For the first 9 months of 2020 we will be focused on an initiative to read or listen through the Old Testament. As we introduce this initiative, we want to highlight a few points for you:
1.
Before you start reading each day, take some time to pray and ask God to direct you and speak to you through His word. Perhaps you can pray something like this: “Father, thank you for the gift of your word I hold in my hands, may your Holy Spirit fill me and reveal the meaning of Your words as I read today. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
2.
We are beginning on January 1st and will be concluding at the end of September, 2020.
3.
If you decide to join this initiative at a later date, simply begin your readings on the date that you start, and complete your readings on schedule. It will mean your readings will spill over into the later part of Fall of 2020. Don’t will be overwhelmed with catching up. You will be on the same Scripture readings as everyone else.
4.
Each week features a memory verse that we will be focusing on and asking you to seek to memorize. Each day you do your reading, if you read over this verse six times, you will be very likely to have it committed to memory for life. The memory verse will be printed in the bulletins and on this webpage each Sunday.
5.
While our published information will normally be printed in the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible, you are free to read or listen from whatever translation you desire.
6.
On that note, you don’t need to READ through the Old Testament; you can also LISTEN through the Old Testament. There are a large variety of onlineresources available such as www.thestreamingbible.com which are absolutely free!
7.
Listen and read the Old Testament simultaneously. Research tells us that the more senses that we involve in learning, the more successful that learning is.
8.
Keep a journal or notepad handy. Write down thoughts, questions, concerns and ideas that come to you.
Why This Verse?
For me, the key word is “yet”. As Christian parents we teach our children to pray, take them to church, read Scriptures, tell them about Jesus, and we pray for their salvation and “yet”…the “yet” is in God’s hands. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to reveal God to each individual in a way that the individual hears who God is and comes to trust Him, know Him and love Him. Our work is to live faithfully, ready to speak truth, ready sometimes to be silent, but always to be praying as we wait for that “yet” to become “now”.
Let’s encourage and pray for each other so that we do not become disheartened. God is faithful.
Question
In Exodus 13, we read:The Lord said to Moses, 2 “Consecrate to me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to me, whether human or animal.” (vv. 1-2) 11 “After the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, as he promised on oath to you and your ancestors, 12 you are to give over to the Lord the first offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the Lord. 13 Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem every firstborn among your sons. (vv. 11-13) In what way were firstborn human males consecrated/redeemed in the time of Moses? Do Jewish people still practice this today?
Answer
In Exodus 11 and 12 we have the dramatic account of the tenth plague when the firstborn in all Egypt died on one night. However, the firstborn of the Israelites were spared because they obeyed God’s word to Moses to place the blood of a sacrificed lamb on the doorposts and lintel of each house. Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread became recurring observances to commemorate God’s deliverance of His people.
God’s command to “Consecrate to me every firstborn male” in Exodus 13 should be understood in the sense of symbolically showing devotion to God, that the firstborn male was to be set apart as belonging to Him just as the Lord had set apart Israel as belonging to Him. In Exodus 4:22 God speaks to Moses saying “Israel is my firstborn son.” This phrase speaks of the covenantal relationship between God and Israel. God loves and protects Israel as a firstborn, and in response Israel offers to God worship and obedience.
In Numbers 3:11-13 we read “The Lord also said to Moses, “I have taken the Levites from among the Israelites in place of the first male offspring of every Israelite woman. The Levites are mine, for all the firstborn are mine. When I struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, I set apart for myself every firstborn in Israel, whether human or animal. They are to be mine. I am the Lord.” The Levites were ‘set apart’ to serve the Lord as priests and servants who attended to the tabernacle and later the temple. In serving the God who is holy they were to help lead the people in holy living because Israel belonged to the Lord.