Reading: Deuteronomy 15-16, Psalm 58 One of the more divisive matters in human society is what to do with “the poor.” I live in the Portland, Oregon area, and the question of how to deal with the homeless and transient population occupies a great deal of the public discourse in
Reading: Deuteronomy 13-14, Psalm 57 God: Hey, people of Israel, here is the deal: don’t be like the nations around you. Don’t worship their gods. Don’t adopt their cultural practices. Don’t follow their laws. Got it? Israel: Hey, what about if someone tells us to worship their gods? God: Wha-?
Reading: Deuteronomy 10-12, Psalm 56 Yesterday we read how Moses told the people of Israel something shocking: God has chosen them, not for their greatness, but for their lack of it. God’s primary cause of favoring Israel is his own choice, not qualities inherent in them. He has used, and
Reading: Deuteronomy 7-9, Psalm 55 Today’s reading opens with two themes closely woven together: extermination and blessing. Not things you see stuck together really often, but here there is a reason. God is about to use the people of Israel to carry out judgement on the people of Canaan. He
Reading: Deuteronomy 4-6, Psalm 54 When I was in late grade school, I began reading Second World War memoirs. I think it started with Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, which was a school assignment. But within a few weeks, I buying paperbacks from Goodwill or picking them up from the library. The Men of Company K, Company Commander, With the Old Breed. I read these
Reading: Deuteronomy 1-3, Psalm 53 We’ve made it to Deuteronomy, the last book of Moses! Often quoted by the later prophets and eventually by Jesus, this book stands as a kind of summation of the story so far and a final effort by Moses to impart to the people a message about the
Reading: Numbers 35-36, Psalm 52 Hey, we are wrapping up the book of Numbers! No more grumbles, right? Well, we’ll see. Not on the level of Numbers anyway. Tomorrow we will begin the last book of Moses, Deuteronomy. Almost the entire book is a long speech that Moses makes right on the edge
Reading: Numbers 33-34, Psalm 51 We are winding down the book of Numbers. This last phase of the book is a recounting of the journey of the people of Israel in the wilderness, which may seem really dull reading but actually functions as a kind of recap of the story so far. I have
Reading: Numbers 31-32, Psalm 50 Well, this is uncomfortable. We’ve run into one of the difficult to accept events in the story: God mandated total war. The story itself isn’t too hard to understand. The Israelites go out to seek vengeance on the people of Midian because of the events of a couple
Reading: Numbers 28-30, Psalm 49 Oh good, another recounting of the daily, weekly, monthly, and annual sacrifices. I know you are excited. As usual, it is not a matter of coincidence. It may seem repetitive and rather dull to us as modern readers, but the placement of God’s reiterations are intentional and make sense