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Free Daily Bible Study PodcastMarch 14th: Bible Meditation for Exodus 25Bible Readings for March 14th
Exodus 25 | John 4 | Proverbs 1 | 2 Corinthians 13
For modern readers, the detailed instructions that Yahweh gives for the construction of the tabernacle can become a bit tedious—something like reading a complex instruction manual without any pictures. This is our problem, though, and not the text’s. If we pay careful attention to what is written here, there is a huge theological payoff.1
To understand the theology of the tabernacle, we must recognize that Yahweh is explicitly rebuilding the Garden of Eden here. Consider each element of the tabernacle that we read...
2026-03-1404 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastMarch 13th: Bible Meditation for Exodus 24Bible Readings for March 13th
Exodus 24 | John 3 | Job 42 | 2 Corinthians 12
Exodus 24 is a covenant renewal worship ceremony. Because we also meet weekly on the Lord’s Day to renew the one new covenant that Jesus himself inaugurated through his life, death, resurrection, and ascension—and not to inaugurate new covenants each week—Exodus 24 is uniquely valuable to serve as a pattern for us. Here, we see three principles that ought to shape our own weekly worship.
First, the word of Yahweh must be at the center of our corporate worship. Notice how Moses read and pr...
2026-03-1304 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastMarch 12th: Bible Meditation for Exodus 23Bible Readings for March 12th
Exodus 23 | John 2 | Job 41 | 2 Corinthians 11
At its core, the law functions on the principle “Do this and live.” So when God gives the law to Israel, he promises them that they will receive either blessings or curses—blessings if they obey all that God instructs them to do in his law and curses if they fail to obey what God has instructed them to do.
Along those lines, God promises that he will send to Israel an angel to go with them on their way and into the Promised Land...
2026-03-1204 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastMarch 11th: Bible Meditation for Exodus 22Bible 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 an emphasis on the food that Israel ate—not to mention several other eyebrow-raising emphases in the law—but here we get an explanation: eating defiled food defiles the one eating it. And since Israel is consecrated (holy) to...
2026-03-1104 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastMarch 10th: Bible Meditation for Exodus 21Bible 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 really how the law teaches us to love our neighbor as ourself?
Not in the least. In fact, unlimited vengeance is exactly what the “eye for an eye” laws forbid.
Before these laws, people would retaliate for crimes committed...
2026-03-1003 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastMarch 9th: Bible Meditation for Exodus 20Bible 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 commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. He then said, “On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:40).
What that means is that those two commandments—that we must love God and love our neighbor as we love o...
2026-03-0904 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastMarch 8th: Bible Meditation for Exodus 19Bible 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 chapter.
To understand what is happening in this chapter, it’s important to keep in mind that grace came first. Yahweh is about to give his law to Israel, but it isn’t as thou...
2026-03-0804 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastMarch 7th: Bible Meditation for Exodus 18Bible 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 said this: “Now I know that the LORD is greater than all gods, because in this affair they dealt arrogantly with the people” (Ex. 18:11). From there, Jethro brought sacrifices to God and ate with Moses, Aaron, and the elde...
2026-03-0704 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastMarch 6th: Bible Meditation for Exodus 17Bible 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 than abandon and neglect them. Rather than meeting every new problem with confidence that Yahweh will continue to act faithfully—just as he has always done—Israel reverts to distrust of Yahweh at every turn.
So, when Israel arrives at a ne...
2026-03-0604 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastMarch 5th: Bible Meditation for Exodus 16Bible 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, and in Exodus 16, God begins to provide food for his people to eat.
Out of sheer grace toward the Israelites, who had grumbled and complained and wished out loud that they had instead died in Eg...
2026-03-0504 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastMarch 4th: Bible Meditation for Exodus 15Bible 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 the strength, song, and salvation of his people (Ex. 15:2a)—and in fact, not only is Yahweh the God of his people today but he was also our father’s God (Ex. 15:2b). Therefore, Moses...
2026-03-0404 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastMarch 3rd: Bible Meditation for Exodus 14Bible 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 foolish as to let the Israelites go (Ex. 14:5). Accordingly, Pharaoh decides to send all his chariots and armies in pursuit of Israel to get their slaves back (Ex. 14:6–9).
Exodus 14 is a magnificent study in the foolishness of humanity. On the one...
2026-03-0304 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastMarch 2nd: Bible Meditation for Exodus 13Bible 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 oneself, and Yahweh had acted to reclaim Israel from Egypt’s unlawful possession of them.
In Exodus 13, then, Yahweh instructs Israel to consecrate all their firstborn, whether human or animal (Ex. 13:2). Israel would sacrifice to Yahweh every...
2026-03-0204 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastMarch 1st: Bible Meditation for Exodus 12Bible 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 been afflicted with boils and sores (Ex. 9:10); and all the crops have been decimated through hail (Ex. 9:25) and locusts (Ex. 10:12).
And in the tenth and final plague, Yahweh leaves all Egypt mourning the deaths of...
2026-03-0104 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 28th: Bible Meditation for Exodus 11Bible 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 warning that Yahweh himself will go out into the midst of Egypt to strike down every firstborn in the nation—including even the firstborn of Pharaoh himself—Pharaoh does not listen. Yahweh again hardens Pharaoh’s heart so that Yahweh’s “wonders may be m...
2026-02-2804 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 27th: Bible Meditation for Exodus 10Bible 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 Pharaoh seems to be wearying of fighting God Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth.
At the beginning of Exodus 10, Yahweh insists once again that he himself is hardening the heart of Pharaoh so that Pharaoh will no...
2026-02-2704 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 26th: Bible Meditation for Exodus 9Bible 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 explains why he is sending the plagues:
“For by now I could have put out my hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, and you would have been cut off from the earth. But...
2026-02-2604 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 25th: Bible Meditation for Exodus 8Bible 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 should recognize that God’s plagues all demonstrate his own superiority over the gods of Egypt. Allen Ross writes this:
The plagues all undermine the religion of Egypt. The Nile was venerated as the source of life...
2026-02-2504 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 24th: Bible Meditation for Exodus 7Bible 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). Yahweh’s promise to harden Pharaoh’s heart raises multiple questions that profoundly affect biblical theology.
To begin, we should note that the meaning of “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart” is straightforward. Yahweh is speaking plainly: he will cause Pharaoh to stiffen...
2026-02-2404 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 23rd: Bible Meditation for Exodus 6Bible 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 immediately resolve the conflict with Pharaoh, Yahweh nevertheless answers Moses’s prayer by giving him all the assurance that he was seeking—and more.
Yahweh insists that he will absolutely send his people out of the land of...
2026-02-2304 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 22nd: Bible Meditation for Exodus 5Bible 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 worshiped” (Ex. 4:31). Moses had accomplished the hardest part of his task by getting the people of Israel on board with the mission, right?
Not quite.
Moses, you see, did know that Pharaoh woul...
2026-02-2204 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 21st: Bible Meditation for Exodus 4Bible 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 the mouth in the first place, Moses finally pleads simply, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else” (Ex. 4:13).
Yahweh refuses Moses’s request, but we should recognize from this story that the fear of inadequa...
2026-02-2104 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 20th: Bible Meditation for Exodus 3Bible 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 to Moses, warning him, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are a standing is holy ground” (Ex. 3:5).
This scene raises a question: If God’s presen...
2026-02-2004 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 19th: Bible Meditation for Exodus 2Bible 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) floating in the Nile River. When Pharaoh’s daughter discovers him, she adopts him and pays Moses’s mother to nurse him (Ex. 2:6–10).
But we also aren’t given an idealized, sanitized version of Moses’s stor...
2026-02-1904 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 18th: Bible Meditation for Exodus 1Bible 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 and their families (the entire nation of Israel at the time) received preferential treatment in the Egyptian kingdom.
But Exodus 1:8 tells the story of how this special place in Egypt fell apart: “Now there aros...
2026-02-1804 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 17th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 50Bible 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 sovereignly orchestrated the events in his life in order to put Joseph in charge of helping Egypt to survive through the seven-year famine, going so far as to say to his brothers, “So it was not you who sent me here, but God” (Gen. 45:8).
2026-02-1704 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 16th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 49Bible 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, however, focuses on the blessing Jacob gives to each of his sons in verses 1 to 27.
Now, remember that this kind of blessing on his deathbed is more than kind wishes for the future success of his sons. When Isaac blessed...
2026-02-1604 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 15th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 48Bible 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 family only one portion of Jacob’s inheritance (which would then be split in two for Ephraim and Manasseh), now both Ephraim and Manasseh command an equal share of the inheritance along with all the other brothers of Joseph. From this point forw...
2026-02-1504 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 14th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 47Bible 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 foundation for the storyline we will encounter in Exodus.
First, God establishes his people in Goshen. Joseph displays his characteristic wisdom in leading Pharaoh to settle the nation of Israel into the land of Goshen, which was de...
2026-02-1404 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 13th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 46Bible 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 way that Jacob’s reunion with Esau was described back in Genesis 33:4: “But Esau ran to meet [Jacob] and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.” Jacob the prodigal b...
2026-02-1304 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 12th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 45Bible 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 thinking when they discovered the brother they had wanted to kill—the brother they had sold into slavery—had become the second most powerful person in the world, seated at the right hand of Pharaoh himself?
But bef...
2026-02-1204 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 11th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 44Bible 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 out of a sincere desire to reconcile with his brothers. But to reconcile well, Joseph needs to discover whether his brothers have changed at all since they sold him into slavery.
So, Joseph organizes a test. Like before, he p...
2026-02-1104 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 10th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 43Bible 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 Benjamin’s safety to Jacob. We will look more at Judah’s willingness to sacrifice himself to secure the safety of Benjamin in tomorrow’s meditation.
Although Jacob is not thrilled to send his belo...
2026-02-1004 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 9th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 42Bible 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 Pharaoh himself?—Joseph recognizes them, and he decides to test them to see if they have matured and changed since he last saw their faces.
But even though Joseph’s brothers don’t recognize him, they clearly remember what the...
2026-02-0904 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 8th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 41Bible 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 people who had mistreated him), God still does not abandon Joseph. By the hand of God, Pharaoh has a dream that deeply troubles him, forcing him to find someone–anyone—in his kingdom who has the ability to help with...
2026-02-0804 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 7th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 40Bible 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 rape her (despite the fact that he had repeatedly turned down her advances), Joseph once again finds himself in a situation he did not deserve: Egyptian prison.
But when the entire world had turned against Joseph, God...
2026-02-0703 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 6th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 39Bible 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 Potiphar, a high-ranking captain of Pharaoh’s guard (Gen. 37:36).
In today’s reading, we find that Joseph has quickly gained favor with Potiphar, just as Joseph had enjoyed the favor of his father, Jacob...
2026-02-0604 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 5th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 38Bible 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 unusually important role in the history of God’s redemptive plan in this world.
For example, by the end of Genesis, we will learn that Judah is the tribe from whom kings wi...
2026-02-0504 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 4th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 37Bible 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 out of Egypt in Exodus), and it is through Joseph that God will preserve the entire world through one of the worst famines in all of history.
Our first impression of Joseph is somewhat startling, be...
2026-02-0404 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 3rd: Bible Meditation for Genesis 35–36Bible 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 of uncertainty because of the Hivites. It seems like a long time ago that God had blessed Jacob in Genesis 32, changing his name to Israel. Indeed, we do not find Jacob being called Israel in Genesis 33 or 34....
2026-02-0304 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 2nd: Bible Meditation for Genesis 34Bible 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, but they wrongly take matters into their own hands. Worse than simply bringing direct vengeance against Shechem, they extend their vengeance to the entire group of Hivites under Shechem’s father, Hamor, who had done nothin...
2026-02-0204 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastFebruary 1st: Bible Meditation for Genesis 33Bible 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, Jacob continues his pattern of favoritism by dividing up his entire household, putting the servants and their children up at the front to meet Esau first, then Leah with her children next, then Rachel and Jose...
2026-02-0104 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 31st: Bible Meditation for Genesis 32Bible 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 father out of a blessing, and provoked rivalry between his two wives—and he never really seems terribly concerned with God except during the times when God appeared to him, once at Bethel (Gen. 28) and once when God...
2026-01-3104 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 30th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 31Bible 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 mottled animals. Jacob had found a technique to breed more of those animals through peeling sticks in Genesis 30, and now, at the beginning of Genesis 31, we find that Laban’s sons have begun to turn a...
2026-01-3004 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 29th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 30Bible 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, Sarah, and Hagar, and Isaac and Rebekah. In Genesis 30, we see yet another similarity to a previous story. Here, Rachel sends her servant Bilhah into her husband, Jacob, to conceive on her behalf (Gen. 30:3–8), just as Sarah had sent in Hagar to conceive a chil...
2026-01-2904 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 28th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 29Bible 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 Jacob serves Rachel’s father, Laban, for seven years in order to marry Rachel, Laban gives Rachel’s older sister, Leah, to Jacob in marriage. Jacob, the younger brother who had shamelessly tricked his older brot...
2026-01-2804 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 27th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 28Bible 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 Abraham. Throughout Genesis there is a concern that if the true offspring of Abraham leaves the land of Canaan, they might in some way invalidate the promise that God had made to give the land to...
2026-01-2704 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 26th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 27Bible 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 blessing left to give to his son Esau, since Jacob had taken all of the best blessings. Jacob would receive abundance and wealth (Gen. 27:28) and the obedience of the nations (Gen. 27:29), while Esau would only r...
2026-01-2604 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 25th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 26Bible 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 himself—we now find Isaac doing in Genesis 26:6–11.
Even more, we see the troubles between Isaac’s herdsmen quarreling with the herdsmen of Gerar that look almost identical to the disputes Abraham’s herdsmen had with Lot...
2026-01-2504 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 24th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 25Bible 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. Abraham outlived his wife Sarah, even taking another wife named Keturah who bore him many children. Nevertheless, we read that “Abraham gave all he had to Isaac” (Gen. 25:5) because Abraham never forgot that God had named Isaac as the o...
2026-01-2404 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 23rd: Bible Meditation for Genesis 24Bible 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 faithfully after he dies.
First, Abraham refuses to allow his son Isaac to marry one of the daughters of the Canaanites (Gen. 24:3). Instead, he asks his servant to go back to his old country to find Isaac a wife...
2026-01-2304 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 22nd: Bible Meditation for Genesis 23Bible 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 their love for him and their faith in the covenant promises he made to them.
But in Genesis 23, Sarah dies, never fully receiving the promises that Yahweh had made to her and to her husband. She received her son Isaac...
2026-01-2204 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 21st: Bible Meditation for Genesis 22Bible 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 bound his son Isaac on top of the altar, but just as Abraham took his knife to slaughter his son, God stopped Abraham from harming Isaac. The test was over. Abraham was willing to do anything for God—not...
2026-01-2104 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 20th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 21Bible Readings for January 20th
Genesis 21 | Matthew 20 | Nehemiah 10 | Acts 20
At last, God fulfills his promise to Abraham and to Sarah. Finally, here in Genesis 21, Yahweh visits Sarah, enabling her to conceive, just as he had promised. Despite their old age (Abraham was one hundred years old at this point), God gives Abraham and Sarah a son. As God had instructed them in Genesis 17:19, they name their son Isaac, which means “laughter.” This name serves in part as a reminder that Sarah herself laughed at the idea of bearing a son in her old age (Gen. 18:12), but...
2026-01-2004 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 19th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 20Bible Readings for January 19th
Genesis 20 | Matthew 19 | Nehemiah 9 | Acts 19
Genesis 20 is the second time we see Abraham lying about his wife to protect his own safety. A nearly identical story takes place in Genesis 12:10–20, when Abram lied to the pharaoh of Egypt, saying that his wife was merely his sister. In that story, God sent plagues against Egypt until Pharaoh let God’s people go by restoring Sarai to Abram. That was a foreshadowing of what God would eventually do to rescue Israel out of Egypt under Moses in the book of Exodus, but the stor...
2026-01-1903 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 18th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 19Bible Readings for January 18th
Genesis 19 | Matthew 18 | Nehemiah 8 | Acts 18
Lot is a fascinating example of someone who does not love God’s righteousness but who also does not approve of the world’s wickedness. There is a strange irony in the fact that Lot has become captivated with Sodom—captivated enough that he selfishly chose the region when Abram gave him the choice of where to move his family, his servants, and his flocks (Gen. 13:8–13)—but that Lot is absolutely horrified by the sinfulness of the city. He begs the two angels to stay with him for th...
2026-01-1804 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 17th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 18Bible Readings for January 17th
Genesis 18 | Matthew 17 | Nehemiah 7 | Acts 17
Genesis 18 contains a promise of extraordinary hope and of devastating judgment. This passage in some ways marks both the beginning of Abraham’s redemptive, covenant offspring as well as the end of the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Here Yahweh appears to Abraham in the form of three men. There is some debate about whether these three men are Yahweh or whether they are angels accompanying Yahweh, which I do not have enough space in this meditation to explore. Suffice it to say, Yahweh an...
2026-01-1704 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 16th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 17Bible Readings for January 16th
Genesis 17 | Matthew 16 | Nehemiah 6 | Acts 16
In Genesis 15, Yahweh had cut a covenant with Abram by passing twice through the pieces of the animals who had been torn in two. In this, Yahweh was promising that his body would be broken like the animals if either he broke the terms of the covenant or if Abram (or Abram’s offspring) broke the terms of Yahweh’s covenant. In Genesis 17, God does not make a different covenant with Abram (whom God here renames as Abraham), but Yahweh adds circumcision as an assurance of what...
2026-01-1604 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 15th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 16Bible Readings for January 15th
Genesis 16 | Matthew 15 | Nehemiah 5 | Acts 15
Back in Genesis 12, we read that Abram had distrusted and disobeyed Yahweh by going to Egypt because of a famine in the land of Canaan. On top of the sin of leaving the place where Yahweh had told Abram to remain, Abram also lied to the pharaoh of Egypt, telling him that his wife was merely his sister out of fear for his life. Before the truth came out, Pharaoh dealt well with Abram for Sarai’s sake, giving Abram much wealth, including “female servants” (Gen. 12:16). The pl...
2026-01-1504 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 14th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 15Bible Readings for January 14th
Genesis 15 | Matthew 14 | Nehemiah 4 | Acts 14
It is not surprising that we should find Abram so frustrated when Yahweh seems to have failed to keep his promise. Even a great man of faith like Abram struggles with the same kind of doubts that plague you and me. So, in Genesis 15:1, Yahweh comes to reassure Abram of his promises.
In response, we read that Abram “believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness” (Gen. 15:6). Abram is not saved by any great deed he performs but merely because he beli...
2026-01-1404 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 13th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 14Bible Readings for January 13th
Genesis 14 | Matthew 13 | Nehemiah 3 | Acts 13
In our meditation on Genesis 11, we mentioned that Babylon (Babel) is the archenemy of the people of God throughout the Scriptures. In Genesis 14, we meet Babylon again through Amraphel, the king of Shinar—that is, the king of Babylon (Gen. 10:10). Amraphel leads a group of kings into war against the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela, because those kings had failed to pay the tribute (taxes) they owed to one of Babylon’s allies, Chedorlaomer, the king of Elam.
The Babylonian king and...
2026-01-1304 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 12th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 13Bible Readings for January 12th
Genesis 13 | Matthew 12 | Nehemiah 2 | Acts 12
Although God had extended shocking grace by calling Abram in Genesis 12:1–3, we read in Genesis 12:10–20 that Abram disbelieves God and leaves the land of Canaan (where God had commanded him to remain) to go to Egypt during a famine. This act of disbelief and disobedience snowballed, and Abram was eventually caught in a lie by the pharaoh of Egypt, who had innocently taken Abram’s wife, Sarai, into his own house because Abram had said that she was merely his sister.
Two important things happen...
2026-01-1204 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 11th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 12Bible Readings for January 11th
Genesis 12 | Matthew 11 | Nehemiah 1 | Acts 11
If Genesis 11 is arguably the second lowest point in the Bible, then Genesis 12 is possibly the second most hopeful in the Bible—the only moment of greater triumph being the resurrection of Jesus. Since Genesis 3, everything in the unfolding story of the Scriptures has been downhill, from expulsion out of the Garden of Eden to fratricide to the Nephilim to the flood to the Tower of Babel.
But in Genesis 12, God makes a decisive, gracious move not to abandon humanity entirely but to move to...
2026-01-1104 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 10th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 11Bible Readings for January 10th
Genesis 11 | Matthew 10 | Ezra 10 | Acts 10
Arguably, Genesis 11 describes the second lowest point for humanity in the whole Bible—the only exception being the three days when Jesus lay dead in the tomb. We saw Adam and Eve expelled from intimate, direct fellowship with God in the Garden of Eden in Genesis 3. Then, Cain murdered his brother Abel in Genesis 4. After that, we saw the godly line of Seth (the sons of God) mingling with the wicked line of Cain in Genesis 6, leading to God’s withdrawing of his Holy Spirit from huma...
2026-01-1004 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 9th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 9–10Bible Readings for January 9th
Genesis 9–10 | Matthew 9 | Ezra 9 | Acts 9
After God destroys the world with a flood during the days of Noah, he promises he will never pour out the same kind of judgment on the earth until the very end of time: “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease” (Gen. 8:22).
In Genesis 8–9, God confirms this promise with the first explicit covenant we find in Scripture, often called the Noachian covenant. The first aspect of the Noachian covenant is that God commands...
2026-01-0904 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 8th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 8Bible Readings for January 8th
Genesis 8 | Matthew 8 | Ezra 8 | Acts 8
In Genesis 6, God tells Noah to build a giant boat—an ark—that would carry him, his family, and every species of animal in creation. As a result of human wickedness, God promised to destroy the whole world with a flood.
The flood was more than mass destruction—it was the undoing of creation itself. Every good creature God had made, he would destroy: “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things a...
2026-01-0804 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 7th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 7Bible Readings for January 7th
Genesis 7 | Matthew 7 | Ezra 7 | Acts 7
In the wake of the intermingling of the sons of God (the godly line of Seth) and the daughters of man (the wicked line of Cain) that we looked at yesterday in Genesis 6, God makes a promise: “My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh: his days shall be 120 years” (Gen. 6:3). What does this mean?
Some have taken this to mean that individuals would now have shorter lifespans, so that each person is limited to living only 120 years, but there are...
2026-01-0704 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 6th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 6Bible Readings for January 6th
Genesis 6 | Matthew 6 | Ezra 6 | Acts 6
The short, vague description of the Nephilim in Genesis 6:1–4 has spawned all kinds of strange interpretations over the years. Are the sons of God fallen angels who took for themselves human wives, creating demigod children? Is this just run-of-the-mill mythological literature, the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek Hercules (the offspring of Zeus and a human woman)?
I don’t think so. Instead, I’m convinced by those who hold a much simpler interpretation of this passage. To me, the best explanation of this text is to...
2026-01-0604 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 5th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 5Bible Readings for January 5th
Genesis 5 | Matthew 5 | Ezra 5 | Acts 5
It’s tempting to gloss over the many genealogies included in the Bible, but there are important reasons not to. God himself decided to place the text of genealogies within his written word, so we should recognize that the genealogies are canonical Scripture just as much as the more familiar verses like John 3:16. Genealogies may require more careful study, but they are worth the work.
The overarching idea in Genesis 4–5 is to contrast the wickedness of the descendants of Cain with the righteousness of the...
2026-01-0504 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 4th: Bible Meditation for Genesis 4Bible Readings for January 4th
Genesis 4 | Matthew 4 | Ezra 4 | Acts 4
Isn’t it shocking to find a story of murder only one chapter after Adam and Eve are expelled from the perfections of the Garden of Eden? This act of fratricide in Genesis 4 demonstrates that the curse of sin already has a vice-grip on humanity, and in today’s meditation, we’ll look at several implications of this new, grim reality in God’s creation.
First, we shouldn’t miss the fact that sacrifice has already become a necessary part of how human beings interact w...
2026-01-0404 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 3rd: Bible Meditation for Genesis 3Bible Readings for January 3rd
Genesis 3 | Matthew 3 | Ezra 3 | Acts 3
Although it’s difficult to see in English translations, Genesis 3:8 is one of the most tragic verses in the whole Bible: “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.” The form of the word “walking” used in this passage is better translated as “walking back and forth,” a phrase describing the perfection of Yahweh’s presence with...
2026-01-0304 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 2nd: Bible Meditation for Genesis 2Bible Readings for January 2nd
Genesis 2 | Matthew 2 | Ezra 2 | Acts 2
Where Genesis 1 gave a fly-by overview of creation, Genesis 2 slows the narrative down to tell us more details about the creation of Adam and Eve, as well as Yahweh’s purposes for humankind on earth. In Genesis 2, we see a different dimension to the story of God’s creation—we see that God intended creation to be the place where he dwelt with humankind on the earth.1
Specifically, God created the Garden of Eden to be his holy, perfect dwelling place on the earth so tha...
2026-01-0204 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastJanuary 1st: Bible Meditation for Genesis 1Bible Readings for January 1st
Genesis 1 | Matthew 1 | Ezra 1 | Acts 1
There is a beautiful simplicity to Genesis 1 that masks its rich theological depth. Nothing about the straightforward description of each day’s creation nor about the repetition of God’s decreeing creation into existence (“Let there be…”) or of declaring all his creation to be “good” would rank this chapter as one of most difficult passages to read in the Bible. Even so, this passage is foundational for understanding the rest of the Bible in at least four ways.
First, Genesis 1 teaches that creation is the handiwo...
2026-01-0104 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 31st: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 36Bible Readings for December 31st
2 Chronicles 36 | Revelation 22 | Malachi 4 | John 21
The focal point of 2 Chronicles 36 is not in the stories of the wicked sons of Josiah, Jehoahaz and Jehoiakim, nor in the stories of the brothers Jehoiachin and Zedekiah, who presided over the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of Judah. These wicked kings do what all the wicked kings who went before them have done—they forsake the law of Moses and David’s organization of the Levites in order to pollute the worship of Yahweh with idolatry and other perversities. And more, the focal poin...
2025-12-3104 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 30th: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 35Bible Readings for December 30th
2 Chronicles 35 | Revelation 21 | Malachi 3 | John 20
The accounts of Josiah’s reforms of Judah’s worship that we began to read about in 2 Chronicles 34 continue in today’s reading from 2 Chronicles 35, where we read about the Passover feast that Josiah holds during the eighteenth year of his reign (2 Chron. 35:19). Sadly, this chapter also includes the tragic story of Josiah’s death, which gives us a more comprehensive picture of the overall strengths and weaknesses of Josiah’s reign.
Just as we saw in the account of this Passover feast in 2 Kings 23...
2025-12-3004 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 29th: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 34Bible Readings for December 29th
2 Chronicles 34 | Revelation 20 | Malachi 2 | John 19
As we would expect, the account of Josiah, the final great king of Judah, opens first with a thoroughgoing reform of the worship in Judah. Although Josiah does not have the Book of the Law early on in his reign, he obeys Yahweh according to the knowledge that he has. Therefore, in the twelfth year of Josiah’s reign, he destroys the worship of the Baals and the Asherim—not only in Judah, but even in the cities of Manasseh, Ephraim, Simeon, and as far as Naph...
2025-12-2903 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 28th: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 33Bible Readings for December 28th
2 Chronicles 33 | Revelation 19 | Malachi 1 | John 18
The contrast between the godly King Hezekiah and the wicked King Manasseh is striking. Hezekiah had been a champion for the pure worship of Yahweh, but Manasseh does what is “evil in the sight of the LORD, according to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel” (2 Chron. 33:2). Manasseh therefore undoes all the faithful reforms of his father, Hezekiah, and leads Judah astray to do “more evil than the nations whom the LORD destroyed before the people of Israel” (2 Chron. 3...
2025-12-2803 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 27th: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 32Bible Readings for December 27th
2 Chronicles 32 | Revelation 18 | Zechariah 14 | John 17
What the Chronicler emphasizes in 2 Chronicles about Hezekiah is strikingly different than what we read about this godly king in 2 Kings. In 2 Kings (as well as Isaiah 36–39), the focus is on the military and political aspects of Hezekiah’s reign—specifically, the stories of Sennacherib’s Assyrian invasion of Judah and Hezekiah’s failure with the Babylonian envoys. The shape of the narrative for Hezekiah’s life in 2 Chronicles, however, focuses more on the overarching theme in the books of Chronicles, which is this: As the nation’s wor...
2025-12-2703 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 26th: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 31Bible Readings for December 26th
2 Chronicles 31 | Revelation 17 | Zechariah 13 | John 16
As we studied the story of King David in 1 Chronicles, one of the main themes (a theme we did not find in the accounts of David in the books of Samuel) had to do with his reorganization of the Levites to serve as singers, musicians, gatekeepers, and treasury officers. In this way, David became a new lawgiver to foreshadow the coming of his own greater Son, the Messiah. For this reason, reading in 2 Chronicles 31 that Hezekiah also reorganizes the priests should surprise us. After a great...
2025-12-2604 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 25th: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 30Bible Readings for December 25th
2 Chronicles 30 | Revelation 16 | Zechariah 12 | John 15
In 2 Kings 23, King Josiah (the great-grandson of King Hezekiah) restores the Passover feast. Even though that restoration of Passover comes much later in time than the story we read here in 2 Chronicles 30, we nevertheless find this statement: “For no such Passover had been kept since the days of the judges who judged Israel, or during all the days of the kings of Israel or of the kings of Judah” (2 Kgs. 23:22).
Notice, however, that the author of 2 Kings doesn’t say that no Passover took place...
2025-12-2504 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 24th: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 29Bible Readings for December 24th
2 Chronicles 29 | Revelation 15 | Zechariah 11 | John 14
Despite the fact that the story of Judah is tracking quickly toward their eventual exile in Babylon, we nevertheless have two more godly kings to study, starting with Hezekiah here in 2 Chronicles 29. Unsurprisingly, the first thing we read regarding Hezekiah to demonstrate his godliness is his reform of Judah’s worship, which is especially important after the wicked reign of Ahaz, whom we looked at yesterday.
But again, the Chronicler does not merely repeat what we read in 2 Kings 18:3–7. Instead, we gain new information, disc...
2025-12-2404 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 23rd: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 27–28Bible Readings for December 23rd
2 Chronicles 27–28 | Revelation 14 | Zechariah 10 | John 13
In today’s reading, we find one of the rare times a story about the northern nation of Israel is recorded in the Chronicles. In 2 Kings 16 we read the account of Judah’s King Ahaz, and there, we found many details about his interaction with Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria. But here in 2 Chronicles 28, we read about the faithfulness of the northern Israelites—faithfulness that stands in stark contrast with the unfaithfulness of Judah’s King Ahaz, who was so wicked as to burn his own sons as offerin...
2025-12-2303 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 22nd: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 26Bible Readings for December 22nd
2 Chronicles 26 | Revelation 13 | Zechariah 9 | John 12
Uzziah, the king we read about in 2 Chronicles 26, also goes by the variant name Azariah in the record of his reign in 2 Kings 15:1–7. His mention in 2 Kings 15 is fairly brief, mixed in between all the accounts of Israel’s kings, but there we find this statement without any explanation: “And the LORD touched the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death, and he lived in a separate house” (2 Kgs. 15:5). Why would Yahweh, all of a sudden, strike a relatively godly king (2...
2025-12-2203 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 21st: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 25Bible Readings for December 21st
2 Chronicles 25 | Revelation 12 | Zechariah 8 | John 11
Amaziah, like Joash his father, is a godly king who does not end his life as faithfully as he begins it. So, the summary of Amaziah’s reign goes like this: “And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, yet not with a whole heart” (2 Chron. 25:2). Amaziah, then, righteously puts to death the servants who had assassinated his father, and he is also obedient not to put their children to death for what their fathers did, according to the law of Moses (2 Chron...
2025-12-2103 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 20th: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 24Bible Readings for December 20th
2 Chronicles 24 | Revelation 11 | Zechariah 7 | John 10
The reign of Joash is a tragedy that begins on the best note possible but that eventually takes a sinister turn away from faithful obedience to Yahweh and toward the false worship and idolatry that has plagued the people of Yahweh throughout their story. The unique factor in the story of Joash in 2 Chronicles 24, then, comes as we look at the lynchpin of Joash’s faithfulness: the priest Jehoiada.
Yesterday, we looked at some of Jehoiada’s reforms of the temple, but we find this...
2025-12-2003 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 19th: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 22–23Bible Readings for December 19th
2 Chronicles 22–23 | Revelation 10 | Zechariah 6 | John 9
The stories in 2 Chronicles 22–23 narrate the bloody history by which Judah emerges from chaos, wickedness, and violence in the aftermath of Jehoram’s reign. Ahaziah, the son of Jehoram, picks up in Judah where his father left off, walking “in the ways of the house of Ahab, for his mother was his counselor in doing wickedly” (2 Chron. 22:3). After Yahweh ordains to put Ahaziah to death, his mother—who is Athaliah, the daughter of Ahab and the granddaughter of Omri (2 Chron. 22:2)—sees her opportunity for power, so she murders al...
2025-12-1903 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 18th: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 21Bible Readings for December 18th
2 Chronicles 21 | Revelation 9 | Zechariah 5 | John 8
Jehoshaphat, as we discovered over the last three days, reigned with a mixture of good and evil. Tragically, Jehoshaphat’s son Jehoram follows only in the evil footsteps of his father, even going so far as to ally himself with King Ahab by marrying one of the daughter’s of Israel’s wicked king. Jehoram, then, “walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as the house of Ahab had done, for the daughter of Ahab was his wife. And he did what was evil in the s...
2025-12-1804 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 17th: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 19–20Bible Readings for December 17th
2 Chronicles 19–20 | Revelation 8 | Zechariah 4 | John 7
As we have discussed over the previous two meditations, the reign of Jehoshaphat was a mixed bag. Sometimes he obeyed Yahweh, and sometimes he did not. So, while he had appointed the priests and the Levites to teach the law in 2 Chronicles 17, he also foolishly entered into a military alliance with the wicked King Ahab of Israel, for which he is rebuked in 2 Chronicles 19:2. In today’s reading, we see more of the same lurching between good and evil through the rest of Jehoshaphat’s life.
2025-12-1704 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 16th: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 18Bible Readings for December 16th
2 Chronicles 18 | Revelation 7 | Zechariah 3 | John 6
When we read the story of the alliance between King Jehoshaphat of Judah and King Ahab of Israel back in 1 Kings 22, we didn’t learn much about Jehoshaphat. There, King Ahab was the main character, with Jehoshaphat entering the scene to play a supporting role in the narrative of how Yahweh was bringing judgment and disaster on Ahab for Ahab’s wicked idolatry and rebellion. It seemed as though Jehoshaphat was coming alongside Ahab to be a godly influence, trying to keep Ahab from ignoring the word...
2025-12-1603 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 15th: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 17Bible Readings for December 15th
2 Chronicles 17 | Revelation 6 | Zechariah 2 | John 5
Chronologically, when we read about the reign of King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 17, we have reached the point in history where the book of 1 Kings began to spend a significant amount of time discussing the prophetic ministries of the prophets Elijah and Elisha, two of the greatest prophets in the history of Israel. So, we met Elijah in 1 Kings 16 and read of his ministry—and especially of his confrontations with the wicked King Ahab—for several chapters before meeting Jehoshaphat at all. Then, we only read two brie...
2025-12-1503 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 14th: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 16Bible Readings for December 14th
2 Chronicles 16 | Revelation 5 | Zechariah 1 | John 4
Yesterday, in 2 Chronicles 14–15, we looked at the positive aspects of King Asa’s reign over the nation of Judah, which were given in far greater detail than what we had seen in the account of Asa in 1 Kings 15. But where we have typically seen the books of Chronicles presenting idealized descriptions of kings as compared to what we read in the books of Samuel and Kings, in 2 Chronicles 16 we actually find a much more detailed picture of the rebellion of King Asa in his old age than...
2025-12-1403 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 13th: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 14–15Bible Readings for December 13th
2 Chronicles 14–15 | Revelation 4 | Haggai 2 | John 3
Like Abijah, the godly King Asa received a fairly short treatment in 1 Kings 15:9–24. In the book of 2 Chronicles, however, the story of King Asa is significantly expanded, with three times as many verses that stretch across three whole chapters. In today’s reading, we read about the good parts of Asa’s reign, and in tomorrow’s reading from 2 Chronicles 16, we will look at the way in which Asa fell toward the end of his life.
The account of Asa in 1 Kings emphasizes the many refor...
2025-12-1303 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 12th: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 13Bible Readings for December 12th
2 Chronicles 13 | Revelation 3 | Haggai 1 | John 2
King Abijah received a very short treatment in 1 Kings 15. There, where his name is spelled Abijam, we read three simple details. First, he walked in the sins of Rehoboam, his father (1 Kgs. 15:3). Second, Yahweh preserved Abijah’s offspring for the sake of David (1 Kgs. 15:4–5). Third, there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam (1 Kgs. 15:6–7). All of these details are repeated in 2 Chronicles 13, but the stories sound very different.
In fact, it is difficult to tell that Abijah is actually a wicked king. The narrative of 2 Chroni...
2025-12-1203 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 11th: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 11–12Bible Readings for December 11th
2 Chronicles 11–12 | Revelation 2 | Zephaniah 3 | John 1
As we began to discuss yesterday, the accounts we will find in 2 Chronicles from this point forward will focus exclusively on the perspective of the southern nation of Judah, ignoring the northern nation of Israel almost entirely. But, while we lose information about Israel, we also will find more robust accounts of Judah’s stories. So, in today’s reading, we learn much more of the story surrounding Rehoboam’s reign than we did in 1 Kings.
To begin, we discover in 2 Chronicles 11:13–17 that the priests an...
2025-12-1103 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 10th: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 10Bible Readings for December 10th
2 Chronicles 10 | Revelation 1 | Zephaniah 2 | Luke 24
The narrative in 2 Chronicles 10 tells how the ten tribes of Israel rebel from the house of David. The version we find in 2 Chronicles for the most part retells the same story of Rehoboam’s foolishness in ignoring the counsel of the elders who advised him to treat Israel well and instead taking the advice of the young men who had grown up with him to treat Israel harshly. There is one major change, however, which illustrates the main difference we will see from this point forward in...
2025-12-1003 minFree Daily Bible Study PodcastDecember 9th: Bible Meditation for 2 Chronicles 9Bible Readings for December 9th
2 Chronicles 9 | Jude 1 | Zephaniah 1 | Luke 23
The material we find in 2 Chronicles 9 is, in almost every respect, identical to the material we read in 1 Kings 10. So, the account we read of the visit of the queen of Sheba is virtually verbatim what we read, and the catalog of Solomon’s great wealth and wisdom in the second half of 2 Chronicles 9 also mirrors the catalog from 1 Kings nearly completely. There is, however, one additional line included in the narrative from 2 Chronicles 9, and we will explore the significance of that line in the meditation fo...
2025-12-0903 min
La Parole Commentée · RCF AlsaceJacob rêve la porte du ciel parmi nousSi dans les anciennes civilisations, la porte du ciel est représentée par le sanctuaire, le temple, il en va autrement pour Jacob : son Dieu est avec lui où qu’il aille, et lui promet la bénédiction pour tous les peuples.Le lieu de mémoire que Jacob marque d’une pierre levée, Bethel, « maison de Dieu », n’a qu’une importance intermédiaire. Pour leschrétiens, la porte du ciel, c’est Jésus-Christ, Dieu qui s’engage sur la terre en éternité.Hébergé par Audiomeans. Visitez audiomeans.fr/politique-de-conf...
2025-09-2114 min
Tumbling Through LifeFlipping the Script: Jacob Wilford from Parkour to Stunt CrewHey everyone, welcome back to "Tumbling Through Life!" I am beyond excited today because we have a special super senior guest joining us—Jacob Wilford! Jacob was the captain of our stunt crew at Skyridge High School, and let me tell you, he was a game-changer for us. He cheered with us for two amazing years, and during that time, we won Nationals both in 2020 and 2021. We honestly wouldn't have achieved that success without his incredible leadership. Jacob brought a unique parkour background that pushed me to rethink what was possible in tumbling and cheerleading, and every moment spent le...
2025-03-2037 min
Gifts and GracesJacob D. Gerber | Parliamentary Procedures for Presbyters: An IntroductionOn this episode of Gifts and Graces we get to hear from Jacob D. Gerber on the biblical foundations and basic principles of parliamentary procedure. Jacob D. Gerber is a senior pastor at Harvest Community Church. This episode was originally recorded as a seminar delivered at the 2024 General Assembly. Let’s listen to Jacob as he shows us how to engage more confidently in the courts of Christ’s church.
2024-08-1957 min
The AMO ShowScott Gerber on What Goes Into a Great Professional CommunityScott Gerber is the co-founder and CEO of Community.co, which partners with media companies to create high-priced professional communities. In this conversation, we discussed what goes into making a great community, why it has become such a big buzzword in the market today, and how people should think about growing.
2022-04-1147 min