Tues.’s Devo - God Never Gets Tired of Blessing Us

Read: Leviticus 16:29-18:30; Mark 7:24-8:10; Psalm 41:1-13; Proverbs 10:15-16 On the Day of Atonement which is the tenth day of the seventh month. No one is to do any work on this day. It is the high and holy day where the priest enters the Holy of Holies with the blood of the sacrifices and atones for the nation’s sins. *** Any sacrifices made to any god other than God and any gift given other than how he told them to give it would be considered as murder. They were to stop sacrificing to demons. They were to stop drinking blood and would be cut off from the community if they continued. The blood was what atoned them for their sins. *** They were not to eat an animal that died naturally or was torn up by wild animals. If they did eat one of these, they were to cleanse themselves and be punished for their sin. *** God reminded them that they were not to act like the Egyptians or the people he was taking them to - they were set apart for holiness. He gave them an exhausted list of who the men could not have sex with that were in any way kin to them. Reading it, we realize that before the law, Lot’s daughters broke verse 6 by having sex with their father. Reuben broke verse 8 by having sex with his father’s concubine. Abraham broke verse 11 because Sarah was his step-sister. Judah was tricked into breaking verse 15 by having sex with Tamar. Jacob broke verse 18, and just like it said, Rachel and Leah were rivals. They all did this before it was a written law. *** God said that the ones they were driving out had done all these things and defiled the land. That was why God was punishing them. The land would vomit them out of it. They must not do these same things or the land would vomit them out as well. *** In Mark, Jesus left Galilee and went to the region of Tyre to get away. A woman heard he was there and brought her girl who was possessed by an evil spirit. She begged him to cast the demon out, but Jesus explained that he came first to the Jews. She countered with, that might be true, but even the dogs are allowed to eat the scraps from the table. Jesus was so impressed by her tenacity, that he told her to go home, her daughter was delivered. *** Jesus went to Sidon and a man who had a speech impediment was brought to him. Jesus took him away from the crowd and put his fingers into the man’s ears. Then he spit on his own fingers and touched the man’s tongue. He prayed and commanded the man’s tongue to be opened and it was. The more Jesus told them to keep quiet, the more they spread the good news. *** Crowds followed him. It had been three days and they hadn’t eaten, so Jesus told his disciples he wanted to feed them. The disciples didn’t think Jesus could do it again, but Jesus asked them how much bread they had. They found seven loaves and a few small fish. Jesus blessed what they had and fed 4,000 with it. Jesus only asks of us what we have. He is the one who can multiply it. There were seven baskets of left-overs. Jesus never runs out of miracles. *** Jesus sent the people home and got into a boat with the disciples and crossed over to the region of Dalmunutha which means “poor portion”. Our Psalm starts with, “Oh, the joys of those who are kind to the poor!” *** Lord, may our hearts always be open to give what we have. May we not hold back because you can only multiply what we give.