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 18, 2026, 10:23 AM
Passage Read: Numbers 32-35
Meditation Verses: 32:14-15
Thought
These are such strong words and accusations leveled against these men. They were thinking first of themselves and their families, but perhaps they were also thinking that this decision would benefit the other tribes by making more room for them in the promised land.
Jan 17, 2026, 10:49 AM
Passage Read: Numbers 28-31
Meditation Verse: 29:1
Thought
There are two kinds of festival days: those on which no laborious work may be done and those on which no work at all may be done (there's only one of those in these chapters). Most festival days, basic tasks and duties are permitted, but the goal is to have time to meet together and celebrate the Lord.
Jan 16, 2026, 8:55 AM
Passage Read: Numbers 24-27
Meditation Verse: 24:13
Thought
How does Balaam go from this to advising Moab in how to cause Israel to offend their God--and his!--and incur God's wrath? He's heading home on a spiritual high, having heard from the Lord and spoken for Him, having resisted the temptation of Balak's riches, and stood up to Balak and prevailed.
Jan 15, 2026, 7:21 AM
Passage Read: Numbers 20-23
Meditation Verses: 23:11-13
Thought
What amazes me most about this event is Balak's arrogance in thinking that Balaam himself has authority to curse or bless or that Balaam has power to change the Lord's mind. He rebukes Balaam each time he blesses Israel and Balaam reminds him each time that he can only say what the Lord tells him to say.
Jan 14, 2026, 7:11 AM
Passage Read: Numbers 16-19
Meditation Verses: 17:12-13
Thought
This is exactly what the Lord promised, that that generation would all perish in the wilderness. But it is not as if the Lord were seeking occasions to destroy them, rather the people themselves were creating the circumstances of their demise! They didn't listen or learn from their refusal to follow the Lord into the promised land; they didn't accept that they were the ones who rebelled in unbelief.
Jan 13, 2026, 10:32 AM
Passage Read: Numbers 12-15
Meditation Verse: 12:8
Thought
Is it only someone like Moses who should not be spoken against, or does this apply to all in authority? Moses had a unique relationship with God, in that God spoke with him face to face. Yet even God honored Pharaoh's authority, even though God legitimately "outranked" him.
Jan 12, 2026, 6:56 AM
Passage Read: Numbers 8-11
Meditation Verses: 11:33-34
Thought
The rabble among the Israelites were greedy for meat, so they complained against the Lord and stirred up the rest of the people to complain against the Lord too. And the Lord, in His anger, promised them a month of meat, until they got sick of it. The Lord grants some of our evil requests, as punishment, but the rabble that stirred up all this complaining, they were killed with a plague while the meat was still between their teeth.
Jan 11, 2026, 9:20 AM
Passage Read: Numbers 4-7
Meditation Verse: 7:89
Thought
This is so sudden and disconnected from everything that came before it. Completely out of context. There is no context for it, just, "By the way, when Moses spoke with the Lord, he heard the voice from above the ark." It's both easily overlooked, but also jumps out from the rest. Moses heard God speak audibly, and he could pinpoint the source as being above the mercy seat, between the two cherubim.
Jan 10, 2026, 9:03 AM
Passage Read: Leviticus 27 - Numbers 3
Meditation Verses: Numbers 3:12-13
Thought
God chose Aaron and his sons to be priests for Israel and serve the Lord. They weren't consulted; they had no choice or say in the matter. And they were chosen because Moses refused to speak to Pharaoh as God commanded, otherwise, the priesthood would have been his and his sons'.
Jan 8, 2025, 10:20 PM
Passage Read: Numbers 32-35
Meditation Verses: 35:33-34
Thought
We have become so "noble" so as to seldom put anyone to death for murder. We're so afraid of miscarriages of justice, of putting an innocent man to death, that we fight to abolish the death penalty.