Day 41 – October 25, 2023: Deuteronomy 1-4 and Mark 1-2

We begin with a summary of what we have read so far in Numbers and Exodus. In the voice of Moses we have recounted to us how God has saved the Israelites out of Egypt and brought them to inhabit the promised land. But God became angry with the Israelites because of their disobedience and their unwillingness to inhabit the land that he had set apart from them. They were afraid of the people and so did not trust that God would deliver them into their hands. As a result they were forced to wander in the wilderness for 40 years. We read that we are basically at year 38 and Moses was given a glimpse of the holy land and not even he was allowed to enter into it. Only Caleb and Joshua were from the group that had left Egypt. We continue along on memory lane and see all that the Lord has done.

It is interesting to read about the descendants of Lot and the descendants of Esau and the land that God had given them and how the Israelites were not allowed to enter into those lands. God has a long memory and is incredibly faithful and loyal to his word no matter how long ago it was pronounced.

We begin in the Gospel of Mark and it is the shortest of the Gospels and it is what I call the cliffnote version of the Gospel. For the birth of Jesus we basically have a proclamation that Jesus was born without any stories or descriptions of that birth. For the time that he spent in the wilderness we have another proclamation without any description of the three temptations but rather that he was tempted and then ministered to by the angels. We have the beginning of his ministry and the calling of his disciples, but again a condensced version to allow us to fly through the Gospel.