Date Readings Verses 01-Mar Numbers 25-26 83 02-Mar Numbers 27, 36 36 03-Mar Numbers 28-29 71 04-Mar Numbers 30 16 05-Mar Numbers 31 54 06-Mar Numbers 32 42 07-Mar Numbers 33-35 119 08-Mar Mark 1:1-15 15 09-Mar Mark 1:16-34 19 10-Mar Mark 1:35-2:12 23 11-Mar Mark 2:13-3:6 22 12-Mar Mark 3:7-19a 13 13-Mar Mark 3:19b-35 …
Monthly Archives: February 2025
February 28 / Numbers 23-24 #2
Numbers 23-24 Dear RTB’ers, More Balak and Balaam – today, his actual words, his blessings. And they are numerous. First, Balaam asks three times for Balak to “Build for me here seven altars and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” (Num. 23:1, 14, 29). Balak does as requested and Balaam responds with …
February 27 / Numbers 23-24 #1
Numbers 23-24 Dear RTB’ers, Frankly, these chapters leave me confused. Left to my own consideration, I would be lauding Balaam – first, he refused (twice) to go to Balak to do his bidding (even if he were paid an enormous sum); then he went as the Lord directed him; then the incident with his donkey; …
February 26 / Numbers 22
Numbers 22 Dear RTB’ers, We leave Moses and the Israelites for three days to read the strange story of Balak and Balaam – and today, Balaam’s donkey. There have been a few times in my Christian walk when I have heard someone mention Balaam’s donkey, mostly as something like “If God can make Balaam’s donkey …
February 25 / Numbers 21
Numbers 21 Dear RTB’ers, Today, the story of the “bronze serpent” – the Israelites grumbling, the serpents biting them, Moses lifting up a bronze serpent, and those who were bitten being saved from death by looking at the bronze serpent. This story may seem familiar to many of you, even if you have not read …
February 24 / Numbers 20
Numbers 20 Dear RTB’ers, Although not explicitly stated in the text, it seems that some 38 or so years have passed in the time between chapters 19 and 20. Miriam dies in the first verse; Aaron dies in the last paragraph (a precursor to Moses’ own death); and Edom refuses passage to Israel as they …
February 23 / Numbers 18:8-19:22
Numbers 18:8-19:22 Dear RTB’ers, Two items from today’s reading – tithing and the red heifer. The red heifer account is straightforward (just to read), but unusual. The red heifer is a female, not a male; is a cow, not an ox; is slaughtered, not sacrificed; and it happens outside the camp, not at the altar. …
February 22 / Numbers 16:36-18:7
Numbers 16:36-18:7 Dear RTB’ers, More grumbling against Moses and Aaron… Yesterday we lost Korah, Dathan, and Abiram when the earth opened up and swallowed them and their households and possessions, plus another 250 who burned with fire from the Lord. Then today we see the grumbling continuing and another 14,700 dying from a plague. So …
February 21 / Numbers 16:1-35
Numbers 16:1-35 Dear RTB’ers, Today’s reading is widely known as “Korah’s Rebellion”, even though he is one of four men named, along with Dathan and Abiram and On. (There is no more mention of “On” except in today’s first verse.) Korah’s prominence is because he was a Levite, one of the Kohathites, in fact, who …
February 20 / Numbers 15
Numbers 15 Dear RTB’ers, I had noticed the word “sojourner” (or stranger or alien) appearing seven times in today’s reading, and the laws that applied to the Israelites applied also to the sojourners. The Lord speaking: For the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you, a …