I am using One Year Bible Online for my daily Bible study. For today, One Year Bible Online links here. I have found that by writing this daily blog of what I see when I read these scriptures, I get more out of them. I hope that by posting these ruminations others may get some benefit as well. If you have any thoughts or comments regarding these verses or what I have written about them, please post them. I hope that the Spirit is moving in others through these posts as the Spirit has definitely been convicting me.

     Today’s passage describes the procedures for making a burnt offering, a grain offering and a peace offering. The burnt offering and the peace offering were an animal, either a young bull, or a young sheep or goat of either sex. Whichever type of animal it was, it was to be an animal with no defects. It was not acceptable to give an animal that would otherwise just be destroyed as an offering. When we make a sacrifice it needs to be something that something that is actually a sacrifice.
     I found it interesting that the instructions for the variations on the grain offering were all to include salt. However, no offering was to include yeast or honey, with the exception that those were allowed to be part of the first fruits of harvest offering. I am not sure what the significance of that is, but I found it interesting.

     After leaving the synagogue where He had healed a demon possessed man, Jesus went to Simon and Andrew’s home. When He got there, they told Him that Simon’s mother-in-law was sick. Jesus went to her and helped her up, whereupon her fever broke completely and she prepared a meal for them. After sunset, many sick and demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. He healed them all. The people of the town gathered outside the door to watch.
     The next morning Jesus got up early and went out to an isolated place to pray. When His disciples found Him, He told them that they needed to go to other towns throughout Galilee to preach. His disciples followed Him as He traveled to various towns and taught in their synagogues. Throughout His traveling and preaching He cast out many demons. At one point a man with leprosy came to Jesus and begged Him to heal him. Jesus did so. He then told the man not to tell anyone, but to go to a priest to be certified as being cleansed of the leprosy as the law commanded. I have read many attempts to explain why Jesus told this man not to tell anyone what happened. It was only during this reading that I realized that those people are missing the point of what Jesus told the man. Jesus told the man to follow the protocol laid out in the law of Moses for someone who has been healed of leprosy. If the man had followed that procedure, the healing would have been well documented and the effect would have been the same as him going and telling everyone. Except that it would have been harder for doubters to explain the healing away.
     Today’s passage ends with the story of the paralyzed man whose friends were so determined to get him to Jesus that they dug a hole through the roof in order to lower the man down in front of Jesus. They could not get the mat they were carrying the man on through the crowds to Jesus, so they climbed up on the roof and made an opening to lower the man through. Jesus saw how much faith the man’s friends had, so He told the man that his sins were forgiven. Other teachers of religious law who were sitting there were offended by Jesus saying this, since they felt that only God could forgive sins. Jesus’ response to their thoughts was to ask them whether it was easier to tell the man that his sins were forgiven or to get up and walk? He then told the man to get up, take his mat and go home. The man did exactly that. This left everyone amazed and praising God. However, they were not quite sure what to think of Jesus since He did not quite fit neatly into any of their existing categories.
     Do we have the faith of the paralyzed man’s friends? Are we confident that if we can only bring our friends before Jesus, they will be healed? How much effort are we willing to exert to bring them before Jesus? Will we match the effort that these men made?

     The psalmist calls on the Lord to protect him from his enemies, from those who falsely accuse him. He is confident that the Lord will do so and promises to proclaim before the world that credit for his salvation from troubles belongs to the Lord. He acknowledges that he has no power to rescue himself from his enemies. Are we willing to come before the Lord and declare that it is only through His actions that we will succeed? How often do we call on the Lord for salvation from some trouble and then take credit for getting ourselves out of trouble? I just realized that to a degree I have been guilty of this. I have a chronic health issue. It is not something that negatively effects me on a day to day basis, but if I do not get it addressed it could have serious consequences down the road. At my last doctor’s appointment to monitor the issue, everything about it had improved remarkably, almost to the point where I could stop thinking about what I need to do to control it. This was despite the fact that in every aspect of working to control it that I was consciously aware of I had failed to behave in a disciplined manner. Yet until I was reviewing this passage, it never occurred to me to praise God in anything more than a perfunctory way. I will strive to rectify that failure going forward and give God full credit for the improvement in my health.

     The foolish are brash and ignorant and generally completely unaware of their lack of knowledge. They go beyond that and entice others to follow them in their foolish behavior. Those who lack judgment follow such enticement without ever recognizing the danger.