Daily Devotions · July 13
Reading for July 13
Read the whole Bible in a year, a few chapters a day.
Isaiah 15–18 · Hebrews 10
Isaiah 15–18 · Hebrews 10, Berean Standard Bible
Isaiah 15
This is the burden against Moab: Ar in Moab is ruined, destroyed in a night! Kir in Moab is devastated, destroyed in a night! 2 Dibon goes up to its temple to weep at its high places. Moab wails over Nebo, as well as over Medeba. Every head is shaved, every beard is cut off. 3 In its streets they wear sackcloth; on the rooftops and in the public squares they all wail, falling down weeping. 4 Heshbon and Elealeh cry out; their voices are heard as far as Jahaz. Therefore the soldiers of Moab cry out; their souls tremble within. 5 My heart cries out over Moab; her fugitives flee as far as Zoar, as far as Eglath-shelishiyah. With weeping they ascend the slope of Luhith; they lament their destruction on the road to Horonaim. 6 The waters of Nimrim are dried up, and the grass is withered; the vegetation is gone, and the greenery is no more. 7 So they carry their wealth and belongings over the Brook of the Willows. 8 For their outcry echoes to the border of Moab. Their wailing reaches Eglaim; it is heard in Beer-elim. 9 The waters of Dimon are full of blood, but I will bring more upon Dimon—a lion upon the fugitives of Moab and upon the remnant of the land.
Isaiah 16
Send the tribute lambs to the ruler of the land, from Sela in the desert to the mount of Daughter Zion. 2 Like fluttering birds pushed out of the nest, so are the daughters of Moab at the fords of the Arnon: 3 “Give us counsel; render a decision. Shelter us at noonday with shade as dark as night. Hide the refugees; do not betray the one who flees. 4 Let my fugitives stay with you; be a refuge for Moab from the destroyer.” When the oppressor has gone, destruction has ceased, and the oppressors have vanished from the land, 5 in loving devotion a throne will be established in the tent of David. A judge seeking justice and hastening righteousness will sit on it in faithfulness. 6 We have heard of Moab’s pomposity, his exceeding pride and conceit, his overflowing arrogance. But his boasting is empty. 7 Therefore let Moab wail; let them wail together for Moab. Moan for the raisin cakes of Kir-hareseth, you who are utterly stricken. 8 For the fields of Heshbon have withered, along with the grapevines of Sibmah. The rulers of the nations have trampled its choicest vines, which had reached as far as Jazer and spread toward the desert. Their shoots had spread out and passed over the sea. 9 So I weep with Jazer for the vines of Sibmah; I drench Heshbon and Elealeh with my tears. Triumphant shouts have fallen silent over your summer fruit and your harvest. 10 Joy and gladness are removed from the orchard; no one sings or shouts in the vineyards. No one tramples the grapes in the winepresses; I have put an end to the cheering. 11 Therefore my heart laments for Moab like a harp, my inmost being for Kir-heres. 12 When Moab appears on the high place, when he wearies himself and enters his sanctuary to pray, it will do him no good. 13 This is the message that the LORD spoke earlier concerning Moab. 14 And now the LORD says, “In three years, as a hired worker counts the years, Moab’s splendor will become an object of contempt, with all her many people. And those who are left will be few and feeble.”
Isaiah 17
This is the burden against Damascus: “Behold, Damascus is no longer a city; it has become a heap of ruins. 2 The cities of Aroer are forsaken; they will be left to the flocks, which will lie down with no one to fear. 3 The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the sovereignty from Damascus. The remnant of Aram will be like the splendor of the Israelites,” declares the LORD of Hosts. 4 “In that day the splendor of Jacob will fade, and the fat of his body will waste away, 5 as the reaper gathers the standing grain and harvests the ears with his arm, as one gleans heads of grain in the Valley of Rephaim. 6 Yet gleanings will remain, like an olive tree that has been beaten—two or three berries atop the tree, four or five on its fruitful branches,” declares the LORD, the God of Israel. 7 In that day men will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel. 8 They will not look to the altars they have fashioned with their hands or to the Asherahs and incense altars they have made with their fingers. 9 In that day their strong cities will be like forsaken thickets and summits, abandoned to the Israelites and to utter desolation. 10 For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and failed to remember the Rock of your refuge. Therefore, though you cultivate delightful plots and set out cuttings from exotic vines— 11 though on the day you plant you make them grow, and on that morning you help your seed sprout—yet the harvest will vanish on the day of disease and incurable pain. 12 Alas, the tumult of many peoples; they rage like the roaring seas and clamoring nations; they rumble like the crashing of mighty waters. 13 The nations rage like the rush of many waters. He rebukes them, and they flee far away, driven before the wind like chaff on the hills, like tumbleweeds before a gale. 14 In the evening, there is sudden terror! Before morning, they are no more! This is the portion of those who loot us and the lot of those who plunder us.
Isaiah 18
Woe to the land of whirring wings, along the rivers of Cush, 2 which sends couriers by sea, in papyrus vessels on the waters. Go, swift messengers, to a people tall and smooth-skinned, to a people widely feared, to a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers. 3 All you people of the world and dwellers of the earth, when a banner is raised on the mountains, you will see it; when a ram’s horn sounds, you will hear it. 4 For this is what the LORD has told me: “I will quietly look on from My dwelling place, like shimmering heat in the sunshine, like a cloud of dew in the heat of harvest.” 5 For before the harvest, when the blossom is gone and the flower becomes a ripening grape, He will cut off the shoots with a pruning knife and remove and discard the branches. 6 They will all be left to the mountain birds of prey, and to the beasts of the land. The birds will feed on them in summer, and all the wild animals in winter. 7 At that time gifts will be brought to the LORD of Hosts—from a people tall and smooth-skinned, from a people widely feared, from a powerful nation of strange speech, whose land is divided by rivers—to Mount Zion, the place of the Name of the LORD of Hosts.
Hebrews 10
For the law is only a shadow of the good things to come, not the realities themselves. It can never, by the same sacrifices offered year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2 If it could, would not the offerings have ceased? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt the guilt of their sins. 3 Instead, those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, 4 because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. 5 Therefore, when Christ came into the world, He said: “Sacrifice and offering You did not desire, but a body You prepared for Me. 6 In burnt offerings and sin offerings You took no delight. 7 Then I said, ‘Here I am, it is written about Me in the scroll: I have come to do Your will, O God.’” 8 In the passage above He says, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings You did not desire, nor did You delight in them” (although they are offered according to the law). 9 Then He adds, “Here I am, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been sanctified through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. 11 Day after day every priest stands to minister and to offer again and again the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when this Priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, He sat down at the right hand of God. 13 Since that time, He waits for His enemies to be made a footstool for His feet, 14 because by a single offering He has made perfect for all time those who are being sanctified. 15 The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. First He says: 16 “This is the covenant I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord. I will put My laws in their hearts and inscribe them on their minds.” 17 Then He adds: “Their sins and lawless acts I will remember no more.” 18 And where these have been forgiven, an offering for sin is no longer needed. 19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way opened for us through the curtain of His body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 23 Let us hold resolutely to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. 24 And let us consider how to spur one another on to love and good deeds. 25 Let us not neglect meeting together, as some have made a habit, but let us encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching. 26 If we deliberately go on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no further sacrifice for sins remains, 27 but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume all adversaries. 28 Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 How much more severely do you think one deserves to be punished who has trampled on the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and insulted the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine; I will repay,” and again, “The Lord will judge His people.” 31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. 32 Remember the early days that you were in the light. In those days, you endured a great conflict in the face of suffering. 33 Sometimes you were publicly exposed to ridicule and persecution; at other times you were partners with those who were so treated. 34 You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, knowing that you yourselves had a better and permanent possession. 35 So do not throw away your confidence; it holds a great reward. 36 You need to persevere, so that after you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised. 37 For, “In just a little while, He who is coming will come and will not delay. 38 But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him.” 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
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.