Through the Bible in one year - Day 69

 

Psalm 69:1-3

Save me, O God!

For the waters have come up to my neck.

I sink in deep mire,

where there is no foothold;

I have come into deep waters,

and the flood sweeps over me.

I am weary with my crying out;

my throat is parched.

From yesterday’s Exodus reading we can remember how this might have been the plea of the Israelites – or certainly for the Egyptians had they but known how to pray – and to whom. Thankfully we have read these Psalms and scriptures and know to whom we pray – and that he will answer us in his loving kindness.

Here we have a favorite song on a great theme; no wonder the Israelites sing for joy. The horse and the rider have been thrown into the sea. Just when all seemed lost the Lord fought for them and saved them. This is a song we are likely to sing in the Easter vigil – and there is a reason for that I think, and that is the graphic quality of this salvation. It has all the earmarks of a great tale. Almost certain death: and salvation at the last minute but God’s supernatural intervention. (No wonder Mr. DeMille thought so.)

In Ezra today we read that the king of Persia gets a letter letting him know that it was with the previous king’s decree that work is being done on the temple. I see that the Israelites do not place blame on the Persians for enslaving them or destroying the temple – they admit that their own actions caused the destruction and now through the king’s generosity they have been given the right to rebuild.

We continue where we left off yesterday in Paul’s letter to the Romans and his next question is – now that grace abounds – and covers sin shall we sin more? The answer is no. Now we are slaves to righteousness – out of thanksgiving for all that God has done through Christ we are free – and we ought to be thankful. Like the Israelites before us, we have been saved by God’s grace and also like them our response should be to listen to the Lord and follow his commands – so as not to find ourselves in the same place as they found themselves in again and again; that of enslavement in sin and in need of salvation and rebuilding.

Today’s readings: Psalm 69, Exodus 15:1-21, Ezra 5, Romans 6

Through the Bible in one year - Day 68

Psalm 68:7-8

O God, when you went out before your people,

when you marched through the wilderness, Selah

the earth quaked, the heavens poured down rain,

before God, the One of Sinai,

before God, the God of Israel.

This Psalm brings us to where we left off in our reading from Exodus yesterday. It continues with a telling of many of God’s interventions and blessings and on the nature of God:

Our God is a God of salvation,

and to God, the Lord, belong deliverances from death. (68:20)

Now, picture this: the Israelites have fled on foot, and are camped – without weapons or provisions at the edge of the sea and up comes the Egyptian Army well provisioned, battle hardened, and in chariots and with war horses. What would you do? What did the Israelites do? They said “is it because there are no graves in Egypt you have brought us out to the wilderness to die?” (verse 14:11) Then they tell Moses – it would have been better for us to stay as slaves than to die here in the wilderness-but don’t you see? They thought those were their only options. When in fact God tells Moses to bring them across the sea on dry land and watch as the Egyptian army will be swallowed up by the receding waters. Once this happens the people are amazed – as if in all their wildest dreams they never could have pictured this. Well, I can see that. It was the first time it had happened after all.

Hmm, we were going along in Ezra, as the Temple was being rebuilt, but today work stops – somehow the Persian King decided it wouldn’t be profitable for him to allow this work to continue...what will tomorrow bring here?

These last verses in Romans today are a little tricky. It begins by saying that through sin came death, and that all sin even if they don’t know the law – and even if they don’t know the law they all die. OK, I think I’ve got that – at least I know that everyone dies – whether a ‘good’ person or a ‘bad.’ And this seems to say that all of us our sinners in one form or fashion –even if we don’t know the extent of it. Then there is this last bit:

Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (15:20-21)

What is this about the law increasing sin? It seems that it increases our ability to recognize it – and perhaps amend our ways – and it also goes on to say that with this knowledge comes even more grace – this grace again that we cannot earn but a gift from God for our salvation. This story is not hard to believe as we have been reading God’s saving actions all along in the Old Testament readings. Paul is illustrating with new words, the same God, and this God is not just the God of the Israelites, this is the same God from the Exodus who told the Israelites to bring along the sojourner and graft them in.

Today’s readings: Psalm 68, Exodus 14, Ezra 4, Romans 5:12-21

Through the Bible in one year - Day 67

Psalm 67:1-2

May God be gracious to us and bless us

and make his face to shine upon us, Selah

that your way may be known on earth,

your saving power among all nations.

Now, we get to the time when Pharaoh lets the people of Israel go – in fact he pushes them out, and the Egyptians give them money, and jewelry and beg them to go – for fear of their lives. They had been slaves for 430 years – which is a very long time. The US has only been an independent country a little over 200 years so that gives you an idea of how long the Israelites were slaves in Egypt. I remember there were 70 some odd people in Jacob’s family when they arrived, and when they leave there are more than 600,000 men plus women and children. How many generations were born in captivity? – well we know that none now alive had ever been free, and so all of these needed to learn what it meant to be God’s people. First thing God does is bless them with a celebration of freedom – the Passover, and the second thing he does is instruct them in how to be marked as God’s in their flesh and in their homes, and the third thing God does, is take them out by way of the wilderness so they wouldn’t be afraid of the warring Philistines. As an extra remembrance and help for them God instructs them in consecrating and redeeming the first born to God, and in case they were fearful or got lost (after all they didn’t know where they were headed just yet) God gave them a pillar of cloud and fire. What will happen tomorrow do you think?

This story in Ezra is complimentary to the Exodus reading as we find the Israelites rebuilding after their captivity. Soon, the Israelites in Exodus will be doing the same thing. I wonder how often we force ourselves to redo and relearn what we could have done or learned already. We see that the Israelites have done this more than once. Good thing God hasn’t gotten tired of teaching and redeeming us. Which brings me to our Psalm today. The psalmist asks for God to be gracious and bless us – and to make his face to shine upon us...for the purpose of making his name known and offering his saving power to the world. That is why God keeps redeeming and teaching; he wants everyone to know it is available.

OK, this is a good summary for our readings today, and I won’t add any more to this. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, this is what he says for all of us:

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. (Romans 5:1-11)

Today’s readings: Psalm 67, Exodus 12:31-13:22, Ezra 3, Romans 5:1-11

Through the Bible in one year - Day 66

Psalm 66:5-6

Come and see what God has done:

he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man.

He turned the sea into dry land;

they passed through the river on foot.

This is a preview of what we will be reading in Exodus: this walking across the sea on dry land. As we read through all the scriptures we can see the places where something new is added, and the places where we remind ourselves of what God has done. This reminding is important; for us so we don’t forget, and for those who haven’t seen it first hand, so they can be brought into the story.

This Psalm ends in verse 20 with these words:

Blessed be God,

because he has not rejected my prayer

or removed his steadfast love from me!

Without knowing and reminding ourselves of the things that God has done, we would be unable to join in this thanksgiving. I am grateful to the psalmist for giving us these prayers, so we too can add our thanks to those of others.

This lack of knowledge is what is going to be the downfall of Pharaoh today in our Exodus reading. He is warned by Moses and Aaron of the coming death of all the first born, yet he refuses to listen or to let the Israelites go. Before we get to this plague, we read of a difference; and it is this: the people of Israel must participate; they must act in accord with the Lord’s call. That is, they must mark themselves as his, and in so doing set themselves apart from the coming destruction. There is no sitting this one out or sitting on the fence; they have to declare for the Lord with their actions. This becomes the Passover we have read celebrated throughout the stories in the Chronicles – this is something they should not forget; that is why God tells them to keep this “Passover” for future generations, so they do not forget the Lord’s saving actions on their behalf.

This reading in Ezra is the story of deliverance, again. The people of Israel are freed from bondage, and brought into a land that is their own. It is a good companion to our reading from Exodus, this repetition of God’s saving work.

Finally, when we read today from Paul’s letter to the Romans we read this in verses 23-25:

But the words "it was counted to him" were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be counted to us who believe in him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

Paul is talking about the regular and continuous intervention of God on our behalf, and of a proper response to it. No, there is nothing we can do to save ourselves, but by God’s grace we are saved none-the-less, through his actions.

Today’s readings: Psalm 66, Exodus 11:1-12:30, Ezra 2, Romans 4

Through the Bible in one year - Day 65

Psalm 65:3

When iniquities prevail against me,

you atone for our transgressions.

This psalmist goes on to say that God himself will be our righteousness; this same god who created the world and all the wonders; this same God will redeem us and the world will notice and be in awe of these signs and wonders.

We continue reading in the book of Exodus of God’s wondrous signs and of the awe they inspire in the people, all the people except Pharaoh. In keeping with the taking back of the gifts God gave to Egypt through Joseph we see the plague of hail that kills all the flocks and fields; these too had been delivered from famine through Josephs actions on their behalf and in not letting the Israelites go, they lose these things to this plague of hail. Now, I am not entirely certain but I expect that hail is not a regular occurrence in Egypt and freezing rain bullets all over the land would be very disturbing.

After the hail, come the locusts – who eat whatever is left in the field and then take over the houses, to such an extent that now even Pharaoh’s servants are pleading with him to let them go. And yet, he refuses.

We have left the Chronicles behind and begin to read in Ezra today of the restoration of the house of Judah. This begins the account of king Cyrus of Persia who brings the captives and the temple vessels out of Babylon, in order to restore them to Israel.

I thought I would post the entire passage from Paul’s letter to the Romans today as it is very important. It speaks to the Exodus and God’s saving actions on our behalf and gives an answer to how we might be saved when we ourselves are unable to accomplish it. This is what he says:

Romans 3:21-31

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it— the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded. By what kind of law? By a law of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we hold that one is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one—who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith. Do we then overthrow the law by this faith? By no means! On the contrary, we uphold the law.

Today’s readings: Psalm 65, Exodus 9:13-10:29, Ezra 1, Romans 3:21-31