Daily Devotions · January 20
Reading for January 20
Read the whole Bible in a year, a few chapters a day.
Genesis 49–50 · Psalm 8 · Luke 20
Genesis 49–50 · Psalm 8 · Luke 20, Berean Standard Bible
Genesis 49
Then Jacob called for his sons and said, “Gather around so that I can tell you what will happen to you in the days to come: 2 Come together and listen, O sons of Jacob; listen to your father Israel. 3 Reuben, you are my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, excelling in honor, excelling in power. 4 Uncontrolled as the waters, you will no longer excel, because you went up to your father’s bed, onto my couch, and defiled it. 5 Simeon and Levi are brothers; their swords are weapons of violence. 6 May I never enter their council; may I never join their assembly. For they kill men in their anger, and hamstring oxen on a whim. 7 Cursed be their anger, for it is strong, and their wrath, for it is cruel! I will disperse them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel. 8 Judah, your brothers shall praise you. Your hand shall be on the necks of your enemies; your father’s sons shall bow down to you. 9 Judah is a young lion—my son, you return from the prey. Like a lion he crouches and lies down; like a lioness, who dares to rouse him? 10 The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes and the allegiance of the nations is his. 11 He ties his donkey to the vine, his colt to the choicest branch. He washes his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes. 12 His eyes are darker than wine, and his teeth are whiter than milk. 13 Zebulun shall dwell by the seashore and become a harbor for ships; his border shall extend to Sidon. 14 Issachar is a strong donkey, lying down between the sheepfolds. 15 He saw that his resting place was good and that his land was pleasant, so he bent his shoulder to the burden and submitted to labor as a servant. 16 Dan shall provide justice for his people as one of the tribes of Israel. 17 He will be a snake by the road, a viper in the path that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider tumbles backward. 18 I await Your salvation, O LORD. 19 Gad will be attacked by raiders, but he will attack their heels. 20 Asher’s food will be rich; he shall provide royal delicacies. 21 Naphtali is a doe set free that bears beautiful fawns. 22 Joseph is a fruitful vine—a fruitful vine by a spring, whose branches scale the wall. 23 The archers attacked him with bitterness; they aimed at him in hostility. 24 Yet he steadied his bow, and his strong arms were tempered by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob, in the name of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel, 25 by the God of your father who helps you, and by the Almighty who blesses you, with blessings of the heavens above, with blessings of the depths below, with blessings of the breasts and womb. 26 The blessings of your father have surpassed the blessings of the ancient mountains and the bounty of the everlasting hills. May they rest on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince of his brothers. 27 Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, in the evening he divides the plunder.” 28 These are the tribes of Israel, twelve in all, and this was what their father said to them. He blessed them, and he blessed each one with a suitable blessing. 29 Then Jacob instructed them, “I am about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite. 30 The cave is in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, in the land of Canaan. This is the field Abraham purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site. 31 There Abraham and his wife Sarah are buried, there Isaac and his wife Rebekah are buried, and there I buried Leah. 32 The field and the cave that is in it were purchased from the Hittites.” 33 When Jacob had finished instructing his sons, he pulled his feet into the bed and breathed his last, and he was gathered to his people.
Genesis 50
Then Joseph fell upon his father’s face, wept over him, and kissed him. 2 And Joseph directed the physicians in his service to embalm his father Israel. So they embalmed him, 3 taking the forty days required to complete the embalming. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days. 4 When the days of mourning had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh’s court, “If I have found favor in your eyes, please tell Pharaoh that 5 my father made me swear an oath when he said, ‘I am about to die. You must bury me in the tomb that I dug for myself in the land of Canaan.’ Now let me go and bury my father, and then return.” 6 Pharaoh replied, “Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear to do.” 7 Then Joseph went to bury his father, and all the servants of Pharaoh accompanied him—the elders of Pharaoh’s household and all the elders of the land of Egypt— 8 along with all of Joseph’s household, and his brothers, and his father’s household. Only their children and flocks and herds were left in Goshen. 9 Chariots and horsemen alike went up with him, and it was an exceedingly large procession. 10 When they reached the threshing floor of Atad, which is across the Jordan, they lamented and wailed loudly, and Joseph mourned for his father seven days. 11 When the Canaanites of the land saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, “This is a solemn ceremony of mourning by the Egyptians.” Thus the place across the Jordan is called Abel-mizraim. 12 So Jacob’s sons did as he had charged them. 13 They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave at Machpelah in the field near Mamre, which Abraham had purchased from Ephron the Hittite as a burial site. 14 After Joseph had buried his father, he returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone with him to bury his father. 15 When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, “What if Joseph bears a grudge? Then he will surely repay us for all the evil that we did to him.” 16 So they sent word to Joseph, saying, “Before he died, your father commanded, 17 ‘This is what you are to say to Joseph: I beg you, please forgive the transgression and sin of your brothers, for they did you wrong.’ So now, Joseph, please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father.” When their message came to him, Joseph wept. 18 His brothers also came to him, bowed down before him, and said, “We are your slaves!” 19 But Joseph replied, “Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God? 20 As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this—to preserve the lives of many people. 21 Therefore do not be afraid. I will provide for you and your little ones.” So Joseph reassured his brothers and spoke kindly to them. 22 Now Joseph and his father’s household remained in Egypt, and Joseph lived to the age of 110. 23 He saw Ephraim’s sons to the third generation, and indeed the sons of Machir son of Manasseh were brought up on Joseph’s knees. 24 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am about to die, but God will surely visit you and bring you up from this land to the land He promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” 25 And Joseph made the sons of Israel take an oath and said, “God will surely attend to you, and then you must carry my bones up from this place.” 26 So Joseph died at the age of 110. And they embalmed his body and placed it in a coffin in Egypt.
Psalm 8
For the choirmaster. According to Gittith. A Psalm of David. O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth! You have set Your glory above the heavens. 2 From the mouths of children and infants You have ordained praise on account of Your adversaries, to silence the enemy and avenger. 3 When I behold Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have set in place— 4 what is man that You are mindful of him, or the son of man that You care for him? 5 You made him a little lower than the angels; You crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You made him ruler of the works of Your hands; You have placed everything under his feet: 7 all sheep and oxen, and even the beasts of the field, 8 the birds of the air and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas. 9 O LORD, our Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!
Luke 20
One day as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple courts and proclaiming the gospel, the chief priests and scribes, together with the elders, came up to Him. 2 “Tell us,” they said, “by what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?” 3 “I will also ask you a question,” Jesus replied. “Tell Me: 4 John’s baptism—was it from heaven, or from men?” 5 They deliberated among themselves and said, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will ask, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ 6 But if we say, ‘From men,’ all the people will stone us, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” 7 So they answered that they did not know where it was from. 8 And Jesus replied, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I am doing these things.” 9 Then He proceeded to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard, rented it out to some tenants, and went away for a long time. 10 At harvest time, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat the servant and sent him away empty-handed. 11 So he sent another servant, but they beat him and treated him shamefully, sending him away empty-handed. 12 Then he sent a third, but they wounded him and threw him out. 13 ‘What shall I do?’ asked the owner of the vineyard. ‘I will send my beloved son. Perhaps they will respect him.’ 14 But when the tenants saw the son, they discussed it among themselves and said, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ 15 So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? 16 He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” And when the people heard this, they said, “May such a thing never happen!” 17 But Jesus looked directly at them and said, “Then what is the meaning of that which is written: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’? 18 Everyone who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but he on whom it falls will be crushed.” 19 When the scribes and chief priests realized that Jesus had spoken this parable against them, they sought to arrest Him that very hour. But they were afraid of the people. 20 So they watched Him closely and sent spies who pretended to be sincere. They were hoping to catch Him in His words in order to hand Him over to the rule and authority of the governor. 21 “Teacher,” they inquired, “we know that You speak and teach correctly. You show no partiality but teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. 22 Is it lawful for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” 23 But Jesus saw through their duplicity and said to them, 24 “Show Me a denarius. Whose image and inscription are on it?” “Caesar’s,” they answered. 25 So Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” 26 And they were unable to trap Him in His words before the people. And amazed at His answer, they fell silent. 27 Then some of the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to question Him. 28 “Teacher,” they said, “Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man is to marry his brother’s widow and raise up offspring for him. 29 Now there were seven brothers. The first one married a wife but died childless. 30 Then the second 31 and the third married the widow, and in the same way all seven died, leaving no children. 32 And last of all, the woman died. 33 So then, in the resurrection, whose wife will she be? For all seven were married to her.” 34 Jesus answered, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage. 35 But those who are considered worthy to share in the age to come and in the resurrection from the dead will neither marry nor be given in marriage. 36 In fact, they can no longer die, because they are like the angels. And since they are sons of the resurrection, they are sons of God. 37 Even Moses demonstrates that the dead are raised, in the passage about the burning bush. For he calls the Lord ‘the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ 38 He is not the God of the dead, but of the living, for to Him all are alive.” 39 Some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, You have spoken well!” 40 And they did not dare to question Him any further. 41 Then Jesus declared, “How can it be said that the Christ is the Son of David? 42 For David himself says in the book of Psalms: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand 43 until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”’ 44 Thus David calls Him ‘Lord.’ So how can He be David’s son?” 45 In the hearing of all the people, Jesus said to His disciples, 46 “Beware of the scribes. They like to walk around in long robes, and they love the greetings in the marketplaces, the chief seats in the synagogues, and the places of honor at banquets. 47 They defraud widows of their houses, and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will receive greater condemnation.”
Scripture from the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), dedicated to the public domain.
How to SOAP
Grab a journal and a pen. Read the chapters above and watch for the verse that stops you. Then take it through four steps.
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Scripture
Write out the verse that stood out to you.
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Observation
What is it saying? Who is speaking, and to whom?
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Application
What does it mean for your life today? Be specific.
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Prayer
Talk to God about it. Ask Him to help you live it.
Your SOAP journal
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Why daily devotions?
Devotions are time set aside each day to read God's Word and let Him speak. The point isn't checking off chapters. It's meeting with Him.
Ten or fifteen minutes is enough to start. Pick a time and a place and keep the appointment. Mornings work well for a lot of us, before the phone and the day start talking.
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