Blog – Page 4 – Read Through the Bible

March 28 / Deuteronomy 2

Deuteronomy 2

Rise up, set out on your journey and go over the Valley of the Arnon. Behold, I have given into your hand Sihon the Amorite, king of Heshbon, and his land. Begin to take possession, and contend with him in battle.

And the LORD said to me, “Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land over to you. Begin to take possession, that you may occupy his land.”
Deuteronomy 2:24,31

The third question in Search the Scriptures today asks, “What do [these two verses] teach about the relationship between divine grace and human faith? Cf. Eph. 2:8.” That’s good food for thought.

The first thing that comes to mind for me is that God is the One Who takes the initiative. God gives Sihon and his land into the hand of Israel, and He starts that process even before Israel shows up. (v. 31: “I have begun to give…”) Further, He initiates the call to Israel to take the land with the (repeated) command, begin to take possession. Only after God’s initiative do we see Israel’s response of faith and obedience. In marked contrast to Israel’s faithless actions years earlier in Kadesh (remember the spies?), Israel steps out in faith to engage in the hard work of doing battle and taking possession of the land.

So it is with us. God’s grace and call come first, and we have the opportunity to respond in faith — faith that is shown by obedience. But before we start patting ourselves on the back for whatever faith we might demonstrate, we should note that even that faith is itself a gift from God. In other words, it is all God’s good grace.

March 27 / Deuteronomy 1

Deuteronomy 1

Today Search the Scriptures has us returning to the Old Testament to go through the book of Deuteronomy. Please take a minute or two to read the introductory section of our February 21, 2023 post. I’ll wait…

As is true for much of the rest of Deuteronomy, this first chapter recounts history that we’ve already been through in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers — Exodus 18:13-27 and Numbers 13-14 in particular here. So why does Moses retell this history? For his immediate audience of Israelites who are just about to enter into the Promised Land after 40 years in the wilderness, Moses wants to ensure that they do not make the same mistakes as the prior generation. Likewise, we, too, need the repetition so that we, too, might learn the same lessons. As Paul says in I Corinthians 10, Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction… (I Cor. 10:11) So let’s pay attention. Let’s learn from the Israelites, from both their failures and their successes. Let’s learn to put our full faith and confidence in the One Who calls us out of darkness into His marvelous light. (I Peter 2:9)

March 26 / Mark 9:30-50

Mark 9:30-50

Do you take sin seriously? Jesus certainly does.

Consider Mark 9:42-48, where Jesus says that it is better to discard offending body parts and enter the Kingdom of God maimed rather than to be thrown whole into hell. A little thought about all this should readily tell us that Jesus is not to be taken literally here. That is, it should be clear that our hands, feet, and eyes are never actually the cause of our sin, and so lopping off limbs or gouging out eyes will not fix our sin problem. But should we then breathe a sigh of relief that this is “just” figurative language? No, not at all! We should instead get a clue that sin is deadly serious business that calls for intense repentance.

So, do you take sin seriously?

March 25 / Mark 9:1-29

Mark 9:1-29

“…But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!”
Mark 9:22b-24

Who among us cannot relate to this father’s plea? We probably all identify more easily with his unbelief than with his belief. But that’s crazy, because God has given us every reason for it to be the other way around.

He Who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him graciously give us all things?
Romans 8:32

Jesus is the ultimate expression of God’s great love for us, so why do we persist in unbelief?

Lord, we believe; help our unbelief!

See also:

March 24 / Mark 8:27-38

Mark 8:27-38

Today’s reading has long been seen as the pivotal passage of the Gospel of Mark, first with Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ (or the Messiah, the Anointed One) (Mark 8:29), and then with Jesus’ teaching about his approaching suffering, death, and Resurrection. (Mark 8:31) The notion of a suffering Messiah is so radically upside-down for the disciples that Peter immediately rejects the idea (Mark 8:32), resulting in a swift reaction from Jesus:

Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man.
Mark 8:33

We, of course, know the rest of the story. We know that Jesus suffers many things and dies on the Cross. And we know about His Resurrection. But perhaps in our familiarity with the story we grow numb to the enormity and scandal of a suffering Messiah. Consider a Protestant cross versus a Catholic crucifix. Why the bare cross? Yes, in part, it is a good and proper recognition of the Resurrection. But perhaps in our rush to the Resurrection, we — like Peter here — refuse to consider a suffering Messiah, because that just does not fit what we expect from God, even as we recite the Creeds.

In our reluctance to fully consider a suffering Christ, we simultaneously minimize the notion of a suffering Christian, particularly when that Christian is oneself. So we water down what Jesus says next:

If anyone would come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.
Mark 8:34b

Again, we’re familiar with the words, but we rob them of meaning. We’ve grown used to a tepid interpretation of the word “deny” and fail to recognize that it here means “renounce.” And we likewise think of “taking up a cross” as merely tolerating an annoyance. No. Jesus has something much more serious in mind here. As Bonhoeffer said:

When Christ calls a man, He bids him come and die.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

So how about it? What does Christ’s call mean for you today?

See also:

March 23 / Mark 8:1-26

Mark 8:1-26

Dear RTB’ers,

Today will be my last post for a while. I am having shoulder replacement surgery tomorrow morning and will be out of action for a while. I’ll be in a sling for about a month and then a few more months of recuperation and rehab. John S. has said that he will probably continue to post something in my absence, but that’s up to him. We have a few more days in Mark, then we move to Deuteronomy. A good time for me to take some time off…!! 😊!

Today’s reading has four thousand fed, Pharisee challenges, the disciples’ “unbelief”, and Jesus healing a blind man. This healing of a blind man is one of those six items that appears only in Mark’s gospel. Although Jesus healed the blind on other occasions, this healing occurred at Bethsaida and was accomplished in two stages. There are a couple of curious items in this incident. Why did Jesus take the man out of the village, away from the crowds? (v. 23) Why did the man not see perfectly after Jesus had first anointed his eyes with His spit? (v. 24) Why did Jesus lay His hands on the man’s eyes a second time? (v. 25) Why did Jesus tell the man to go straight home and not even enter the village? (v. 26) And why was this incident reported only in Mark’s gospel? It has enough unique features that I’m surprised at it not being reported elsewhere. The bottom line for this incident, setting aside all the “curious” items: Then Jesus laid His hands on his eyes again; …and he saw everything clearly. (v. 25) How many times has Jesus spoken to us before we could see “everything clearly”? Or, how many more times are needed?

Blessings!

See also:

March 22 / Mark 7:24-37

Mark 7:24-37

Dear RTB’ers,

Fairly early on in my “active” Christian walk I was reading through I Corinthians for the first time and in chapter 11 I saw Paul’s words, very similar to the words that our priests speak at the elevation of the host and the cup: that the Lord Jesus on the night when He was betrayed took bread, and when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, “This is My body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way also He took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” (I Cor. 11:23b-25) Likewise, in today’s text we read words that sound familiar: But she answered him, “Yes, Lord; yet even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” (v. 28) Again, we pray a similar prayer at our own Prayer of Humble Access: “We are not worthy so much as to gather up the crumbs under Your table…” Today we are reading words first spoken and written some two thousand years ago! That’s awesome!

Blessings!

March 21 / Mark 7:1-23

Mark 7:1-23

Dear RTB’ers,

Jesus is quoting Isaiah 29:13, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. (v. 7) Putting myself into this “story” (this Isaiah verse), I split the verse in half at the semicolon and declared myself guilty in the first half and (hopefully) (mostly?) innocent of the second half.

As for the first half: all too often, my “worship” is rote activity, while my mind is far off somewhere else. I “awaken” in the middle of our Sunday services and wonder how my mind got so diverted away from where we were in the service or what the preacher was saying. And if you ask me about my faith, I can provide you with the right answers. Unfortunately, my long daylight hours have too little time with the Lord – my heart is too far from Him. As to the first half of Isaiah’s verse – guilty.

As for the second half: I consider myself fortunate to be part of St. Andrew’s and the Anglican Church in North America. From the time of our separation from the Episcopal Church, I have honored our ACNA and ADOTS leaders for holding to traditional, historical Biblical standards and teachings, while leaders and congregants in many other denominations have embraced society’s standards – in particular, their support for abortion, same-sex and trans-gender issues, in my mind, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. Often I wonder if I am (or we are) out of line with Jesus’ teachings, knowing how He castigated the Pharisees and scribes for their teachings and behaviors. What would He say to me (to us)? I wonder…

Blessings!

March 20 / Mark 6:30-56

Mark 6:30-56

Dear RTB’ers,

The feeding of the five thousand is one of only two incidents outside of Holy Week that is recorded in all four gospels, the other being Jesus’ baptism. I can imagine that the Jewish people who were there and were part of this miracle would later recall their ancestors wandering in the wilderness and the provision of manna for their food. And today we can also have a recall of this miracle: And taking the five loaves and the two fish, He looked up to heaven and said a blessing and broke the loaves… (v. 41a) So every time we see the priest raising the host and breaking it at our communion service, we can recall Jesus doing the same at the feeding of the five thousand. Interesting.

The end of our reading today has Jesus healing the sick at Gennesaret. In Mark’s previous chapter we had the incident of Jesus being in this same region and healing a man possessed by a number of demons (Mark 5:1-20). At the end of that healing Mark reports that the people were afraid and they …began to beg Jesus to depart from their region. (Mark 5:15b, 17b) Today we see a major turnaround in these people: And when they [Jesus and the disciples] got out of the boat, the people immediately recognized Him and ran about the whole region and began to bring the sick people on their beds to wherever they heard He was. (Mark 6:54-55) People change. We don’t know what time period elapsed between the previous chapter’s healing of the man with a demon and today’s reading, but apparently that man had been successful in telling his story: And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled. (Mark 5:20) People change. Let’s not stop telling our own stories!

Blessings!

See also:

March 19 / Mark 6:6b-30

Mark 6:6b-30

Dear RTB’ers,

We never know the exact time frame for Jesus in Mark’s gospel, or in any of the other gospels, for that matter. But it was only a few days ago (Mark 3:13, ff.) that we saw His twelve apostles named. So, one wonders how long they had been with Jesus before He sent them out (in today’s reading). What I’m getting at here is a reflection back to the “Our Witness” chapter in our Lenten book, The Narrow Path, where the author makes a major point of Jesus’ words, “You are…” Here’s the text:

His disciples have just arrived. They are at the very start of their journey, but He doesn’t say, “You will be salt and light when I’m done with you.” He doesn’t say, “You have salt and light.” He doesn’t say, “You must be salt and light.” He says, “You are salt and light.”
The Narrow Path: How the Subversive Way of Jesus Satisfies Our Souls, by Rich Villodas — p. 52

So, as Jesus is sending out the twelve, I’m wondering at how long they have been with Him, how much “training” He has given them. Mark doesn’t tell us. All that we read is that He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. (v. 7) He also gave them further charges as to their trust in His Father in providing for them on their journey.

So, how much training have we received? Or, how much more do we need? Are we ready to be sent out?

Blessings!

See also: