When I was younger, my dad made this ridiculous claim that I was hard-headed. I didn’t think so, but now I have some of my own kids. Maybe it wasn’t so ridiculous after all. Humanity has a sin problem and coming with that is a varying degree of hard-headedness. You’ll read about some of this this week with the Israelites in the wilderness after the Red Sea deliverance, admonishments given by Zechariah, and reprimands from Jesus to the Pharisees. Are you ever hard-headed with God? Do you need to turn from your hard-headedness right now?
This week you’ll read…
Exodus 27-33: God continues to give Moses many instructions on top of Mount Sinai for 40 days and nights, but the Israelites break their word in impatience and unbelief. “God said to Moses, ‘Tell the Israelites, “You’re one hard-headed people”’” (Exodus 33 in The Message Bible).
Psalms 21-25: Psalm 23 is a favorite psalm for many and is used at many funerals. “God, my shepherd! I don’t need a thing. You have…” (Psalm 23 in The Message Bible). God has done so much for us. He’s our shepherd. He leads us, protects us, provides for us, corrects us, teaches us, and more. When we’re in Him and looking to Him, we realize that we’re in need of nothing else.
Zechariah 1-7: Zechariah, son of Berechiah, was a prophet around 500 years before Jesus was born on the earth. Zechariah was murdered by his countrymen, maybe the last prophet martyred in the Old Testament. Jesus referenced Zechariah to the religious leaders, “Snakes! Reptilian sneaks! Do you think you can worm your way out of this? Never have to pay the piper? It’s on account of people like you that I send prophets and wise guides and scholars generation after generation—and generation after generation you treat them like dirt, greeting them with lynch mobs, hounding them with abuse. You can’t squirm out of this: Every drop of righteous blood ever spilled on this earth, beginning with the blood of that good man Abel right down to the blood of Zechariah, Barachiah’s son, whom you murdered at his prayers, is on your head. All this, I’m telling you, is coming down on you, on your generation” (Matthew 23 in The Message Bible). In Zechariah this week, you’ll read eight visions which he received from the Lord.
Luke 13-18: Jesus teaches many parables in this week’s reading, and He hangs out the Pharisees’ dirty laundry for all to see. After all, they like to be seen by people. He chides them in His parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. He rebukes them concerning their love of money, too, and He heals people on the Sabbath which caused quite a ruckus with those rule-keepers. Again, in Matthew 23, Jesus harshly chastises these men about things such as these in Luke, “You’re hopeless, you religion scholars and Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but on the meat of God’s Law, things like fairness and compassion and commitment—the absolute basics!—you carelessly take it or leave it. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. Do you have any idea how silly you look, writing a life story that’s wrong from start to finish, nitpicking over commas and semicolons?” (The Message Bible)
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MSG are daily readings linked to The Message Bible on BibleGateway.com.
CSB are daily readings linked to The Christian Standard Bible on BibleGateway.com.
NLT are daily readings linked to The New Living Translation on BibleGateway.com.
Thoughts on Life and Jesus 