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, Numbers 4:1 - 5:31 offers us a few more laws, a lot like Leviticus.

The first chapter is logistical, dividing up the labor of the tabernacle between the various branches of the Levite tribe. The second chapter gives us a few more standards and laws. First, we reiterate the rules for quarantining people with infectious diseases outside the camp, and the system of restitution in place when someone harms another person. The remainder of the second chapter is dedicated to a process that was meant to reveal if a woman suspected of infidelity actually was guilty. It's a strange process, and certainly seems alien in our world. One language note, on this. The NIV translates the effect of the bitter water on the unfaithful wife as "that your abdomen swells and your thighs waste away." This is close to the literal rendering of the words, but Hebrew scholars are pretty sure that this was a curse of miscarriage and barrenness.

In our New Testament reading for today, Mark 12:18-37, we see Jesus continue to answer those who had come to question Him. First, some Sadducees came. These were a political and religious party in Judaism, like the Pharisees. But their beliefs were different. The Sadducees included many of the priestly class, and the more political leaders who had to interact with the Romans. They were more liberal in their beliefs, and didn't believe in a literal resurrection, like the Pharisees. One of them came to Jesus and posed a theological argument. Basically the point of this was to show how absurd the idea of the resurrection is. The situation the man refers to is based on the Levirate law or the idea of the kinsman-redeemer. When a man died without heirs, his brother or near male relative would take his wife as his own, and sire a son who would then be the heir of the man who had died. In this extreme example the poor wife goes through a progression of seven brothers who all die. Their question was then who would this woman be married to in heaven?

Jesus answered with two responses, but basically his point is this: all this theological posturing really misses the point. What you think you know is really very little, and you are failing at the point of trusting that God is faithful. What you suppose to know about God, and death, and life after death, is really becoming a smoke screen to keep you from having to face the really important issues.

Having seen Jesus handle the Sadduccees so well, another teacher asked him, "What is the greatest commandment in the law?" It's a good question. As we've seen in our Old Testament reading there were an awful lot of commandments in the law. By the time of Jesus the total count was 613! With so many laws to think about, it was important to get a handle on which ones were the really important ones. Jesus' answers with one of the most well known, and important passages in the New Testament. We call it the "Great Commandment." "Love God with everything you are and have, and love your neighbor as yourself." This is the foundational instruction for every follower of Jesus. This is the framework that ought to guide our lives.

It's interesting and important to note that Jesus is not introducing something new. Every part of Jesus' answer is a quote from the law given by God through Moses. The first half is the shema, the central prayer of Judaism, originally found in Deuteronomy. The second part about your neighbors is a quote from Leviticus. Jesus was simply pointing out what had been God's intention all along. This is what had been the underlying framework of the whole law, and what so many people had missed by focusing in on the legalistic execution of the particular details. The man who asked the question got it and Jesus affirmed that he was on the right track.

Our Psalms reading, Psalms 48:1-14, is another great song of praise. Originally this one was dedicated to Jerusalem (Mount Zion), and saw this wonderful city of God as evidence of God's greatness. For us, we see Zion as the fulfillment of God's kingdom in the earth made new. In either case, the point is not the city, but the greatness of the God who establishes the city, who protects it, and who is present within it.

Proverbs 10:26 is our Proverbs reading today, with a simple message. A lazy worker is a real irritation to the people who set him about a job. It's true. The warning: Don't be an irritation.

2007 Cohort Comments