{"id":4505,"date":"2024-02-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-21T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/reading-plan\/february-21\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T21:17:45","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T02:17:45","slug":"february-21","status":"publish","type":"reading-plan","link":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/reading-plan\/february-21\/","title":{"rendered":"February 21"},"content":{"rendered":"<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Insight from Mark 9:2\u201329:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">[When he speaks at the transfiguration] God the Father (who is speaking from heaven) does not even refer to Moses or Elijah! By ignoring these two great saints, and by only referring to Jesus, God the Father emphasizes the greatness of Christ.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The phrase \u201cThis is my beloved Son\u201d is a declaration that Jesus is the King talked about in 2 Samuel 7:14 and Psalm 2:7.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The phrase \u201clisten to him\u201d indicates that Jesus is the prophet like Moses whom Moses prophesied would come in Deuteronomy 18:15-19: \u201cThe LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers\u2014it is to him you shall listen\u2014just as you desired of the LORD your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, \u2018Let me not hear again the voice of the LORD my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.\u2019 And the LORD said to me, \u2018They are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him.\u2019\u201d See also Acts 3:22-23. Tom Kelby, The Book of Mark with Study Notes: A Preacher\u2019s Guide to the Book of Mark, second printing (Webster, WI: Hands to the Plow, 2017), 47.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><strong>Insight from Genesis 39:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cCasual readers of Scripture too often treat the story of \u201cJoseph and Potiphar\u2019s Wife\u201d as an episode, when actually it is a scene. As a scene, the narrative may simply seem to be a charge to flee sexual temptation. Certainly this is an important lesson from the story, but we cannot stop here, for this view fails to clarify why the chapter is framed with four statements that \u201cthe Lord was with Joseph.\u201d He was with Joseph when he entered Egypt as a slave (39:2); he was with Joseph as he served in Potiphar\u2019s house (39:3); he was with Joseph when Potiphar\u2019s wife unjustly accused him of sexual misconduct and had him thrown into prison (39:21); and he was with Joseph during his extended incarceration (39:23). \u201cThe Lord was with Joseph\u201d\u2014the repetition of this clause four times helps identify the limits of the episode and clarifies that the scene in Potiphar\u2019s house supplies an example of the type of person with whom God remains. Sexual purity is a vital expression of Godwardness worth emulating, but the episode is less about Joseph than it is about God. The Lord remains with those who consider pleasing him to be a greater prize than pleasing worldly passions.\u201d \u2014 Jason S. DeRouchie, How to Understand and Apply the Old Testament: Twelve Steps from Exegesis to Theology (Phillipsburg: P&amp;R, 2017), 101\u2013102.<\/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-4505","reading-plan","type-reading-plan","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading-plan\/4505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/reading-plan"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/reading-plan"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/handstotheplow.org\/om\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}