Preparing to read GENESIS 11-12:
Yesterday in Genesis 9-10, we heard the story of Noah's drunkenness and his curse on Canaan because of it (which wasn't very fair since it was his father Ham who actually caused the offense to Noah, and because Ham also had other sons). Then we heard about Noah's descendants.
Translation notes:
18 Then the king sent for Abram and [complained to him//asked him], “What have you done to me? Why didn't you tell me that she [is/was] your wife? 19 Why did you say that she [is/was] your sister, and let me take her as my wife? Here is your wife; take her and get out!”
Let’s turn to JOB 6:
Eliphaz continues to imply that Job has sinned:
6 Evil does not grow in the soil,
nor does trouble grow out of the ground.
7 No indeed! We bring trouble on ourselves,
as surely as sparks fly up from a fire.
Eliphaz’ main point in that chapter was that Job would be forgiven and blessed if he repented:
17 Happy is the person whom God corrects!
Do not resent it when he rebukes you.
18 God bandages the wounds he makes;
his hand hurts you, and his hand heals.
There is truth in what Eliphaz says, and a similar statement to verse 17 is found in James 1.
Translation note:
26 [If you//You] think I am talking nothing but wind;
then why do you answer my words of despair?
We turn for the second time to MARK 4:
Chapter 4 is the parable chapter of Mark. The Parable about the Different Kinds of Soil is in all three synoptic Gospels— which are Matthew, Mark, and Luke. That parable holds deep meaning that one never really grows out of. Each time you hear it, new facets come to light, and every believer should meditate on what kind of soil they are most like at the present time.
Translation notes:
Rhetorical questions were often used by Jesus to start a new topic in his teaching, and at the end of the chapter, he used two rhetorical questions to give a mild rebuke to the disciples. In many of the world’s languages, people don’t use rhetorical questions for starting a new topic, but most languages seem to use questions for rebuking. In English, I think it is more natural not to use the verb ‘ask’ in the quote margin if the question is a rhetorical one.
30 [Jesus began another teaching, “What shall we say the Kingdom of God is like?” _asked_ Jesus.//“What shall we say the Kingdom of God is like?” asked Jesus.] “What parable shall we use to explain it?
40 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Why are you frightened? [It’s obvious that you still don’t believe in Me.//Do you still have no faith?]”
Note that in the podcast recordings, I will often change the word ‘faith’ to ‘believe’ or ‘fully believe’. This is because the English word ‘faith’ is used with all kinds of fuzzy meanings these days and can easily be misunderstood. 1) In Greek, ‘faith’ and ‘believe’ are the noun and verb forms of the same root word. 2) When one uses an abstract noun like ‘faith’ in English, we lose the object— in this case the Person who is being believed. Note that ‘faith’ does not have the a vague meaning like ‘endurance’ or ‘ability to live without fear’— which might be assumed in this passage. Such fuzzy meanings almost always end up placing ‘faith’ in ourselves— which is a big mistake. The ‘faith’ that Jesus is talking about at the end of this chapter is placing our trust 100% in Him!
———————
To learn about the people who created this reading plan, see the Our Story page at http://dailybiblereading.info.
No comments:
Post a Comment