By Jacob D. Gerber

Bible Readings for July 14th Joshua 20–21 | Acts 1 | Jeremiah 10 | Matthew 24 In Joshua 20–21, we read about the dwelling places assigned to the tribe of Levi. Importantly, six of the forty-eight cities that the Levites would inhabit served as cities of refuge for the manslayer who had killed a person unintentionally: Kedesh, Shechem, Hebron, Bezer…

Bible Readings for July 13th Joshua 18–19 | Psalm 149–150 | Jeremiah 9 | Matthew 23 For the seven remaining tribes who had yet to receive their inheritance (Josh. 18:1–7), Joshua does not divide up the land unilaterally. Instead, Joshua puts the responsibility of claiming the rest of the land on the remaining seven tribes themselves. Oddly, it soun…

Bible Readings for July 12th Joshua 16–17 | Psalm 148 | Jeremiah 8 | Matthew 22 In Joshua 16–17, the apportionment of the Promised Land to the tribes of Israel continues. In Joshua 15, Judah had received their inheritance, and now in Joshua 16–17, we read about the inheritance of the two half-tribes descended from Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim. Whil…

Bible Readings for July 11th Joshua 14–15 | Psalm 146–147 | Jeremiah 7 | Matthew 21 The allotment of the inheritance in the land west of the Jordan begins, rightfully, with Caleb. Caleb and Joshua had been the only two spies to enter the Promised Land and return with a good report. At that point, forty-five years ago when Caleb had been only forty …

Bible Readings for July 10th Joshua 12–13 | Psalm 145 | Jeremiah 6 | Matthew 20 The end of Joshua 11 marked the final warfare under the leadership of Joshua. In Joshua 11:23, we read this summary of the Israelite conquest of the Promised Land: “So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD had spoken to Moses.” Now, it’s important t…

Bible Readings for July 9th Joshua 11 | Psalm 144 | Jeremiah 5 | Matthew 19 In Joshua 11, we learn two important principles about Israel’s conquest of the land of Canaan as we read about the final warfare that Israel undertakes under the leadership of Joshua. First, Joshua gives us this insight into the interplay between Yahweh’s sovereignty and th…

Bible Readings for July 8th Joshua 10 | Psalms 142–143 | Jeremiah 4 | Matthew 18 In Joshua 9, Israel fails to ask God before entering into a covenant with the Gibeonites. This is a serious breach in their obedience to Yahweh’s commandments, and in today’s reading, we find that Israel’s actions bring severe consequences—but that Yahweh nevertheless …

Bible Readings for July 7th Joshua 9 | Psalms 140–141 | Jeremiah 3 | Matthew 17 Joshua is one of the high points in all the Bible. While Moses’s ministry was plagued by unbelief and rebellion among the Israelites, and while Israel will sink into idolatry again during the days after Joshua dies in the period of the judges, Israel’s time under the le…

Bible Readings for July 6th Joshua 8 | Psalm 139 | Jeremiah 2 | Matthew 16 In Joshua 8, two critical events take place. First, Israel goes into battle once more against Ai. Second, Israel renews their covenant with Yahweh on Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. Both of these stories are important, since in yesterday’s reading Yahweh had threatened to aban…

Bible Readings for July 5th Joshua 7 | Psalms 137–138 | Jeremiah 1 | Matthew 15 I’ve never forgotten a short rhyme one of my Sunday School teachers taught us during my elementary years: “Achan stole the bacon.” It’s a silly phrase, but that light-hearted line is perfect to help children remember basic biblical content. I would not be the man I am t…

Bible Readings for July 4th Joshua 6 | Psalms 135–136 | Isaiah 66 | Matthew 14 At the end of Joshua 5, Joshua meets a mysterious man with a drawn sword. The fact that Joshua meets him near Jericho (Josh. 5:13) both suggests that Joshua had been spying on the city and also explains why Joshua would tensely ask the man to identify whether he was for …

Bible Readings for July 3rd Joshua 5 | Psalms 132, 133 & 134 | Isaiah 65 | Matthew 13 Before Yahweh takes Israel into the land of Canaan to receive the inheritance he had promised to them for generations through their forefather Abraham, he requires that all the men be circumcised. This is the first time we learn that the generation born in the wil…

Bible Readings for July 2nd Joshua 4 | Psalms 129, 130 & 131 | Isaiah 64 | Matthew 12 The story of how Israel crossed the Jordan in Joshua is more important than simply a record of the route they took to enter the Promised Land. Rather, this event marks a decisive turning point in God’s history of saving his people and bringing them into their inhe…

Bible Readings for July 1st Joshua 3 | Psalms 126, 127 & 128 | Isaiah 63 | Matthew 11 Perhaps the chief difficulty of the Christian life is that we are not always given clear directions about where to go, and even when we know what we are supposed to do, it is not always clear what the consequences will be if we obey. The situation was the same for…

Bible Readings for June 30th Joshua 2 | Psalms 123, 124 & 125 | Isaiah 62 | Matthew 10 When Joshua sends two spies into the city of Jericho, the men lodge in the house of Rahab, who was a prostitute (Josh. 2:1), likely in an attempt to stay under the radar of Jericho’s officials. The people of Jericho discover that Israelites have come into their c…

Bible Readings for June 29th Joshua 1 | Psalms 120, 121 & 122 | Isaiah 61 | Matthew 9 In Joshua 1, we see one of the most extreme transitions in the whole Bible—for the first time since Exodus 1, Israel is without Moses. But at the same time, this first chapter carefully connects the leadership of Joshua back to the leadership of Moses, providing a…

Bible Readings for June 28th Deuteronomy 33–34 | Psalm 119:145–176 | Isaiah 60 | Matthew 8 The shadow of Moses’s impending death hangs over the entire book of Deuteronomy. But, as the people move on into the Promised Land after the death of Moses (which we finally read about here in Deuteronomy 34), it will not only be Joshua who will lead the peop…

Bible Readings for June 27th Deuteronomy 32 | Psalm 119:121–144 | Isaiah 59 | Matthew 7 Moses has given the entire law to the people of Israel, but in Deuteronomy 32, he takes a different approach to impress upon his people the necessity of obeying Yahweh: he sings to them a song. In this song, Moses acts out the story of Israel’s history with Yahw…

Bible Readings for June 26th Deuteronomy 31 | Psalm 119:97–120 | Isaiah 58 | Matthew 6 There is an engraved marble memorial at Westminster Abbey in London dedicated to John and Charles Wesley, the great leaders of the Methodist movement in the eighteenth century. At the base of the monument are the words of Charles: “God buries his workmen, but car…

Bible Readings for June 25th Deuteronomy 30 | Psalm 119:73–96 | Isaiah 57 | Matthew 5 Back in Deuteronomy 10:16, Moses had commanded the people of Israel to circumcise the foreskin of their hearts, and here in Deuteronomy 30, heart circumcision appears again as the key to unlocking the meaning of the entire Mosaic covenant. Moses first instructs Is…

Bible Readings for June 24th Deuteronomy 29 | Psalm 119:49–72 | Isaiah 56 | Matthew 4 In Deuteronomy 29–30, Moses renews Israel’s covenant with Yahweh one final time before his death. First, just as he had done at the beginning of Deuteronomy, Moses recounts the gracious provisions of Yahweh through Israel’s history in Deuteronomy 29:2–9. This hist…

Bible Readings for June 23rd Deuteronomy 28 | Psalm 119:25–48 | Isaiah 55 | Matthew 3 Deuteronomy 28 is at the same time an inspiring and a horrific chapter in the Bible, laying out Yahweh’s covenant blessings and his covenant curses. These two lists were so important that they would be used again later in a larger ceremony that would come after Mo…

Bible Readings for June 22nd Deuteronomy 27 | Psalm 119:1–24 | Isaiah 54 | Matthew 2 At the end of Deuteronomy 26, Moses concludes his second giving of the law. Through the entire book of Deuteronomy, Moses had been giving an extended sermon to exhort Israel to abide in God’s law. But after proclaiming the whole law to Israel, Moses now—before he d…

Bible Readings for June 21st Deuteronomy 26 | Psalms 117–118 | Isaiah 53 | Matthew 1 For the people of God, giving is never meant to be a burdensome task. Deuteronomy 26 teaches us why we ought to give, using two events that were to happen when Israel took possession of the Promised Land: the offering of the firstfruits (Deut. 26:1–11) and the thir…

Bible Readings for June 20th Deuteronomy 25 | Psalm 116 | Isaiah 52 | Revelation 22 From Deuteronomy 25, we can make an observation that will help us overcome a major cultural barrier we have in reading and understanding the Bible. To put it simply, our own culture has an obsession with sex that the people we read about in the Bible did not necessa…

Bible Readings for June 19th Deuteronomy 24 | Psalms 114–115 | Isaiah 51 | Revelation 21 Deuteronomy 24 contains several laws that the section headings in the ESV classify as “miscellaneous.” Quite a few of these laws (though not all in this section) regulate how Israel should treat the poor in their midst. We would classify these laws as civil law…

Bible Readings for June 18th Deuteronomy 23 | Psalms 112–113 | Isaiah 50 | Revelation 20 Several of the prohibitions in Deuteronomy 23 almost make it seem as though Yahweh is squeamish about the human body. For example, we read that anyone with his testicles crushed or male organ cut off cannot enter into the assembly to worship in the tabernacle o…

Bible Readings for June 17th Deuteronomy 22 | Psalms 110–111 | Isaiah 49 | Revelation 19 As we read through the laws given to Israel that governed what to do with a lost ox (Deut. 22:1–4) or what specifications were required for building a roof on your house (Deut. 22:8), it would be helpful for us to talk about how Christians have traditionally ap…

Bible Readings for June 16th Deuteronomy 21 | Psalms 108–109 | Isaiah 48 | Revelation 18 Deuteronomy 21:22–23 contains critical background information for understanding Jesus’ crucifixion. Here, we see that the cross was not a last-minute mistake but that Yahweh had been preparing to execute his own Son on a tree from the beginning. Deuteronomy 21 …

Bible Readings for June 15th Deuteronomy 20 | Psalm 107 | Isaiah 47 | Revelation 17 In Luke 14:15–24, Jesus tells the Parable of the Great Banquet. In the story, a man prepares a great feast and invites many to come. Strangely, when the man’s servant personally delivers the invitations, each person has a different excuse about why he can’t come. On…

Bible Readings for June 14th Deuteronomy 19 | Psalm 106 | Isaiah 46 | Revelation 16 In Deuteronomy 19, Moses turns his attention to the civil laws that were written to govern daily life in Israel. The three laws in Deuteronomy 19 underscore three important principles for understanding God’s idea of civil justice. The first law, regarding the cities…

Bible Readings for June 13th Deuteronomy 18 | Psalm 105 | Isaiah 45 | Revelation 15 Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy are filled with regulations for the Levitical priests in Israel, and in yesterday’s reading from Deuteronomy 17, Moses laid out the requirements for the kings of Israel. In Deuteronomy 18, Moses gives instruction for the l…

Bible Readings for June 12th Deuteronomy 17 | Psalm 104 | Isaiah 44 | Revelation 14 Deuteronomy 17 serves as the standard against which we should judge the kings of Israel and Judah as we read about them in the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. In this passage, we find three details that set up the storylines of what the kings of Israel and J…

Bible Readings for June 11th Deuteronomy 16 | Psalm 103 | Isaiah 43 | Revelation 13 In Deuteronomy 16, Moses names the three festivals that all Israelite males were expected to attend: Passover, the Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), and the Feast of Booths. As we saw in our meditation on Deuteronomy 14, the people who lived too far away to travel to the …

Bible Readings for June 10th Deuteronomy 15 | Psalm 102 | Isaiah 42 | Revelation 12 Toward the end of yesterday’s meditation on Deuteronomy 14, we talked about how the tithes of Israel were meant to take care of the needy as well as the Levites, who did not have their own inheritance but depended on the tithes of other Israelites for their income. …

Bible Readings for June 9th Deuteronomy 13–14 | Psalms 99, 100, & 101 | Isaiah 41 | Revelation 11 Deuteronomy 14 changes the way that we see our offerings to God. Sadly, we can too easily come to look at the act of bringing our offerings to God as a kind of a tax, where we send off our checks to some impersonal government in a distant land so that …

Bible Readings for June 8th Deuteronomy 12 | Psalms 97–98 | Isaiah 40 | Revelation 10 Moses reveals in Deuteronomy 12:8–9 that Israel’s informality in their worship would eventually need to change: “You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, for you have not as yet come to the r…

Bible Readings for June 7th Deuteronomy 11 | Psalms 95–96 | Isaiah 39 | Revelation 9 By the time of Jesus, the signs and frontlets that Moses wanted to see bound to the eyes and hands of Israelites (Deut. 11:18) had largely become an outward show of hypocrisy. Jesus explicitly condemned the Pharisees for the way they wore their signs and frontlets …

Bible Readings for June 6th Deuteronomy 10 | Psalm 94 | Isaiah 38 | Revelation 8 When God commanded in Genesis 17 that every male in the household of Abraham be circumcised, he never intended for circumcision to be merely a physical act. Instead, physical circumcision—the cutting away of the flesh—always pointed to a larger, spiritual reality. In D…

Bible Readings for June 5th Deuteronomy 9 | Psalms 92–93 | Isaiah 37 | Revelation 7 In Deuteronomy 9, Moses shatters the final false belief that Israel might hold onto about why Yahweh was removing the inhabitants of the land of Canaan in order to give Israel the land as a possession. This has nothing to do, Moses assures Israel, with their righteo…

Bible Readings for June 4th Deuteronomy 8 | Psalm 91 | Isaiah 36 | Revelation 6 Deuteronomy 7–9 contains three separate reflections on the scandal of particularity, the subject we discussed in our meditation from Deuteronomy 4. In these chapters, Moses raises three possibilities to explain why Israel might be receiving the blessings of Yahweh—inclu…

Bible Readings for June 3rd Deuteronomy 7 | Psalm 90 | Isaiah 35 | Revelation 5 Deuteronomy 7 features the second-best circular logic in the Bible. Let me explain what I mean by pointing out Deuteronomy 7:6, where Moses reminds Israel that “you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured…

Bible Readings for June 2nd Deuteronomy 6 | Psalm 89 | Isaiah 34 | Revelation 4 Deuteronomy 6 is one of the most important chapters in the Old Testament, not least for the fact that Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:5 as one of the two greatest commandments (“You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mig…

Bible Readings for June 1st Deuteronomy 5 | Psalm 88 | Isaiah 33 | Revelation 3 In Deuteronomy 5, Moses does not simply repeat the Ten Commandments, but he also reminds Israel of what their response had been at the time when Yahweh had given them the Ten Commandments: fear and reverence. When Yahweh appeared at Mount Sinai to give his law, Israel w…

Bible Readings for May 31st Deuteronomy 4 | Psalms 86–87 | Isaiah 32 | Revelation 2 The phrase “scandal of particularity” describes the shock of realizing that Yahweh chose to save the world through a particular person in a particular place at a particular time. Jesus, of course, is the greatest example of the scandal of particularity, since he was…

Bible Readings for May 30th Deuteronomy 3 | Psalm 85 | Isaiah 31 | Revelation 1 If it is tragic to read Moses’s prayer that Yahweh would grant him the right to enter into the Promised Land in Deuteronomy 3:23–25, then it is terrifying to read Yahweh’s flat refusal of Moses’s request: “But the LORD was angry with me because of you and would not list…

Bible Readings for May 29th Deuteronomy 2 | Psalms 83–84 | Isaiah 30 | Jude 1 As we discussed yesterday, Deuteronomy gives us Moses’s final sermon before his death. It may seem strange, then, that Deuteronomy, the “second law,” does not begin with the law at all. Instead, Deuteronomy opens with a lengthy retelling of Israel’s history, beginning fro…

Bible Readings for May 28th Deuteronomy 1 | Psalms 81–82 | Isaiah 29 | 3 John 1 Although Deuteronomy is one of the longer books in the Old Testament, with thirty-four chapters, it does not represent the passage of much time. In Deuteronomy, we do not read new narratives of Israel’s journey through the wilderness, nor of new battles Israel fights, n…

Bible Readings for May 27th Numbers 36 | Psalm 80 | Isaiah 28 | 2 John 1 Numbers 36 continues the story that we read back in Numbers 27, when the daughters of Zelophehad petitioned Moses to receive the inheritance that had belonged to their father, since he had died without a male heir to carry on the family’s place in Israel. It seems that, as tim…