The version of this story in Matthew gives us no response from the Pharisee after Jesus answered the question which the teacher of the law had come to ask. But Mark wanted us to know the Pharisee had truly understood what Jesus meant. This gospel writer gave us his response.

This man was used to teaching the law to others and was looking for praise or at least encouragement from this strange travelling preacher. The thing that attracted me as I read these verses is that Jesus did not answer the question. Rather He summarised the 10 commandments into two!

Jesus had been blessing the children. As He turned to leave, the man in these verses approached Him. What do you suppose was behind the question? Was he trying to trick Jesus as the Pharisees did? Was he genuinely seeking to get into Heaven by doing a single good thing?

This psalm is the longest in our Bibles. It was written by Asaph, who wrote several of the other Biblical psalms. He was a descendant of Levi, the son of Jacob and Leah. Levi was the fourth of the original twelve sons of Jacob, who was renamed Israel much later.

This whole chapter in Deuteronomy is full of promises from God to the whole tribe of Israel. Promises that we can take for ourselves today, as long as we obey His commandments. There are a few extra ones thrown in there with qualifications as to why we should obey them.

The forty days and nights is the forerunner for what Jesus did in the desert, before He entered His active ministry. Moses fasted in the presence of God. But Jesus fasted in a desert, far from the physical presence of His Father with whom He had lived from the beginning!

What an amazing invitation this is! I am guessing that not one of the readers of this study have had anything similar. But nothing can ever be as good as being invited to stay with the creator of the earth and hear directly what His plans are for the future.

We can discuss different ideas about who wrote the Bible and when, but the important thing is that it tells us the truth about Almighty God, and His plan for mankind. It gives us important guidelines for living our lives in this difficult world that we find ourselves in today.

A few days ago, we discussed the 7th commandment to not commit adultery, and the origin of that in Genesis 2:23. In our verse today, which is the last of the ten commands from The Lord, we get a strong order to not even allow ourselves to think about adultery!

Ever since the beginning of time satan has been tempting humans to not be perfectly honest. Truth is an important subject. It is mentioned throughout the Bible. The book of proverbs also has much to say about truth, and being honest about ourselves as well as others we talk about.