Tag Archives: Read the Bible in a year

Daily Bible Study

February 5, 2026 Bible Study — Identifying and Dealing with Defiling Skin Disease

Leave a comment

Today, I am reading and commenting on Leviticus 13.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Also, here is the link for my Patreon page

I wish that God had not placed the commands to the Israelites concerning mold on fabric or leather right after His commands concerning identifying skin disease.  Although, now that I have written that and thought about it, perhaps it is good that He did.  In same ways we can understand the commands relating to skin disease better in light of the commands concerning mold.  If we look at the culture of the Israelites when they received these commands, and for a long time after that, they had no real way to treat these skin diseases.  So, I find it interesting that the passage says that while the priest is determining whether or not a person has a defiling skin disease they are to be isolated, quarantined,  for seven day periods (usually just one seven day period, but there is one or two cases where a second seven day isolation period is commanded).  However, if the person is determined to have a defiling skin disease, and thus be unclean, they are not to be isolated (see verse 11).  Now, I need to reconcile what it says there in verse 11 with what it says in verses 45 and 46.  We would tend to view verses 45 and 46 as being a kind of long term quarantine, but, in light of verse 11, that seems to be a misreading.  In the later verses it says that someone with a defiling skin disease must live alone, outside the camp.  It does not say that they cannot come into the camp.  It does not say that they cannot interact with people of the camp.  What it says is that they must make sure to let people know that they have this disease and ensure that people will not come into direct contact with them accidentally.  By setting up this system, it allows others to know that if they come into contact with these people they will need to go through the process for becoming clean after touching something unclean.  The process for what to do after touching something unclean does provide a basic method of hygiene to reduce the chance of transmitting disease.  If we have a disease which we might easily pass on to others, we should do our best to minimize our chances of doing so, and should warn those we encounter of the risk.

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

Bible Study

February 4, 2026 Bible Study — Remain Humble When Called by God

2 Comments

Today, I am reading and commenting on Leviticus 10-12.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Also, here is the link for my Patreon page

I mentioned this a few days back but I want to cover it a bit more as we actually come to the place where Nadab and Abihu die.  Back in Exodus 24, we were told that Nadab and Abihu were among the leaders of Israel who accompanied Moses up Mount Sinai to see God.  We are not told why they were given this honor, but their brothers, Eleazar and Ithamar, were not.  That experience seems to me to be the likely reason that they had the arrogance to use “unauthorized” fire (the translators’ notes for the passage says that the Hebrew word literally means “strange”) before God.  They had been selected by God to be part of an elite group of people who were allowed to see Him on the mountain.  (Please forgive me if I word this poorly, or fail to fully explain what I am trying to say.  I have an idea about the point, but am struggling to get the wording correct.)  It seems to me that Nadab and Abihu thought that their experience in seeing God made them better than other people.  What we see here is something which we often see among people who have been called by God in an unmistakable way.  Nadab and Abihu were privileged to see God, which made them realize that they had been called to a special ministry by Him.  Rather than be humbled by God’s call, they became arrogant.  They appear to have believed that they were called by God because they were special, that God needed them.  All too often, men, and women, who God calls in a way which makes it impossible to deny God’s calling make the same mistake.  God does not call us because we are special.  He does not call us because He needs us.  He calls us so that He can show His power through us, and by doing so transform us into someone who is worthy of being called by Him.  Nadab and Abihu thought they were “big men on campus” (or, in this case, “big men in camp”).   They wanted to show off that they were priests by burning incense in their censers, even though God had not yet given instructions about how that should be done.

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

 

Daily Bible Study

February 3, 2026 Bible Study — Listen to God, Act on What He Says, Walk in His Ways

Leave a comment

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

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Reading this I realized how much work the initial consecration of the tabernacle and its furnishings with their utensils at the same time as the consecration and ordination of Aaron and his sons must have been.  Moses needed to wash Aaron and his sons, then dress them in the priestly garments.  After that he needed to anoint the tabernacle, all its furnishings and their utensils, Aaron and his sons, and their priestly garments.  That was just the beginning of the day.  Next Moses offered up the bull of the sin offering, followed by the ram of the burnt offering, and finally the ram of ordination.  Only after doing most of this last offering, that of the ram of ordination, were Aaron and his sons able to begin assisting Moses.  I have trouble comprehending just how much work this must have been for one man to accomplish.

On to another point.  For years I have read this passage where it says that as part of the ordination process Moses took some of the blood of the ram of ordination and put it on the lobe of Aaron’s right ear, the thumb of his right hand and the big toe of his right foot, and then did the same thing for each of Aaron’s sons.  I never thought much about that.  It was just a strange ritual that was part of the ordination of priests.  Today, I realized that the symbolism of this was important, but wasn’t sure what it was.  So, I looked it up and I really like the symbolism.  The significance of placing a bit of the blood of the offering on the right ear is that Aaron, and his sons, and the priests who followed after them, need to dedicate themselves to listen to God and pay attention to what He says to them.  The significance of the right thumb is that they need to dedicate their actions to doing God’s will.  Finally, the significance of the big toe is that the priests need to walk in righteousness, need to follow the paths which God guides them on.  We as believers are to be priests before God.  Therefore we should take this ordination process to heart and dedicate ourselves to listening to God’s Word (that which we read in the Bible, that which we hear preached by God’s servants, and that which the Holy Spirit speaks in our hearts), dedicate our actions to serving God with purity and dedication, and dedicate our walk to following the path of righteousness which Christ has revealed to us through His life.

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

Daily Bible Study

February 2, 2026 Bible Study — Whatever Touches That Which Is Holy Becomes Holy*

Leave a comment

Today, I am reading and commenting on Leviticus 5-7.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

I always notice right away when I read today’s passage (I notice it right away because it is right there at the beginning) that God tells the Israelites that it is a sin to fail to provide testimony to what you know when there is a public investigation of a matter (assuming that you are aware that the investigation is taking place).  In the past I have glossed over another part of the same set of commands, where God tells us that making a rash oath to do something is a sin.  It does not matter if the oath is to do something evil or to do something good.  God tells us that we commit a sin when we make a rash oath no matter what we promise to do.  In fact, it is just as much of a sin to make a rash oath to do something good as it is to make such an oath to do something evil.  So, we should never commit ourselves to do something with reckless haste.

I fond another thing from this passage interesting.  When it talks about the priests actually offering the grain offerings and the burnt offerings, and that portions of them are intended to be food for the priests, it says that whatever touches the priest’s portion becomes holy.  I think that this is where Paul gets the idea behind what he writes in 1 Corinthians 7 that a believer who has an unbelieving spouse should not divorce them if the unbeliever is willing to continue to live with the believer.  Paul says that the unbelieving spouse will be made holy by the believer.  I think that this passage we are reading today, combined with what Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians, gives us insight into the way in which we as believers, who are made holy by our faith in Christ, can make holy the people around us and the places where we live and work.  We can transform them into holy people and holy places.  First, let me touch on how this influences the people around us.  As we live our lives according to the dictates of God, we will see those around us changing their behavior for the better in response to the Holy Spirit’s presence within us.  This does not happen because we are better people than others.  It happens because the Holy Spirit lives within us and is present wherever we go.  And because the Holy Spirit is within us, He makes every place we are holy, transforming it into something which more clearly expresses the holiness of God.

*while there is an element of truth in my title, it is not fully true.  My explanation above is a bit more nuanced than my title.

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

Daily Bible Study

February 1, 2026 Bible Study — Making Atonement

Leave a comment

Today, I am reading and commenting on Leviticus 1-4.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

When reading this, part of me wants to say, “Why not just say for many of these offerings, ‘Do it just like the last one, except this time with a different type of animal…and this time make these small changes.’?”  However, having written training manuals for many jobs, I fully understand that too many people would not read the instructions for the other types of sacrifice, or not read them closely enough, and pretend that they understood what to do anyway.

Next I want to comment on the existence of both a ritual burnt offering and a sin offering.  At first glance one would say that the burnt offering is a voluntary offering that one made at any time, while the sin offering was required to be given when one realized that one had sinned.  There is some truth in that, and if I did not read this passage every year, I would settle for that.  However, I noticed that it says this about the burnt offering, “and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him.”  The definition of atonement is “Amends or reparation made for an injury or wrong; expiation.”  So, the burnt offering is offered as amends to God for our failure to keep His commands and to express devotion to God.  I think the purpose of the sin offering was to remind us of our specific failings.

Finally, I want to comment on the grain offerings.  In particular the inclusion of frankincense in those which were not already prepared in some way.  The first few times I read through this passage, the frankincense threw me off, because the largest portion of the grain offering went to the priests for food for them, but frankincense in the grain would most likely make it taste bad.  However, what I missed was that ALL of the frankincense was supposed to be part of the portion which was burned on the altar.  Therefore the purpose of the frankincense was to provide a good scent from the altar as the grain is burned.

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

Daily Bible Study

January 31, 2026 Bible Study — Doing as the Lord Had Commanded

Leave a comment

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 39-40.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

I found one thing interesting in the way which the ESV (the translation I am using this year) translates the description of what they used to make the garments (and some of the curtains of the tabernacle as well).  It says, “gold, blue and purple and scarlet yarns, and fine twined linen.”  I had noticed this all along in the description of both the instructions and of what they actually did.  I wasn’t sure what to make of this until today when it describes the making of the ephod, because there it says that they hammered out gold leaf, and “he” (probably Bezalel) cut it into threads.  In the past I had always read that as “gold, blue, purple, and scarlet yarns.”  I think we often overlook how difficult it would have been to put thin “threads” of actual gold metal into a garment, or other items made of fabric.  Which brings me to the other thing which struck me, and it did so because I recorded me reading the passage.  Reading it out loud made this repeated phrase stand out to me: “as the Lord had commanded Moses.”  Reading through this passage, the listing of all of the things which they did to build the tabernacle seems tedious.  The listing of the instructions to do so, and then them doing so, also seems tedious.  I find reading about it a bit tedious.  That phrase though tells us that it is important to pay attention to what the Lord commands us to do, even when it seems a bit tedious.

The final thing I want to comment on is chapter 40 verse 18: “Moses erected the tabernacle.”  Many times when I read this, I get a somewhat humorous image in my mind of Moses running around and putting the tabernacle up all by himself.  That picture is enhanced by thinking about the series called “The Promised Land.” (If you have not seen it, you should check it out)  If you have ever put up a 20 foot canopy by yourself, just think about how much harder the tabernacle would have been, and how amusing it would be to watch someone try to do it by themselves while insisting that no one is allowed to help them.

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

 

Daily Bible Study

January 30, 2026 Bible Study — God Will Give Us the Skills to do the Tasks He Inspires us to do

Leave a comment

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 36-38.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

I am going to follow on from what I wrote about on the 28th.  The passage says that Moses called  Bezalel and Oholiab  and every craftsman in whose mind God had put the skill, whose heart was stirred to do the work.  I am not sure about this, but that reads to me like God put the skill into the mind of every craftsman whose heart was stirred to do the work.  If you already have some skill in a craft, and your heart leads you to want to do some work for the Lord, do not hesitate because you think your skill is insufficient.  God will gift you the additional skills.  This does not mean that He will give you the skills for a task which you have never done before.  If you have never done carpentry work, do not put yourself forward for a task which requires a master carpenter.  But if you are a skilled carpenter, but feel you fall well short of the skill level called for, step forward anyway.  Either God will grant you the skills you think you lack, or He will provide you with a mentor (such as Bezalel and Oholiab) who can make use of what skills you do have.  And then there were those who were not craftsmen.  They were also inspired to give as they were able.  This was not just those giving from their wealth.  This involved people producing thread and cloth for the project and preparing goat hides.  In fact, they gave so much that the craftsmen had to ask them to stop.  We should seek to have a similar desire to give to God’s works as the people of Israel did here.

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

Daily Bible Study

January 29, 2026 Bible Study — Let Us Ask God to Show Us His Ways

Leave a comment

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Exodus 33-35.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

Early in today’s passage Moses says something which is sort of circular.  He says, “If I have found favor in your sight, show me your ways that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight.”  This should be our approach to God.  We should seek to find favor in God’s sight so that He shows us what He wants us to do in order to know Him and by doing what He shows us we will find greater favor in His sight.  We use God’s love for us, His willingness to give us what we ask for in order to ask Him to show us how to do what He wills us to do.  There is a little more to it than that.  Moses asks that God show him what God desires of him so that God’s presence will be with him, and with the people, in order for others to know that he, and the people had found favor in God’s sight.  So, let me spell this out.  If we ask God to show us His ways, He will do so and we will know Him.  If we know Him, we will do as He instructs.  As we do as God instructs, people will know that God is with us.  Some of those people will be inspired to ask God to show them His ways and follow the path to Him.  Going further in the passage, Moses asked to see the glory of God and God granted His request.  The people saw God’s glory reflected in His face.  In the same way, we should reflect the glory of God so that people who see us will see His glory and be drawn to Him.

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

Daily Bible Study

January 28, 2026 Bible Study — God Has Given Everyone Their Skills for a Purpose

Leave a comment

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 30-32.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

I am really glad that I have started recording my video of the Bible passage before I begin work on my comments.  I realized as I was recording it that I would have struggled to pay attention to what I was reading if I had not needed to focus on my pronunciation as I read.  When I read the part where God commanded Moses to collect a monetary “ransom” from everyone who was counted in any census which he took, I realized that this almost certainly explains King David’s sin when he took a census.  The purpose given here for the “ransom” was so that there would not be a plague resulting from the census.  David’s census resulted in a plague. That seems to be the connection.

Later in the passage God tells Moses that He has called two men specifically to head up all of the craftsmen who will be doing the work for the objects in the Tabernacle.  Those two men are Bezalel and Oholiab.  Bezalel seems to be chosen because he was both a skilled craftsman and an artist.  After going into detail about the skills which Bezalel brings to the job, the passage merely says that God has appointed Oholiab to work with him.  I think this gives us a good picture that all good project managers need a “right hand man”, someone to help them wrangle everything together.  However, the reason I wanted to write about this is because of what God says next after appointing Oholiab.  God has given all able men ability, that they may make all that God has commanded.  Whatever skills you have were given to you by God for some purpose.  All of us need to look at the skills which God has given us and seek how we can use them in service to God’s kingdom.

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

 

Daily Bible Study

January 27, 2026 Bible Study — Priestly Garments

Leave a comment

Today, I am reading and commenting on Exodus 28-29.

I have a Youtube video of me reading the Scripture passage and my comments. Please check it out and let me know your thoughts.

When God tells Moses to bring Aaron and his sons to serve God as priests He names all four of Aaron’s sons: Nadab and Abihu, Eleazar and Ithamar.  Yet back in Exodus 24 when God called Aaron and seventy of the elders of Israel to join Moses in coming before Him on the mountaintop, He only called Nadab and Abihu.  Today, I want to note that the passage groups Nadab and Abihu together and Eleazar and Ithamar together.  Perhaps I should have written about this back when I read Exodus 24, or waited until I read Leviticus 10 where it covers the deaths of Nadab and Abihu, but I saw the way it paired up the Aaron’s four sons, the two who died during their ordination and the two who lived, and thought that noteworthy.

As we continue into the passage we come to where Moses receives instructions that the names of the sons of Israel be engraved on to gem stones.  This has always struck me as incredibly difficult, but two things struck me today.  First, it was not suggesting that they do this engraving on gem stones such as we see today on jewelry.  These were larger stones.  Second, the names would have been engraved in Hebrew lettering, which is more suited for engraving than the letters which we use today.    I am not saying that the engraving was not a work of master craftsmen, just that these realizations make me see this as more realistic than I had previously realized.

Writing about this reminds me that this description is yet another evidence that the Book of Exodus reflects more similarities to Egyptian practices than to Canaanite practices.  The reason I write about this is that a common trope among skeptics is that the worship of YHWH rose out of Canaanite practices.  However, if the elements of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy share more in common with Egyptian cultural practices than with the cultural practices of Canaan, that undermines the theory that the worship of YHWH gradually emerged from Canaanite practices.  That does not mean that the worship of YHWH just emerged from Egyptian practices either.  It would make sense for God to provide the Israelites with symbols which carried meaning from their experience in Egypt while transforming that meaning to His message to them.  I have seen it explained that a careful reading of the passages in the Old Testament which bear a resemblance to the myths of the cultures around the Israelites shows those passages to be a critique of the myths which they resemble.

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