Chronological Bible Blog

Join us in reading the Bible in a year!

recent posts

About

    February 24th Chronological Bible Readings

    Leviticus 23:1-25:23
    ~ Click here to read today’s Scripture on BibleGateway.com ~ // Mobile Site Link
    ~ Listen to today’s Scripture on ESV Online.org ~

    function googleTranslateElementInit() {
    new google.translate.TranslateElement({
    pageLanguage: ‘en’
    }, ‘google_translate_element’);
    }
    http://translate.google.com/translate_a/element.js?cb=googleTranslateElementInit

    Today in Leviticus chapter 23 we read about the Appointed Festivals!  The NIV Study Bible has a great chart summarizing the Old Testament Feasts and Other Sacred Days, which is significantly paraphrased below with just Name & Purpose:


    1. Sabbath – Rest for people and animals
    2. Sabbath Year – Rest for land.
    3. Year of Jubilee – Help for poor; stabilize society.
    4. Passover – Remember Israel’s deliverance from Egypt.
    5. Unleavened Bread – Remember how the Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt in haste.
    6. Firstfruits – Recognize the Lord’s bounty in the land.
    7. Weeks (Pentecost or Harvest) – Show joy and thankfulness for the Lord’s blessing of harvest.
    8. Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah-New Year’s Day) – Present Israel before the Lord for his favor.
    9. Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) – Atone for the sins of priests and people and purify the Holy Place.
    10. Tabernacles (Booths or Ingathering) – Memorialize the journey from Egypt to Canaan; give thanks for the productivity of Canaan.
    11. Sacred Assembly – Commemorate the closing of the cycle of feasts.
    12. Purim – Remind the Israelites of their national deliverance in the time of Esther.
    13. Hanukkah (Feast of Dedication or Festival of Lights) – Commemorated the purification of the temple and altar in the Maccabean period.
    14.  New moons were also often special feast days.
    (Above is from Zondervan’s “NIV Study Bible” pp. 176-177) Below is a Jewish calendar, which includes many of the feasts and sacred days listed above:


    jewish_calendar

    Bible.org’s commentary on Leviticus chapter 23 titled “The Lord’s Appointed Times” is at this link.


    Today in Leviticus chapter 24 we read the well known law of retaliation from verses 19 & 20: “Anyone who injures another person must be dealt with according to the injury inflicted– fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Whatever anyone does to hurt another person must be paid back in kind.”  I’ve read commentaries that say that this law of retaliation was actually compassionate for its time – in that it limited what one person could to another person in a very lawless age.  If you lost an eye, you could take an eye – but you could not kill in return, for example.  So, I see the logic behind saying that the law of retaliation limited punishments…. but, I also think we would do well to remember Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount where he quotes from Leviticus 24 verse 20 in Matthew chapter 5 verse 38 & 39: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, Do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.”  Jesus teaches that there is a higher law of love that is better than the law of retaliation. Commentary on Leviticus chapter 24 titled “The Lamp, the Loaves and The Loudmouth” 🙂 is at Bible.org at this link.  Commentary on Leviticus chapter 25 is at this link and at this link.



    Well, I learned something new!  This is pretty awesome – the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia is so named because this statement from Leviticus chapter 25 verse 10 is written on the bell: “Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”  (which you won’t be able to see well in this photo below – I believe the inscription is around the top of the bell, where you’ll see 2 lines near the top and can make out the word “Proclaim.”) 



    In Leviticus 25 verses 9 & 10 today we read: “Then on the Day of Atonement of the fiftieth year, blow the trumpets loud and long throughout the land. This year will be set apart as holy, a time to proclaim release for all who live there. It will be a jubilee year for you, when each of you returns to the lands that belonged to your ancestors and rejoins your clan.”


    Jubilee_

    Worship God:  Today’s readings in Leviticus about the year of Jubilee reminded me of the song “Days of Elijah,” sung here by Donnie McClurkin:



    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb00G9euI98

    Is it the year of Jubilee for you? Click here for Jubilee!


    Please join us in memorizing and meditating on a verse of Scripture today: “Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land.” Leviticus 25:18 NIV


    Prayer Point: Pray that you are careful follow God’s decrees and laws through your saving faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.

    Comments from You: What verses or insights stand out to you in today’s readings?  Please post up by clicking on the “Comments” link below!

    God bless,
    Mike

    Posted in

    One response to “February 24th Chronological Bible Readings”

    1. Ramona Avatar
      Ramona

      “Command the people of Israel to provide you with pure olive oil for the lampstand, …” Just noticed that there is a big difference here from when the people voluntarily offered (Exodus 25: 2) whatever was on their heart to give back in Exodus. I don’t have time to look up the Hebrew word that this English word, “Command,” sites on but when I have time I will look it up.
      I think it would also be interesting to chart out what type and under what circumstances God asks for a “freewill” offering as opposed to ones that are commanded.
      Mike I’m not sure that the “Just Punishment” section is really about retaliation as much as it is about the priests matting out just and righteous punishment. If Leviticus was written as guidelines for the priests, then the entire book needs to be looked at from that perspective. The problem lay folks have is that we can run off on a tangent (your favorite word) when we have information without training. Information is great when we become partners with our Doctors, Lawyers, Accountants, etc, however, when we try to do their job and usurp their “authority” in dealing with them because we have information, then we get into trouble. Either we need to change professionals, if they are unaware or ignorant of the basics and new information that comes out daily, or we need to support them with the information they have.
      One of the things I have taken note of in chapter 25 in dealing with the Sabbath Year (seven), the Year of Jubilee (50) and the return of property, that is not in walled cities, to the original owners is that this is suppose to be a celebratory event. However, in order to be ecstatic about this if you are not the party being released, one must practice love for your neighbor as a lifestyle! There is also a type or element of restoration and redemption from sin as one would be rescued from either bad choices or environmental circumstances that would have caused selling oneself into slavery, or selling off the family home. Looking at the Hebrew or Greek root of the work translated “sin” you would see that it means “to miss the mark.” So one can be aiming for the bulls eye but miss the mark, which is what sin really is. In a careful reading of the first few chapters of Leviticus you will see that the sacrifices first mentioned are for “unintentional” sins.
      Because we are so adverse to the word “sin” we shy away from it not realizing that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23), and it is not big sins or little sins that merit the death penalty, it is SIN (singular) PERIOD, intentional and unintentional. Although the penalty for sin, big, little or medium, is death the gift of God is life, eternal life.

      Like

      Reply

    Leave a comment