Daily Devotions · July 11
Reading for July 11
Read the whole Bible in a year, a few chapters a day.
Isaiah 8–10 · Hebrews 8
Isaiah 8–10 · Hebrews 8, Berean Standard Bible
Isaiah 8
Then the LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary stylus: Maher-shalal-hash-baz. 2 And I will appoint for Myself trustworthy witnesses—Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah.” 3 And I had relations with the prophetess, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. The LORD said to me, “Name him Maher-shalal-hash-baz. 4 For before the boy knows how to cry ‘Father’ or ‘Mother,’ the wealth of Damascus and the plunder of Samaria will be carried off by the king of Assyria.” 5 And the LORD spoke to me further: 6 “Because this people has rejected the gently flowing waters of Shiloah and rejoiced in Rezin and the son of Remaliah, 7 the Lord will surely bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates—the king of Assyria and all his pomp. It will overflow its channels and overrun its banks. 8 It will pour into Judah, swirling and sweeping over it, reaching up to the neck; its spreading streams will cover your entire land, O Immanuel! 9 Huddle together, O peoples, and be shattered; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for battle, and be shattered; prepare for battle, and be shattered! 10 Devise a plan, but it will be thwarted; state a proposal, but it will not happen. For God is with us.” 11 For this is what the LORD has spoken to me with a strong hand, instructing me not to walk in the way of this people: 12 “Do not call conspiracy everything these people regard as conspiracy. Do not fear what they fear; do not live in dread. 13 The LORD of Hosts is the One you shall regard as holy. Only He should be feared; only He should be dreaded. 14 And He will be a sanctuary—but to both houses of Israel a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, to the dwellers of Jerusalem a trap and a snare. 15 Many will stumble over these; they will fall and be broken; they will be ensnared and captured.” 16 Bind up the testimony and seal the law among my disciples. 17 I will wait for the LORD, who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob. I will put my trust in Him. 18 Here am I, and the children the LORD has given me as signs and symbols in Israel from the LORD of Hosts, who dwells on Mount Zion. 19 When men tell you to consult mediums and spiritists who whisper and mutter, shouldn’t a people consult their God instead? Why consult the dead on behalf of the living? 20 To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn. 21 They will roam the land, dejected and hungry. When they are famished, they will become enraged; and looking upward, they will curse their king and their God. 22 Then they will look to the earth and see only distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish. And they will be driven into utter darkness.
Isaiah 9
Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those in distress. In the past He humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future He will honor the Way of the Sea, beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations: 2 The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. 3 You have enlarged the nation and increased its joy. The people rejoice before You as they rejoice at harvest time, as men rejoice in dividing the plunder. 4 For as in the day of Midian You have shattered the yoke of their burden, the bar across their shoulders, and the rod of their oppressor. 5 For every trampling boot of battle and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. 6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from that time and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this. 8 The Lord has sent a message against Jacob, and it has fallen upon Israel. 9 All the people will know it—Ephraim and the dwellers of Samaria. With pride and arrogance of heart they will say: 10 “The bricks have fallen, but we will rebuild with finished stone; the sycamores have been felled, but we will replace them with cedars.” 11 The LORD has raised up the foes of Rezin against him and joined his enemies together. 12 Aram from the east and Philistia from the west have devoured Israel with open mouths. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised. 13 But the people did not return to Him who struck them; they did not seek the LORD of Hosts. 14 So the LORD will cut off Israel’s head and tail, both palm branch and reed in a single day. 15 The head is the elder and honorable man, and the tail is the prophet who teaches lies. 16 For those who guide this people mislead them, and those they mislead are swallowed up. 17 Therefore the Lord takes no pleasure in their young men; He has no compassion on their fatherless and widows. For every one of them is godless and wicked, and every mouth speaks folly. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised. 18 For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes the thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets, which roll upward in billows of smoke. 19 By the wrath of the LORD of Hosts the land is scorched, and the people are fuel for the fire. No man even spares his brother. 20 They carve out what is on the right, but they are still hungry; they eat what is on the left, but they are still not satisfied. Each one devours the flesh of his own offspring. 21 Manasseh devours Ephraim, and Ephraim Manasseh; together they turn against Judah. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised.
Isaiah 10
Woe to those who enact unjust statutes and issue oppressive decrees, 2 to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder. 3 What will you do on the day of reckoning when devastation comes from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth? 4 Nothing will remain but to crouch among the captives or fall among the slain. Despite all this, His anger is not turned away; His hand is still upraised. 5 Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger; the staff in their hands is My wrath. 6 I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets. 7 But this is not his intention; this is not his plan. For it is in his heart to destroy and cut off many nations. 8 “Are not all my commanders kings?” he says. 9 “Is not Calno like Carchemish? Is not Hamath like Arpad? Is not Samaria like Damascus? 10 As my hand seized the idolatrous kingdoms whose images surpassed those of Jerusalem and Samaria, 11 and as I have done to Samaria and its idols, will I not also do to Jerusalem and her idols?” 12 So when the Lord has completed all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the fruit of his arrogant heart and the proud look in his eyes. 13 For he says: ‘By the strength of my hand I have done this, and by my wisdom, for I am clever. I have removed the boundaries of nations and plundered their treasures; like a mighty one I subdued their rulers. 14 My hand reached as into a nest to seize the wealth of the nations. Like one gathering abandoned eggs, I gathered all the earth. No wing fluttered, no beak opened or chirped.’” 15 Does an axe raise itself above the one who swings it? Does a saw boast over him who saws with it? It would be like a rod waving the one who lifts it, or a staff lifting him who is not wood! 16 Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts will send a wasting disease among Assyria’s stout warriors, and under his pomp will be kindled a fire like a burning flame. 17 And the Light of Israel will become a fire, and its Holy One a flame. In a single day it will burn and devour Assyria’s thorns and thistles. 18 The splendor of its forests and orchards, both soul and body, it will completely destroy, as a sickness consumes a man. 19 The remaining trees of its forests will be so few that a child could count them. 20 On that day the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob will no longer depend on him who struck them, but they will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. 21 A remnant will return—a remnant of Jacob—to the Mighty God. 22 Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant will return. Destruction has been decreed, overflowing with righteousness. 23 For the Lord GOD of Hosts will carry out the destruction decreed upon the whole land. 24 Therefore this is what the Lord GOD of Hosts says: “O My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear Assyria, who strikes you with a rod and lifts his staff against you as the Egyptians did. 25 For in just a little while My fury against you will subside, and My anger will turn to their destruction.” 26 And the LORD of Hosts will brandish a whip against them, as when He struck Midian at the rock of Oreb. He will raise His staff over the sea, as He did in Egypt. 27 On that day the burden will be lifted from your shoulders, and the yoke from your neck. The yoke will be broken because your neck will be too large. 28 Assyria has entered Aiath and passed through Migron, storing their supplies at Michmash. 29 They have crossed at the ford: “We will spend the night at Geba.” Ramah trembles; Gibeah of Saul flees. 30 Cry aloud, O Daughter of Gallim! Listen, O Laishah! O wretched Anathoth! 31 Madmenah flees; the people of Gebim take refuge. 32 Yet today they will halt at Nob, shaking a fist at the mount of Daughter Zion, at the hill of Jerusalem. 33 Behold, the Lord GOD of Hosts will lop off the branches with terrifying power. The tall trees will be cut down, the lofty ones will be felled. 34 He will clear the forest thickets with an axe, and Lebanon will fall before the Mighty One.
Hebrews 8
The point of what we are saying is this: We do have such a high priest, who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven, 2 and who ministers in the sanctuary and true tabernacle set up by the Lord, not by man. 3 And since every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices, it was necessary for this One also to have something to offer. 4 Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest, since there are already priests who offer gifts according to the law. 5 The place where they serve is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven. This is why Moses was warned when he was about to build the tabernacle: “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” 6 Now, however, Jesus has received a much more excellent ministry, just as the covenant He mediates is better and is founded on better promises. 7 For if that first covenant had been without fault, no place would have been sought for a second. 8 But God found fault with the people and said: “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 9 It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not abide by My covenant, and I disregarded them, declares the Lord. 10 For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their minds and inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be My people. 11 No longer will each one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest. 12 For I will forgive their iniquities and will remember their sins no more.” 13 By speaking of a new covenant, He has made the first one obsolete; and what is obsolete and aging will soon disappear.
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
Write your SOAP here. Tap any verse in the reading to add it to Scripture. Your journal saves on this device only, so no one else sees it.
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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.
Missed a day? Don't start over. Read today's chapters and keep going.