Daily Devotions · July 12
Reading for July 12
Read the whole Bible in a year, a few chapters a day.
Isaiah 11–14 · Hebrews 9
Isaiah 11–14 · Hebrews 9, Berean Standard Bible
Isaiah 11
Then a shoot will spring up from the stump of Jesse, and a Branch from his roots will bear fruit. 2 The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him—the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and strength, the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the LORD. 3 And He will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what His eyes see, and He will not decide by what His ears hear, 4 but with righteousness He will judge the poor, and with equity He will decide for the lowly of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth and slay the wicked with the breath of His lips. 5 Righteousness will be the belt around His hips, and faithfulness the sash around His waist. 6 The wolf will live with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the goat; the calf and young lion and fatling will be together, and a little child will lead them. 7 The cow will graze with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. 8 The infant will play by the cobra’s den, and the toddler will reach into the viper’s nest. 9 They will neither harm nor destroy on all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the sea is full of water. 10 On that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will seek Him, and His place of rest will be glorious. 11 On that day the Lord will extend His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His people from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. 12 He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; He will collect the scattered of Judah from the four corners of the earth. 13 Then the jealousy of Ephraim will depart, and the adversaries of Judah will be cut off. Ephraim will no longer envy Judah, nor will Judah harass Ephraim. 14 They will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines to the west; together they will plunder the sons of the east. They will lay their hands on Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be subject to them. 15 The LORD will devote to destruction the gulf of the Sea of Egypt; with a scorching wind He will sweep His hand over the Euphrates. He will split it into seven streams for men to cross with dry sandals. 16 There will be a highway for the remnant of His people who remain from Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.
Isaiah 12
In that day you will say: “O LORD, I will praise You. Although You were angry with me, Your anger has turned away, and You have comforted me. 2 Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. For the LORD GOD is my strength and my song, and He also has become my salvation.” 3 With joy you will draw water from the springs of salvation, 4 and on that day you will say: “Give praise to the LORD; proclaim His name! Make His works known among the peoples; declare that His name is exalted. 5 Sing to the LORD, for He has done glorious things. Let this be known in all the earth. 6 Cry out and sing, O citizen of Zion, for great among you is the Holy One of Israel.”
Isaiah 13
This is the burden against Babylon that Isaiah son of Amoz received: 2 Raise a banner on a barren hilltop; call aloud to them. Wave your hand, that they may enter the gates of the nobles. 3 I have commanded My sanctified ones; I have even summoned My warriors to execute My wrath and exult in My triumph. 4 Listen, a tumult on the mountains, like that of a great multitude! Listen, an uproar among the kingdoms, like nations gathered together! The LORD of Hosts is mobilizing an army for war. 5 They are coming from faraway lands, from the ends of the heavens—the LORD and the weapons of His wrath—to destroy the whole country. 6 Wail, for the Day of the LORD is near; it will come as destruction from the Almighty. 7 Therefore all hands will fall limp, and every man’s heart will melt. 8 Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another, their faces flushed with fear. 9 Behold, the Day of the LORD is coming—cruel, with fury and burning anger—to make the earth a desolation and to destroy the sinners within it. 10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations will not give their light. The rising sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light. 11 I will punish the world for its evil and the wicked for their iniquity. I will end the haughtiness of the arrogant and lay low the pride of the ruthless. 12 I will make man scarcer than pure gold, and mankind rarer than the gold of Ophir. 13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, and the earth will be shaken from its place at the wrath of the LORD of Hosts on the day of His burning anger. 14 Like a hunted gazelle, like a sheep without a shepherd, each will return to his own people, each will flee to his native land. 15 Whoever is caught will be stabbed, and whoever is captured will die by the sword. 16 Their infants will be dashed to pieces before their eyes, their houses will be looted, and their wives will be ravished. 17 Behold, I will stir up against them the Medes, who have no regard for silver and no desire for gold. 18 Their bows will dash young men to pieces; they will have no mercy on the fruit of the womb; they will not look with pity on the children. 19 And Babylon, the jewel of the kingdoms, the glory of the pride of the Chaldeans, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah. 20 She will never be inhabited or settled from generation to generation; no nomad will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flock there. 21 But desert creatures will lie down there, and howling creatures will fill her houses. Ostriches will dwell there, and wild goats will leap about. 22 Hyenas will howl in her fortresses and jackals in her luxurious palaces. Babylon’s time is at hand, and her days will not be prolonged.
Isaiah 14
For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again He will choose Israel and settle them in their own land. The foreigner will join them and unite with the house of Jacob. 2 The nations will escort Israel and bring it to its homeland. Then the house of Israel will possess the nations as menservants and maidservants in the LORD’s land. They will make captives of their captors and rule over their oppressors. 3 On the day that the LORD gives you rest from your pain and torment, and from the hard labor into which you were forced, 4 you will sing this song of contempt against the king of Babylon: How the oppressor has ceased, and how his fury has ended! 5 The LORD has broken the staff of the wicked, the scepter of the rulers. 6 It struck the peoples in anger with unceasing blows; it subdued the nations in rage with relentless persecution. 7 All the earth is at peace and at rest; they break out in song. 8 Even the cypresses and cedars of Lebanon exult over you: “Since you have been laid low, no woodcutter comes against us.” 9 Sheol beneath is eager to meet you upon your arrival. It stirs the spirits of the dead to greet you—all the rulers of the earth. It makes all the kings of the nations rise from their thrones. 10 They will all respond to you, saying, “You too have become weak, as we are; you have become like us!” 11 Your pomp has been brought down to Sheol, along with the music of your harps. Maggots are your bed and worms your blanket. 12 How you have fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the ground, O destroyer of nations. 13 You said in your heart: “I will ascend to the heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God. I will sit on the mount of assembly, in the far reaches of the north. 14 I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” 15 But you will be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit. 16 Those who see you will stare; they will ponder your fate: “Is this the man who shook the earth and made the kingdoms tremble, 17 who turned the world into a desert and destroyed its cities, who refused to let the captives return to their homes?” 18 All the kings of the nations lie in state, each in his own tomb. 19 But you are cast out of your grave like a rejected branch, covered by those slain with the sword, and dumped into a rocky pit like a carcass trampled underfoot. 20 You will not join them in burial, since you have destroyed your land and slaughtered your own people. The offspring of the wicked will never again be mentioned. 21 Prepare a place to slaughter his sons for the iniquities of their forefathers. They will never rise up to possess a land or cover the earth with their cities. 22 “I will rise up against them,” declares the LORD of Hosts. “I will cut off from Babylon her name and her remnant, her offspring and her posterity,” declares the LORD. 23 “I will make her a place for owls and for swamplands; I will sweep her away with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD of Hosts. 24 The LORD of Hosts has sworn: “Surely, as I have planned, so will it be; as I have purposed, so will it stand. 25 I will break Assyria in My land; I will trample him on My mountain. His yoke will be taken off My people, and his burden removed from their shoulders.” 26 This is the plan devised for the whole earth, and this is the hand stretched out over all the nations. 27 The LORD of Hosts has purposed, and who can thwart Him? His hand is outstretched, so who can turn it back? 28 In the year that King Ahaz died, this burden was received: 29 Do not rejoice, all you Philistines, that the rod that struck you is broken. For a viper will spring from the root of the snake, and a flying serpent from its egg. 30 Then the firstborn of the poor will find pasture, and the needy will lie down in safety, but I will kill your root by famine, and your remnant will be slain. 31 Wail, O gate! Cry out, O city! Melt away, all you Philistines! For a cloud of smoke comes from the north, and there are no stragglers in its ranks. 32 What answer will be given to the envoys of that nation? “The LORD has founded Zion, where His afflicted people will find refuge.”
Hebrews 9
Now the first covenant had regulations for worship and also an earthly sanctuary. 2 A tabernacle was prepared. In its first room were the lampstand, the table, and the consecrated bread. This was called the Holy Place. 3 Behind the second curtain was a room called the Most Holy Place, 4 containing the golden altar of incense and the gold-covered ark of the covenant. Inside the ark were the gold jar of manna, Aaron’s staff that had budded, and the stone tablets of the covenant. 5 Above the ark were the cherubim of glory, overshadowing the mercy seat. But we cannot discuss these things in detail now. 6 When everything had been prepared in this way, the priests entered regularly into the first room to perform their sacred duties. 7 But only the high priest entered the second room, and then only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. 8 By this arrangement the Holy Spirit was showing that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing. 9 It is an illustration for the present time, because the gifts and sacrifices being offered were unable to cleanse the conscience of the worshiper. 10 They consist only in food and drink and special washings—external regulations imposed until the time of reform. 11 But when Christ came as high priest of the good things that have come, He went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not made by hands and is not a part of this creation. 12 He did not enter by the blood of goats and calves, but He entered the Most Holy Place once for all by His own blood, thus securing eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that their bodies are clean, 14 how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself unblemished to God, purify our consciences from works of death, so that we may serve the living God! 15 Therefore Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance, now that He has died to redeem them from the transgressions committed under the first covenant. 16 In the case of a will, it is necessary to establish the death of the one who made it, 17 because a will does not take effect until the one who made it has died; it cannot be executed while he is still alive. 18 That is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood. 19 For when Moses had proclaimed every commandment of the law to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, along with water, scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled the scroll and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant, which God has commanded you to keep.” 21 In the same way, he sprinkled with blood the tabernacle and all the vessels used in worship. 22 According to the law, in fact, nearly everything must be purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. 23 So it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ did not enter a man-made copy of the true sanctuary, but He entered heaven itself, now to appear on our behalf in the presence of God. 25 Nor did He enter heaven to offer Himself again and again, as the high priest enters the Most Holy Place every year with blood that is not his own. 26 Otherwise, Christ would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But now He has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 Just as man is appointed to die once, and after that to face judgment, 28 so also Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many; and He will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who eagerly await Him.
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.
Added to your journal. Go to journal
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.