Daily Archives: February 2, 2022

Daily Bible Study

February 27, 2022 Bible Study — Moses Lays Out The Context For God’s Laws

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Deuteronomy 1-2.

Deuteronomy begins with Moses giving a recap of the travels which the Israelites had taken after leaving Mount Sinai until they were about to enter the land of Canaan after spending forty years in the desert.  None of those present, except for a couple of special cases, had been adults when the Israelites left Mount Sinai.  The accounts of these events from Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers were from the perspective of “as it happens”.  The difference between the perspectives from which the stories of what happened were told explains the differences between the details.  The accounts in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers were more detailed descriptions of what happened.  The account here in Deuteronomy is a summary of events.  Today’s passage also provides context for the Law of God which Moses was about to lay out for the Israelites.  The laws laid out here were not new.  God had given them to Moses to give to the Israelites as they issues arose while they traveled.  Now Moses is about to lay them out for the people all together.  The context is important because it reminds the people that God gave these laws as He was doing miraculous things for them and in the face of their repeated rebellion against Him.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Bible Study

February 3, 2022 Bible Study — The Symbolism of Anointing With Oil

Today, I am reading and commenting on   Leviticus 8-9.

Reading today’s passage about the ordination of Aaron as high priest when I came to Moses anointing Aaron it brought to mind the stories in the Gospels about a woman anointing Jesus.  One of the questions I have always had regarding those accounts was why all four Gospel writers thought it was so important.  Reading this today it struck me that the woman’s (women? the differences between the way the Gospels tell the story suggests that it may have happened more than once) anointing of Jesus represented His ordination as High Priest, which was completed by His offering of Himself as a sacrifice on the cross.  So, the Gospel writers were invoking the symbolism of the anointment portion of the priestly ordination when they wrote about the woman anointing Jesus.  So, while I see a connection, it is a connection of symbolism, not of ceremony.   Anointing someone represents setting them apart to serve God in a special way.  Here Moses anointed Aaron to set him aside to serve as high priest.  The woman who anointed Jesus was symbolically setting Him aside to serve God in ways which were probably unclear to her.  She may not have even been aware that she was doing so.  Perhaps I will explore that connection a little further when I get to those passages later in the year.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.