The Bemenderfers

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Personal Devotions

Snow Bible

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
Feb 8, 2023, 6:50 AM
Passage Read: 1 Chronicles 11-14 Meditation Verse: 14:8 Thought Victory does not come without testing. David was finally announced king; God finally fulfilled His promise to him. But no sooner had he united the country, then the Philistines attacked. They probably felt foolish, because David had lived among them, claimed loyalty, then at the first chance run off to be king of their enemy! They would make him pay for making them look like fools. But God helped him through this attack and the next, and that ended it.
Feb 7, 2023, 6:51 AM
Passage Read: 1 Chronicles 7-10 Meditation Verses: 10:13-14 Thought Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord. He wasn't careful with the Lord's instructions, but altered them as the situation seemed to indicate to him. He justified his disobedience by his circumstances and by what he perceived his needs and the wants of the people to be. So he elevated his and the people's desires above the clear commands of God. That was his unfaithfulness. He didn't honor the Lord as highly as he honored himself or his people.
Feb 6, 2023, 6:53 AM
Passage Read: 1 Chronicles 3-6 Meditation Verses: 4:41-43 Thought Evidently Hezekiah's reforms sparked new boldness in some of the people to continue the Lord's command to wipe out the remaining original inhabitants of Canaan, as well as continue the Lord's eternal war with Amalek. Some from Simeon destroyed the Hamites and Meunites, and even invade part of Seir to destroy some Amalekites who had escape previous purges. Most of what is recorded elsewhere is of Israelites deciding to live among the Canaanites because they were too strong to defeat, until the Israelites we're strong enough to make them into slaves.
Feb 5, 2023, 6:54 AM
Passage Read: 2 Kings 24 - 1 Chronicles 2 Meditation Verse: 1 Chronicles 2:55 Thought If this is the same Recab, who fathered the Recabites, who were not to drink wine or live in cities, then they were from the people of Moses' father-in-law, the Kenites! They weren't originally Israelites, but we're faithful followers of the Lord, priests of the Lord from Midian. They were always nomadic while living with Israel in Canaan; their father must have codified that practice as he saw the trouble brought on by gaining and possessing land, gathering wealth.
Feb 4, 2023, 6:54 AM
Passage Read: 2 Kings 20-23 Meditation Verses: 23:24-25 Thought Josiah was like a crazy man in his zeal for the Lord! He read the Law of Moses and understood that the Lord should be very angry at Judah, the prophetess confirmed his suspicions, and yet he still went on a holy rampage, cleansing Judah and Jerusalem and even Samaria! He didn't let God's promise to fulfill His Word of destruction discourage him. I would have been tempted to think that there was no point and just withdraw and do my best to obey, but Josiah went ballistic.
Feb 3, 2023, 6:55 AM
Passage Read: 2 Kings 16-19 Meditation Verses: 18:3-4 Thought Hezekiah did something radical, that no king before him had done: He tore down the high places and destroyed Moses' bronze snake. These were sacred things that had been preserved and allowed for centuries, traditions that ran very deep, but he took a stand against them and eliminated them because he could read in the Law that they were wrong. He trusted in God's Word in spite of generations who made these things an accepted part of Jehovah worship.
Feb 2, 2023, 6:57 AM
Passage Read: 2 Kings 12-15 Meditation Verse: 15:34 Thought Uzziah/Azariah was afflicted with leprosy at some point in his reign until the day of his death, yet he was considered faithful to the Lord. He didn't let his disease embitter him against the Lord, but served the Lord as best he could throughout his days. He knew he had done wrong and the Lord had justly punished him, so he was humbled as God intended, but did not receive healing from the Lord. Still he honored the Lord all his days.
Feb 1, 2023, 6:58 AM
Passage Read: 2 Kings 8-11 Meditation Verse: 10:28-31 Thought Jehu did well, but he didn't take time to know the Lord's complete will. He got rid of the foreign gods, but he grew up believing that the Lord was worshiped with golden calf idols. He didn't break out of that error. He could have known from the testimony of Judah; he could have known by reading the Law of Moses. But he didn't go beyond what was in front of him.