Commuter Bible OT

As part of their covenant with the Lord, the Israelites were given regulations concerning what is considered clean and unclean. At times this is a means of health and well-being. At other times it serves as a distinction from surrounding nations. The term “unclean” doesn’t necessarily mean those things are dirty, germ-infested, or immoral, though some of them certainly are. It does mean these things are all ceremonially unclean. This is how Israel is to be set-apart from other nations and given fully to the Lord. These regulations would have made Israel a distinct people on the earth, remind...

The Lord has been giving explicit instructions to Moses and Aaron concerning the manner in which he should be worshipped. In our reading today, the priestly ministry of the Levites begins when Aaron faithfully executes the burnt offering, sin offerings, and fellowship sacrifices. When he is finished, the glory of the Lord appears to all the people and fire comes from heaven to consume the offerings. Sadly, Aaron’s sons decide to offer sacrifices as they see fit, rather than following the Lord’s instructions. Their ingenuity earns God’s wrath, and fire comes from the Lord once again, only t...

As you continue to listen to these instructions on sacrifices, I encourage you to imagine what it would be like to be present for these sacrifices and experience them first-hand. The warmth of a live animal and the feel of coarse hair under your hand as the animal is slaughtered for the sin that you have committed. Imagine the smell of incense, baked bread and roasted meat. There’s even more symbolism to be found in chapters to come, but even here we see glimpses of Christ and of God’s provision for salvation and atonement. It all communicates some...

We are beginning the book of Leviticus; which basically means, “pertaining to the Levites,” as this book dives deeper into the responsibilities of priests and the divine-human relationship codified on Mount Sinai. The Lord gives Moses instructions for offering different kinds of sacrifices to be made before the Lord, allowing an impure people to be made holy by obedience to a perfect God. We’ll look at four kinds of offering today. The burnt offering is given with prayer or praise to seek God’s face and favor. The grain offering is generally offered alongside another offering. The fellowship offering...

Our time in the book of Exodus comes to a close today, but our journey with Moses and the nation of Israel in the wilderness has just begun. Remember, the book of Exodus is one of five books in a set of books called the Pentateuch and it all tells one continuous narrative. Here in the final two chapters, Israel finishes creating all of the items that would be used in assembling their portable house and temple for God Almighty called the tabernacle. The work on the tabernacle reaches its conclusion, the pieces are assembled, Moses inspects the work...

Have you ever talked to someone who’s really into their work, and they’re so excited about it that it seems they just can’t stop talking about it? Maybe you’ve done that with your own work, with a hobby you enjoy, or with stats about your favorite team. To our ears it may seem like the book of Exodus is simply repeating itself, but in actuality it’s communicating the excitement, the gravity, and the importance of the tabernacle. God Himself gave instruction to build it, God’s covenant people built it, and God Himself would occupy it. T...

In our last episode, Israel had turned away from the Lord while Moses was with the Lord on Mount Sinai. Even though they had just committed themselves to following the Lord God, they quickly lost their resolve and turned to Aaron, who in turn gave them a golden calf to worship. After this grave sin, God tells Moses He will no longer go with Israel to the land He had promised Abraham and his descendants after him. Today, Moses intercedes on their behalf, assuaging God’s anger and garnering his favor. Later, God’s appointed craftsmen are called out to b...

By the end of our reading Moses will have spent 40 days on Mt. Sinai, and in that amount of time, the Israelites will have given up on Moses and on the Lord. Not long beforehand, the nation of Israel had promised that they would do all that the Lord had commanded, but in short order, they turn away from God. They instead turn to Aaron, who caves to the crowd’s demands, making them a golden calf for them to worship. The Lord’s anger burns against Israel, but Moses steps in as a redeemer for his people, interceding on t...

In today’s episode, the instructions for worship in the newly established tabernacle continue to be revealed. The first half of our reading is devoted entirely to the priestly garments. The priests were instructed to wear very specific apparel while ministering in the tabernacle. Each item had a particular purpose or symbolism, and the priestly garments were only to be worn while ministering. The second half of our episode involves the consecration of the temple, or in other words, instructions for setting apart the people and the objects for service unto the Lord.

Exodus 28 - 1:01 . 

Exo...

Some episodes are going to be action-packed and some are going to sound like you’re reading an instruction book, and this episode may tend toward the latter of the two. It’s important to remember, however, that the tabernacle is the place where the God of the universe, perfect in all His ways, matchless in power and authority, would meet with His people in a unique way. If it were up to you to build that, wouldn’t you want detailed instructions? Right worship is important to God, and these detailed instructions gave the Israelites the freedom of knowin...

On today’s episode God begins to give very specific commands to the Israelite people on what it looks like to be fair, kind, and gracious to one another. The Lord’s justice is severe for those who are selfish and outright rebellious, but gracious toward those who have no intention of causing harm. As you listen, it can be tempting to think that these are dry or irrelevant, but put yourself in the shoes/sandals of the original audience, whose livelihood wasn’t based on cash or money, but on livestock, crops, and community with one another. Imagine yourse...

In today’s episode, Israel arrives at Sinai and Moses ascends the mountain to speak with God. The Lord sends him back down with a proposition: if Israel will carefully listen to Him and keep His covenant, then they will be his own possession out of all the peoples, even though the whole world belongs to God. After confirming with the people, Moses ascends again and receives a moral code by which they might live; this Decalogue, more commonly known as the Ten Commandments, allowed Israel to know how they could live a life that pleased the Lord. After wi...

As the nation of Israel begins their journey into the wilderness, they find themselves without food and water, but rather than turn to the Lord, they complain to Moses. After seeing such amazing and tangible deliverance and providence, the nation of Israel still worries that they will not be cared for. God provides quail as well as something that has never been seen before: fine flakes of something called manna, a white substance that resembled coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey. Later, Moses’s father-in-law Jethro suggests a system for justice which resounds throughout history.

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Pharaoh has finally released Israel from captivity after Egypt has been completely ravaged by the plagues that God sent upon the nation. As they begin their journey, Moses instructs the people to present every firstborn male to the Lord. He encourages the people to remember this day and to tell the next generation what the Lord has done. It doesn’t take long before the Egyptians regret releasing Israel from serving them, and they mount horses and chariots to pursue them. In a display of power and favor toward Israel, God protects Israel from harm, provides an escape, and pu...

The ten plagues on Egypt continue today with plagues of locusts, darkness, and finally, the death of the firstborn. To prepare Israel for the final plague, God gives Moses instructions on what his people must do in order to avert the coming disaster. They must kill an unblemished, male goat or sheep at twilight, spread it’s blood over the doorposts of their homes, roast the meat over a fire, and eat it before morning. When God passes through the land, he will pass over those houses covered by the blood. The Israelites are to celebrate this Passover meal ye...

Today we begin to examine the ten plagues sent upon Egypt that testify to the power of the great I AM. It has been suggested that each plague is designed to show pharaoh, and all of Egypt along with him, that their so-called-gods are no match for the God of Israel, systematically robbing them of any power they claimed to have. When Pharaoh refuses to let Israel go into the wilderness to worship the Lord, God sends plagues of blood, frogs, gnats, flies, death of livestock, boils, and hail, but the king of Egypt will not back down. While...

After Moses approached a burning bush on Mount Horeb that was not consumed by the fire, the Lord God Almighty spoke to Moses and commanded him to return to Egypt. Today, we pick back up in the middle of that conversation, wherein Moses pushes back against God’s command to go and speak to Pharaoh. He’s concerned that he is ill-equipped for the task that he’s been given, but the Lord assures Moses that He will be with Him and God gives his messenger signs to perform to prove that he truly is a representative of God. When M...

After Jacob takes his final breath, Joseph’s brothers fear that he will seek vengeance, but Joseph doesn’t hold a grudge. Instead of seeking vengeance or extracting payment, he brings God’s grace, provision, and sovereign orchestration to mind, and ensures them that he will care for their families. God’s provision for Israel is clear in the beginning chapters of Exodus, but a new king in Egypt sees Israel’s prosperity as a threat, and imposes harsh laws including the murder of their newborn sons. This is where we meet Moses, a lowly Hebrew who is rescued from destr...

When we last left Joseph and his brothers, they tribe of Israel had just arrived in Egypt with all of their families, servants, and livestock. Joseph brings them before Pharaoh and he grants them access to the best part of the land. The life of Jacob, who is now known as Israel, comes to a close as he takes his last breath in Egypt. This is the same Jacob who deceived his father Isaac in order to receive the blessing of the firstborn. Not only does he bless Joseph’s sons, he elevates them and makes them a part of...

Joseph’s brothers have returned to Egypt with their youngest brother, Benjamin. He is the only one among Jacob’s sons that is a full brother to Joseph, that is to say that Joseph and Benjamin share Rachel as their mother. In our last episode, he held a feast and invited all of his brothers, but he still hasn’t revealed his true identity. He has one last test to see if they are still as treacherous as they once were. Framing Benjamin for theft, he tests them to see if they give up on Benjamin to save themselves, but th...

At the end of our last episode, Joseph had just emerged from prison to interpret Pharaoh’s dream. After predicting years of abundance followed by years of famine, Joseph suggests that Pharaoh appoint someone wise to oversee the collection of crops to sustain the population during years of famine. After losing it all when he was falsely accused of assault by Potiphar’s wife, he now gains more than ever could have dreamed when Pharaoh appoints him to this noble position. Actually, I take that back: it’s exactly how he dreamed, because the Lord revealed to him what would...

Today’s episode contains some adult themes, parental discretion is advised. Our episode begins with Judah’s sons who are so atrocious that the Lord puts them death, and soon thereafter we learn that their father is not quite a moral giant himself. Then we’ll return to the storyline of Joseph. It’s clear that something about the experience with his brothers’ betrayal has changed Joseph. Having been sold into slavery, he loses it all, then gains it all, then loses it all again, but time and again he maintains his integrity. Where many would have given into temptation...

As we continue to get to know the sons of Jacob, you’ll start to realize that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree. Having learned the art of deception from their father, they use it to their own advantage time and again. In our last episode, they tricked a local chieftain into circumcising every man in town, and in vengeance, they struck down the entire population of men. When Joseph, Israel’s favorite son, begins to have dreams where he is exalted above the rest of his family, he uses them as an occasion to gloat...

Today’s episode contains violence against women, parental discretion is advised. Jacob and his father-in-law get into an argument and go their separate ways. Soon thereafter, Jacob wrestles with a man who is also somehow a representative God, and the Lord renames him “Israel” b/c he has wrestled with both man and God and won. Jacob’s daughter Dinah is violated by a man from another tribe, and when her brothers find out about it, they devise a scheme to take vengeance, not just on one man, but on the entire population.

Genesis 32 – 8:22 . 

Genesis 33 – 13:27 . 

Genesis 3...

Today, Jacob completes his journey and meets Rachel. Jacob and his father-in-law Laban simply don’t get along, and let’s be honest, it’s not because they are morally upstanding people with a difference of opinions, it’s because they both practice deception to their own advantage. The daughters of Laban aren’t too dissimilar, and their pettiness is made apparent in today’s text. As a means of trying to gain flocks for himself, Jacob practices strange husbandry, proving not only that he has no idea how breeding works, but that it is by the grace of God, not by...

Today, Jacob the deceiver lives up to his name. With the help of his mother Rebekah, he goes to great lengths to disguise himself from his blind and aging father, tricking him into thinking that he is older brother Esau so that he might receive his father’s blessing. Jacob and Rebekah come up with a way to trick Isaac yet again, and Isaac sends Jacob to another country to get a wife for himself, thereby escaping the wrath of Esau. Later, Jacob dreams of a stairway that reaches heaven with angels ascending and descending on it. The Lord pr...

When concluded our last reading, we found ourselves in the middle of an account concerning Abraham’s servant and Isaac’s future wife Rebekah. Abraham didn’t want Isaac marrying a Canaanite woman, so he sent a messenger to find a wife for his son from among his own people. The servant recounts what happened in the last episode almost verbatim, so if you get a bit of déjà vu, don’t worry. We’ll see that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree as we read about Isaac and Rebekah. Later, we’ll be introduced to Is...

God calls Abraham to do something that most of us would consider unthinkable, especially because we have the privilege of knowing God’s character through the whole counsel of Scripture: He asks Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as an offering to the Lord. Abraham trusts the Lord, and as the author of Hebrews later notes, “He considered that God was able even to raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.” As you listen, consider the parallels between this sacrifice and the sacrifice of Christ, who did not have a ram to be His...

Today’s episode contains adult themes, parental discretion advised. In our last episode, the Lord visited Abraham by sending three messengers to his home. In today’s episode, those angels are sent to Sodom and Gomorrah, because the wickedness of the people has grown so severe that it calls for complete annihilation. Lot shows the angels hospitality, but when the crowd presses against the door to assault his guests, his cowardice is revealed. The angels rescue Lot, but as we will soon see, sin continues to flourish in Lot’s family. Later, a son is born to Abraham and is nam...

In our last episode, Abram told the Egyptians that Sarai was his sister in order save his own skin, and today things get even messier. Sarai suggests they try to help God’s plan along by pulling a slave girl into Abram’s bed. And Abram says, SURE. Yikes. It would be hard to argue that the Lord chose Abram because of his upstanding moral qualities, because the Bible highlights his flaws rather than covering them up. Abram doubts, wavers, makes poor decisions, but ultimately he responds to the Lord’s instruction. The Lord makes promises, not because Abram deserv...

Today, we’re introduced to Abram, a man who is called by God to leave his family and his country and venture to a land that God will show him. While we know Abram lineage, what we know of Abram’s character only begins after the Lord calls him to go. We learn that Abram is a man capable of great faith and great cowardice, as puts his wife in a compromising situation in order to save his own skin. Later, the Lord confirms his covenant with Abram by way of an ancient practice that would have been understood by t...

Job has justified himself in his own sight, repeating again and again that God has been unjust, bemoaning his fate and complaining that a man should be able to take God to court. In today’s episode, God puts Job in his place by asking him a series of questions. This inquisition is designed to help Job see how finite, weak, and limited he is, while painting a vibrant picture of God’s power and authority. Job can’t even direct a wild animal to work for him, let alone conceptualize, create, and oversee the entirety of creation. In the en...

The young man named Elihu continues to present a case against Job and his friends, saying that the Lord doesn’t listen to empty cries or baseless claims to injustice. Moreover, the God who created all things is accountable to no one; in other words, He doesn’t owe anything to anyone– therefore nobody can say that He is unfair or unjust. The God who made all things also sees all things, knows all things, and will rightly judge all things. Man, with his limitations, cannot know or understand these things and therefore cannot claim to be a better author...

As Job concludes his remarks on sin and suffering, he maintains that he has been faithful to the Lord, abstaining from lust and from adultery, that he has cared for those in need, and has kept himself from the worship of false gods such as the worship of sun and moon. When Job concludes his words, a young man named Elihu, who has yet to speak, begins to voice his anger. He has respectfully waited until those older than him have had their say, but they have argued inadequately against Job and Job has spoken with a self-righteous posture.<...

It won’t be long before Job receives a proper rebuke from Elihu and then from God Himself, but until that time comes, Job continues to vent and express frustration with the situation he finds himself in. His friends have told him to repent of his evil, assuming that his sin is the cause of his current state. Meanwhile, Job continues to declare himself as pure, which is also untrue, but in his state of despair he doesn’t see his self-righteous posture. Job thinks so highly of himself that he unabashedly accuses God of not executing justice properly, and...

Job’s friends are insulted that he would reject their wisdom, especially because they are drawing their conclusions from that which was commonly assumed by the culture and by their ancestors. Job wants to find comfort and consolation from his friends, but they continue to make a case against him. In an earlier speech, Job spoke of God’s justice, but as he responds to his friend Zophar at the beginning of our reading, we can see that he struggles, like many of us, to understand why the wicked are allowed to flourish while the righteous perish.

Job...

The book of Job is a messy book because it deals with messy realities and messy relationships. In one sense, Job’s friends are right in that God is just and that sinful people do not flourish in the long run. They are wrong, however, to say that the reverse is necessarily true, because disheartening circumstances aren’t always caused by sin; sometimes they are simply the designs of God. He is our sovereign Maker and Sustainer, and He may do as He pleases. Job is an emotional wreck, and says some things he probably wouldn’t say if were a...

When we last left Job, he complained that there was no mediator between God and man, and bemoaned the Almighty’s ever-watching eye. Zophar chimes in with similar heartless rebukes as those spoken by the rest of his crew, emphasizing that Job shouldn’t challenge God. Job, in reply, tells his friends that he is well-aware of all the things that his friends are telling him. Job tells God that he wishes he were dead, contending if that were the case, at least then God would leave him alone. Finally, Eliphaz begins round two of the speeches, scolding Job and...

Job has lost everything but his wife, his life, and a handful of friends who have gathered around him. After sitting together in silence for seven days, Job opens up about the sorrow and agony he feels. His friends, however, greet him with calls to repent, suggesting that God would not punish someone like this if he were indeed righteous. Bildad rebukes Job, pointing to God’s justice and argues that God does not reject a person of integrity. Job, in turn, considers God’s power and sovereignty and declares that it is futile to try to bring any case...

You heard correctly, we are jumping from Genesis to the book of Job, and this is our first jump across books in our chronological reading of the Old Testament. Set in the period of the patriarchs, this book gives us the account of a rich man who loses it all. Here in the first few chapters we are given a rare glimpse into the spiritual realm; scenes of the throne of God Almighty come into view. This God reigns so supremely that even His enemies must be granted permission to act. Satan despises Job and his devotion and does...