GN-Day040 Exodus 19-20; Job 40; Luke 1:1-45

Daily GNT Bible Reading Podcast

EXODUS 19-20:Yesterday in Exodus, we heard of God satisfying the thirst of the Israelites by commanding Moses to hit a rock. Israel defeated the Amalekites. And Jethro brought Moses’ wife and sons to him and stayed around long enough to give him good advice.

Note that in Hebrew, God often talks of _Himself_ in what we might term the royal fashion— as ‘The Lord’, and as ‘He’ or ‘His’ (instead of ‘Me’ and ‘My’). Many translations into other languages must use ‘I, the Lord’ and ‘Me/My’, as to speak of oneself in the third person is ungrammatical. To speak that way is highly unusual in English. An example of this happens in today’s reading in Exodus 20:7, in the commandment about not taking the Lord’s name in vain.

JOB 40:Yesterday in the book of Job, God continued to challenge Job with questions too hard for humans to answer. In today’s chapter, starting at verse 15, we read about the Behemoth. The GNT footnote tells that some identify this as a hippopotamus. But the description of Behemoth's tail in verse 17 doesn't fit with a hippopotamus. Maybe a sea crocodile would be a better choice, but they don’t eat grass. It is perhaps better to simply say that the Behemoth and Leviathan are legendary or mythical sea creatures.

LUKE 1:Yesterday we finished 2nd Peter with his advising us to get ready for the Lord's return.

Luke— as we will find out in other NT books, was the physician who was a traveling companion of Paul. His goal was to write a well-researched and ordered account of Jesus' life— as he says in his formal prologue.

Robert Maddox states:

“[Luke] writes to reassure the Christians of his day that their faith in Jesus is no aberration, but the authentic goal towards which God’s ancient dealings with Israel were driving.” More Muslims have become followers of Christ through reading Luke’s Gospel than from reading the other three, because of its emphases.

Luke is the longest book of the NT, and if we put Luke’s two books together, they form 27% of the NT.

Luke wrote to Theophilus, who may have been a Roman dignitary, but since the name means “Lover of God” Luke may have intended his book for all of us who love God. Luke's explanations show that he was writing to the Greeks, and so he appropriately brings out that Christ came for all mankind— Jews, and Gentiles. Luke also highlights the roles played by women. A major example of this is the material in this gospel that clearly from Luke’s interviews with Mary, the mother of Jesus. Luke includes more poetry than the other Gospels, tells more about Jesus praying, and chronicles Jesus' parables and teaching.