One Year Bible Readings and Commentary for Monday, March 28th "Are You Bearing Fruit?"

Click Here to Listen to the Readings

Click Here to Read Deuteronomy 9:1-10:22

As the people of Israel are about to enter the Promised Land, Moses recounts their relationship with God and what is most important to Him. 

1. They must remember that it is God who goes before them to drive out the nations. It was not because of their righteousness that God did this, but because God was faithful to the covenant He made with Abraham. I.e. God is faithful even when we are not. 

2. Moses reminds them of their stubborness and unwillingness to obey God during their wildnerness wanderings. It was only by Moses' 40 days of intercession which caused God to relent from pouring out his anger upon them. I.e. He could have easily started over with a new group of people, but he heard and answered Moses' prayer.  Moses also reasoned in his prayer with God that if God destroyed the Israelites it might reflect badly on him with the nations they came to conquer. They might argue that what kind of God destroys his own people. Apparently God listened to Moses' reasoning. 

3. God gave Moses a new set of stone tablets with the commandments on them, and commanded Moses to build an ark out of acacia wood to hold the two tablets. It is interesting that God saved Noah by putting him on an ark, and now God is saving them by mercifully giving them the Law a second time through Moses' intercession.  

4. Moses uses the metaphor of a "circumcision of the heart" when referring to the new obedience to God's laws. Of course, circumcision is part of the covenant God made with Abraham, as every Jewish male was circumcised at birth as a sign of the covenant. But that was an outward circumcision. Moses now calls on the Israelites to "circumcise their hearts to the Lord and no longer be stubborn". 

"The idea of “circumcision of the heart” is found in Romans 2:29. It refers to having a pure heart, separated unto God. Paul writes, “A Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter.”  (GotQuestions.org)

Clearly Moses' words are a foreshadowing of the work of Jesus on the cross, which frees us from our sin and changes our heart from the inside out through the renewing work of the Holy Spirit. 

Click Here to Read Luke 8:4-21

In today's reading Jesus told the crowds a parable. The parable was about a sower who sowed seed. When he was finished teaching it Jesus said , "Anyone who has ears should listen and understand." Jesus wanted people to understand the spiritual truths of the kingdom through the parables he taught. But he also recognized some people would not take the time to understand the meaning. They might listen, but not really hear, or we could say they were unwilling to hear. 

This fulfilled the prophecy from Isaiah 6:9-10, “Go tell this people: Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving."

David Guzik gives some great commentary on the nature of a parable and how a good teacher uses them. 

A parable isn’t exactly an illustration. A good teacher can illustrate by stating a truth, and then illustrating the truth through a story or an analogy. But when Jesus used parables, He didn’t start by stating a truth. Instead, the parable was like a doorway. Jesus’ listeners stood at the doorway and heard Him. If they were not interested, they stayed on the outside. But if they were interested, they could walk through the doorway, and think more about the truth behind the parable and what it meant to their life. - Guzik

The main point in the parable is that our job is to sow the seed, which is God's Word. In the parable there are four soil conditions that determine the outcome of the seed. Will it take root, be nourished, and grow to produce fruit? Or will it wither and die and produce nothing? 

Jesus teaches that there will be many obstacles preventing the seed of God's Word to take root in our lives and produce fruit. There is the devil who snatches the seed right off the ground. There are the temptations of the world which prevent the seed from going any deeper into the soil.  There are the pleasures of the world, which choke out the seed growing to maturity. 

The good seed, on the other hand, took root by sticking to the nourishment of God's Word, grew, and produced and multiplied several times over. I.e. A disciple who produces more disciples by modeling his or her life for others. 

The bottom line is that we were meant to bear fruit. And as we hear God's word and obey it, we will be like the good seed which takes root and mulitiplies. 

Is your life bearing fruit? If not, what obstacle is thwarting your growth? How can staying in God's Word and obeying what the Spirit leads you to do through it help you to go deeper?

Click Here to Read Psalm 69:19-36

Click Here to Read Proverbs 12:2-3


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