{"id":4495,"date":"2024-02-11T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-11T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/reading-plan\/february-11\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T21:07:45","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T02:07:45","slug":"february-11","status":"publish","type":"reading-plan","link":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/am\/reading-plan\/february-11\/","title":{"rendered":"February 11"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Insight from Mark 1:1\u201320<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">More than one quarter of the Old Testament references in Mark are from Isaiah. It is evident that Mark is thinking about Isaiah as he writes this gospel. He uses Isaiah because Isaiah prophesies about a \u201cSecond Exodus\u201d when a \u201cnew Moses\u201d will come and lead God\u2019s people to God\u2019s place (see also Deuteronomy 18:15\u201319 where Moses prophesies that a new prophet like him will arise). By repeatedly quoting Isaiah, Mark demonstrates that Jesus fulfills Isaiah\u2019s prophecy about a new leader for God\u2019s people. Jesus is leading God\u2019s people to God\u2019s place. Like Moses, Jesus sees God face-to-face. Unlike Moses, Jesus never sins, therefore he is able to lead God\u2019s people (people of faith in Christ) from the \u201cwilderness\u201d where they have been scattered, across \u201cthe Jordan\u201d and into \u201cthe Promised Land\u201d. Tom Kelby, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Book of Mark with Study Notes: A Preacher\u2019s Guide to the Book of Mark<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, second printing (Webster, WI: Hands to the Plow, 2017), 2.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><strong>Insight from Psalm 45<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cThe psalmist, living in darkness, predictively urges his future, hoped-for Messiah, \u201cGird your sword on your thigh, O mighty one, in your splendor and majesty! In your majesty ride out victoriously\u201d (45:3\u20134a). The call is two-fold: prepare and prevail. Christ is here portrayed as a warrior, who must put on his armor (cf. Isa 11:5; 59:17) and then succeed in battle. And you don\u2019t want to be this king\u2019s enemy, because his arrows are sharp, and they pierce enemy hearts, so that they fall under him (Ps 45:5). The king goes forth in \u201csplendor and majesty,\u201d which are qualities characterizing Yahweh (96:6; 104:1; 111:3), qualities that God has bestowed on the king (21:5). In a very real sense, Christ was the ultimate image-bearer, reflecting, resembling, and representing God on the earth. To see the king in his beauty is to see a portrait of God himself (John 14:9). And what we learn is that Jesus came to earth to provide and protect. To provide, he came to \u201cride for the cause of truth and meekness and righteousness\u201d (Ps 45:4b). To protect, he would overcome all enemies that would threaten his kingdom (45:5).\u201d Jason DeRouchie, Psalm 45: A Wedding Meditation<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_crdt_document":""},"class_list":["post-4495","reading-plan","type-reading-plan","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading-plan\/4495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading-plan"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/reading-plan"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/am\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}