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
Jan 2, 2023, 2:37 PM
Passage Read: Joshua 14-17
Meditation Verses: 17:16-18
Thought
This is like us, when dealing with a difficult sin: We say we cannot get victory, but God says we can. We don't believe or don't try, but instead we make peace with the sin and let it remain to cause us problems. We gain control of it and use it for our own purposes.
Jan 1, 2023, 2:38 PM
Passage Read: Joshua 10-13
Meditation Verse: 11:20
Thought
The Lord hardened the hearts of the Canaanites so that they would fight against Israel so He could exterminate them without mercy. That is a brutal statement. The time had arrived when the Lord destroyed the Canaanites from off the face of the earth. He had told Abraham four hundred years before that this day would come, when the Canaanites had filled up the full measure of their sin, when God had had enough of them.
Dec 31, 2022, 2:40 PM
Passage Read: Joshua 6-9
Meditation Verse: 7:7
Thought
So quickly Joshua goes from knowing the Lord had promised them this land and told them to go in (they crossed the Jordan in miraculous fashion!) to conviction that they had sinned against the Lord and He intended to destroy them for their greed. Someone among them had sinned against the Lord, and the Lord intended for the community to put that man to death, but He had not overthrown His stated purpose for Israel to give them the land.
Dec 30, 2022, 2:41 PM
Passage Read: Joshua 2-5
Meditation Verse: 2:10
Thought
It's amazing that the only thing they've heard, or the only thing they remember of all they've heard about Israel, is the beginning and end of their forty year journey to Canaan: the crossing of the Red Sea and the destruction of neighboring kings. They haven't heard or remembered all their failures that kept them wandering in the desert and killed the military men that came out of Egypt.
Jan 6, 2022, 3:14 PM
Passage Read: Joshua 22 - Judges 1
Meditation Verses: Joshua 24:13-15
Thought
The right response to God giving them their own country and blessing them in all these ways is to honor God by walking in His ways. That is no different from today. The right response to God saving us and giving us a better possession and a lasting one is to walk in His ways. The New Testament makes clear that believers are to walk in newness of life, in God's ways of love for one another and goodness by His standard.
Jan 5, 2022, 3:15 PM
Passage Read: Joshua 18-21
Meditation Verses: 21:11-13
Thought
I wonder how Caleb felt about this. He had been given Hebron and all is surrounding villages, then all Israel (and God) decided Hebron would be a good city of refuge and gave it to Aaron's family as a Levitical city. So almost as quickly as Caleb received Hebron, he lost the city itself. Was he all right with that or did he feel a bit betrayed, a promise broken? God said he could have the portion of the land he helped spy out, and Hebron was that portion.
Jan 4, 2022, 3:17 PM
Passage Read: Joshua 14-17
Meditation Verses: 17:12-13
Thought
This is a common refrain in these chapters. As the land is divided, it is noted that pockets of Canaanites proved too difficult for the Israelites to drive out, so they lived side by side with the Canaanites, until the Israelites became strong enough to enslave the Canaanites. Instead of driving them out or destroying them, they made them slaves and kept them around. It is hard to obey the Lord's commands when you've got everything you want and even more.
Jan 3, 2022, 3:18 PM
Passage Read: Joshua 10-13
Meditation Verse: 11:20
Thought
God could have hardened the hearts of Gibeon, but He didn't. Was that actually a mercy to them? Or a test to Israel? Gibeon turned out to be a good lure to bring a bunch of kings against Israel at once, which saved them time in conquering the land. And they became slaves to help the Israelites. But if a test, Israel failed, and so the Lord decided to harden the hearts of the rest, so Israel couldn't mess up again. But then, having been fooled once, they likely wouldn't have fallen for that again.
Jan 2, 2022, 3:19 PM
Passage Read: Joshua 6-9
Meditation Verses: 7:6-9
Thought
Joshua knew from long ago that God planned to bring them into the land and give it to them. He was one of the original spies who urged the people to trust the Lord and take the land 38 years ago. Yet at this setback, even he questions whether they were just being set up to be destroyed. Even he questions the plans of the Lord, whether it was really to destroy them. How easy it is to question the Lord's goodness and leading when we bring sin into the equation.
Jan 1, 2022, 3:20 PM
Passage Read: Joshua 2-5
Meditation Verses: 3:1-2
Thought
When the Lord was ready for the Israelites to break camp and move out, He made it very clear to them. Until then, they waited, first mourning for Moses, then waiting for instruction. I too need to wait for the Lord to clear the way, though it likely won't be as dramatic as for Israel. I don't need a river parted, just a place to store and ship stuff, and a flight.