For a description of the (Y2) reading plan, see the “About” page.
Matt. 1
What women are named in Jesus’ genealogy and what do they tell you about God and the gospel? The women listed in Jesus’ genealogy have always stood out to me! We know each of their stories from the Old Testament; each one a story of redemption. The Bible never really says where Tamar was from. We know, however, that she was wronged by Judah and his sons. She posed as a prostitute and duped Judah into doing right by her to provide her with a son. God blessed her with two (she had twins). Rahab was a prostitute from Jericho who was redeemed at the city’s destruction. Ruth was the Moabite woman who was faithful to her mother-in-law and provided with a kinsman redeemer in Boaz. And Bathsheba, who had been Uriah’s wife, was essentially the centerpiece of King David’s greatest failure. We can also consider Leah, the unloved mother of Judah.
Foreigners, prostitutes, adulteresses; the unwanted, unloved, and unclean. Not exactly what you would expect to see highlighted in the line of Christ. Yet there they are. And they are so appropriate. They are the very image of those Christ came to save. And they demonstrate how Christ not only saves us, but also makes us a part of His story and of His plan. That is a complete redemption indeed!
Num. 19-20
Compare and contrast the water in these two chapters and its purpose. How is Jesus the fulfillment of both? Jesus is the living water. More to the point, the Holy Spirit, whom we receive through Jesus, is the living water. We see this in Old Testament prophecy as well as from Jesus’ own words (see John 7). The cleansing water mentioned here in Numbers 19 seems to me to be yet another representation of this truth. The ashes of the heifer which, like Jesus, was sacrificed outside the camp (or the City) mixed with the water were used to purify those who were defiled by death. Jesus’ own death – the ashes – and life – the water – does the same for us.
I doubt it is by coincidence that the very next chapter tells the story of the life giving water that sprung form the rock at Meribah. Jesus is the rock from whom the living water of God’s Spirit flows. Perhaps this is part of why God came down so hard on Moses and Aaron for their defiant blunder at that rock. Yes, they disobeyed by striking the rock instead of speaking to it as instructed. But the defiance went deeper than that.
Moses said, “must we bring you water out of this rock?” (Num. 20:10b). Because the whole scenario was a representation of God’s redeeming work, Moses and Aaron were being more defiant than perhaps they even realized by attributing any part of that work to their own effort with that word “we”. From that perspective, it is easy to say that God actually went easy on them, perhaps because of their ignorance of the significance of the situation, by not striking them dead on the spot. God truly is a God of infinite mercy.
Ps. 30
Pray this psalm of praise, and then in your own words, thank God that His anger lasts only a moment but His favor lasts a lifetime! I continue to read David’s words in his Psalms as though they were spoken by Jesus. This one fits so well with Jesus’ death and resurrection! God hid His face from Jesus as He hung on that cross, and then turned Him over to the Enemy. But God did not leave Jesus there. “What is gained if I am silenced, if I go down to the pit?” (Ps. 30:9a). But by God’s great mercy, He “brought [Jesus] up from the realm of the dead” (Ps. 30:3a). So now we, God’s faithful, can truly praise His holy name forever because “weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” (Ps. 30:5b).