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
Dec 19, 2023, 1:14 AM
Passage Read: Leviticus 15-18
Meditation Verse: 16:16
Thought
Our sin and our uncleanness disgust God and defile His sanctuary. Even if all the unclean people are kept away from the sanctuary, still once a year it would need to be cleansed and atoned for by blood sacrifice. The nearness of sinful people and unclean people corrupt God's sanctuary. In Ezekiel's vision of the new Israel, God puts a gap between His sanctuary and the people, to keep their uncleanness from defiling His tabernacle.
Dec 18, 2023, 1:15 AM
Passage Read: Leviticus 11-14
Meditation Verse: 14:57
Thought
The Israelites needed to know when they were clean and when they were unclean for the sake of their neighbors and for the sake of God's sanctuary. No one was allowed in the sanctuary when they were unclean; they weren't allowed to corrupt God's holy house. Likewise, they were supposed to be considerate of their neighbors, so as not to corrupt or infect them and make them unclean. To love a neighbor meant protecting them from whatever disease might have come upon you or something you possessed.
Dec 17, 2023, 1:17 AM
Passage Read: Leviticus 7-10
Meditation Verses: 7:12-18
Thought
Not every offering was a direct reminder of sin, not every offering had to do with seeking forgiveness. The peace offering could be for thanksgiving or in response to a vow or just freely given in delight over the Lord. Animals didn't have to be sacrificed only because a person had done wrong, but they could also be offered in gratitude or celebration of the Lord and His goodness. It seems over the course of history, the sacrifices became mainly sacrifices for sin from people who were not even determined to repent.
Dec 16, 2023, 1:18 AM
Passage Read: Leviticus 3-6
Meditation Verse: 5:17
Thought
Someone who sins unintentionally shall still bear his punishment. How does one who sins unintentionally find out about his sin? Either someone else notices and tells him, or the Lord brings punishment and the man looks for the reason for the punishment. How else can he discover his error? Like David carrying the ark to Jerusalem on a cart, and Uzziah is killed in the process. Did no one realize that the ark was supposed to be carried by Levites?
Dec 15, 2023, 12:49 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 39 - Leviticus 2
Meditation Verse: Exodus 39:43
Thought
The people finished the work and brought it to Moses. Moses examined the work and saw that they had done everything exactly as the Lord had commanded, so he blessed them. They hadn't taken shortcuts or missed anything or made anything incorrectly. They had done exactly as Moses had been instructed and as he had instructed them. That's something to be grateful for, and Moses was grateful and blessed them.
Dec 14, 2023, 12:50 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 35-38
Meditation Verses: 36:5-7
Thought
There is a zeal among the people that is commendable, but there is also restraint among those doing the work. Having an accurate understanding of how much material is needed for the work and knowing when you have attained it is also commendable. The workers weren't trying to take advantage of the people, neither was the Lord. They collected only what was needed and a little more. They didn't keep collecting in order to store up an abundance, to accumulate more than was needed, as if for future usage.
Dec 13, 2023, 12:51 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 31-34
Meditation Verses: 32:1-6
Thought
All these people saw the miraculous signs that God did through Moses. They saw the fire and smoke on the mountain where Moses was. Yet in spite of that, they turned away from the Lord so easily! A little silence, a month with no sign of Moses and their first thought is to make a new god to lead them, as if anything their hands made could come alive and instruct them! Why didn't they send Aaron to go looking for Moses? Why was their first thought to give up on him and God and make their own god?
Dec 11, 2023, 12:53 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 27-30
Meditation Verse: 30:12
Thought
Is this why David got in trouble when he numbered the people? Did he forget or not know that the people were to ransom themselves from the Lord? Normally every firstborn son is to be redeemed because they belong to the Lord, from the Passover. But whenever a census was taken (and it was not forbidden anywhere in the Law), everyone counted was supposed to give half a shekel for their ransom to the Lord.
Dec 10, 2023, 12:54 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 23-26
Meditation Verses: 23:2-3
Thought
This is incredibly relevant for today! The Lord commands against following a mob or testifying in a dispute in such a way as to support the mob rather than to support justice. Tied to that is the command not to be partial to a poor man in his dispute. God's people are not to assume the innocence of a poor man just because he is poor. He may have done evil, which has led to a curse on him and God's opposition. He may in fact need a sound rebuke to repent of his evil ways!
Dec 9, 2023, 12:55 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 19-22
Meditation Verse: 19:5
Thought
This is what God says of believers today, that we are being made into a kingdom of priests and a holy people! Israel was to be the same by walking in obedience to His commands, by being a people who exercised God's justice and loved their neighbor as themselves and worshiped God alone. If they obeyed His voice and kept His covenant, they would be God's own possession out of all the peoples of the earth, though all the earth belonged to Him.
- ← Previous
- 1
- 2 (current)
- 3
- Next →