Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 21-23.

Verses 21 through 23 are the reason the Jewish leaders asked Pilate to have the bodies of Jesus and those crucified with him taken down before the end of the day. After the Resurrection, when the apostles were brought before the Sanhedrin Peter also alludes these two verses (or, at least, he seems to do so).  In fact, that reference suggests an explanation as to why the Sanhedrin wanted to have Jesus crucified rather than stoning Him.  In the Acts passage, Peter contrasts the Jewish leaders killing Jesus by hanging Him on a cross (in other words having His body exposed on a pole) with God exalting Him by raising Him from the dead.  The Jewish leaders hoped the ignominy of Jesus being hung on a cross would destroy His followers’ faith in Him because this passage tells us that anyone hung on a pole is under God’s curse.  So, in a way, the Jewish leaders sought to put Jesus under God’s curse by hanging Him on a pole, but God turned it into raising Him up like the bronze snake which Moses placed upon a pole.  So that, by looking upon Him, those who were under the curse of sin might be healed, just as those suffering from the bite of venomous snakes in the wilderness were healed by looking at the bronze snake.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 18-20.

Moses tells the Israelites that they must not imitate the detestable practices of the nations who in habit the land they are about to enter.  Then he lists some of the practices which they are not to imitate.  These practices are divination, sorcery, witchcraft, interpreting omens, consulting the dead, and sacrificing your children.  Moses told the Israelites that those practices were why God was going to drive those people out of the land before the Israelites.  I find the fact that this passage considers sacrificing children to be on par with divination and sorcery strange.  When I was young I was taught that divination, sorcery, interpreting omens, etc. were foolish and silly, but that sacrificing children was an horrific evil.  Perhaps the failure of the generation before me to recognize the evil of practicing divination led to so many in my generation, and younger, to no longer recognize the evil of sacrificing children.  Certainly, as sacrificing children has become more acceptable, so too has seeking to divine the future by various means and to cast spells has also become more acceptable.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 14-17.

I do not have any profound thoughts about today’s passage, but there are a couple of things which inspire thoughts about how we interpret Scripture.  The first of these has to do with the way in which Orthodox Jews interpret kosher food laws.  In particular this phrase from verse 21 of chapter 14: “Do not cook a young goat in its mother’s milk.”  The traditional Jewish interpretation of this command leads them to not cook any meat with any dairy products.  But this passage does not say anything about sheep or cattle, just goats, as do all of the other places where the Torah (the first five books of the Old Testament) repeats this command.  Looking at this causes me to observe how often we read more into a passage then is actually there.

Following that is an injunction to set aside a tenth of what the fields produce, the tithe.  Moses instructed the Israelites to set aside a tenth of what their fields produced and take it to a central location where they would all worship God together.  When they got there they were to eat the tithe.  So, the purpose of the tithe was to supply a feast which would be consumed along with all of the Israelites as they worshiped and thanked God.  This passage also discusses three feasts for which all of the Israelites were to gather in order to worship God together.  All together, the instruction to tithe and the three feasts, indicate that God’s people should gather regularly in order to live in unity and peace with one another.  In the same way today it is important for God’s people to gather to worship God and fellowship with one another so as to remain united under God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 11-13.

Today’s passage reminds us that those who are children have not seen the wonders which we have seen God perform.  But not just those who are children, many of those younger than ourselves may not have seen wonders which we have seen God perform.  We need to teach those too young to have seen what God has done in the past.  When we listen to them we need to keep in mind what examples of God’s power they have seen, and what examples of it happened before their time.  The passage goes on to remind us that if we faithfully obey God, He will provide for us.  Our memories of how we have seen God work in the past will help us have faith that He will act in the future.  More than that, when we read this passage we need to consider whether we are in the place of the children who did not see God’s wondrous power.  If that is the case, then we need to keep in mind the stories which the generations which went before us shared with us.  Let us study the ways in which God has acted in the past so as to remain faithful, trusting that He will act similarly in the future.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 8-10.

Moses tells the Israelites that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word which comes from the mouth of God.  When Moses says this he is not just referring to food.  He means that material things do not bring us full satisfaction, that if we wish to live fulfilled lives we need to listen to the word of God.  Then he warns us against allowing ourselves to forget God when He gives us good things and our lives are going well.  Moses goes on talking about the importance of listening to God’s commands until he asks the question, “What does the Lord your God ask of you?”  Then Moses answers that question.  God asks us to fear Him (because His power and glory is so great that if we truly know Him we cannot help but fear Him).  God asks us to love Him (and we cannot love Him if we do not know Him).  God asks us to serve Him our of that love.  And finally God asks us to obey the commands and decrees which He has given us because they are for our own good.  The heavens and all the earth belong to God, yet from all of that He has chosen us.  Is it too much of Him to ask us to love and obey Him in return?  Especially when the things He commands us are for our own good?

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 5-7.

Moses recounts the Ten Commandments and makes some commentary on them.  He tells the Israelites that the purpose of God’s commands was so that it would go well for those who obeyed them.  Moses then tells them that they should have God’s commandments on their hearts and should impress them on their children.  We should strive to do the same thing.  Moses even told us how we can do that.  We do it by talking about God’s decrees and commands when we are at home, and when we travel; by talking about them when we get up and when we lie down; by putting reminders of them on our hands, our foreheads, and on our house, and in our houses.  We should strive to bring up God’s laws whenever and wherever we can.  We should carry things and have things in our houses which lead our children, our guests, and the strangers we meet ask us about God’s laws and what they mean to us.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 3-4.

Every year when I read this I am struck by the fact that Moses says that God refused to allow him to cross the Jordan into the Promised Land because of the rest of the Israelites.  I am struck by this because in Numbers 20, God told Moses that he would not enter the Promised Land because he struck the rock when God had told him to speak to it.  What Moses says here is not exactly wrong, because he struck the rock, rather than just speak to it, because of his frustration with the Israelite complaining.  I wasn’t sure where I was going with this as I wrote it, but I realized what an important lesson it is about controlling our anger.  Moses allowed his anger at the people to get the better of him, and he suffered the consequences.  Moses failed to faithfully follow God’s command, which meant that he was never able to enter the land of Canaan.  No matter how much we feel that we have been provoked, God will hold us accountable to faithfully follow His instructions.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 1-2.

As the Israelites prepared to cross the Jordan River, Moses summarized what they had gone through as a people from the time they left Mt Sinai until they arrived at this place.  The first portion of this review would have been very important since those to whom Moses was speaking would have been too young to understand what was going on when these events happened.  I find it interesting that Moses here recounts how they passed Edom and Moab differently from the account in Numbers.  I don’t see these differences as being contradictory.  I see them being a more about the meaning of God’s guidance rather than about what happened.  I note with interest that Moses leaves out of this account the incident with Baal Peor, while he covers the refusal of the previous generation to enter the Promised Land.  The final piece of the passage tells us that Moses knew that Sihon would attack the Israelites before he sent the message requesting  that Sihon allow them to peacefully cross his lands.  The passage ends by recounting how the Israelites completely defeated Sihon’s people without encroaching on the land of the Ammonites, Moabites, or Edomites, who descended from Terah, Abraham’s father.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.