Personal Devotions
Notes from Mark's personal Bible reading and meditation
With a goal to apply one truth from each day's reading to my life that day
Nov 30, 2022, 7:20 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 19-22
Meditation Verses: 22:25-27
Thought
We are more concerned about making money than about genuinely carrying for the needs of others. But God wants us to be more caring of others than we are of profit. So we aren't supposed to charge interest to a fellow citizen when we make a loan to a friend or brother. Moneylenders can, but we individuals shouldn't. Nor should we keep a necessary item given in pledge when it is needed, but give it back when the borrower needs it.
Nov 29, 2022, 7:21 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 15-18
Meditation Verses: 16:3-4
Thought
The people grumble, then God acts. Does God not know their need for bread and water? Of course He does! But the people don't have the same patience, nor do they respect the Lord enough to fear criticizing Him. They go a few days without meat, their food stores start to run low, and they panic. They don't ask God to provide, they don't trust that God will. They aren't willing to endure a few days without food.
Nov 28, 2022, 7:22 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 11-14
Meditation Verse: 14:31
Thought
If only this would last. Panic, deprivation, discomfort, any number of things would erode this fear and awe of the Lord, and they would be complaining and grumbling against the Lord, as if they had never seen His mighty power on display. How quickly they went from awe to anger! How easily our unfulfilled wants and desires overcome our faith in and fear of the Lord.
Nov 27, 2022, 7:24 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 7-10
Meditation Verse: 10:1-2
Thought
The Lord could have called His people out of Egypt at any time, but instead, He acted as if Pharaoh actually had a say in their departure, as if he actually had authority over them. If He didn't want to encourage rebellion, He had to do it this way. Otherwise, they could use this as a pattern to justify rebelling against any leader they didn't like, including Him. But it also gave Him the opportunity to show His own people how powerful He was, and give them stories to tell their children and grandchildren, so that they too would believe the Lord and fear Him and give Him glory and obedience.
Nov 26, 2022, 7:25 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 3-6
Meditation Verse: 6:12
Thought
Moses was more concerned about his own speaking ability. He didn't realize all the Lord had planned, especially His mighty works that would compel Pharaoh to let Israel go. He thought it depended on him, but it actually depended on the Lord. Moses was supposed to give warning and make announcements, but God would make the people do as He desired. Pharaoh would release the Israelites, and he would do so exactly when God was ready for him to do so.
Nov 25, 2022, 7:17 AM
Passage Read: Genesis 49 - Exodus 2
Meditation Verse: Genesis 50:19
Thought
As highly exalted as Joseph was, he didn't consider it his place to exact revenge on his brothers. More amazingly, he doesn't seem the least bit bitter about what they did. It brought amazing good to him and fulfilled the dreams God had given him, though there were hard things along the way, he endured and even prospered in a way in the middle of those trials. Yet, this statement does suggest that if there's judgment due them, God will mete it out.
Nov 24, 2022, 7:19 AM
Passage Read: Genesis 45-48
Meditation Verse: 45:5
Thought
For how many years was Joseph a slave and then in prison? He had been raised up over Egypt for nine years at this point, and all his years of anguish we're gone to him, forgotten. He knew why everything had happened. The years of uncertainty, of imprisonment, of slavery had a sense to them, had meaning, had a necessity. Just like that, Joseph understood the reason for his suffering. If he had been arrogant, he was completely humbled and entrusted with high position and favor.
Nov 23, 2022, 7:20 AM
Passage Read: Genesis 41-44
Meditation Verses: 44:33-34
Thought
The brothers didn't think about their father when they got rid of Joseph. Now that they had lived so many years with the lie that Joseph was dead and seen how gravely it affected their father, they were changed. They would rather live as slaves far from their father than return and face his grief over the loss of another son. They would be willing to live with their brother Joseph and put up with his dreams and special status than put their father through another tragedy.
Nov 22, 2022, 7:21 AM
Passage Read: Genesis 37-40
Meditation Verses: 40:14-15
Thought
Joseph saw a chance to get free of his imprisonment, perhaps correctly discerning that this was a way the Lord might use to free him. And he would be correct, except that the time was not yet ripe for him to be set free. So he made his plea and it was forgotten until the right time. The Lord didn't let Joseph's attempt undermine His plans for Joseph. If Joseph had been set free at that time, he would have returned home and his dreams would not have been fulfilled. He needed to stay in prison a little longer, so his attempt at release was futile.
Nov 21, 2022, 7:23 AM
Passage Read: Genesis 33-36
Meditation Verses: 33:18-20
Thought
Jacob had been with Laban twenty years. After seven years he received his first two wives, so he had all his sons and daughters except Benjamin in about 13 years, then he returned to the land of Canaan. So when he first settled at Shechem, Reuben could only have been 13 or 14 years old, and his brothers and sister even younger. The events of the next chapter surely were not done by young teenagers. Jacob must have stayed many years at Shechem over the course of these few verses.