LEVITICUS 3-4:
Yesterday in the beginning chapters of Leviticus, we heard about burnt offerings and grain offerings. In the first chapter, did you happen to notice how many things were being done by the person bringing the offering, not the priest?

Andrew Bonar states about Leviticus:
"There is no book in the whole compass of that inspired Volume which the Holy Spirit has given us, that contains more of the very words of God than Leviticus. It is God that is the direct speaker in almost every page; His gracious words are recorded in the form wherein they were uttered."

Note this in our reading in Leviticus today: By and large, the sacrificial system was set up to forgive unintentional sins. (Some small exceptions will be noted in tomorrow's reading in Leviticus.) It is good to draw a distinction— as the book of Hebrews does, between unintentional and intentional sins. Each of us should feel uncomfortable because each of us can look back and remember sins we committed intentionally. Let us make the firm commitment to never trample upon our Savior's kindness by sinning intentionally. But we can praise the Lord for this verse spoken by Paul in Acts 13:

38-39 NET "Therefore let it be known to you, brothers [and sisters//0], that through this one forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, and by this one everyone who believes is justified from everything from which the law of Moses could not justify you."

PSALM 11:
Psalm 11 is a song of trust in the Lord.

LUKE 8b:

Yesterday we read the parable of the sower or different kinds of soil. Jesus taught about the importance of hearing and doing what is in God's Word, and that was echoed again when his mother and brothers came to see him.

LEVITICUS 1-2:
Yesterday in the final chapter of Exodus, the worship in the completed and the dedicated tabernacle was started.

Leviticus is a continuation of Exodus, in the same way, that Exodus is a continuation of Genesis. Leviticus also starts with the word 'And'. The title once again comes from Latin Vulgate which was based on the name in the Septuagint. So the name does not come from the Hebrew. But because of the name Leviticus with its obvious relationship to the Levites, many think that this book is a handbook only for the priests. Not so. Wenham (from Constable) states:

"It would be wrong, however, to describe Leviticus simply as a manual for priests. It is equally, if not more, concerned with the part the laity should play in worship. Many of the regulations explain what the layman should sacrifice. They tell him when to go to the sanctuary, what to bring, and what he may expect the priest to do when he arrives. Most of the laws apply to all Israel: only a few sections specifically concern the priests alone, e.g., chs. 21—22. The lay orientation of the legislation is particularly noticeable in ch. 23, where the whole emphasis lies on the days that must be observed as days of Sabbath rest."

Many New Testament concepts are foreshadowed in this book, such as the seriousness of sin in God's sight, the necessity of atonement of sin, the holiness of God, and the necessity of a mediator between God and Man. H.C. Mears summarizes the themes of the first three books of the Bible,

"In Genesis we see humanity ruined, in Exodus, humanity redeemed, and in Leviticus, humanity worshipping."

One can't read this book without being thankful to Christ Jesus for His sacrifice which fulfills for us the incredibly detailed laws about sacrifice under the old covenant.

PSALM 10:
E.C. Olsen says this Psalm has "a triple theme: the silence of God, the despair of the humble, and the pride of the wicked." This Psalm doesn't give us all the answers, but we know God understands how we feel about these things.

LUKE 8:
At the end of Luke 7, we read about how Jesus was anointed by a sinful woman, and how Jesus answered the silent criticism of Simon, the Pharisee.

EXODUS 40:

Yesterday in Exodus we read about Bezalel making the outside articles for worship— like the altar for burnt offerings. There was a listing of materials used, and then we heard of the making of the priests' clothes— all according to how Moses was instructed by God. Moses inspected everything and blessed the people. The stage is set for the start of worship according to God's instructions.

PSALM 9:

Psalm 9 is a song celebrating God sitting on his throne and judging justly.

LUKE 7b:

Yesterday we read about Jesus healing a favorite slave of a Roman officer and the raising of a widow's son from death. We start today's rereading where Jesus was speaking about John the Baptist.

In our reading today at the end of Luke 7, Jesus says to a woman who has been forgiven many sins, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

Jesus said, "Your faith has saved you." I want to emphasize again: Jesus did NOT use 'faith' to mean such things as inner fortitude, vague hope, blind trust, denominational faith, or many other meanings. Remember that in Greek, 'faith' is simply the noun form of 'believe'. So Jesus' statement can be translated, "It is because you believe in Me that you've been saved."

Then Jesus told the woman, "Go in peace." Have you ever thought of what 'peace' means in a place like this? Jesus wasn't telling her that she would have absence of war. You would be right in telling me that this is a spiritual peace. But if you told someone, 'Go with spiritual peace', it kind of sounds hollow. What we're talking about is an inner peace that one can have even in the midst of the world falling apart all around you. After much discussion, what we came up with for the Indonesian language is, 'go with the feeling of calm in God's protection' or another way to say it, 'go with the calm assurance of being sheltered by God'. This is the realistic kind of inner peace that we who love the Lord have according to Romans 8:28.

EXODUS 38-39:

In the two chapters we heard in Exodus yesterday, we heard of the building of the tabernacle, the Covenant Box, and the other furniture of the Holy Place and Most Holy Place. Everything was done precisely as God had described before. The actor 'he' as we start chapter 38 is again Bezalel.

PSALM 8:

Today we read Psalm 8. Verses 4-8 from this Psalm are quoted in Hebrews 2 but frequently misunderstood. The term "the son of man" does not refer to Jesus in this Psalm or in Hebrews 2, and the NLT and the GNT are correct in not using that term here. This is a psalm of praise for the awesomeness of God, expressing amazement at the place of _mankind_ in God's creation.

The first verse of Ps. 8 in literal translations, "O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!"

This verse contains a type of figure of speech called a metonymy. Metonymy is when something small is used to stand for something big, like in the saying, "The pen is mightier than the sword"— where both 'pen' and 'sword' are metonymies. So in the sentence, 'how majestic is your name in all the earth', 'name' stands for the whole person of God, or in this case, it might stand for God's reputation. Although English clearly uses metonymy, we don't so often use it based on 'name'. A more natural metonymy for English and a good translation for this verse would be, "O Lord, our Lord, your glorious fingerprints are visible everywhere on earth!"

LUKE 7a:

Yesterday, in Luke chapter 6 we read the Beatitudes, and Jesus taught about loving others and not judging them. Jesus taught using the figures of trees and their fruit, and building houses upon a rock foundation.

One of the most frequently misquoted verses in Scripture was included in yesterday's portion of Luke 6, "Do not judge others and you will not be judged." But if we take that to the extreme, we would not be able to recognize good and bad people, as Jesus talks about in verse 45. And there are many other places where Christians are called upon to make judgments— especially those who are shepherds over a flock of believers. But the key is not bringing judgment against others if we might be found to be guilty of the same fault.

EXODUS 36-37:
Yesterday in Exodus we read about how Moses returned to the top of the mountain, taking two stone tablets which he had made, and God repeated many of the terms of the covenant. In the Hebrew text, chapter 34:28 says that 'he' engraved the 10 commandments over again on the second set of stone tablets. Because Moses is the last actor mentioned, some translations take it that Moses engraved the second set of tablets. But we know from Ex. 34:1 and Deut. 10:2-4 that God engraved both sets. Then after Moses came back down the mountain, the people responded to God by willingly bringing all that was required to make the Tabernacle.

PSALM 7:
Psalm 7 is the song of a slandered saint.

Psalm 7 is one of the Psalms and in our English translations where it seems like the writer shifted unexpected from praying to God directly, to speaking to the reader about God. Some Psalms shift back and forth between speaking about and praying to God with dizzying frequency. However, readers of the original Hebrew may understand such psalms as praying directly to God from start to finish. I don't have space here to explain the vast differences between Hebrew and English that have skewed our translations in this way, and I admit that I don't understand the causes well enough to write clearly about them.

I can only say this: When reading Old Testament prayers in the NLT, GNT, or NIV, you may notice rapid changes: Talk to God, talk about God, pray to God again, then talk about God again. If you want to see a translation which does a more coherent job of translating OT prayers, take a look at the Contemporary English Version. The CEV is available in the YouVersion Bible app but does not have recordings. I appreciate that the CEV translators made many Psalms sound like the writer is praying to God all the way through.

LUKE 6b:
In the first half of Luke 6 yesterday, we saw the beginning of opposition to Jesus based on the way He kept the Sabbath law. He kept the Law but did not follow added traditions. He chose his 12 disciples and called them apostles. This biblical term basically means representatives. Then he gave the Beatitudes, which in Luke— unlike the more famous set in Matthew, include both the Blessings and corresponding Woes.

EXODUS 34-35:
In yesterday's reading in Exodus, we heard about how God's meeting with Moses was interrupted because of the people making the golden calf. (Don't ya' hate interruptions!) Aaron caved into the people's desires. Moses interceded for the people, and God agreed not to destroy them. God eventually agreed to go with the people to the promised land. As we heard at the close of chapter 33, Moses asked to actually see God. God will hide Moses in a cleft in a rock, and allow Moses to see his back.

PSALM 6:
Today we read Psalm 6, which is the prayer of a wronged and oppressed man crying out to God for help and rescue. God has revealed more to us than was revealed to David. We now know that people can praise God after death.

LUKE 6:
Yesterday in Luke chapter 5, Jesus called several of his disciples after the miracle of the large catch of fish, healed two men, and answered a question about fasting.

Before I start our prayer for today, remember that scene where Moses asked to see the Lord. God put him on a rock, and Moses was protected in the opening of the rock, the cleft of the rock. There's a hymn about that, and it's a beautiful picture of our Rock, Jesus. Through Him, we can come to God in prayer today.

EXODUS 32-33:
Yesterday in Exodus, we heard about the plans for the incense altar, and about the making of incense and anointing oil. We heard also of God's choosing and giving the ability to Bezalel and Oholiab for making everything required in the worship of God. And God emphasized the importance of keeping the Sabbath as a covenant responsibility.

PSALM 5:
Psalm 5 is a song for early morning (when arising from a night of sleep). Erling Olsen comments that this Psalm says that God hates or detests evildoers. Olsen observes correctly that this stands in stark contrast to pictures of God that make him only capable of the sentiment of love. We as God's created beings have no right to criticize Him or remake him in an image we find more acceptable. God who created us has all emotions. And thankfully, He is completely just. He possesses the right to judge his created beings.

LUKE 5:
Yesterday in Luke 4, we read of Jesus being rejected in his hometown, of healings, and casting out demons. He refused to have his identity proclaimed by demons and silenced them. And He refused to stay in one town but went around preaching in the whole area.

The verses we will hear today in Luke 5:22-23 were very difficult for us to translate into both languages in which I have worked as a Bible translator. The NLT translated this way: "Why do you question this in your hearts? 23 Is it easier to say 'Your sins are forgiven,' or 'Stand up and walk'?

For one thing, it is not physically 'difficult' to pronounce either statement. As to the answer to the rhetorical question 'which is easier to say', I do NOT buy the interpretation found in some translations that it was easier for Jesus to forgive the man's sins because it was something that could not be physically seen. It was hard for Jesus to say both statements— hard in the sense that both statements require the power of God. Remember, Jesus knows that He will go to the cross in order to purchase forgiveness for this man— and for us. Jesus chose the order of his statements— not based on apparent difficulty, but to prove an important point to everyone, and especially his critics. As you listen today, be sure to catch the point!

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