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Bible reading for weekend Oct 15 -- 17 Oct 15 -- Ezekiel 48 and Psalm 104 Oct 16 -- Daniel 1 and Psalm 105 Oct 17 -- Daniel 2 and Psalm 106 ================   "And the name of the city from that time on shall be, The LORD is there." (Ezekiel 48:35) THE INHERITANCE (ch 48). From time to time I have seen a bumper sticker on a car (usually a nice car) which reads, "I am spending my children's inheritance." Inheritance is not a word which carries much weight in our culture these days. After paying off student loans, mortgages, consumer debt, and then nursing home care there's usually not much to go around afterwards. In the ancient world -- and even our world until just a century ago -- one's inheritance was a very important thing. It meant receiving and carrying on a family legacy, including the traditions, influence, and power that came with it. It meant having land or a house where one could make one's home and raise a family. It was a place to work ...

  Bible reading for Oct 13 -- 14 Oct 13 -- Ezekiel 46 and Psalm 102 Oct 14 -- Ezekiel 47 and Psalm 103 ================   "And wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish. For this water goes there, that the waters of the sea may become fresh; so everything will live where the river goes." (Ezekiel 47:9) THE PRINCE, THE PRIESTS, AND THE RIVER (ch 46-47). We are continuing to read about Ezekiel's vision of the temple, the city, the leaders, the ministers, and the geography. It is visionary language, and it is in the future from Ezekiel's perspective. There are connections here with Revelation, and also with the Mosaic laws in Leviticus. In these chapters we see that the prince is to lead worship by his example; there are instructions about gates, gifts, offerings, holy spaces, and preparation of food. There springs from the temple a remarkable, ever-expanding stream of fresh water. Also, there is to be fair di...

Bible reading for Nov 24.  1 Chronicles 19-20. "And David said, 'I will deal kindly with Hanun the son of Nahash, for his father dealt kindly with me.' So David sent messengers to console him concerning his father. And David's servants came to the land of the Ammonites to Hanun to console him." (19:2)  KINDNESS REBUFFED. These two chapters relate David's victories over two neighboring hostile nations, the Ammonites (ch 19) and the Philistines (ch 20). These victories foreshadow the future inheritance of David's descendant, the Messiah: "Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage, and the ends of the earth your possession" (Psalm 2:8; cf Ps 110). What makes Hanun's response so despicable was that he was rejecting a kindness from David which was being made in good faith. He shamed and mocked the messengers who brought the offer of covenant friendship. Hanun serves as a warning not to foolishly reject, or treat lightly, the kindness w...

Bible reading for July 13.  Joshua 18-19. "These are the inheritances that Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun and the heads of the fathers' houses of the tribes of the people of Israel distributed by lot at Shiloh before the LORD, at the entrance of the tent of meeting. So they finished dividing the land." (Joshua 19:51)  FINAL ALLOTMENTS. The last seven divisions of the land are determined by casting lots. Each tribe would be expected to complete the subjugation of their designated territory. The tribe of Simeon would come to share Judah's inheritance, since it was a large region. Dan was unable to maintain their original allotment and so moved northward toward Mount Hermon. The tent of meeting (tabernacle) will remain at Shiloh until the days of Samuel, and then later it would be moved to Jerusalem.    ==============   Psalms 149-150 "Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!" (Psalm 150:6)  STRAIGH...

Bible reading for weekend July 11.  Joshua 14-17. "I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities." (Joshua 14:11-12) DIVIDING THE LAND. These chapters record the land allotments by tribe. Inheritance is a major theme in the Bible, and ultimately applies to that which the Lord Jesus has won for us in redemption, which he then gives to us in the new creation. Some get less, others get more, and yet, it is all fair (Ps 16:6). It should be noted that boundaries are not bad. The Bible does not paint eternity as a kind of absorption into a celestial commune. We will maintain our identities and serve within our allotted spheres (Luke 19:16-19; Rev 2:17; 21:24-26).  We see the land allotment again come up in Ezekiel 47 and 48, ...

Bible reading for weekend May 24.  Memorial Day weekend -- I will be taking off a couple of days from posting on the Bible reading plan, and hope to resume writing next Tuesday. The OT passage this weekend will go up through Numbers 34, and the NT/Psalms passage will go through Psalm 78.   Numbers 32.    "We will not return to our homes until each of the people of Israel has gained his inheritance. For we will not inherit with them on the other side of the Jordan and beyond, because our inheritance has come to us on this side of the Jordan to the east." (Numbers 32:18-19) FIRST SETTLEMENT. The theme of inheritance is prominent throughout Scripture .  For the Israelites it was the Lord himself and the land he chose for them. For us, as followers of the Messiah, it is also the Lord himself and the land he chooses for us (2 Pet 3:13; Rev 21). Two and a half tribes of Israel request the land on the east side of the Jordan (where Og, Sihon, and the ...