Numbers 11-12 Dear RTB’ers, Now the rabble that was among them… (v. 11:4a) Made me laugh. There was rabble among them, even among the Israelites, God’s chosen people. And Moses and Aaron had to deal with “the rabble”. Nothing’s changed! Grumbling… Thankfully, Carol and I have not spent time in grumbling churches. Yeah, people often …
Category Archives: RTB 2025 – Search the Scriptures, Part 2
February 16 / Numbers 9:15-10:36
Numbers 9:15-10:36 Dear RTB’ers, Sorry for the late post, folks, but what a day…! We’ve gone from a flooded, impassable driveway to skipped-church, JIT annual meeting, to a wonderful parish brunch, to a 7-hour, 450-mile drive! I am finally a bit unpacked and ready to post! So you might be thinking – God really left …
February 15 / Numbers 8:1-9:14
Numbers 8:1-9:14 Dear RTB’ers, All priests were Levites, but not all Levites were priests. At Mt. Sinai and for many years afterward the priesthood was limited to Aaron and his descendants. [That had changed by the time that Jesus lived.] Scripture consistently distinguishes between Levites and priests. Recall Jesus’s parable of the Good Samaritan. He …
February 14 / Numbers 6:22-7:89
Numbers 6:22-7:89 Dear RTB’ers, I’m sure that the verses that end chapter 6 are familiar to many of us: The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24-26) If you haven’t made the connection, these words …
February 13 / Numbers 5:1-6:21
Numbers 5:1-6:21 Dear RTB’ers, Two major topics today, separated into two chapters – the test for adultery and the Nazirite vow. The Nazirite vow is fairly straightforward – a man wishes to put himself under a vow in order to seek the Lord more fully. We have two New Testament occasions where Paul seems to …
February 12 / Numbers 3-4
Numbers 3-4 Dear RTB’ers, Ideally you’ve got a Study Bible or a commentary or an online source that explains things. If not, it’s a bit difficult to follow the Levitical assignments by just reading through the text. So, for the sake of clarity… Levi had three sons – Kohath, Gershon, and Merari. (v. 3:17) Kohath …
February 11 / Numbers 1-2
Numbers 1-2 Dear RTB’ers, Numbers. My favorite book of the Bible?? Not really, but people joke with me about that, having to do with my love for numbers and number “families”! And no doubt, I’d rather be reading Numbers than going back to Leviticus!! After those many days of a small number of verses to …
February 10 / Hebrews Review
Dear RTB’ers, The STS authors list “Revision” instead of a Scripture reading for today’s assignment, but “Review” is probably a better word. And that’s mostly what we did at yesterday’s RTB gathering, looking at the whole of the book of Hebrews. Mostly the group lauded our STS authors for putting Leviticus and Hebrews back-to-back. We …
February 9 / Hebrews 13:9-25
Hebrews 13:9-25 Dear RTB’ers, We will gather as an RTB group in a few hours, so I will make this short. Verse 10 was confusing to me: We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. Yes, confusing, so I went to an online commentary: “We who are Christians …
February 8 / Hebrews 13:1-8
Hebrews 13:1-8 Dear RTB’ers, Today’s reading offers a bunch of one-sentence instructions, encouragements, and admonishments: hospitality to strangers; remembering prisoners; undefiled marriage beds; love of money; overcoming fear; spiritual ancestors; and Jesus Christ eternally! I pondered each of those items that the author mentioned, looking for instances in my own life where those topics were …