Lev 23-24
My Bible study group did a study a good while back on the Feasts of the LORD (there are seven). It was fascinating. The feasts are a roadmap of God’s redemptive plan for the whole world, starting with the Jews and spreading out to all the nations. If I could find the book, I would give you the bird’s eye view of the roadmap, but I can’t, and I don’t remember the details at the moment. I do know that the Passover is all about Jesus.
If you ever look at the details of the Passover feast, it is really quite an intricate representation of Christ and His work for us on the cross. Jews for Jesus has some good stuff on this. In any case, this all just reinforces the thought that the entire Bible is a representation of God’s Plan for us. It is so much more than just a bunch of stories, or even one single story. God created us; we messed up. The key to how God fixes that is the Bible. It tells the whole story – from the very beginning to the eternal end, and everything in it represents God and His Presence with us. It is truly an amazing book.
Mark 10:32-52
This passage revisits what I mentioned a few days ago, about how being “important” or “special” or whatever, is not what people make it out to be. At least not in God’s Kingdom, which is really the only one that matters.
On this earth, people strive to rise to these lofty positions, at whatever level, so they can do just as Jesus noted – lord it over others and exercise their authority over them. Think POTUS on down to your common HSA. People want to be “in charge” so they can have things their way. But in God’s Kingdom, somebody rising to the top is not necessarily something to be jealous of. The “greater” one is, the lower they become and the more they must suffer and serve. This, of course, isn’t an all bad thing, because they will receive their reward from God. Those who think being first is first will likely get what they are after here and now, but will find there is nothing left for them in eternity.
That really gives one something to think about. If whatever we take for ourselves here in this life is used up now, and whatever we give or do for others is reserved for us in eternity, how does that impact the decisions we make and the way we do things each day? Do we concern ourselves with gratification in this life or do we store up our treasures in Heaven?