Devotions from January 2025

Passage Read: Numbers 4-7 Meditation Verse: 7:88 This would make for a great celebration, and that's what it should have been. Dedicating the tabernacle, celebrating the completion of the house of God, His dwelling place in the midst of the congregation, His presence among them!…

Passage Read: Numbers 8-11 Meditation Verse: 11:29 Moses got his wish: This is the promise of the New Covenant, that God would put His Spirit in His people and write His Law on our hearts, so that we would know the Lord, ideally even as…

Passage Read: Numbers 12-15 Meditation Verse: 14:31 The adults used their children as an excused not to trust and obey Him and follow Him into taking the land. They were afraid of the Anakim more than they trusted in the Lord. So they were more…

Passage Read: Numbers 16-19 Meditation Verse: 16:3 Korah accused Moses and Aaron of appointing themselves as leaders over all Israel, but it should have been obvious to all by now that Moses and Aaron were chosen, sent and acting on the Lord's instruction! It is…

Passage Read: Numbers 20-23 Meditation Verses: 21:4-7 It is not good to complain against the Lord, but Israel has done so many times. They are finally starting to get it, it seems. The Lord sends venomous snakes among them and they recognize that it is…

Passage Read: Numbers 24-27 Meditation Verses: 27:16-17 Here Moses is concerned for the Israelites, that there be an orderly transfer of authority, rather than an apparently random transition. Before he departs, Moses asks the Lord to publicly appoint the next leader, and God agrees. But…

Passage Read: Numbers 28-31 Meditation Verse: 30:2 Any vow a man makes is binding on him. There is no distinction between those young men still living at home and those who have married and moved into their own home. Young and old, married and single,…

Passage Read: Numbers 32-35 Meditation Verses: 35:33-34 We have become so "noble" so as to seldom put anyone to death for murder. We're so afraid of miscarriages of justice, of putting an innocent man to death, that we fight to abolish the death penalty. The…

Passage Read: Numbers 36 - Deuteronomy 3 Meditation Verses: Deuteronomy 1:41-43 They thought it was easy to go in and take the land, but it wasn't. It required the Lord's help. These Canaanite nations were stronger than the Israelites, and this proved it. It would…

Passage Read: Deuteronomy 4-7 Meditation Verses: 7:25-26 Unbelievers make much of collecting and preserving artifacts from foreign cultures, but the believer in God has no business doing so with any object of worship. A foreign people may pour their greatest artistry into their objects of…

Passage Read: Deuteronomy 8-11 Meditation Verses: 9:6-7 It is easy to forget who we are when the Lord grants victory over our enemies. We can begin to think we're pretty awesome, that the Lord loves us and blesses us because we're so good and righteous.

Passage Read: Deuteronomy 12-15 Meditation Verses: 13:6-9 It did not matter who enticed an Israelite to worship a different God, they were all alike under sentence of death. It did not matter how close they were to you or how much you loved them, you…

Passage Read: Deuteronomy 16-19 Meditation Verses: 18:1-2 The whole nation of Israel inherited land and houses when they came to Canaan. They gave themselves to their crops and herds, to build up their material wealth. But the priests and Levites, they were given houses and…

Passage Read: Deuteronomy 20-23 Meditation Verses: 22:21-24 Promiscuity is punishable by death, according to God. Adultery is punishable by death, whether the woman was married or pledged to be married. This is God's solution to remarriage. Death releases the remaining spouse from the law of…

Passage Read: Deuteronomy 24-27 Meditation Verses: 24:6,10-13 There is a lot about pledges for loans here, even mentioning in a few more verses not to take a widow's cloak as pledge. The one who makes the loan is allowed to have pledges, but the lender…

Passage Read: Deuteronomy 28-31 Meditation Verses: 29:2-4 With their own eyes, the Israelites saw all God's miracles and trials and wonders, but they still did not understand the Lord or the importance of trusting and obeying His Word. For all that He had shown them…

Passage Read: Deuteronomy 32 - Joshua 1 Meditation Verses: Deuteronomy 32:5-6 In the song of Moses, which God gave to warn the people of their future, in hopes that they might repent and stay humble, teachable and obedient, in this song, God reveals Israel's rebellion…

Passage Read: Joshua 2-5 Meditation Verses: 2:9-12 There are two responses to the Lord's overwhelming power and authority and commitment to judge: surrender and plead for life, or tremble and hopelessly defend. Rahab saw the certainty of God's coming and surety of His victory, and…

Passage Read: Joshua 6-9 Meditation Verses: 7:20-21 Achan confessed his sin and returned the things he had stolen, but that didn't remove the consequence of his actions. He still bore the death penalty, he and his whole family. Even all he had and all he'd…

Passage Read: Joshua 10-13 Meditation Verse: 10:8 Joshua and the Israelites were commissioned by God to go and take the land. Here God reminds Joshua that he has no need to be afraid of a large number of kings coming against them, because it is…

Passage Read: Joshua 14-17 Meditation Verses: 17:16-18 Joshua is beginning to record those groups of Canaanites that were too strong for the Israelites to destroy. He also records that though they were too strong now, in time the Israelites would be strong enough to make…

Passage Read: Joshua 18-21 Meditation Verse: 18:3 Judah, Ephraim, Gad, Reuben and the half-tribe of Manasseh had all claimed their inheritance. The rest of the tribes remained in camp, waiting for their allotment. Four and a half tribes just asked for or took what they…

Passage Read: Joshua 22 - Judges 1 Meditation Verse: Judges 1:33 Each tribe had their challenges. Some pockets of Canaanites and Amorites were too strong and too determined to remain alive and in the land! So the tribes compromised and lived among them, until they…

Passage Read: Judges 2-5 Meditation Verses: 2:12-15 How could a generation arise that didn't know the Lord? Because they dwelt among people who worshiped other gods, and those gods didn't demand obedience, but only gifts, and allowed and encouraged fleshly desires be satisfied in worship…

Passage Read: Judges 6-9 Meditation Verse: 9:57 The Lord hears the curses we proclaim against others, especially if they have done evil in God's sight. Abimelech killed his brothers and so Gideon's line was almost completely wiped out. But one son survived and cursed Abimelech…

Passage Read: Judges 10-13 Meditation Verse: 10:16 The Israelites had sinned against the Lord again, abandoning Him to worship the idols of the nations around them. So the Lord allowed the Ammonites and Philistines to oppress them eighteen years! The Israelites suffered bitterly because of…

Passage Read: Judges 14-17 Meditation Verses: 16:30-31 What was God thinking when He chose Samson as judge? Was Israel so clueless at this point that Samson was the best He could find? God uses him and blesses him with great strength, but he is no…

Passage Read: Judges 18-21 Meditation Verse: 19:25 There is so much carnage in these last chapters of Judges, not just war, but rape and idolatry. It's like Israel has learned nothing. How far they have fallen! These are not the times or the practices to…

Passage Read: Ruth 1-4 Meditation Verse: 4:15 This story of Ruth and Naomi is a welcome counterpoint to the stereotype of mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law. Naomi must have been a very godly woman to inspire such loyalty among her daughters-in-law. Though the one went home, they…

Passage Read: 1 Samuel 1-4 Meditation Verse: 3:18 Eli had given up on his sons and on his line. He had rebuked his sons, but they didn't listen, and that was it. He didn't remove them from their priesthood or do anything else to try…

Passage Read: 1 Samuel 5-8 Meditation Verses: 6:18-20 How often is this the response to God's holiness, to His righteous standard? Send Him somewhere else! Get away from Him, but not too far. The Philistines couldn't stand before Him, so they sent Him away. They…