TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
Deuteronomy 4:1-49
Luke 6:39-7:10
Psalm 68:1-18
Proverbs 11:28
Deuteronomy 4:2 — Interesting parallel to Revelation 22:18-19.
Deuteronomy 4:6 — What is the purpose of the Law? To reveal a wisdom that transcends earthly wisdom and to make the nation a model for the nations. In Ronald Reagan’s farewell address, he referred to the Puritan vision of a shining city upon a hill.
Deuteronomy 4:8 — There is a purpose for the 613 laws we’ve read about in the Pentateuch!
Deuteronomy 4:13 — This is the only mention of the phrase “ten commandments” in the Bible. Did you forget about them? Don’t worry, we’ll see them again tomorrow!
Deuteronomy 4:32 — In the 2,600 years from Creation to this passage – God had dealt with man in a unique manner. This chapter is emphasizing the uniqueness of His dealings with Israel. The system of interpretation called dispensationalism recognizes that God deals with different people in different ways at different times. We’ve seen:
- Innocence (God’s dealings with Adam)
- Conscience (God’s dealings after the Fall)
- Government (God’s dealings with Noah)
- Covenant (God’s dealings with Abraham)
- Law (God’s dealings with Moses)
For the next 1,400 years, we’ll be under Law until we see God’s dealings with all of humanity through a new way that unites Jew and Gentile into one body, the Church. But no matter what dispensation we study, there’s still only one obligation God demands: obedience (vs. 40)!
Luke 6:46 — Speaking of obedience, if we will not obey, why do we refer to Jesus as Lord?
Luke 6:48 — Being from Wisconsin, when I hear about the house on the rock, I automatically think of The House on the Rock in Dodgeville, Wisconsin.
Whatever your mental picture of a house on a rock is, it’s surely more solid than the house built on the sand! Of course, we have to share the Sunday School song:
Luke 7:8 — Speaking of lordship, the centurion who had favors owed to him by the Jews, sent to Jesus a message that conveyed that while others were under him, he was under Jesus. This faith was marveled at by Jesus (vs. 9).
Psalm 68:15 — From the Treasury of David:
An high hill as the hill of Bashan, or rather, “a mount of peaks is Bashan.” It does not appear that Zion is compared with Bashan, but contrasted with it. Zion certainly was not a high hill comparatively; and it is here conceded that Bashan is a greater mount, but not so glorious, for the Lord in choosing Zion had exalted it above the loftier hills. The loftiness of nature is made as nothing before the Lord. He chooses as pleases him, and, according to the counsel of his own will, he selects Zion, and passes by the proud, uplifted peaks of Bashan; thus doth he make the base things of this world, and things that are despised, to become monuments of his grace and sovereignty.
Proverbs 11:28 — Reiterated in 1 Timothy 6:7.
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