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 gives detailed instructions for diagnosing skin diseases in a society with limited ability to treat them. This is followed by instructions for determining if an item of clothing, leather or other fabric is contaminated. If the item is contaminated they were instructed to burn it completely.

     Jesus returned to His hometown of Nazareth. He preached in the Synagogue on the Sabbath. Initially, people were impressed by His teaching, but then they started to ask what made Him special. They knew His mother, His brothers and His sisters. As a result, they gave His message no credence. This meant that few came to Him for healing. As the saying goes, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” This passage is often seen as a warning to not dismiss a message from God just because we know the messengers background. That is a very good point to keep in mind, but how often do we overlook or dismiss lessons from Bible passages because we think we know what they say? I know that I sometimes do that. This blog has helped with that, when I have to come up with something to say about a passage that I think of as completely “mined” I have to read it through several times trying to see if there is anything there that hasn’t been said time and again (of course, I have to be careful not to read something into the passage that isn’t there as well).
     Jesus left Nazareth and traveled the region teaching in the various villages. He began sending the Twelve out in teams of two to preach the Gospel. They were to take no provisions with them. In each town they were to find a house that would welcome them and stay in that house until it was time to move on. They were to leave any town that did not welcome them and to symbolically shake the dust off of their feet as they left. They followed His instructions by going forth and preaching repentance. They cast out demons and healed many sick people by anointing them with oil. I read this today and saw that there are two lessons here for us. The first lesson is that when we are missionaries, we should trust God to provide our needs. Perhaps not in as extreme manner as Jesus instructed the Twelve here (although we should not automatically assume that is the case), but we should trust that if God is calling us to a ministry, He will provide for our needs. It is worth noting that the Twelve were sent into an area where they probably had contacts (they were preaching in Galilee, which was the region where they grew up and lived). The second lesson is for those of us who are not sent on missions, we need to provide for the needs of those who are sent by God to minister. This is especially true when those called by God come into the area where we live and work.
     Mark tells us that people were trying to figure out who Jesus was, some saying He was Elijah, some saying that he was another prophet. Herod, however, believed that He was John the Baptist resurrected. Herod had arrested John the Baptist and kept him in prison because John had been preaching that it was a sin for Herod to marry his brother’s wife. Herod’s wife wanted John executed but Herod was afraid of John. Besides which Herod liked listening to John preach. Finally, on his birthday Herod gave a feast for his high officials. At the feast, his wife’s daughter danced for him and his guests. Herod was so impressed by her dancing that he promised to give her anything she asked for. She consulted with her mother who told her to ask for John’s head on a platter. Herod was distressed by this, but he did not want to appear in front of his guests to not be a man of his word. So he gave orders for John to be executed and his head brought to his wife’s daughter.

     Let us refrain from complaining in front of unbelievers. We have but a short time on this planet to serve the Lord. I will put my hope in God, He will relieve me of my troubles. He will answer my prayers and give me help when all seems lost.

     Those who give wrong-doers a pass cause trouble to escalate. Those who confront minor wrong-doing keep things from getting out of hand.