Day 46 – October 31, 2023: Deuteronomy 21-25 and Mark 11

Deuteronomy once more provides a whole listing of rules and reguations, some of which are quite draconian and others are somewhat amusing. I know, they shouldn’t be, but what do you do with Deuteronomy 25:11-12? The specificity of these laws assumes that these things had happened and the judges of the land that Moses had established had to decide what to do and so Moses headed it off by making these laws so that they wouldn’t have to decide.

I love in chapter 22 where the command is that you have to help your neighbor. Not it is a nice thing to do, but you are commanded to help your neighbor and if you don’t help your neighbor then you will suffer the punishment of this law, which could very well be a number of lashes.

In Mark we begin the chapter with the riding of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The celebration was intense, just as the future betrayal will be even more intense. But for the time being we do see that Mark gives a bit of a muted version, you don’t see the crowds of people surrounding Jesus, it seems like it is only his disciples, those who went before and behind. We see Jesus clean out the temple on the following day, some of the versions have Jesus immediately go into the temple after he rides into Jerusalem, a bit of a difference. But the temple is cleansed nevertheless.