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
AMOS 5-6:One device that Amos used in yesterday’s reading was rhetorical questions. He asked a whole series of them like this one: 3:4 GNT Does a lion roar in the forest unless he has found a victim? All of his rhetorical questions expect the unspoken answer, No. And they all led up to this one: Amo. 3:8 NLT The lion has roared— so who isn’t frightened? The Sovereign LORD has spoken— so who can refuse to proclaim his message? And, surprisingly, the message the Lord proclaimed next was an invitation to Israel’s enemies to come and witness Israel’s destruction. After the...
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AMOS 3-4: As I said about Amos yesterday, he was wise in his methods. He condemned Syria, the Philistines, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab before coming around to Judah and finally the northern kingdom, Israel. We also heard some of the wonderful word pictures Amos used. ISAIAH 45:22-46. Remember that in the last chapter Cyrus’ name was repeatedly mentioned. God’s motivation for making such bold predictions is clear: 19 NLT I publicly proclaim bold promises. I do not whisper obscurities in some dark corner. I would not have told the people of Israel to seek me if I could not be found. I...
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AMOS 1-2: If you are new to reading the Bible, I hope that you will remember the events and expressions that Joel used. One or two ideas were repeated by Jesus in the Gospels, and we will soon see how important Joel’s predictions are in Revelation. We turn now to Amos, whose name means ‘burden bearer’. Amos— like David and Gideon, started out as an ordinary guy going about his business as a shepherd and grower of sycamore figs. He was not a priest or a man with training as a prophet when God called him. Because of the mention of a great earthquake and king Uzziah, it is likely that...
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JOEL 2:28-3: An attack by an army of locusts must be so frightening! What descriptions! And even worse when God is bringing the attack as an act of judgement. Yet Joel offers hope. He encourages the people to come back to God and beg for the Lord’s help. We will pick up today re-reading the famous part of Joel 2. ISAIAH 44b: In the first part of this chapter God said: Is. 44:3 NLT For I will pour out water to quench your thirst and to irrigate your parched fields. And I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your children. 4 They will thrive like watered grass, like...
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JOEL 1:I feel the need to comment about chapter 9 of Esther and how the Jews “got rid” of their enemies. Remember that those Jews were not Christians. (I know how silly that sounds, but it is actually a common supposition among naive Christians.) The revelation of God’s will did not come all at once, and the Jews did not have the pleasure of knowing what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount or other pertinent NT passages. They most certainly did NOT ‘get rid’ of their enemies, except in the short run. All the relatives of the enemies slain raised up succeeding generations of people...
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ESTHER 9-10:We have heard how Esther’s request was granted, the king and Haman came to the second banquet, where Esther revealed her identity. The eunuch Harbona just happened to have pertinent information about Haman’s plans for Mordecai, and Haman was killed and impaled/hanged on the pole he had planned to use for Mordecai. Mordecai, coming into possession of the king’s signet ring, wrote an edict that allowed for the Jews to organize and defend themselves against their enemies. ISAIAH 43: In Isaiah 42 we heard twice about ‘the servant of the Lord’. The first passage is quoted in...
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ESTHER 7-8: In Esther 5 Haman planned to impale Mordecai on a pole in the NLT, or just hanged in the GNT. (Given the period of time, I think that the impaling method is more likely to be right.) But on the same night that Haman planned for that murder, God caused the king to have a sleepless night and read in the annals of the kingdom about Mordecai. Haman came before the king at just the right time to get assigned the task of honoring Mordecai. ISAIAH 42: In Isaiah 41 we again heard God predict the future, and challenge Israel’s idols to prophesy or do anything at all. 2THESSALONIANS 3: The...
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ESTHER 5-6: In Esther 3-4 Haman cast lots (purim) to find out that March 7 was the lucky date to exterminate the Jews. Mordecai requested that Esther intercede directly to the king. And since she hadn’t been called for, the only way to do that would endanger Esther herself, since no one was allowed to approach the king in the inner court uninvited. ISAIAH 41b: Did you notice in yesterday’s reading, we heard a description of a king that sounded similar to one described in the book of Daniel? Isaiah 41:2-4 NLT: 2 “Who has stirred up this king from the east, rightly calling him to God’s...
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ESTHER 3-4: Yesterday we heard how Esther became the queen, and how she continued to keep her Jewish background a secret. We also heard how Mordecai, her uncle, was promoted to a palace official after uncovering a plot to assassinate king Xerxes. Today we are introduced to the villain of the story— Haman. The Jews always read the book of Esther in the celebration of Purim. Whenever Haman’s name is read they boo and shake rattles or noisemakers to drown out his name. ISAIAH 41a: The shift to such beautiful poetry that occurs in chapter 40 of Isaiah is one of the things that has made people...
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ESTHER 1-2:In the final two chapters of Nehemiah, we heard of the culmination of Nehemiah’s work— the ceremony for the dedication of the wall. The people proved that the wall could stand up to more than just a fox walking on it. Then Nehemiah went back to Babylon. When he came back to Jerusalem, he needed to right several wrongs, as the people had allowed a deterioration in the temple worship. We now turn to the book of Esther, which may have been written by Mordecai (a major character in the book), or by Ezra or Nehemiah, who would have known this story. The king Xerxes was defeated in a...
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.