Daily Devotions · March 26
Reading for March 26
Read the whole Bible in a year, a few chapters a day.
Joshua 23–24 · Psalm 44 · 1 Corinthians 11
Joshua 23–24 · Psalm 44 · 1 Corinthians 11, Berean Standard Bible
Joshua 23
A long time after the LORD had given Israel rest from all the enemies around them, when Joshua was old and well along in years, 2 he summoned all Israel, including its elders, leaders, judges, and officers. “I am old and well along in years,” he said, 3 “and you have seen everything that the LORD your God has done to all these nations for your sake, because it was the LORD your God who fought for you. 4 See, I have allotted as an inheritance to your tribes these remaining nations, including all the nations I have already cut off, from the Jordan westward to the Great Sea. 5 The LORD your God will push them out of your way and drive them out before you, so that you can take possession of their land, as the LORD your God promised you. 6 Be very strong, then, so that you can keep and obey all that is written in the Book of the Law of Moses, not turning aside from it to the right or to the left. 7 So you are not to associate with these nations that remain among you. You must not call on the names of their gods or swear by them, and you must not serve them or bow down to them. 8 Instead, you shall hold fast to the LORD your God, as you have done to this day. 9 The LORD has driven out great and powerful nations before you, and to this day no one can stand against you. 10 One of you can put a thousand to flight, because the LORD your God fights for you, just as He promised. 11 Therefore watch yourselves carefully, that you love the LORD your God. 12 For if you turn away and cling to the rest of these nations that remain among you, and if you intermarry and associate with them, 13 know for sure that the LORD your God will no longer drive out these nations before you. Instead, they will become for you a snare and a trap, a scourge in your sides and thorns in your eyes, until you perish from this good land that the LORD your God has given you. 14 Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth, and you know with all your heart and soul that not one of the good promises the LORD your God made to you has failed. Everything was fulfilled for you; not one promise has failed. 15 But just as every good thing the LORD your God promised you has come to pass, likewise the LORD will bring upon you the calamity He has threatened, until He has destroyed you from this good land He has given you. 16 If you transgress the covenant of the LORD your God, which He commanded you, and go and serve other gods and bow down to them, then the anger of the LORD will burn against you, and you will quickly perish from this good land He has given you.”
Joshua 24
Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges, and officers of Israel, and they presented themselves before God. 2 And Joshua said to all the people, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Long ago your fathers, including Terah the father of Abraham and Nahor, lived beyond the Euphrates and worshiped other gods. 3 But I took your father Abraham from beyond the Euphrates and led him through all the land of Canaan, and I multiplied his descendants. I gave him Isaac, 4 and to Isaac I gave Jacob and Esau. I gave Esau Mount Seir to possess, but Jacob and his sons went down to Egypt. 5 Then I sent Moses and Aaron, and I afflicted the Egyptians by what I did there, and afterward I brought you out. 6 When I brought your fathers out of Egypt and you reached the Red Sea, the Egyptians pursued them with chariots and horsemen as far as the Red Sea. 7 So your fathers cried out to the LORD, and He put darkness between you and the Egyptians, over whom He brought the sea and engulfed them. Your very eyes saw what I did to the Egyptians. Then you lived in the wilderness for a long time. 8 Later, I brought you to the land of the Amorites who lived beyond the Jordan. They fought against you, but I delivered them into your hand, that you should possess their land when I destroyed them before you. 9 Then Balak son of Zippor, the king of Moab, set out to fight against Israel. He sent for Balaam son of Beor to curse you, 10 but I would not listen to Balaam. So he blessed you again and again, and I delivered you from his hand. 11 After this, you crossed the Jordan and came to Jericho. The people of Jericho fought against you, as did the Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites, and Jebusites, and I delivered them into your hand. 12 I sent the hornet ahead of you, and it drove out the two Amorite kings before you, but not by your own sword or bow. 13 So I gave you a land on which you did not toil and cities that you did not build, and now you live in them and eat from vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant.’ 14 Now, therefore, fear the LORD and serve Him in sincerity and truth; cast aside the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!” 16 The people replied, “Far be it from us to forsake the LORD to serve other gods! 17 For the LORD our God brought us and our fathers out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and performed these great signs before our eyes. He also protected us throughout our journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. 18 And the LORD drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites who lived in the land. We too will serve the LORD, because He is our God!” 19 But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the LORD, for He is a holy God; He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your rebellion or your sins. 20 If you forsake the LORD and serve foreign gods, He will turn and bring disaster on you and consume you, even after He has been good to you.” 21 “No!” replied the people. “We will serve the LORD!” 22 Then Joshua told them, “You are witnesses against yourselves that you have chosen to serve the LORD.” “We are witnesses!” they said. 23 “Now, therefore,” he said, “get rid of the foreign gods among you and incline your hearts to the LORD, the God of Israel.” 24 So the people said to Joshua, “We will serve the LORD our God and obey His voice.” 25 On that day Joshua made a covenant for the people, and there at Shechem he established for them a statute and ordinance. 26 Joshua recorded these things in the Book of the Law of God. Then he took a large stone and set it up there under the oak that was near the sanctuary of the LORD. 27 And Joshua said to all the people, “You see this stone. It will be a witness against us, for it has heard all the words the LORD has spoken to us, and it will be a witness against you if you ever deny your God.” 28 Then Joshua sent the people away, each to his own inheritance. 29 Some time later, Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died at the age of 110. 30 And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash. 31 Israel had served the LORD throughout the days of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had experienced all the works that the LORD had done for Israel. 32 And the bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had brought up out of Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the plot of land that Jacob had purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver. So it became an inheritance for Joseph’s descendants. 33 Eleazar son of Aaron also died, and they buried him at Gibeah, which had been given to his son Phinehas in the hill country of Ephraim.
Psalm 44
For the choirmaster. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. We have heard with our ears, O God; our fathers have told us the work You did in their days, in the days of old. 2 With Your hand You drove out the nations and planted our fathers there; You crushed the peoples and cast them out. 3 For it was not by their sword that they took the land; their arm did not bring them victory. It was by Your right hand, Your arm, and the light of Your face, because You favored them. 4 You are my King, O God, who ordains victories for Jacob. 5 Through You we repel our foes; through Your name we trample our enemies. 6 For I do not trust in my bow, nor does my sword save me. 7 For You save us from our enemies; You put those who hate us to shame. 8 In God we have boasted all day long, and Your name we will praise forever. Selah 9 But You have rejected and humbled us; You no longer go forth with our armies. 10 You have made us retreat from the foe, and those who hate us have plundered us. 11 You have given us up as sheep to be devoured; You have scattered us among the nations. 12 You sell Your people for nothing; no profit do You gain from their sale. 13 You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and derision to those around us. 14 You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples. 15 All day long my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face, 16 at the voice of the scorner and reviler, because of the enemy, bent on revenge. 17 All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten You or betrayed Your covenant. 18 Our hearts have not turned back; our steps have not strayed from Your path. 19 But You have crushed us in the lair of jackals; You have covered us with deepest darkness. 20 If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, 21 would not God have discovered, since He knows the secrets of the heart? 22 Yet for Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. 23 Wake up, O Lord! Why are You sleeping? Arise! Do not reject us forever. 24 Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and oppression? 25 For our soul has sunk to the dust; our bodies cling to the earth. 26 Rise up; be our help! Redeem us on account of Your loving devotion.
1 Corinthians 11
You are to imitate me, just as I imitate Christ. 2 Now I commend you for remembering me in everything and for maintaining the traditions, just as I passed them on to you. 3 But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head. 5 And every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for it is just as if her head were shaved. 6 If a woman does not cover her head, she should have her hair cut off. And if it is shameful for a woman to have her hair cut or shaved off, she should cover her head. 7 A man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. 8 For man did not come from woman, but woman from man. 9 Neither was man created for woman, but woman for man. 10 For this reason a woman ought to have a sign of authority on her head, because of the angels. 11 In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. 12 For just as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God. 13 Judge for yourselves: Is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? 14 Doesn’t nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a disgrace to him, 15 but that if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For long hair is given to her as a covering. 16 If anyone is inclined to dispute this, we have no other practice, nor do the churches of God. 17 In the following instructions I have no praise to offer, because your gatherings do more harm than good. 18 First of all, I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. 19 And indeed, there must be differences among you to show which of you are approved. 20 Now then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat. 21 For as you eat, each of you goes ahead without sharing his meal. While one remains hungry, another gets drunk. 22 Don’t you have your own homes in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and humiliate those who have nothing? What can I say to you? Shall I praise you for this? No, I will not! 23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night He was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” 25 In the same way, after supper He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” 26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes. 27 Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. 28 Each one must examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. 29 For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. 30 That is why many among you are weak and sick, and a number of you have fallen asleep. 31 Now if we judged ourselves properly, we would not come under judgment. 32 But when we are judged by the Lord, we are being disciplined so that we will not be condemned with the world. 33 So, my brothers, when you come together to eat, wait for one another. 34 If anyone is hungry, he should eat at home, so that when you come together it will not result in judgment. And when I come, I will give instructions about the remaining matters.
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.
Missed a day? Don't start over. Read today's chapters and keep going.