Category: Daily Encouragement

TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
  Exodus 37:1-38:31
  Matthew 28:1-20
  Psalm 34:11-22
  Proverbs 9:9-10

Model of the Ark of the Covenant

Exodus 37:1 — Many people say the Bible is just a book written by humans, nothing special. Although humans were involved in the writing, it was really God accomplishing His will through the means of human skill and ingenuity. That’s special! Consider this: God directed a human being, Bezaleel (Exodus 31:2), to do His will (Exodus 31:6) as a man filled with the Spirit of God (Exodus 31:3). Bezaleel made for God and for His people an object (the Ark) out of earthly materials (Exodus 37:1) and was assisted by Aholiab, a skilled worker (Exodus 38:23).

Another human being several years later, Jeremiah (Jeremiah 1:1), also received the Word of the LORD (Jeremiah 1:2) and was commanded by God to obey it (Jeremiah 2:2). Interestingly, Jeremiah made an object of great significance (the scroll) out of earthly materials (Jeremiah 36:2). He too had an assistant by the name of Baruch, a skilled writer (Jeremiah 36:4).

While God will not tell you to make a supernatural Ark or to write another book of the Bible, God may use your skill and earthly materials, if you will do His commands, to make a difference today.

When D.L. Moody was just starting in the ministry he heard a preacher say, “The world has yet to see what God can do with a man fully surrendered to Him.” Moody that night said, “By God’s grace I’ll be that man!” It is said that Moody shook two continents for God, and over a million souls came to Christ under his preaching and ministry. Moody had little formal education, and he was not a polished speaker. But God greatly used his life.

Paul Chappell

Matthew 28:2 — 

Low in the grave He lay, Jesus, my Savior.
Waiting the Coming Day, Jesus, my Lord.

Up from the grave He arose!
With a mighty triumph o’er His foes!
He arose the victor from the dark domain
and He lives forever with His saints to reign!
He Arose! He Arose! Hallelujah, Christ Arose!

Matthew 28:19-20 — It is not the Great Suggestion. It Is the Great Commission! May we make His last command our first concern!

Psalm 34:22 — ”None of them that trust in Him shall be desolate!”

Proverbs 9:10 — Our good friend Patch the Pirate has a great song featuring this verse verbatim.

Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.

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Image Credit: A photo of a model of the Ark of the Covenant (Chris Favero/flickr. Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic CC BY-SA 2.0)

TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
  Exodus 35:10-36:38
  Matthew 27:32-66
  Psalm 34:1-10
  Proverbs 9:7-8

Exodus 35:21, 22, and 29 — We see “willing” used 4 times in this passage. As 2 Corinthians 9:7 says, “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.”

Matthew 27:51 — We read in Exodus about the elaborate preparations for the Tabernacle, including the coverings and curtains designed to keep people and the elements out. When Jesus was crucified, the veil of the temple was rent in two from the top to the bottom signifying that mankind could once again personally and without a mediator connect with his Maker.

Christ Crucified by Diego Velázquez

Matthew 27:57 — Jesus, crucified between two thieves (vs. 38) who probably targeted rich men, was buried in the tomb of a rich man (vs. 60) in fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah 53:9.

Psalm 34:3 — J. W. Pepper has an arrangement of “O Magnify the Lord” (based on this verse), complemented with “All Creatures of Our God and King.”

Psalm 34:6 — A well-known Christian leader would write this verse under his autograph. I always appreciated the humility of this leader – recognizing that he was merely a poor man saved by the Lord.

Proverbs 9:8 — When rebuked, do you hate or love the one bringing the rebuke? That tells us if you are wise or foolish.

Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.

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Image Credit: Christ Crucified (c. 1632) by Diego Velázquez. Museo del Prado, Madrid. Diego Velázquez, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
  Exodus 34:1-35:9
  Matthew 27:15-31
  Psalm 33:12-22
  Proverbs 9:1-6

Exodus 34:1 and 27 — After Aaron’s sin in Exodus 32:2, we see the 8th and 9th time the phrase “And the LORD” followed by “said” or “spoke”. We saw yesterday that the LORD used Aaron’s name 40 times before he sinned, but the LORD has yet to mention Aaron’s name since, and He will not do so until the 10th time. Sin breaks fellowship with God.

Exodus 34:7 — The LORD God will punish the great-grandchildren of sinners for the sins of their parents. Sin has consequences that can last for generations. Fetal alcohol syndrome describes consequences for someone other than the drinker. The LORD is repeating a warning He made earlier in Exodus 20:5, but lest we think the Old Testament deity is merely vengeful, both times He contrasts 3-4 generations of judgment with (Exodus 20:6, Exodus 34:7) thousands of generations of “hesed” for His people. Hesed (חֶ֖סֶד), shows up in the KJV as kindness (Genesis 24:12), mercy (Exodus 20:6), goodness (Exodus 34:6), and lovingkindness (Psalm 103:4).

Exodus 34:12 and 15 — Remember these verses when we get to Joshua 9:15.

Biblical illustration of the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 27

Matthew 27:1 — This “morning trial” was the third Jewish trial of Jesus, done to give a semblance of compliance to the requirement that judgment in a capital trial cannot occur the same day as the trial.

Matthew 27:16 — The Unusual Films production Wine of Morning (1955) is based on what the life of Barabbas could have been.

Psalm 33:12 — Lloyd Larson based his choral work “Blessed Is the Nation” on this verse.

Proverbs 9:4 — Let us turn into the house of wisdom and feast on the provisions set before us!

Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.

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Image Credit: Distant Shores Media/Sweet Publishing, CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
  Exodus 32:1-33:23
  Matthew 26:69-27:14
  Psalm 33:1-11
  Proverbs 8:33-36

Exodus 32:1 — We’re just a few days removed from:

• God prohibiting Moses from making graven images (Exodus 20:4)
• Moses telling this to Aaron and the people (Exodus 24:3)
• The people pledging to obey (Exodus 24:3)
• Moses writing it down (Exodus 24:4)
• Moses reading it aloud (Exodus 24:7)
• The people publicly claiming again to obey (Exodus 24:7)
• The people making a blood covenant (Exodus 24:8)
• Aaron given the special privilege of being invited (Exodus 24:1)
• Moses and the others going up to the LORD (Exodus 24:9)
• Moses and the others seeing the LORD in His glory (Exodus 24:10)
• Moses and the others eating with the LORD (Exodus 24:11)
• Aaron and Hur being delegated responsibility over the elders of Israel (Exodus 24:14)

Not only were the people and Aaron aware of the Law, and not only was Aaron incredibly privileged by the LORD, but the LORD used Aaron’s name and preserved it in the Bible 40 times in the next 5 chapters (Exodus 27:21-31:10).

In spite of this close relationship between Aaron and the LORD, Aaron leads the people in breaking the Law (specifically the Second Commandment that was still fresh in their hearing) and personally making (32:4) a molten calf, declaring it to be the god of Israel.

Ten Commandments Dedication

Exodus 32:22-24 — In the 1956 film “The Ten Commandments”, Aaron is portrayed squeamishly saying “The people made me do it.” The movie inspired the Fraternal Order of Eagles to present a monument of the Ten Commandments to the City of Milwaukee. It was placed at the Zeidler Municipal Building in 1957 and dedicated by Yul Brynner, who played Ramses in the movie. The movie has several biblical inaccuracies, including the fact that the Associates for Biblical Research (ABR) identifies the Pharaoh of the Exodus as Amenhotep II, not Ramses. That’s why we should go to our Bibles and not to Hollywood for the truth!

Exodus 32:28 — A casual reader would wonder why God would be so angry to kill 3,000 people. But having looked at the context we saw earlier, the people had entered a blood covenant with the LORD to obey His command against idolatry.

Exodus 32:32 — Just like Paul in Romans 9:3, Moses loved his people; both were willing to go to hell for their people.

Matthew 27:1 — We have a formal trial of Jesus (in contrast to the illegal night examination of Jesus) when it was morning. They found Him guilty and delivered Him to Pilate for sentencing (Matthew 27:2). However, under the Mishna this was illegal – capital cases cannot be done at night nor finish on the same day of conviction.

Psalm 33 — Notice the use of the synonymous parallelism of Hebrew poetry: in verse 1 the first phrase starts with “Rejoice,” while the second phrase uses the similar word “Praise.” The first phrase ends with “righteous,” the second phrase ends with the synonym “upright.” Throughout this psalm we see the thought of the first phrase repeated with different words in the second phrase.

Proverbs 8:35-36 — Unlike the synonymous parallelism of Psalm 33, we see the use of contrasts. Find wisdom, find life. Hate wisdom, hate life.

Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.

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Image Credit: Ten Commandments Dedication – Picture courtesy Fraternal Order of Eagles

TODAY’S BIBLE READING CHALLENGE:
  Exodus 30:11-31:18
  Matthew 26:47-68
  Psalm 32:1-11
  Proverbs 8:27-32

Exodus 30:12 — Remember David and the census? 1 Chronicles 21:12 will point back to the warning of a plague if there is a census without ransom. What’s the story behind the census tax? Pastor Rodney’s Blog says taking a census is a “violation of ownership” – a king cannot take inventory of God’s property. Nathan Albright’s blog estimates the cost of the tax at two days’ wages – “equal payment … for God is not a respecter of persons.” Robert Fugate claims this was the only civil tax endorsed by God, while others say this was clearly not a civil tax but a religious tax to atone for a civil sin. How much was the tax (that presumably became the temple tax of Nehemiah 10:32 and Matthew 17:24-27)? Roughly $5 of today’s money.

Exodus 31:2 — Bezaleel – the man with the funny name – is one of the few people to be filled with the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, the Spirit came upon people and could leave at any time (Judges 16:20 – Samson, 1 Samuel 16:14 – Saul).

Exodus 31:18 — Wouldn’t it be great to hold in your hands the two stone tables? Or even just a copy of them? Would you treasure them and study them often? We have the full revelation of the LORD in our hands! Congratulations on being committed to studying God’s Word! Take some time to appreciate that! Just like God preserved His Words for Moses, He preserved His Words for you (Mark 13:31)!

Matthew 26:53 — How many is twelve legions? John Morris suggests 288,000. As the song says, “He could have called ten thousand angels, but He died alone for you and me.”

Psalm 32:8 — Sally Atari has recorded a song “Be Glad” of which the first stanza is based on this verse, and the chorus is based on vs. 11. The second verse is based on Psalm 78:1-2, and the third verse is based on Psalm 37:3-4.

Proverbs 8:27 — We have an abrupt start! Who is the “I?” Wisdom. In a way similar to love – God is love, but love is not God; here God is wisdom, but wisdom is not God (vs. 30).

Share how reading through the Bible has been a blessing to you! E-mail us at 2018bible@vcyamerica.org or call and leave a message at 414-885-5370.