Daily Devotions · March 17
Reading for March 17
Read the whole Bible in a year, a few chapters a day.
Deuteronomy 32–34 · 1 Corinthians 2
Deuteronomy 32–34 · 1 Corinthians 2, Berean Standard Bible
Deuteronomy 32
Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. 2 Let my teaching fall like rain and my speech settle like dew, like gentle rain on new grass, like showers on tender plants. 3 For I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Ascribe greatness to our God! 4 He is the Rock, His work is perfect; all His ways are just. A God of faithfulness without injustice, righteous and upright is He. 5 His people have acted corruptly toward Him; the blemish on them is not that of His children, but of a perverse and crooked generation. 6 Is this how you repay the LORD, O foolish and senseless people? Is He not your Father and Creator? Has He not made you and established you? 7 Remember the days of old; consider the years long past. Ask your father, and he will tell you, your elders, and they will inform you. 8 When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when He divided the sons of man, He set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. 9 But the LORD’s portion is His people, Jacob His allotted inheritance. 10 He found him in a desert land, in a barren, howling wilderness; He surrounded him, He instructed him, He guarded him as the apple of His eye. 11 As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, He spread His wings to catch them and carried them on His pinions. 12 The LORD alone led him, and no foreign god was with him. 13 He made him ride on the heights of the land and fed him the produce of the field. He nourished him with honey from the rock and oil from the flinty crag, 14 with curds from the herd and milk from the flock, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, and goats, with the choicest grains of wheat. From the juice of the finest grapes you drank the wine. 15 But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—becoming fat, bloated, and gorged. He abandoned the God who made him and scorned the Rock of his salvation. 16 They provoked His jealousy with foreign gods; they enraged Him with abominations. 17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they had not known, to newly arrived gods, which your fathers did not fear. 18 You ignored the Rock who brought you forth; you forgot the God who gave you birth. 19 When the LORD saw this, He rejected them, provoked to anger by His sons and daughters. 20 He said: “I will hide My face from them; I will see what will be their end. For they are a perverse generation—children of unfaithfulness. 21 They have provoked My jealousy by that which is not God; they have enraged Me with their worthless idols. So I will make them jealous by those who are not a people; I will make them angry by a nation without understanding. 22 For a fire has been kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains. 23 I will heap disasters upon them; I will spend My arrows against them. 24 They will be wasted from hunger and ravaged by pestilence and bitter plague; I will send the fangs of wild beasts against them, with the venom of vipers that slither in the dust. 25 Outside, the sword will take their children, and inside, terror will strike the young man and the young woman, the infant and the gray-haired man. 26 I would have said that I would cut them to pieces and blot out their memory from mankind, 27 if I had not dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest their adversaries misunderstand and say: ‘Our own hand has prevailed; it was not the LORD who did all this.’” 28 Israel is a nation devoid of counsel, with no understanding among them. 29 If only they were wise, they would understand it; they would comprehend their fate. 30 How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up? 31 For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies concede. 32 But their vine is from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are poisonous; their clusters are bitter. 33 Their wine is the venom of serpents, the deadly poison of cobras. 34 “Have I not stored up these things, sealed up within My vaults? 35 Vengeance is Mine; I will repay. In due time their foot will slip; for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.” 36 For the LORD will vindicate His people and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their strength is gone and no one remains, slave or free. 37 He will say: “Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge, 38 which ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings? Let them rise up and help you; let them give you shelter! 39 See now that I am He; there is no God besides Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand. 40 For I lift up My hand to heaven and declare: As surely as I live forever, 41 when I sharpen My flashing sword, and My hand grasps it in judgment, I will take vengeance on My adversaries and repay those who hate Me. 42 I will make My arrows drunk with blood, while My sword devours flesh—the blood of the slain and captives, the heads of the enemy leaders.” 43 Rejoice, O heavens, with Him, and let all God’s angels worship Him. Rejoice, O nations, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His children. He will take vengeance on His adversaries and repay those who hate Him; He will cleanse His land and His people. 44 Then Moses came with Joshua son of Nun and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. 45 When Moses had finished reciting all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to carefully follow all the words of this law. 47 For they are not idle words to you, because they are your life, and by them you will live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” 48 On that same day the LORD said to Moses, 49 “Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo, in the land of Moab across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites as their own possession. 50 And there on the mountain that you climb, you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. 51 For at the waters of Meribah-kadesh in the Wilderness of Zin, both of you broke faith with Me among the Israelites by failing to treat Me as holy in their presence. 52 Although you shall see from a distance the land that I am giving the Israelites, you shall not enter it.”
Deuteronomy 33
This is the blessing that Moses the man of God pronounced upon the Israelites before his death. 2 He said: “The LORD came from Sinai and dawned upon us from Seir; He shone forth from Mount Paran and came with myriads of holy ones, with flaming fire at His right hand. 3 Surely You love the people; all the holy ones are in Your hand, and they sit down at Your feet; each receives Your words— 4 the law that Moses gave us, the possession of the assembly of Jacob. 5 So the LORD became King in Jeshurun when the leaders of the people gathered, when the tribes of Israel came together. 6 Let Reuben live and not die, nor his men be few.” 7 And concerning Judah he said: “O LORD, hear the cry of Judah and bring him to his people. With his own hands he defends his cause, but may You be a help against his foes.” 8 Concerning Levi he said: “Give Your Thummim to Levi and Your Urim to Your godly one, whom You tested at Massah and contested at the waters of Meribah. 9 He said of his father and mother, ‘I do not consider them.’ He disregarded his brothers and did not know his own sons, for he kept Your word and maintained Your covenant. 10 He will teach Your ordinances to Jacob and Your law to Israel; he will set incense before You and whole burnt offerings on Your altar. 11 Bless his substance, O LORD, and accept the work of his hands. Smash the loins of those who rise against him, and of his foes so they can rise no more.” 12 Concerning Benjamin he said: “May the beloved of the LORD rest secure in Him; God shields him all day long, and upon His shoulders he rests.” 13 Concerning Joseph he said: “May his land be blessed by the LORD with the precious dew from heaven above and the deep waters that lie beneath, 14 with the bountiful harvest from the sun and the abundant yield of the seasons, 15 with the best of the ancient mountains and the bounty of the everlasting hills, 16 with the choice gifts of the land and everything in it, and with the favor of Him who dwelt in the burning bush. May these rest on the head of Joseph and crown the brow of the prince of his brothers. 17 His majesty is like a firstborn bull, and his horns are like those of a wild ox. With them he will gore the nations, even to the ends of the earth. Such are the myriads of Ephraim, and such are the thousands of Manasseh.” 18 Concerning Zebulun he said: “Rejoice, Zebulun, in your journeys, and Issachar, in your tents. 19 They will call the peoples to a mountain; there they will offer sacrifices of righteousness. For they will feast on the abundance of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand.” 20 Concerning Gad he said: “Blessed is he who enlarges the domain of Gad! He lies down like a lion and tears off an arm or a head. 21 He chose the best land for himself, because a ruler’s portion was reserved for him there. He came with the leaders of the people; he administered the LORD’s justice and His ordinances for Israel.” 22 Concerning Dan he said: “Dan is a lion’s cub, leaping out of Bashan.” 23 Concerning Naphtali he said: “Naphtali is abounding with favor, full of the blessing of the LORD; he shall take possession of the sea and the south.” 24 And concerning Asher he said: “May Asher be the most blessed of sons; may he be the most favored among his brothers and dip his foot in oil. 25 May the bolts of your gate be iron and bronze, and may your strength match your days.” 26 “There is none like the God of Jeshurun, who rides the heavens to your aid, and the clouds in His majesty. 27 The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. He drives out the enemy before you, giving the command, ‘Destroy him!’ 28 So Israel dwells securely; the fountain of Jacob lives untroubled in a land of grain and new wine, where even the heavens drip with dew. 29 Blessed are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is the shield that protects you, the sword in which you boast. Your enemies will cower before you, and you shall trample their high places.”
Deuteronomy 34
Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which faces Jericho. And the LORD showed him the whole land—from Gilead as far as Dan, 2 all of Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea, 3 the Negev, and the region from the Valley of Jericho (the City of Palms) all the way to Zoar. 4 And the LORD said to him, “This is the land that I swore to give Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you will not cross into it.” 5 So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, as the LORD had said. 6 And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab facing Beth-peor, and no one to this day knows the location of his grave. 7 Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak, and his vitality had not diminished. 8 The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning for Moses came to an end. 9 Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. So the Israelites obeyed him and did as the LORD had commanded Moses. 10 Since that time, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face— 11 no prophet who did all the signs and wonders that the LORD sent Moses to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and to all his officials and all his land, 12 and no prophet who performed all the mighty acts of power and awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel.
1 Corinthians 2
When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. 2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, 5 so that your faith would not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power. 6 Among the mature, however, we speak a message of wisdom—but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 No, we speak of the mysterious and hidden wisdom of God, which He destined for our glory before time began. 8 None of the rulers of this age understood it. For if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 Rather, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no heart has imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him.” 10 But God has revealed it to us by the Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11 For who among men knows the thoughts of man except his own spirit within him? So too, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12 We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13 And this is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14 The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man judges all things, but he himself is not subject to anyone’s judgment. 16 “For who has known the mind of the Lord, so as to instruct Him?” But we have the mind of Christ.
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.