All Scripture is profitable and equips us thoroughly.
We cover Timothy and Titus and walk with Jesus up to His arrest in the Gospel of John. We will finish Judges and read through Ruth. Psalms of Ascents continue, and we will read the description of Ezekiel’s Temple. There are many beautiful discoveries ahead this week in God’s word, and all of it is profitable.
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GOSPELS
John 12 – 18
Jesus is anointed in Bethany, enters Jerusalem as a humble King, and prays for Father to glorify His name. Heaven answers and people wonder, and the summation of Jesus’ ministry is given at the end of John Chapter 12. Chapters 13 through 18 all happen in one night from the Passover supper to His arrest in the garden. Walk with Jesus as He shares His innermost thoughts, charges, and promises to His disciples.
EPISTLES
1 Timothy 4 – 6
Paul addresses the last days and the great apostasy and our call to take heed to our ministry. Widows, elders, and employees are all given instructions. He charges them (and us) to keep themselves from covetousness and false assurance of riches. The good confession that Jesus held (to be read next week in John) is a powerful call to hold His word and not deny His name.
2 Timothy 1 – 4
What a gift to have 2 Timothy. Having established for Timothy the foundation of church life, Paul now addresses the conflicts and fears within, as well as: sovereignty in God’s purposes, trust in His faithfulness, and heartbreak of people turning away. That’s just the first chapter. Then his call to commit to faithful men, the faithful saying:
“For if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him. If we endure, we shall also reign with Him. If we deny Him, He also will deny us. If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” (2 Tim. 2:11-13),
and our call to cleanse ourselves from iniquity. Chapter 3 shares the perilous times we are in today and Scripture being our anchor in all things. Chapter 4 is the charge to preach the word, Paul’s closing of his race, and the Lord keeping grace.
Titus 1
Titus is a shorter version of 1 Timothy, with the first chapter addressing choosing qualified elders.
HISTORY
Judges 18 – 21
We close the 400 years of judges on a very low note, with the tribe of Dan recruiting a backslidden Levite priest who is a personal priest for a house filled with idols. Dan discovers this priest and claims him for their tribe, who, through force, take the priest as their own and as a tribe worships the idol of Micah. Abominably, the Levite’s concubine is sexually abused all night unto death in the land of Benjamin and is then cut into pieces and sent to the 11 tribes, which brings the nation into civil war—almost to the extinction of the tribe of Benjamin. The last verse of Judges states everything all too well: “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).
POETRY
Psalms 127 – 132
More Psalms of Ascents. These Psalms were for the coming up to Jerusalem during the Feasts, hence ascents. Jerusalem is a city to which you ascend from all directions, which is why the Temple was built on the top of Mount Moriah. Imagine yourself a pilgrim coming up to Jerusalem singing these Psalms in the company of many pilgrims as you read them to our Father this week.
PROPHETS
Ezekiel 41 – 46
These dimensions given to Ezekiel are God’s plans for a yet-to-be-built Temple. In Ezekiel 43, the Lord speaks to Israel’s past idolatries of setting up their thresholds and doorposts next to His with a wall between them and God. Think of compartmentalizing God out of our lives and worship with our own forms of worship. In Chapter 44, the Lord speaks to the priesthood and delegates to the priests who had served the people in their idolatry that they would only serve the people as gatekeepers and the work of the Temple, but not be able to minister to Him. Only the sons of Zadok would be allowed to stand before the Lord to offer the fat and the blood. As the Lord said to Moses, “For you shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Exodus 34:14).
