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 15, 2023, 7:49 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, 7:50 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, 7:51 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, 7:53 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, 7:54 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, 7:55 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.
Dec 8, 2023, 7:56 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 15-18
Meditation Verse: 16:8
Thought
It is not good to grumble against leaders or to blame them for our bad circumstances. God hears everything we say, and knows who we're really angry with. God was leading Moses and had led the people out into the wilderness, so any problem they blamed on Moses was a problem they had with God. Moses was just the messenger! But while they thought they were just complaining against Moses, that were really complaining against God. He heard and He was offended.
Dec 7, 2023, 7:58 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 11-14
Meditation Verses: 14:26-27
Thought
God commands Moses to stretch out his staff over the sea to part the waters, then again to close the waters on the Egyptians. God didn't need Moses or his staff to do this, but He insisted on doing it through Moses. He didn't open or close the waters without Moses raising his staff over them. In so doing, God exalted Moses in the sight of all the people. God was determined to make Moses look good and powerful, yet Moses was known as the most humble of men.
Dec 5, 2023, 7:59 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 7-10
Meditation Verses: 9:15-17
Thought
God could have wiped Egypt off the face of the earth at the very beginning. He could have simply called His people out from there, and the army of Egypt would have been powerless to stop them. But He determined to make the Israelites such a stench to the Egyptians that they drove them out of Egypt for good. He directed Moses to ask for a three day journey, but Pharaoh knew that if they left, they would never return. So he refused again and again, and God started easy on him, so that he would gain confidence to resist the Lord as things progressed, until he lost all reason and simply refused the Lord.
Dec 4, 2023, 8:00 AM
Passage Read: Exodus 3-6
Meditation Verses: 5:21-23
Thought
The Israelites have been groaning under their bondage, but it evidently wasn't so terrible. Moses speaks once with Pharaoh about letting God's people go and worship him, and Pharaoh makes their jobs harder. Now things get really hard for the people! And instead of asking God to hurry things along, they get angry at Moses and Aaron for making their lives worse! Do they want to stay or go? Apparently, God needs to make life in Egypt more miserable for His people so that they'll really want to leave!