NL-Day050 Exodus 38-39; Psalm 8; Luke 7:1-35
Daily Bible Reading Phil Fields
Release Date: 02/16/2025
Daily Bible Reading Phil Fields
NEHEMIAH 5-6: Yesterday Nehemiah gave a listing of the people who rebuilt the wall. This included Shallum and his daughters, and two named goldsmiths, merchants, priests and Levites. The residents of the land opposed to the construction were threatening violence, so the people armed themselves and had men on guard at all times. Nehemiah and his men stayed fully armed at all times, and in the last verse of chapter 4 NLT says ‘even when they went for water’— which I take as a euphemism for going potty. That little phrase is very obscure in Hebrew, and GNT translates it in a different way....
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NEHEMIAH 3-4:After Nehemiah’s wonderful prayer for Jerusalem, more than three months went by before the king noticed him looking sad. He says he had never before looked sad, so he must have waited. God must have been in the timing, because the king wonderfully agreed to help Nehemiah in every way. And the leaders in Jerusalem also were enthusiastic in their acceptance of his proposal to rebuild the walls. ISAIAH 35:Yesterday we heard that the land of Edom would become an eternal wasteland and a home for owls and other creatures. The land of Edom is in modern-day Jordan, and GoogleMaps shows...
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NEHEMIAH 1:Yesterday we heard how the returned exiles responded to Ezra’s shock and demonstration of his sorrow, and his prayer of repentance. The book ended with the names of those who were found guilty of forbidden marriages. Note that these are not just names of the guilty, but names of those who repented and sacrificed to God. They are the names of the forgiven. In some ways— and not all, this shows the kind of seriousness with which church discipline spoken of in the New Testament should be conducted. (Matthew 18, 1 & 2 Corinthians) As I said just a few days ago, the book of...
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EZRA 9-10: Yesterday we heard how Ezra introduced himself. Note that he spoke of himself in the 3rd person, but finally resorted to ‘I’. King Artaxerxes was certainly impressed by Ezra! Ezra was given everything he could have wanted, guaranteeing full government support of the temple worship in every way. Note how methodical Ezra was, making sure that he took Levites and temple servants along. His total party must have been at least 1,000 men. So with women and children, it would have been quite a group. And evidently others were coming back separately as well. ISAIAH 33: Having eyes...
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EZRA 7-8: Yesterday we read of how King Darius completely sided with the Israelites seeking to reestablish the temple worship. Note that the letter to Darius from the government officials was rather complementary and not threatening loss to the king’s interests as the letter from the earlier officials. Remember also that this King Darius is the one who was duped into putting Daniel into the lions’ den, and who then issued a decree that everyone must respect Daniel’s God. ISAIAH 32: Isaiah’s prophecy in yesterday’s reading certainly came true! Is. 31:8 NLT “The Assyrians will be...
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EZRA 5-6:When the Israelites returned from exile, they were determined to get worship started again, and they made great progress, not waiting for the temple to be repaired in order to start sacrifices on an altar built upon the old location. They made a fast start to building too. But then opposition developed, and several Persian kings later the progress was halted. ISAIAH 31: One of the great verses from yesterday’s reading was this: Is. 30:15 NLT This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “Only in returning to me and resting in me will you be saved. In quietness and...
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EZRA 3-4:Ezra, a scribe and priest, doesn’t start speaking about himself until chapter 7. Ancient copies of the books of Ezra and Nehemiah were written on the same scroll, and Jewish tradition holds that Ezra wrote both of them. The dates of writing are somewhere between 458 and 420 BC. I kind of doubt that Ezra was the author for both books, because the writer of Nehemiah starts out right away using the first person pronoun ‘I’. The two books deal with two periods of time: Ezra deals with the rebuilding of the temple, and Nehemiah deals with the rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem....
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EZRA 1:Before going to Ezra, I want to say that one can do a whole lot of digging deeper in the last two chapters of Daniel. History tells about those kings, and we know from what Jesus said and what is written in Revelation, that God plans for history to repeat itself. The main ‘take-away’ points are clear, just as they are in Revelation: Blessed are those who endure and live wise and holy lives. It is a great time now to return to those three small remaining books of history remaining for us to read this year: Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. These books allow us to see the fulfilment of...
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DANIEL 10:20—12:In yesterday’s reading, we heard Daniel’s sincere prayer. Note that he had been seeking the Lord with limited fasting for 3 weeks. Then the angel Gabriel is again sent with a message for Daniel. Note that the phrase ‘anoint the Most Holy Place’ is probably referring to what we read about in Hebrews recently— that which our High Priest Jesus did in heaven. Gabriel’s message about seventy sets of seven, or seventy weeks and 62 weeks, are both a difficult translational problem and a prophetic mystery. If we could solve the prophetic mystery, then we would know how to...
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DANIEL 9-10:Yesterday in Daniel, we heard of the vision of four beasts representing four kingdoms. After the fourth would be the start of the rule of One whose kingdom would last forever. This vision was explained, then Daniel had a second and more detailed vision. It is a major amazing sign of God’s sovereignty over human governments that Alexander the Great is so clearly portrayed, and after that the iron kingdom of Rome. Just as certain as these things happened, our Savior’s reign will one day come to earth. I have been referring to Daniel 7 all year, to the section where he saw...
info_outlineEXODUS 38-39:
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 this chapter is again Bezalel.
PSALM 8:
This psalm is quoted in Hebrews 2 and is frequently misunderstood. “Son of man” does not refer to Jesus in this Psalm or in Hebrews 2, and the NLT is 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.
LUKE 7a:
In 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 of us in leadership. But the key would be not bringing judgment against others if we might be found to be guilty of the same sin.
NLT Translation notes:
Exo. 38:26 This silver came from the tax collected from each man registered in the census. (The tax [was/is] one beka, which is half a shekel, based on the sanctuary shekel.) The tax was collected from 603,550 men who had reached their twentieth birthday.
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Ps. 8:1 O LORD , our Lord, [how your majestic glory is visible everywhere on earth!//O LORD, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth.]
[This is a metonymy on the name of the Lord. (Meaning that 'name' stands for the whole person of God, like 'white house' can stand for the current USA government administration..) Most of the time such metonymy simply refers to the whole person of the Lord, not just his name. In some places it can refer to the Lord’s reputation— as NET translates here. The 'Lord’s name' metonymy is everywhere in Scripture. Although English clearly uses metonymy, we don't so often use it for 'name'. Now that I think of it, a good way to translate this line would be, “O Lord, our Lord, your glorious handwriting is visible everywhere on earth!”]
4 what are mere mortals that you should think about
them, human beings that you should care for them?
5 Yet you, [O God,//0] made them only a little lower than
[Yourself/God] and crowned them with glory and honor.
9 O LORD , our Lord, [how your majestic glory is
visible everywhere on earth!//O LORD, our Lord, your majestic name fills the earth.]
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Luk.7:2 At that time [a/the] highly valued slave of a Roman officer a was sick and near death.
9 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to the crowd that was following him, he said, “I tell you, I haven’t [found someone fully believing//seen faith] like this in all Israel!”
15 Then the dead [young man//boy] sat up and began to talk! And Jesus gave him back to his mother.
22 [He//Then he] told John’s disciples, “Go back to John and tell him what you have seen and heard—the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and [0/the] Good News is being preached to the poor.
33 For John the Baptist didn’t [join with you in//spend his time] eating bread or drinking wine, and you say, ‘He’s possessed by a demon.’ 34 [I, the//The] Son of Man, on the other hand, [join you in//0] feasts and drinks, and you say, [I am// ‘He’s] a glutton and a drunkard, and a friend of tax collectors and other sinners!’
39 When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would know what kind of woman is touching him. She’s a sinner! [(And he would tell her to stop!)//0]”
47 “I tell you, her sins—and they are many—have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven [only a//0] little shows only little love.”
49 The men at the table said among themselves, “[What kind of man is this//Who is this man] , that he goes around forgiving sins?!”
[The answer to “Who is this man” is “Jesus.” It is more natural in English to make this rhetorical question as I have here.]
50 And Jesus said to the woman, “[You are saved because you fully believe in me.//Your faith has saved you] [. Go/; go] in peace.”
[In English, 'faith' has so many fuzzy meanings, that it makes a verse like this very unclear. Jesus did NOT use 'faith' to mean such things as 'inner fortitude', 'vague hope', 'blind trust', denominational faith, or many other meanings. In Greek, 'faith' is simply the noun form of 'believe'.]
Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.