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
Mar 30, 2024, 6:52 AM
Passage Read: Job 41 - Psalm 2
Meditation Verse: Job 42:7
Thought
Job repents in dust and ashes; he retracts his words, but then the Lord reveals that He is angry at Job's friends because they have not spoken what was right about the Lord as Job had. So Job was right and his friends were wrong, but Job retracts his words and repents. Was he repenting of his request or demand to meet with God and argue his case?
Mar 29, 2024, 6:54 AM
Passage Read: Job 37-40
Meditation Verse: 40:1-5
Thought
This is exactly what Job was afraid of, that God would terrify him with his greatness and he would loathe himself though originally innocent. But God is majestic and far more powerful than we understand. His compassion and kindness to us do not remove the fact that He is awesome in glory and power. He is to be feared even though He extends grace to us day after day, and that is an important lesson to learn.
Mar 28, 2024, 6:55 AM
Passage Read: Job 33-36
Meditation Verse: 36:6
Thought
Elihu has the same simple view as everyone else, that God rescues the righteous, but the evil man perishes. God is only interested in rebuking the righteous, but if the righteous does not repent of their evil, the Lord will destroy them. The wicked, however, never seek the Lord, so He never bothers with them, except to destroy them. Job was looking at reality and finding conflict with his understanding of God. But his friends and Elihu double down on their simplistic worldview, despite evidence from reality.
Mar 27, 2024, 6:57 AM
Passage Read: Job 29-32
Meditation Verse: 31:23
Thought
Job's righteousness comes from his fear of God and awe at His majesty. He has a right view of God. He knows God is good, but also righteous and loving truth. He knows God is the maker of all things, and cares for all things. He knows God is the judge of all mankind, and so judges in righteousness and truth. So Job does not do anything to incite the Lord to wrath. This has been Job's overriding concern, to please the Lord and avoid His anger.
Mar 26, 2024, 6:58 AM
Passage Read: Job 25-28
Meditation Verses: 27:8-10
Thought
It is hard for a wicked man to repent at the end of his days. Though many plan to live his days in pursuit of his pleasures and submit to no one but himself, yet at the end of his days to repent and put his trust in God, to do so is more difficult than he thinks. A man who lives his days under his own authority will find it very difficult to humble himself at the end of his days.
Mar 25, 2024, 6:59 AM
Passage Read: Job 21-24
Meditation Verses: 21:19-21
Thought
This is what all of us desire, that the wicked are punished in this life, and that the righteous are rewarded in this life. We think like this life is all there is. We do not value or anticipate the next. Job knew he would stand before God in the end and receive justice, but he apparently didn't know of eternal life with Christ or eternal destruction away from the Lord. The torment of the wicked, for a life of selfishness and rebellion against God, will last forever.
Mar 24, 2024, 7:01 AM
Passage Read: Job 17-20
Meditation Verses: 19:21-22
Thought
Job's friends cannot believe he is innocent of wrongdoing. The tragedy and disaster that have befallen him can only be the hand of God and all creation set against him because of some terrible sin or many concealed sins. To Job's friends, there can be no other explanation. So in their earnestness to rescue Job, they must call out his sin, though they have no idea what he's done; he must come clean and repent.
Mar 23, 2024, 6:52 AM
Passage Read: Job 13-16
Meditation Verse: 13:12
Thought
It is easier and more comfortable to have a simple view of life and God and everything, especially if it assures me that I'm safe. But platitudes don't dig in to understand what is really going on, what God might be doing or what I might be concealing. Job was suffering from no fault of his own, but his friends (and even he) believed that bad things only happened to bad people, good things only to the good.
Mar 22, 2024, 6:54 AM
Passage Read: Job 9-12
Meditation Verses: 9:19-24
Thought
Job understands that God is behind both the evil and the good. God prospers the wicked and blinds the wise. Job is in despair because he knows of no sin he has failed to atone for, and he has been diligent to order his life along God's ways, yet still such calamity has come on him. "Shall we accept good from the Lord and not evil?" he asked his wife.
Mar 21, 2024, 6:55 AM
Passage Read: Job 5-8
Meditation Verses: 8:2-6
Thought
Job's friends considered themselves very wise and knowledgeable, and they desired to help Job understand that he obviously had sinned in some major way to bring such wrath on himself. But anyone reading this knows that Job did nothing wrong; all he did was get held up as an example of righteousness. So the more Job's friends talk, the more obvious their flawed wisdom comes through.