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 today is Numbers 31:0 - 31:54.  Here we see one last task for Moses: to act out God's judgment against the Midianites. We also see in passing the "rest of the story" when it comes to Balaam. Apparently Balaam, even though he had been used by God to speak a great blessing on Israel, offered strategy to the enemies of Israel, telling them to use the sexual practices of their religion as a way to undermine Israel. Moses sent an army against them, with the standing orders that God had already given to completely wipe out the enemy. In the battle Balaam was killed.

The troops and the commanders decided to follow more conventional looting and pillage practices, and returned to an angry Moses. God had already given them explicit instructions about the complete destruction ("charem") they were to bring to their enemies.

This passage brings with it the baggage that some of us might carry about the ethics of the kind of killing that we see take place here. What is described in this passage can rightly be described as genocide. In our world today we would also rightly call that an immoral atrocity. So, what do we do with the fact that God seems to be condoning this behavior? It's a hard question, to be sure. When we come across passages like these it is vital for us to recognize that we are dealing with a completely different culture than we understand. God was speaking to these people in ways that made sense to them, slowly bringing them into a clearer understanding of the life He was calling them to. Ultimately God's goal was that through Israel all the nations of the world would be blessed. But in this highly tribal world, that was still a long way off. 

The New Testament reading, Luke 4:1-30 gives us two scenes in the life of Jesus. The tempting in the desert, and his announcement and rejection in Nazareth.

Before beginning His ministry, Jesus went into the desert for 40 days, a period of time with great spiritual significance. It was a time of purification and preparation for the work He had to do. At the end of the time, while He was very weak, Satan came to Him and tempted Him three times. He was tempted to use His power to provide for His own security. He was tempted to take the short path to power through acknowledging Satan as the rightful authority of earth. He was tempted to presume upon God to protect Him. But Jesus responded with faith and His deep knowledge of the character of God He had learned through scripture. The temptations came to an end, and Jesus left the desert to enter His ministry.

In Nazareth he was invited to read the scripture and teach as a traveling Rabbi. He chose a messianic prophecy in Isaiah as his scripture, and very boldly, claimed to be the fulfillment of it. The people were amazed at first, and then offended, when He said that they would not truly understand who He was and His purpose. They were so offended, that they planned to throw Him off a cliff, probably for blasphemy. But Jesus slipped away unseen.  (By the way... this was the actual practice of "stoning" that gets mentioned in the OT and NT.  Capital punishment was done in this way, and not by throwing rocks at people, but by pushing them off a cliff, so that their life was ended by the stones below.)

It is so important for us to understand the relevance of these two stories. Jesus, even though He was fully God, experienced the full weight of temptation. He knew what it was like to have that internal pressure of soul and choices, and see the easy way through to a good end. We are not alone in that. But He mastered those temptations, and He is available to us as we face our own. When we are tempted, He knows what we are experiencing, and He has the power to help us make it through successfully. And then, like Jesus' hometown we run the risk of putting Jesus in a box, and responding poorly when He shows up outside it. They wanted to see Jesus as a popular new rabbi, perhaps even a miracle worker. But to see Him as the messiah, the one who would change everything, even when they had known him growing up... it was too big of a stretch. I pray that we never fall into such a small set of preconceptions about God that we inadvertently reject the new thing God wants to bring to us.

Psalms 63 (Psalms 63:1-11) is today's Psalms reading. This is a wonderful passage full of encouragement and hope. This is another one that you ought to underline, and even commit to memory. It portrays the kind of heart toward God that we all want to have, and that God wants us to have. These are the kinds of words that come from a heart truly in love with God. God does great and mighty things. He has provided for us. He has carried us through adversity. Where would we be without Him? He alone is worthy of our praise, our worship, our love.

Proverbs 11:20-21 is the Proverbs reading today. It's simple and clear. God cannot stand unrighteousness. It will be judged and it will face consequences. It's a fact. It's not complicated. Choose righteousness and God delights in you. Choose it and you will find freedom.

2007 Cohort Comments