March 2 Readings

You can also check out all these Reading Plans Blogs to go through the Bible in a year from Back to the Bible Reading Lists:the Chronological Reading Plan blog; OT and NT Together blog; Historical Readings blog; Blended Readings blog and Beginning to End blog In addition, there is the Theophilus1 blog in the One Year Bible format

The Back to the Bible OT and NT Together Reading Plan

Number 23-25; Mark 7.14-37
In Numbers 23 and 24, Balaam had many oracles trying to curse Israel, instead God put words in his mouth to bless Israel. He had four oracles (23.1-12; 23.13-26; 23.27-24.14; 24.15-25) then he had further oracles (24.20-25). No matter how he tried God intervened. He did not learn the lesson from his talking donkey and he did not learn here either. Balaam said two remarkable things in this oracles yet he was not the one, but God saying these words. The first is Num 23.19: God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill? The second is from Num 24.17 17 "I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob; a scepter will rise out of Israel. He will crush the foreheads of Moab, the skulls of all the sons of Sheth. Many scholars believe this is a prophecy of the Messiah.
What have we learnt today? Balaam was not a godly man, but in the hands of God, he blessed and not curse Israel. He said some remarkable truth even though he himself is a sorcerer.
In Numbers 25, The Israelites were engaged in sexual immorality with Moabite women. They had invited them to sacrifice to their gods, the Baal of Peor. God was angry and ordered all of the leaders of the Israelires who participated were killed in broad daylight. An Israelite brought a Midianite woman to his family and Phineas, grandson of Aaron killed both of them by running a spear through their bodies. God anger subsided abd his descendants was promised a covenant of lasting priesthood. God told the Moses to treat the Midianites as enemies because of the affair at Peor. There was retaliation at the Midianites in Numbers 31 and there was enmity in Judges 6-8 when Gideon was a judge in Israel.

Balaam
Balaam, Part 1, (Numbers 22.1-35)
Balaam, Part 2,(Numbers 22.36-Num 24.25)
Balaam, Part 3,(Numbers 25.1-18)
Numbers 23 with Commentaries, verse by verse
Numbers 24 with Commentaries, verse by verse
Numbers 25 with Commentaries, verse by verse

Other Links
Dr. Thomas Constable Study Notes is a PDF file, open with Adobe Acrobatic Reader
Calvin Harmony of the Law Volume 1 Search for the chapter you want with (CTRL F)
Calvin Harmony of the Law Volume 2 Search for the chapter you want with (CTRL F)
Calvin Harmony of the Law Volume 3 Search for the chapter you want with (CTRL F)
Calvin Harmony of the Law Volume 4 Search for the chapter you want with (CTRL F)

Mark 7.14-37

The Pharisees again challenged Jesus, the Perfect Servant about his disciples eating witout unwashed hands. The asked him why the disciples did not follow the traditions of the elders and not washed their hands. Jesus gave a quote from Isaiah 29.13, and gave them examples of how they say one thing but did something else, in this case honoring their parents. They had external form of religion based on traditions that did not reflect an inward change. He gave a parable about what cause sin, it was not what a person ate but rather what came out of his heart. Many of us today, even as Christians can get trapped by a formailsm by which we may talk like a Christian and act like a Christian, live in a Christian environment but may not really experience a rebirth in our lives. We may talk the talk but have not walk the walk We should remember what Paul said in 2Cor 5.17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

Jesus, the Perfect Servant healed everyone in a unique and individual way. Near Tyre, Jesus met a Syro-phoenician woman whose daugher was possessed by an evil spirit. She begged Jesus to exorcise the demon out of her daughter. v. 27 He replied "First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." "Yes Lord," she replied, "but even th dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." Jesus was pleased with her answer, because she knew that she was a Gentile, 'a dog', a derogatory name, the Jews called Gentiles, but then she said that as a dog she was willing to pick up the scraps or rejects that Jesus would give to her. What a faith!

v. 31-37 he healed a deaf and mute man by putting his fingers in the man ears and then he spit and touch his tongue and said Ephphatha which meant to be opened. He told them not to tell anyone but the more he did so, the more his fame spread.


Stedman on Mark 7
Peter Pett on Mark 6-8

Stedman on Mark 6.53-7.30
Peter Pett Commentary on Mark 6.7-8.26

More Links in Mark
Dan Hill on Mark
Ray Stedman on Mark
Jeff Miller on Mark
Chadwick on Mark
Dr. Thomas Constable Study Notes is a PDF file, open with Adobe Acrobatic Reader
Sermons on Mark by Ryle, Spurgeon, and Whitefield
John Piper Sermon's on Mark
Peter Pett Commentary on Mark 6.7-8.26

Jesus Saves
This Posting is NOT a commentary of the passages read today but it is a devotional. Please send a comment if something spoke to you today from the passages, links or thoughts that I have shared with you.