Be still and know that I am God Ceilon Aspensen, February 15, 2024February 14, 2024 The most important message I picked up from today’s readings overall is “Be still and know that I am God.” My primary takeaway from each of the passages was this: Leviticus 1 & 2: Specifics about the offerings to be made in the ritual of sacrifice. Luke 2: Simeon, Anna, and Mary all begin to understand who Jesus is and what he is destined to do for his people and all of humanity. Psalms 46: “Be still and know that I am God.” Proverbs 15: More wisdom for daily living. Once again, we see the coincidental alignment of the scriptures (and remember–coincidence is just God winking at us). In Leviticus 1 and 2, details of the ritual sacrifice are lined out. The sacrifice requires a firstborn male without blemish; spotless. In Luke 2, Jesus is born and and angels declare the significance of his birth and what he will do to a bunch of shepherds. Those shepherds go to see the child and tell his parents what the angels told them. Mary “treasured all these things and pondered them in her heart.” She sees the significance of the moment and the life of her son. Later, they take Jesus to the temple to be circumcised and she hears again from Simeon and Anna the same thing. Flash forward to about 12 years later when Jesus goes missing on a trip to Jerusalem and is found in the temple with the teachers there. Leviticus 1 and 2 are a foreshadowing of the sacrifice that Jesus will later become when he is crucified. Luke 2 shows us that Mary, Simeon, and Anna all recognize that Jesus is to be that sacrifice for his people, and all people. This is one of those coincidental paired readings in which it becomes obvious that one cannot understand the old testament without the new testament, nor can one understand the new testament without the old testament. The old testament predicts the life and significance of Jesus. The new testament shows Jesus fulfilling the old testament prophecies. Every mother knows that from before the time our babies are born, and throughout their lives, we worry and fret about their lives and safety. Mary surely did the same. When I read Luke 2, I see how she seemed to understand what her son would do for his people, how that would likely end, and I wonder how she was not in a constant state of terror. The answer is in today’s Psalm, from which we get the verse, “Be still and know that I am God.” When faced with whatever situation we find ourselves in, especially when we are afraid, the wisest thing we can do to calm ourselves is to remember that God is with us, and when “God is in the city it cannot fail.” Jesus reminded his disciples of this twice when he calmed stormy seas they were sailing just by being in the boat with them. We would do well to remember this as well. That’s what I got out of it. What did you get out of the readings today? To participate in a discussion about the posts, please join us in our private Facebook group that I set up specifically for sharing what we take-away from the readings each day. If you haven’t gotten the FREE “Read the Bible in a Year” worksheet yet, you can download it here. It is not necessary for you to start on January 1st–you can start from the beginning on whatever date you get the worksheet. Join us! Learn more about why I read the Bible all the way through every year, and feel free to share with anyone you think could benefit. This post is part of the series, “Read the Bible in a Year.” To see other posts in this series, go to the Chronological Index of Read the Bible in a Year Posts. Please follow and like us: Read the Bible in a Year Spiritual Practice be still and know that I am godbibleread the bibleread the bible in a year