Week 4 Friday
Jacob's family grows and his flocks multiply through clever breeding, David turns from the glory of creation to the greater glory of God's Word, and Jesus sets His face resolutely toward Jerusalem.
Genesis 30
📖 What are we reading?: Jacob's children are born, and they receive names that reflect something of the context of their birth. Then Jacob outwits the deceptive Laban by selective breeding, and grows very wealthy as a result.
✞ What does this passage say about God?: He is at work even in the middle of family rivalry and scheming, building the twelve tribes of Israel out of a deeply flawed and complicated household.
🛐 How does this passage teach us to live?: God's purposes are not derailed by our messy family lives or our questionable methods - though we would do well to trust Him more directly than Jacob and his wives so often did.
Looking for some extra info?
➡️ The bigger picture: Genesis, meaning "beginnings", was written by Moses around 1400 BC, and covers the story of creation, the fall, and the origins of God's chosen people, Israel.
Psalm 19
📖 What are we reading?: David begins by noting how even the sky glorifies God! Then he turns his attention to God's Word, and all the benefits of basing your life on it.
✞ What does this passage say about God?: His glory is declared wordlessly through the heavens above, and declared in words through His perfect, trustworthy law.
🛐 How does this passage teach us to live?: The last verse is a wonderful prayer to pray every day - asking that the words of our mouth and the meditation of our heart would be pleasing in His sight.
Looking for some extra info?
➡️ The bigger picture: The Psalms is a collection of 150 poems and songs, written by David and others, expressing the full range of human emotion in response to God and to life.
Luke 9:51-62
📖 What are we reading?: Jesus resolutely sets out for Jerusalem, is rejected by a Samaritan village along the way, and meets several people who want to follow Him but are not yet ready to pay the cost.
✞ What does this passage say about God?: Jesus knows exactly where He is heading, and what awaits Him there - and yet He sets His face toward it anyway, for our sake.
🛐 How does this passage teach us to live?: Each would-be follower in this passage has an excuse or a condition to place on their discipleship. Jesus' words are searching: no one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God. Following Him is costly, and it calls for our whole hearts, undivided.
Looking for some extra info?
➡️ The bigger picture: Luke's Gospel was written by Luke, a Greek physician and companion of Paul, around AD 60-62. It is the most detailed account of Jesus' life, and is especially attentive to the poor, to women, and to outcasts.
📝 A devotional by Luke on Jesus' words about not looking back.
A Prayer for the Day
🙏 Lord, thank You that You are not derailed by our messy lives, and that Your glory is declared in both the heavens above and the Word we hold in our hands. Give us, like Jesus, the resolve to set our faces toward what You have called us to, and the whole-hearted devotion that does not look back. Amen.
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