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 24, 2023, 8:00 AM
Passage Read: Genesis 21-24
Meditation Verses: 21:12-14
Thought
Abraham doesn't want to give up Ishmael, but Ishmael is not the son of the promise, so God tells Abraham to send him away. God promises to take care of Ishmael and multiply him, but he must go. And Abraham, true to form, complies first thing the next morning. At that point, their relationship seems all but broken. Ishmael returns to bury Abraham with Isaac, but there is no further recorded communication between the two, though they live fairly near each other.
Nov 23, 2023, 8:01 AM
Passage Read: Genesis 17-20
Meditation Verses: 18:32-33
Thought
Sodom and Gomorrah are exceedingly wicked; complaints about them have reached heaven. People want justice and God is sending messengers to confirm the complaints. They stop at Abraham's place and God explains what He's about to do. Abraham, perhaps thinking specifically of his nephew, begins to ask if God would sweep away the righteous with the wicked. He doesn't get down far enough, but stops at ten. If there are ten righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah, God will not destroy them.
Nov 22, 2023, 8:02 AM
Passage Read: Genesis 13-16
Meditation Verses: 13:8-10
Thought
Lot was far better off remaining with Abram, though he didn't know that yet. But when he separated from Abram, he chose the river valley because it looked so good for supporting his flocks. He didn't seem concerned that it was near Sodom, which already had its awful reputation. After he moved to the valley, he gradually moved his tents near to the city, unto he moved into the city. He didn't take his own capture and rescue as a warning to get clear of that place, but settled all the more in it.
Nov 21, 2023, 8:04 AM
Passage Read: Genesis 9-12
Meditation Verses: 12:14-16
Thought
By Joseph's day, the language of the Israelites and Egyptians was different enough to require a translator. The languages were changed at Babel, before Abram was born, and Abram was from another family, whose language likely was different from the Egyptians. By this point there might have been a common trade language, or Abram may have learned some local languages, but how much of this happened because of a hindrance in communication.
Nov 20, 2023, 8:05 AM
Passage Read: Genesis 5-8
Meditation Verse: 8:21
Thought
Though God destroyed all men except Noah and his family, He didn't eradicate the wickedness in men's hearts. He acknowledges here that the intent of man's heart remains evil from his youth. So the flood didn't fix man, but it reset man's influence over the earth, it wiped the earth clean of all his violence, and it displayed God's power to punish mankind, and the limit of His tolerance of sinfulness.
Nov 19, 2023, 8:06 AM
Passage Read: Genesis 1-4
Meditation Verse: 4:9
Thought
Adam and Eve hid from the Lord, but when confronted, they confessed what had happened. People like to say they shifted blame, but they told the truth about what happened, which is useful if someone wants to identify the steps that led to sin so as to avoid it in the future. But Cain, when confronted, lied outright to the Lord! There was no explanation, no excuse, no justification, just outright lie, "I don't know."
Nov 25, 2022, 2:17 PM
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, 2:19 PM
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, 2:20 PM
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, 2:21 PM
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.