5-3-31 (Week 5, Day 3, Year 31)
PSALM 55
PSALM 55: 1-23 PLEA TO BE DELIVERED FROM VIOLENCE AND FALSE FRIENDS-it is important to let God deal with enemies rather than ridding yourself of them. COMPLAINT ABOUT A FRIEND’S TREACHERY
TO THE LEADER: WITH STRINGED INSTRUMENTS. A MASKIL OF DAVID
Psalm 55:22-“Cast your burden on the LORD.”
“O that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest.”
The Psalmist’s feelings are of despair as the realization comes that all is lost except to trust God and let go of the betrayal of his friends. Psalm 55 lends interpretation to the fact that any emotion can be expressed in a prayer to God. The life of the Psalmist is at a low point. The city of Jerusalem being under siege might account for some of the troubled nature of the writer. Even his friend has abandoned the writer. The writer feels abandoned by all as he turns toward God. The Psalm includes both the struggle to deal with human conflict and the feeling of being abandoned by God. Hence, the feeling of facing life alone.
MARK 3: 1-6 HEALING ON THE SABBATH. THE HEALING OF THE MAN WITH A WITHERED HAND.
As Jesus heals on the Sabbath, he asks a question which has the authority of God: “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” Jesus redefines the Sabbath as a time to do good. The healing produces hostility towards Jesus from the Jewish Leaders instead of praise for doing good. The Leaders are silent caring more for traditions than helping the hurting. Religion which places custom over concern for human need is wrong. Jesus seeks to reorient faith to helping and doing good.
MARK 3: 7-12 SUMMARY OF JESUS’ ACTIVITY CROWDS FOLLOW JESUS-The evil spirits recognize Jesus as the Son of God!
Does the conflict with the Leaders drive Jesus to the countryside near the Galilean Sea? The only ones who recognize Jesus as the Son of God are the unclean spirits (the evil demons). “The Messianic Secret” is introduced by MARK as Jesus tells the demons to be silent. Jesus prefers the crowd to seek to discover on their own that Jesus is the one sent from God as the Messiah.
MARK 3: 13-19 APPOINTING THE TWELVE THE TWELVE APOSTLES-JESUS APPOINTS THE TWELVE APOSTLES: Simon Peter, James and John, Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, the son of Alphaeus, Thaddeous, and Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot.
MARK 3: 20-35 DEFEAT OF SATAN, AND THE NEW COMMUNITY-The saying about family and responsibilities SATAN FIGHTING SATAN?-JESUS AND BEELZEBUB JESUS’ MOTHER AND BROTHERS: “ THE PERSON WHO OBEYS GOD’S WILL IS MY FAMILY” DOING GOOD ON THE SABBATH-The Jewish Religious and Political Leaders are set to kill Jesus because of his healing on the Sabbath.
The Gospel of MARK can be viewed as a proof that Jesus is the Son of God. The reader is to judge the Son of God to be Jesus. We find in this passage, people who are blind to the identity of Jesus: His own family and the Jewish Leaders. The unforgivable sin is to reject the witness of God towards Jesus as the Messiah. The Spirit living in Jesus is good and the evil spirits seek to destroy humans and Jesus. Only those who are evil and do evil are guilty of practicing the unforgivable sin.
EXODUS 11-12
EXODUS 11-13:16 PLAGUE, COMMEMORATIVE RITUALS AND DEPARTURE
EXODUS 11:1-10 ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE PLAGUE THE PASSOVER-THE LORD ANNOUNCES THE TENTH PLAGUE
EXODUS 12: 1-28 PREPARATIONS FOR DEPARTURE; PASSOVER AND UNLEAVENED BREAD FESTIVALS.
The decisive event in the history of the Jewish people is the Exodus from Egypt. The Passover is the crucial act of God to begin the Exodus. The first Exodus colors other deliverances in the history of Israel. The deliverance from Egypt is the creation of a people-The Jews or The Hebrews or The Israelites. There is a sense of history as we read the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament). For the person of faith, the Bible is sacred history. God, the LORD, acts in the life of the world. When the Bible is read a reader enters the discovery of the ultimate meaning of life. The Torah (the first five books of the Bible or Pentateuch) is ancient literature based on oral history passed down from the time of Moses. The present form of the Torah was completed in the time of the return to Jerusalem from Babylon (the Sixth and Fifth Centuries BCE). The oral stories, poems, and songs are compiled in a work of literature called the Old Testament. The people of Israel are created because of the Exodus. The Jewish religion has three great festivals. The Passover begins the seven-day feast of unleavened bread. Fifty days after Passover the festival of Pentecost celebrate the offerings of the first fruits. The third festival is the Tabernacles as a great fall harvest.
EXODUS 12: 29-52 PLAGUE, DEPARTURE, AND PASSOVER
The meaning of the Passover is explained.
ROMANS 3
ROMANS 3: 1-8 GOD’S INTEGRITY IN THE COVENANT WITH ISRAEL GOD HAS SET THINGS RIGHT-GOD IS FAITHFUL.
Paul in Romans chapter 1 and 2 has established that human beings are sinful and have rejected the LORD’S covenant. In chapter 3, he is struggling with the Jewish rejection of Jesus as the Christ or Messiah. He asks two difficult questions. First: “Then what advantage has the Jew? Which also asks the same thing in a different way, what is the value of circumcision (Romans 3:1)? Second: “Will their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God (Romans 3:3b)?” The answer to these questions is based in the covenant which God has never broken the covenant made with humanity through Adam, Noah, Abraham and now through Jesus. This is the advantage of the Jewish people. The overarching theme of Romans is to show the faithfulness of God in God’s dealing with humanity by bringing all of the earth’s people into the covenant. All are justified (made right) through Jesus Christ.
ROMANS 3: 9-20 THE UNIVERSALITY OF GOD’S JUDGMENT NO ONE IS RIGHT WITH GOD
Human beings are justified (made right) through God’s faithfulness. Salvation is God’s choice and gift to unfaithful humanity. The Torah or Law is given to instruct Jews how to obey God. No one is able to obey God, therefore God must provide a way to humans to be right. The law is beneficial but it cannot save (justify) a human.
ROMANS 3: 21-31 THE REVELATION OF GOD’S JUSTICE
BECOMING RIGHT WITH GOD-“We firmly believe that people are made right with God because of their faith.”
Redemption or justification or salvation comes through Jesus to those who have faith that Jesus is the Son of God, sent from God. The phrase “whom God put forward as a sacrifice of atonement by his blood effective through faith (Romans 3:25a),” describes how humanity is redeemed. The translation of the Greek word, ilsusrian, gives the meaning of the theological doctrine of the Atonement. What is Paul’s understanding of the atonement? He is a Jew and the atonement has its roots in the practice of the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) to remove the condemnation on the Jewish people for their sin. A lamb was sacrificed and the blood represented the sins of the people poured out. A goat was released into the wilderness to carry the sins away. Paul says Jesus is this lamb sacrificed for sins which enables God to honor the covenant made with a redeemed people. God through Jesus justifies or redeems or saves all humanity. This gift is given to the Jews and now to all peoples.