jesus has given us. Verses 12 & 13 are a great reminder for any Christian of our commitment to God, and the purpose God has for us in saving us.

The Proverbs reading, Proverbs 11:8, reiterates the point of our Psalms today very succinctly.

2007 Cohort Comments