Leviticus 20, Psalm 25, Ecclesiastes 3, 1 Timothy 5

Date	Version	Reading Plan
@April 16, 2024	ESV (2016)	M’Cheyne Plan 2024

Leviticus 20

Leviticus 20:24b–26 (ESV) I am the LORD your God, who has separated you from the peoples. 25 You shall therefore separate the clean beast from the unclean, and the unclean bird from the clean. You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to hold unclean. 26 You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.

The words “separate” or “separated” are repeated several times in these verses, depicting how the Israelites were chosen by God and distinct from the other nations. There seems to be a close tie here between the separation of clean from unclean animals and the people themselves being separated from other peoples and nations. The people were to be holy because the LORD is holy and they had been set apart by Him as sacred. Thus, their efforts to not make themselves detestable with anything unclean was to uphold how they had been divinely selected as His own.

Psalm 25

Psalm 25:4–5 (ESV) 4 Make me to know your ways, O LORD; teach me your paths. 5 Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; for you I wait all the day long.

David’s heart for the Lord in these words are incredibly inspiring. So often I can wane in my passion for the Lord; for His teaching me and leading me in His truth. At times, the fire grows dim in my daily study and devotions, making it more about intellectual Scriptural analysis than the pursuit of knowing my Lord and Savior. Lord, stoke the flames within me in these times, help to see that you are the God of my salvation and realize that is You are the One for whom I wait all the day long.

Ecclesiastes 3

Ecclesiastes 3:14–15 (ESV) 14 I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him. 15 That which is, already has been; that which is to be, already has been; and God seeks what has been driven away.

Everything God does endures forever because God Himself is eternal. The story of God’s glorious work is already set—nothing to be added or taken away, improved or perfected—and each day is but a new page of this story revealed. All that that has been, all that is and all that every will be is settled, established from the beginning by a God who knows the glorifying end. It is in this God we rest, sovereign over all time and creation.

1 Timothy 5

1 Timothy 5:11–12 (ESV) 11 But refuse to enroll younger widows, for when their passions draw them away from Christ, they desire to marry 12 and so incur condemnation for having abandoned their former faith.

Paul’s prescription for guiding widows struck me as somewhat confusing. What does it mean to “enroll a younger” widow? How does desiring to marry incur condemnation? In looking at some commentary, it was somewhat validating to find that I am not the only one who struggles with these verses. The Believer’s Bible Commentary offers an explanation:

This is a difficult verse, but the meaning seems to be as follows: In general, it would be a mistake to make younger widows a charge of the local church. Being young, they would probably desire to marry again. This would not be wrong in itself, but the desire might become so strong at times that one of these young widows might even marry an unbeliever.

Carson on Psalm 25

Here is a wholesome self-awareness. Sometimes our prayers for relief from loneliness are steeped in self-love; sometimes our requests for justice fail to recognize how endemic sin really is, so that we remain unconcerned about our own iniquity. Yet here is a man who not only knew God and how to pray, but knew himself.

Carson’s analysis of David’s self-awareness is refreshing. May it also be for me that my prayers to alleviate loneliness and request justice would not be self-serving but God-honoring, that my supplication for the needs of myself and others would be done in recognition of my own sin and motivated by the magnifying of His glory.

Justin Houtz