NL-Day060 Leviticus 15-16; Psalm 18; Luke 12:1-32
Daily Bible Reading Phil Fields
Release Date: 02/23/2025
Daily Bible Reading Phil Fields
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...
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NEHEMIAH 12-13 In yesterday’s chapters in Nehemiah, we heard the names of the various religious and civil leaders who signed the statement of commitment to follow Moses’ Law, which was almost certainly penned by Ezra. Then there was a listing of the various leaders and clans that volunteered or were chosen by lot to live in Jerusalem. ISAIAH 40a: I am always very disappointed with Hezekiah when he does not pray and ask the Lord to not allow Jerusalem to be conquered by Babylon and not to allow his sons to become eunuchs in Babylon’s palace. God had already responded amazingly to him in...
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NEHEMIAH 10-11: The returned exiles showed how sincere they were in following the Lord! They gathered together for the express purpose of hearing the Law. By this time their language had changed so much that they needed 13 Levites to explain what was said in the readings. The people wept because they realized how far they were from obeying the Law of Moses, and also for joy in hearing it. One month later, the leaders gathered to explore the Law in more detail, and they found that Israel had always neglected celebrating the Festival of Shelters. They did that for the prescribed week with great...
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NEHEMIAH 8-9: Nehemiah 7 dealt with listing the various families and temple workers who came back after exile. The last phrase of verse 73 in that chapter is the transition to the next events in chapter 8. 7:73 NLT So the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, the Temple servants, and some of the common people settled near Jerusalem. The rest of the people returned to their own towns throughout Israel. Ezra Reads the Law In October, when the Israelites had settled in their towns, 8:1 all the people assembled with a unified purpose at the square just...
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NEHEMIAH 7:Yesterday we read how Nehemiah stood up for all the common people in their financial difficulty. The nobles were rich, but everyone else was suffering— some even having no option but to sell their own children into slavery. Amazingly, he succeeded in convincing the nobles to forgive debts, and forced them take a solemn oath about that. The wall was finished in just 52 days, but Nehemiah was getting more and more threats from Sanballat and his cronies. ISAIAH 37: We heard the challenge and mocking of the Assyrian chief of staff— who brought the Assyrian King’s message to...
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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...
info_outlineLEVITICUS 15-16:
Yesterday we heard about sacrifices following the healing of skin diseases and after getting rid of house mildew. Chapter 15 is about defiling bodily discharges. Chapter 16 is about the Day of Atonement, and the chapter contains a translation problem in the word or name ‘azazel’. If you are interested in this problem, see the Translate notes in today’s episode notes.
PSALM 18:
This poem reveals David’s intimacy with God. Even though he frequently refers to himself, we see that God— and not himself, is the center of his spiritual life.
LUKE 12a:
Jesus definitely gained enemies by his teaching at the end of chapter 11, which was against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees and religious experts.
NLT Translation notes:
Ps. 18:34 He trains my hands for battle;
he strengthens my arm [so that I can draw back a
bronze bow of bronze//to draw a bronze bow.]
41 They called for help, but no one came to their rescue.
They even cried to [you, LORD, but you//the LORD, but he] refused to answer.
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Luk. 12:6 “What is the price of five sparrows— [maybe/0] two copper coins? Yet God does not forget a single one of them.
8 “I tell you the truth, everyone who [says publicly here on earth 'I am a follower of Jesus', I, the Son of Manc will also acknowledge them as my followers in the presence of God’s angels.//acknowledges me publicly here on earth, the Son of Man will also acknowledge in the presence of God’s angels.]
9 But [those who deny me here on earth, saying they are not my disciple, I will also say that they are not my disciples in the presence of God’s angels.//anyone who denies me here on earth will be denied before God’s angels.]
10 Anyone who speaks against [me,/0] the Son of Man can be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
16 Then he told them a story: “A rich man had a [very/0] fertile farm that produced fine crops. “[You lucky guy//My friend], you have enough stored away for years to come. Now take it easy! Eat, drink, and be merry!”’
20 “But God said to him, ‘You fool! You will die this very night. Then who will get everything you have [hoarded up for yourself/worked for]?’
[See the footnote in the NET for this verse.]
28 And if God cares so wonderfully for flowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith [in Him]?
[Here I let the word ‘faith’ stand. Maybe like this, following my normal pattern: “— you my friends who so weakly believe that the Father will help you.” Note that using ‘believe’ kind of requires that the translator add an object. Some readers will feel that this is going too far, but translators routinely do this in languages which don’t have any abstract nouns, or in situations like this for languages like Indonesian and English.
40 You also must be ready all the time, for [I—/0] the Son of Man, will come when least expected.”
46 The master will return unannounced and unexpected, and he will cut [that evil//the] servant in pieces and banish him with the unfaithful.
52 From now on families will be split apart, three in favor of me, and two against—or two in favor and three against. [As the Scripture says,//0]
54 Then Jesus turned to the crowd and said, “When you see clouds beginning to form in the west, you say, ‘Here comes a [rain/0] shower.’ And you are right.
56 You fools! You know how to interpret the weather signs of the earth and sky, [so why can't you figure out how to interpret the signs of the present time?!//but you don’t know how to interpret the present times.]
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.