Bible Readings for March 11th Exodus 22 | John 1 | Job 40 | 2 Corinthians 10 Exodus 22:31 might be the most interesting verse in the whole chapter: “You shall be consecrated to me. Therefore you shall not eat any flesh that is torn by beasts in the field; you shall throw it to the dogs.” It is sometimes difficult to imagine why Yahweh places such a…

Bible Readings for March 10th Exodus 21 | Luke 24 | Job 39 | 2 Corinthians 9 Our society may not have a more intellectually lazy cliché than “An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind.” The phrase itself is clever, vividly portraying one eye put out after another in an unending, bloodthirsty, universal quest. But is unrestrained vengeance real…

Bible Readings for March 9th Exodus 20 | Luke 23 | Job 38 | 2 Corinthians 8 When a lawyer asked Jesus what was the greatest commandment, Jesus answered by quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18, explaining that the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and that the second greatest comma…

Bible Readings for March 8th Exodus 19 | Luke 22 | Job 37 | 2 Corinthians 7 Exodus 19 is a pivotal chapter in the Bible. At this point, Yahweh tells his people to stop at Mount Sinai, where he will meet with them and take them to himself as his people through covenant and by giving them his law, beginning with the Ten Commandments in the next chapt…

Bible Readings for March 7th Exodus 18 | Luke 21 | Job 36 | 2 Corinthians 6 We know almost nothing of Jethro’s faith until we come to Exodus 18, when Moses tells Jethro all that Yahweh had done to redeem Israel from Egypt (Ex. 18:8). We read that, in response to the news, Jethro rejoiced at what Yahweh had done for Israel (Ex. 18:9–10), and then he…

Bible Readings for March 6th Exodus 17 | Luke 20 | Job 35 | 2 Corinthians 5 A terrible pattern is emerging as Israel follows Yahweh through the wilderness toward Mount Sinai. It goes like this: Yahweh accomplishes some great act of redemption for his people, but whenever a crisis emerges, Israel acts as though Yahweh has never done anything other t…

Bible Readings for March 5th Exodus 16 | Luke 19 | Job 34 | 2 Corinthians 4 Obviously, providing for the basic needs of Israel in the wilderness would be no small task, yet the entire Exodus would be for nothing if God’s people did not survive long enough to enter into their inheritance. So, God provided water for his people to drink in Exodus 15, …

Bible Readings for March 4th Exodus 15 | Luke 18 | Job 33 | 2 Corinthians 3 The song of Moses in Exodus 15 provides one of the richest overall descriptions of who Yahweh is for his people that we find in the entire Bible—and as such, Exodus 15 is an instructive chapter on what our own worship should sound like. To begin, Moses sings that Yahweh is …

Bible Readings for March 3rd Exodus 14 | Luke 17 | Job 32 | 2 Corinthians 2 Although we might have thought Israel was finished forever with Egypt, neither Yahweh nor the Egyptians are done fighting over the possession of Israel. Yahweh again hardens Pharaoh’s heart (Ex. 14:4) so that Pharaoh and his servants wonder how they could have been so fooli…

Bible Readings for March 2nd Exodus 13 | Luke 16 | Job 31 | 2 Corinthians 1 It is important to recognize that Yahweh liberates Israel not to give them total freedom but so that Israel could be Yahweh’s people and so that Yahweh could be Israel’s God. In other words, Yahweh redeemed Israel. The word redeem means to purchase something back for onesel…

Bible Readings for March 1st Exodus 12 | Luke 15 | Job 30 | 1 Corinthians 16 By the time Pharaoh lets Israel go out of Egypt, his country has come to great ruin. As a result of Yahweh’s terrible plagues, fish from the Nile have died (Ex. 7:21); a legion of frogs has come, died, and stank (Ex. 8:14); the livestock has died (Ex. 9:4); all Egypt has b…

Bible Readings for February 28th Exodus 11 | Luke 14 | Job 29 | 1 Corinthians 15 Exodus 11–12:21 narrates the final showdown between Yahweh and Pharaoh. Again and again, Pharaoh has hardened his heart against Yahweh, exalting himself against the God of the Hebrews, and in today’s reading, Yahweh finally brings this story to a close. Despite Moses’s…

Bible Readings for February 27th Exodus 10 | Luke 13 | Job 28 | 1 Corinthians 14 Although we are not quite to the end of the war between Yahweh and Pharaoh, there are several indicators in Exodus 10 that the battles are moving increasingly in one direction. Yahweh’s glory continues to shine brighter in the face of the false gods of Egypt, and Phara…

Bible Readings for February 26th Exodus 9 | Luke 12 | Job 27 | 1 Corinthians 13 As the plagues keep coming in Exodus 9, Moses continues to preach the word of Yahweh to Pharaoh. Every time they meet, Moses gives a bit more of Yahweh’s word, and in Exodus 9 we come upon one of the more interesting speeches that Yahweh makes through Moses when he expl…

Bible Readings for February 25 Exodus 8 | Luke 11 | Job 25–26 | 1 Corinthians 12 In yesterday’s reading from Exodus 7, we encountered the first plague, when God turned the water of the Nile into blood. For today’s meditation, we will explore what God is doing through these plagues, which are at the heart of the theology of Exodus. To start, we shou…

Bible Readings for February 24th Exodus 7 | Luke 10 | Job 24 | 1 Corinthians 11 As Yahweh helps Moses regroup before confronting Pharaoh again, Yahweh repeats a strange promise from Exodus 4:21, saying, “But I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, Pharaoh will not listen to you” (Ex. 7:3–4). Y…

Bible Readings for February 23rd Exodus 6 | Luke 9 | Job 23 | 1 Corinthians 10 In Exodus 5, we saw that the pressure of leadership was beginning to get to Moses. In frustration, Moses asks why Yahweh has done evil to Israel by sending him, since Pharaoh had only increased his cruelty since Moses had come. While Yahweh’s response in Exodus 6 doesn’t…

Bible Readings for February 22nd Exodus 5 | Luke 8 | Job 22 | 1 Corinthians 9 When Moses proclaims to Israel all that Yahweh has called him to do to lead Israel out of Egypt, we read that “the people believed; and when they heard that the LORD had visited the people of Israel and that he had seen their affliction, they bowed their heads and worship…

Bible Readings for February 21st Exodus 4 | Luke 7 | Job 21 | 1 Corinthians 8 We should not judge Moses too harshly for his fear of confronting Pharaoh to declare God’s word. Moses makes up a variety of excuses in Exodus 4:10 about being less than eloquent and slow of speech, but even when Yahweh reminds Moses that he himself is the one who created…

Bible Readings for February 20th Exodus 3 | Luke 6 | Job 20 | 1 Corinthians 7 Exodus 3 is a critical passage for understanding how God’s holiness and his love fit together. In this encounter, God both approaches Moses and tells Moses to keep his distance. So, when Moses turns aside to see how a bush could burn but yet not be consumed, God calls out…

Bible Readings for February 19th Exodus 2 | Luke 5 | Job 19 | 1 Corinthians 6 The early life of Moses includes both high drama during his first forty years and then quiet obscurity for the next forty. He escapes being executed as a male Hebrew infant through a basket (literally, an “ark,” the same word that is used for the ark that had rescued Noah…

Bible Readings for February 18th Exodus 1 | Luke 4 | Job 18 | 1 Corinthians 5 Exodus 1 explains the transition between the story of Joseph and the story of Moses. When Joseph died at the end of Genesis 50, he was the second most powerful man on the planet, a man seated at the right hand of the pharaoh of Egypt himself. As such, Joseph’s brothers an…

Bible Readings for February 17th Genesis 50 | Luke 3 | Job 16–17 | 1 Corinthians 4 As we talked about in the meditation for Genesis 45, Joseph evaluates the suffering he endured in his lifetime in a surprising way. Rather than seeing himself as a victim of thoroughly unfair treatment (which he certainly was), Joseph understood that God had sovereig…

Bible Readings for February 16th Genesis 49 | Luke 2 | Job 15 | 1 Corinthians 3 Genesis 49 records the final words of Jacob before the patriarch is gathered to his people in death, buried in the same cave as Jacob’s grandparents Abraham and Sarah, Jacob’s parents, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob’s wife Leah (Gen. 49:29–33). The bulk of Genesis 49, how…

Bible Readings for February 15th Genesis 48 | Luke 1:39–80 | Job 14 | 1 Corinthians 2 In Genesis 48:5–7, Jacob formally adopts Joseph’s sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. There is a solid, practical reason for Jacob to do so: by adopting Ephraim and Manasseh, Jacob gives those sons direct portions of his own inheritance. So, rather than giving Joseph’s fa…

Bible Readings for February 14th Genesis 47 | Luke 1:1–38 | Job 13 | 1 Corinthians 1 As we discussed yesterday, the last few chapters of Genesis are setting up the story we will read in Exodus—a story of God’s redemption of his people that lives at the heart of the rest of the Scriptures. Genesis 47 charts three key events that establish the founda…

Bible Readings for February 13th Genesis 46 | Mark 16 | Job 12 | Romans 16 What an incredible scene it must have been to see Jacob reunited with his son whom he had believed to be dead for so many years: “[Joseph] presented himself to [Jacob] and fell on his neck and wept on his neck a good while” (Gen. 46:29). This is very similar language to the …

Bible Readings for February 12th Genesis 45 | Mark 15 | Job 11 | Romans 15 I love to imagine what must have been going through the minds of Joseph’s brothers when he revealed himself to them. All we are told directly is that “his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence” (Gen. 45:3). What could they possibly have been t…

Bible Readings for February 11th Genesis 44 | Mark 14 | Job 10 | Romans 14 By Genesis 44, Joseph has spent considerable time with his brothers. He has interrogated them, imprisoned them, and feasted with them. It does not seem as though anything Joseph has done—even at the points when he treated them roughly—has happened out of malice but rather ou…

Bible Readings for February 10th Genesis 43 | Mark 13 | Job 9 | Romans 13 When the first measure of grain runs out for Jacob and his sons, Jacob instructs his sons to return again to Egypt to buy more grain. Judah not only reminds Jacob that Joseph had told them not to appear before him without Jacob’s youngest son, Benjamin, but Judah also pledges…

Bible Readings for February 9th Genesis 42 | Mark 12 | Job 8 | Romans 12 In Genesis 42, we read the first installment of how Joseph reconciles with his brothers after many years since they had sold him into slavery. Although the brothers do not recognize Joseph—how could they possibly imagine that their brother had ascended to the right hand of Pha…

Bible Readings for February 8th Genesis 41 | Mark 11 | Job 7 | Romans 11 Despite the fact that the cupbearer had promised Joseph he would remember him and work to free Joseph from prison, two entire years pass without anything happening to rescue Joseph. And once again, even though the cupbearer abandons Joseph (one more person in a long line of pe…

Bible Readings for February 7th Genesis 40 | Mark 10 | Job 6 | Romans 10 In yesterday’s reading, Joseph ended up in prison through no fault of his own. After being ambushed by his brothers and sold into foreign slavery, Joseph had gained the respect and admiration of his Egyptian master. But when Potiphar’s wife falsely accused Joseph of trying to …

Bible Readings for February 6th Genesis 39 | Mark 9 | Job 5 | Romans 9 After the brief interlude in yesterday’s reading when we read about Judah and Tamar, Genesis 39 returns us to the story of Joseph. In this chapter, the narrator picks up where he left us at the end of Genesis 37, where we learned that Joseph had been sold to an Egyptian named Po…

Bible Readings for February 5th Genesis 38 | Mark 8 | Job 4 | Romans 8 Because Jacob was renamed Israel after wrestling with God in Genesis 32:28, the sons of Israel then served as the heads of the tribes of Israel. And of all the tribes in Israel, the tribe of Judah (named after the man whom we read about in Genesis 38) will end up playing an unus…

Bible Readings for February 4th Genesis 37 | Mark 7 | Job 3 | Romans 7 In Genesis 37, we meet Joseph, the final main figure of Genesis. Although Joseph will be misunderstood and hated and rejected by his brothers, he nevertheless plays a key role in bringing the chosen family to Egypt (which sets up the story of Moses and God’s redemption of Israel…

Bible Readings for February 3rd Genesis 35–36 | Mark 6 | Job 2 | Romans 6 In everything we have read so far, Jacob has been in perpetual distress. From the beginning of his life, when he deceived his brother, Esau, and tricked his father, Isaac, Jacob has been on the run, the subject of mistreatment by his uncle, and living under the hanging cloud …

Bible Readings for February 2nd Genesis 34 | Mark 5 | Job 1 | Romans 5 The chosen family does not come away from Genesis 34 looking very good. In the wake of a horrific tragedy—the rape of Dinah by Shechem the Hivite—Jacob and his sons respond poorly, but in different ways. Simeon and Levi are rightfully outraged at the defiling of their sister, bu…

Bible Readings for February 1st Genesis 33 | Mark 4 | Esther 9–10 | Romans 4 We shouldn’t be surprised to see Jacob falter in his confident faith when he sees Esau coming from far off, even though Jacob had only just finished wrestling with God (Gen. 33:1). Of course, it didn’t help Jacob’s fear to see Esau coming with four hundred men, but even so…

Bible Readings for January 31st Genesis 32 | Mark 3 | Esther 8 | Romans 3 Up to this point, Jacob’s relationship with God has been fairly one-sided. God has made promises to Jacob, protected Jacob, and faithfully begun to lead Jacob back to the land of Canaan. Jacob, on the other hand, has tricked his brother, Esau, out of a birthright, schemed his…

Bible Readings for January 30th Genesis 31 | Mark 2 | Esther 7 | Romans 2 Jacob’s time living with Laban has been a terrible experience. At every turn, Laban has lied to Jacob and cheated him out of what he promised to Jacob, first by giving Jacob Leah instead of Rachel as a wife and second by stealing Jacob’s wages of the striped, spotted, and mot…

Bible Readings for January 29th Genesis 30 | Mark 1 | Esther 6 | Romans 1 Genesis 30 contains two main stories. The first half of the chapter continues the tragic, unhappy narrative of sibling rivalry between Leah and Rachel that began in Genesis 29. In yesterday’s meditation, we noticed similarities between this story and the stories of Abraham, S…

Bible Readings for January 28th Genesis 29 | Matthew 28 | Esther 5 | Acts 28 As we discussed during the meditation for Genesis 24, it is a running theme in Scripture for God’s people to meet their future spouses at wells. Abraham’s servant met Isaac’s wife-to-be, Rebekah, at a well, and now Jacob meets his future wife Rachel at a well. But after Ja…

Bible Readings for January 27th Genesis 28 | Matthew 27 | Esther 4 | Acts 27 At the outset of Genesis 28, Jacob has come to an impasse. If he does not flee, he will certainly be murdered by his brother, Esau, from whom he stole their father Isaac’s blessing in Genesis 27. But if he does flee, it is unclear how he will receive the blessing of Abraha…

Bible Readings for January 26th Genesis 27 | Matthew 26 | Esther 3 | Acts 26 The blessing that Isaac pronounces on Jacob—the blessing that he does not pronounce on Esau, despite his intentions to do so—was not a vague wish for his son’s well being. In fact, it was a prophesy that bore great weight and significance, so much so that Isaac had no bles…

Bible Readings for January 25th Genesis 26 | Matthew 25 | Esther 2 | Acts 25 Like father, like son. Or, to borrow a more Hebrew idiom, a father has eaten sour grapes, so his son’s teeth are set on edge (Jer. 31:29; Ezek. 18:2). What Abraham foolishly did twice in his lifetime—lying about the fact that his wife was, in fact, his wife to protect hims…

Bible Readings for January 24th Genesis 25 | Matthew 24 | Esther 1 | Acts 24 Genesis 25 is a chapter of extreme transition in the unfolding story of God’s salvation in and through his people. In this chapter, we see God’s purposes in election across three generations. First, we read in Genesis 25 about the death of Abraham at the age of 175. Abraha…

Bible Readings for January 23rd Genesis 24 | Matthew 23 | Nehemiah 13 | Acts 23 Yesterday, in Genesis 23, we read about the death of Sarah, Abraham’s wife. Today, in Genesis 24, we see Abraham himself approaching death. He too will not live to see God’s promises fulfilled. So, Abraham makes plans to help his son Isaac continue to serve Yahweh faith…

Bible Readings for January 22nd Genesis 23 | Matthew 22 | Nehemiah 12 | Acts 22 Abraham and his wife, Sarah, lived their lives as pilgrims in the land God had promised to them. Theirs was a hard life, characterized by unfulfilled longings, constant danger, and disappointment. Still, they obeyed Yahweh, following him to the land of Canaan, out of th…

Bible Readings for January 21st Genesis 22 | Matthew 21 | Nehemiah 11 | Acts 21 In spite of all the long waiting and the extraordinary faith Abraham had to exercise while waiting for Isaac to come, God tests Abraham’s faith in an even greater way in Genesis 22 by asking Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on a mountain in Moriah. Shockingly, we read Abraham…