Week 16 Tuesday
Today we see blood applied to a cleansed leper in Leviticus, watch envy turn to trust in Psalm 73, and hear Paul remind the new believers that hardship comes before the kingdom.
Leviticus 14
📖 What are we reading?: The ceremonies for cleansing a person healed of leprosy, restoring them to the community and to worship.
✞ What does this passage say about God? He makes a way back for those who were cut off. It is thought that the application of blood to the leper's ear, hand and foot in verse 14 speaks of hearing God's Word, doing God's will, and walking in God's ways.
🛐 How does this passage teach us to live? Those who are cleansed are called to hear His Word, do His will and walk in His ways. Let's live like that today!
Looking for some extra info?
🎤 In this sermon of Luke’s we see how Jesus cleansing the temple twice relates to this passage in Leviticus.
➡️ The bigger picture: Leviticus was given to Moses shortly after the tabernacle was completed, around 1400 BC, and no other book in the Bible contains as much direct speech from God. Its theme is holiness and separation, though a careful reader will find Jesus in the details of these ancient rituals.
Psalm 73
📖 What are we reading?: How easy it is to envy those who are rich and successful in the world! Asaph the Psalmist struggles with exactly this, but then remembers the truth.
✞ What does this passage say about God? He is the strength of our hearts and our portion forever, and in the end He will take care of it all – even bringing justice to the evil.
🛐 How does this passage teach us to live? We can trust God, even when it seems that the evil ones are succeeding. Let’s make Him the strength of our hearts always.
Looking for some extra info?
📝 A devotion on not envying the godless.
📝 A devotional series on longing for justice, based on this Psalm.
📝 A story of a man unjustly arrested who found hope in a verse from this Psalm.
➡️ The bigger picture: The Psalms is a collection of 150 poems and songs, written by David and others, expressing the full range of human emotion in response to God and to life.
Acts 14:19-28
📖 What are we reading?: Jews from Antioch and Iconium stir up the crowds in Lystra, and they stone Paul and leave him for dead. Paul survives and keeps on preaching, strengthening the believers, appointing elders and finally reporting back to the church in Antioch.
✞ What does this passage say about God? He sustains His servants through terrible opposition, and He has "opened a door of faith to the Gentiles" (verse 27).
🛐 How does this passage teach us to live? Verse 22 is what our Christian communities are all about - encouraging each other that we must "go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God". Do you need this reminder today?
Looking for some extra info?
📝 How a man being tortured for his faith found help from Acts 14:22.
📝 How South African minister Peter Storey embraced hardship like the believers in this passage.
➡️ The bigger picture: Luke's second book outlines the ministry of the early church - though it could just as well be called the Acts of the Holy Spirit, as He guides and grows Jesus' small movement into something that changes the world.
A Prayer for the Day
🙏 Lord, thank You that You cleanse us and make a way back to You, that You are our portion and the strength of our hearts, and that You sustain us through every hardship. Help us to hear Your Word, do Your will and walk in Your ways today. Amen.
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