Reading for Today:

• Leviticus 26:1 Chapter 26 1 Ye shall make you no idols, neither shall ye rear you up a graven image, or a pillar, neither shall ye place any figured stone in your land, to bow down unto it: for I am Jehovah your God. –27:34
• Psalms 29:1-6 Chapter 29 1 Ascribe unto Jehovah, O ye sons of the mighty, Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength. 2 Ascribe unto Jehovah the glory due unto his name; Worship Jehovah in holy array. 3 The voice of Jehovah is upon the waters: The God of glory thundereth, Even Jehovah upon many waters. 4 The voice of Jehovah is powerful; The voice of Jehovah is full of majesty. 5 The voice of Jehovah breaketh the cedars; Yea, Jehovah breaketh in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. 6 He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild-ox.
• Proverbs 10:22-25 22 The blessing of Jehovah, it maketh rich; And he addeth no sorrow therewith. 23 It is as sport to a fool to do wickedness; And `so is' wisdom to a man of understanding. 24 The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him; And the desire of the righteous shall be granted. 25 When the whirlwind passeth, the wicked is no more; But the righteous is an everlasting foundation.
• Mark 7:1-13 Chapter 7 1 And there are gathered together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem, 2 and had seen that some of his disciples ate their bread with defiled, that is, unwashen, hands. 3 (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, except they wash their hands diligently, eat not, holding the tradition of the elders; 4 and `when they come' from the market-place, except they bathe themselves, they eat not; and many other things there are, which they have received to hold, washings of cups, and pots, and brasen vessels.) 5 And the Pharisees and the scribes ask him, Why walk not thy disciples according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with defiled hands? 6 And he said unto them, Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoreth me with their lips, But their heart is far from me. 7 But in vain do they worship me, Teaching `as their' doctrines the precepts of men. 8 Ye leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men. 9 And he said unto them, Full well do ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your tradition. 10 For Moses said, Honor thy father and thy mother; and, He that speaketh evil of father or mother, let him die the death: 11 but ye say, If a man shall say to his father or his mother, That wherewith thou mightest have been profited by me is Corban, that is to say, Given `to God'; 12 ye no longer suffer him to do aught for his father or his mother; 13 making void the word of God by your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things ye do.

Notes:

Leviticus 26:9 make you fruitful, multiply you and confirm My covenant with you. What God commanded at creation and repeated after the Flood was contained in the covenant promise of seed (Gen. 12:1–3), which He will fulfill to the nation of Israel as promised to Abraham (Gen. 15:5, 6).

Leviticus 26:12 your God…My people. The promise of an intimate covenant relationship with the God of the universe is given (see 2 Cor. 6:16).

Leviticus 26:30 high places. These were natural shrines for the worship of idols. Solomon disobeyed God by worshiping Him on the high places (1 Kin. 3:4); and not long afterward, he was serving the gods of his foreign wives (1 Kin. 11:1–9).

Psalm 29:1 mighty ones. Literally, “sons of God” (see Ps. 89:6 in its context of vv. 5–10; see the plural form of “gods” in Ex. 15:11). The reference here in Psalms 29 Chapter 29 1 Ascribe unto Jehovah, O ye sons of the mighty, Ascribe unto Jehovah glory and strength. 2 Ascribe unto Jehovah the glory due unto his name; Worship Jehovah in holy array. 3 The voice of Jehovah is upon the waters: The God of glory thundereth, Even Jehovah upon many waters. 4 The voice of Jehovah is powerful; The voice of Jehovah is full of majesty. 5 The voice of Jehovah breaketh the cedars; Yea, Jehovah breaketh in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. 6 He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young wild-ox. 7 The voice of Jehovah cleaveth the flames of fire. 8 The voice of Jehovah shaketh the wilderness; Jehovah shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh. 9 The voice of Jehovah maketh the hinds to calve, And strippeth the forests bare: And in his temple everything saith, Glory. 10 Jehovah sat `as King' at the Flood; Yea, Jehovah sitteth as King for ever. 11 Jehovah will give strength unto his people; Jehovah will bless his people with peace. Psalm 30 A Psalm; a Song at the Dedication of the House. `A Psalm' of David. is most likely to Yahweh’s mighty angels.

Proverbs 10:22 22 The blessing of Jehovah, it maketh rich; And he addeth no sorrow therewith. rich. While having more than one needs is not the object of wisdom, it is generally the result (see Deut. 6:11–15; 1 Kin. 3:10–14). no sorrow. None of the sorrow that is associated with ill-gotten wealth (see 13:11; 15:6; 16:19; 21:6; 28:6) is associated with wealth provided by the Lord.

DAY 1: What did the washing of hands have to do with spirituality?

In Mark 7:1 Chapter 7 1 And there are gathered together unto him the Pharisees, and certain of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem, , a delegation of leading representatives of Judaism came from Jerusalem perhaps at the request of the Galilean Pharisees. They immediately found fault with the disciples of Jesus, accusing them of eating with hands that had not been ceremonially cleansed and, thus, that had not been separated from the defilement associated with their having touched anything profane (v. 2). This washing had nothing to do with cleaning dirty hands but with a ceremonial rinsing. The ceremony involved someone pouring water out of a jar onto another’s hands, whose fingers must be pointing up. As long as the water dripped off at the wrist, the person could proceed to the next step. He then had water poured over both hands with the fingers pointing down. Then each hand was to be rubbed with the fist of the other hand. This was according to the “tradition of the elders”—a body of extra-biblical laws and interpretations of Scripture that had in actuality supplanted Scripture as the highest religious authority in Judaism.

The Pharisees and scribes went to the disciples’ Master for an explanation of the disciples’ allegedly disgraceful conduct. In reality, they were accusing Jesus of teaching His disciples to disobey the tradition of the elders (v. 5). Jesus’ reply was to quote Isaiah 29:13 13 And the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw nigh `unto me', and with their mouth and with their lips to honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment of men which hath been taught `them'; , whose prophecy perfectly fit the actions of the Pharisees. Not only were their hearts far from God but they were “hypocrites,” or spiritual phonies (v. 6). They followed the traditions of men because such teaching required only mechanical and thoughtless conformity without a pure heart. And in doing so, they had abandoned all the commandments contained in God’s Word and substituted a humanly designed standard for God’s standard (v. 8).

From The MacArthur Daily Bible Copyright © 2003. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson Bibles, a division of Thomas Nelson, Inc, Nashville, TN 37214, www.thomasnelson.com.

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