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 17, 2024, 9:00 AM
Passage Read: Judges 2-5
Meditation Verses: 2:21-22
Thought
The Israelites fail over and over again. They intermarried with the Canaanites, so the relationships were very close with the people the Lord had commanded they destroy. The Israelites failed to walk in God's ways, but adopted the customs and gods of people who were supposed to be under the ban. God would bring trouble to them, they would cry out, then God would deliver them and keep them safe for the life of the deliverer, but afterward, they would corrupt themselves even more.
Jan 9, 2023, 2:28 PM
Passage Read: Judges 18-21
Meditation Verses: 20:4-7
Thought
How easy it is to conceal information that could make me look bad, that could complicate matters when an issue of injustice arises. There was a serious problem with the men of Gibeah, and another problem with the Benjamites, since they were unwilling to hand over the men who committed such evil. But the Levite was no angel! It would seem the girl had reason to flee from him, and sadly, her father doesn't appear to have done much to protect her from him.
Jan 8, 2023, 2:30 PM
Passage Read: Judges 14-17
Meditation Verse: 17:6
Thought
There is value in having a clear leader who will uphold the word of the Lord and promote His ways. The priests should have been sufficient, but there appears to be little evidence that they taught the people regularly from the Law. The people only seemed to understand that you could worship the Lord or other gods; they seem completely unaware of what the Lord desires. If a people is illiterate, they obviously need someone to teach them and to enforce compliance; that's the advantage of a king, if he honors the Lord.
Jan 7, 2023, 2:31 PM
Passage Read: Judges 10-13
Meditation Verse: 13:16
Thought
The Lord had said that the people were to offer their sacrifices at that place he would choose. They were not to do as the Canaanites did or as they were doing in the wilderness, every man sacrificing as and where he wished. Yet multiple times the Lord has accepted offerings made at a person's home rather than at the Tabernacle. Gideon and Manoah are two examples. They both lived far from Shiloh, but the Lord could have told them to go offer their sacrifice at the Tabernacle.
Jan 6, 2023, 2:33 PM
Passage Read: Judges 6-9
Meditation Verse: 8:18
Thought
So Gideon who was the smallest in his own eyes, when he believed the Lord and attacked the Midianites, was transformed in bearing to that like a prince. He was at first very timid, and asked for proof three times that the Lord was truly choosing him to lead Israel against their enemies and succeed. He called out an army after one proof, asked for two more and received them, then after whittling his army down to 300, God gave him a fourth sign without his asking.
Jan 5, 2023, 2:34 PM
Passage Read: Judges 2-5
Meditation Verse: 2:10
Thought
How could a generation grow up not knowing the Lord or what He had done for Israel? Their fathers knew Him and His deeds, didn't they teach their children? They were supposed to! Why were the fathers so unconcerned about the Lord and making sure their children knew Him? Didn't they want the Lord to have favor on them, protect and bless them? Or were they too busy with fields and buildings, making the land their own and multiplying their crops and flocks?
Jan 11, 2022, 2:31 PM
Passage Read: Judges 18-21
Meditation Verse: 21:25
Thought
This statement appears several times in these last chapters of Judges, as if to say that had there been a king, then everyone would have followed the Lord. But they had the priests who should have been studying the law of God and teaching it to the people. But as evidenced by Jonathan son of Gershom, grandson of Moses, the priests didn't know their duty. Jonathan wasn't authorized to be a priest, he was merely a Levite, yet he gladly took the role of a priest, and that with idols and graven images, which God forbid!
Jan 10, 2022, 2:32 PM
Passage Read: Judges 14-17
Meditation Verse: 17:13
Thought
Things are getting worse and worse for Israel. They know their God less and less! So when God chooses to deliver them, He has fewer and fewer godly men to choose from. Samson was a slave to his flesh. And here Micah has no clue who God is. He thinks that God will bless him because he has a Levite as priest, but he's a priest serving a graven image! And he's not even of the house of Aaron. Yet how many people today are just like these Israelites.
Jan 9, 2022, 2:33 PM
Passage Read: Judges 10-13
Meditation Verses: 13:12-14
Thought
Manoah seems to not believe his wife, that an angel visited her and promised a son. So Manoah asked the Lord to send the angel again, apparently wanting to see for himself. When the angel arrived, he had questions for him, perhaps to test the angel and determine if he was really true. One of the questions was what the child's vocation should be. Interestingly, the angel isn't concerned about that, only that Manoah's wife keep away from grapes and all their produce, that the child could be a Nazirite from birth.
Jan 8, 2022, 2:35 PM
Passage Read: Judges 6-9
Meditation Verses: 9:55-57
Thought
Gideon risked his life and saved the Israelites from the Midianites. They wanted to make him king, but he refused. Yet still, he judged Israel and his sons apparently judged Israel after him. Until the son of his concubine plotted against his brothers and killed all but the youngest. And God allowed all this to happen. He didn't stop it; He didn't keep Gideon's sons from being killed. He allowed Abimelech to wipe out almost all of Gideon's sons.