Read the whole Bible in one year
Week 10, March 12, 2011:  “Milk and Honey”

This week's Reading (March 5th to 11th):

Old Testament:  Numbers 4:1-16:40
New Testament:  Mark 12:18-15:47
Psalms:  Psalm 48:1-54:7
Proverbs:  Proverbs 10:26-11:6

Old Testament

Why did the Israelites refuse to go into the land of Canaan after Caleb and the other spies brought back their report?

[Numbers 13:21] So they went up and spied out the land from the wilderness of Zin to Rehob, near the entrance of Hamath.  [22] They went up into the Negeb, and came to Hebron; and Ahi'man, She'shai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. (Hebron was built seven years before Zo'an in Egypt.)  [23] And they came to the Valley of Eshcol, and cut down from there a branch with a single cluster of grapes, and they carried it on a pole between two of them; they brought also some pomegranates and figs.  [24] That place was called the Valley of Eshcol, because of the cluster which the men of Israel cut down from there.  [25] At the end of forty days they returned from spying out the land.  [26] And they came to Moses and Aaron and to all the congregation of the people of Israel in the wilderness of Paran, at Kadesh; they brought back word to them and to all the congregation, and showed them the fruit of the land.  [27] And they told him, "We came to the land to which you sent us; it flows with milk and honey, and this is its fruit.  [28] Yet the people who dwell in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified and very large; and besides, we saw the descendants of Anak there.  [29] The Amal'ekites dwell in the land of the Negeb; the Hittites, the Jeb'usites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country; and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan."  [30] But Caleb quieted the people before Moses, and said, "Let us go up at once, and occupy it; for we are well able to overcome it."  [31] Then the men who had gone up with him said, "We are not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we."  [32] So they brought to the people of Israel an evil report of the land which they had spied out, saying, "The land, through which we have gone, to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people that we saw in it are men of great stature.  [33] And there we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak, who come from the Nephilim); and we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them." 
[Numbers 14:1] Then all the congregation raised a loud cry; and the people wept that night.  [2] And all the people of Israel murmured against Moses and Aaron; the whole congregation said to them, "Would that we had died in the land of Egypt! Or would that we had died in this wilderness!  [3] Why does the LORD bring us into this land, to fall by the sword? Our wives and our little ones will become a prey; would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?" [4] And they said to one another, "Let us choose a captain, and go back to Egypt." 

New Testament

Why did Jesus say, "E'lo-i, E'lo-i, la'ma sabach-tha'ni?" which means, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

[Mark 15:33] And when the sixth hour had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.  [34] And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, "E'lo-i, E'lo-i, la'ma sabach-tha'ni?" which means, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"  [35] And some of the bystanders hearing it said, "Behold, he is calling Eli'jah."  [36] And one ran and, filling a sponge full of vinegar, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, "Wait, let us see whether Eli'jah will come to take him down."  [37] And Jesus uttered a loud cry, and breathed his last.