Daily Devotions · March 9
Reading for March 9
Read the whole Bible in a year, a few chapters a day.
Deuteronomy 10–12 · Mark 16
Deuteronomy 10–12 · Mark 16, Berean Standard Bible
Deuteronomy 10
At that time the LORD said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, come up to Me on the mountain, and make an ark of wood. 2 And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke; and you are to place them in the ark.” 3 So I made an ark of acacia wood, chiseled out two stone tablets like the originals, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. 4 And the LORD wrote on the tablets what had been written previously, the Ten Commandments that He had spoken to you on the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. The LORD gave them to me, 5 and I went back down the mountain and placed the tablets in the ark I had made, as the LORD had commanded me; and there they have remained. 6 The Israelites traveled from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah, where Aaron died and was buried, and Eleazar his son succeeded him as priest. 7 From there they traveled to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with streams of water. 8 At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the LORD, to stand before the LORD to serve Him, and to pronounce blessings in His name, as they do to this day. 9 That is why Levi has no portion or inheritance among his brothers; the LORD is his inheritance, as the LORD your God promised him. 10 I stayed on the mountain forty days and forty nights, like the first time, and that time the LORD again listened to me and agreed not to destroy you. 11 Then the LORD said to me, “Get up. Continue your journey ahead of the people, that they may enter and possess the land that I swore to their fathers to give them.” 12 And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God by walking in all His ways, to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD that I am giving you this day for your own good? 14 Behold, to the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, and the earth and everything in it. 15 Yet the LORD has set His affection on your fathers and loved them. And He has chosen you, their descendants after them, above all the peoples, even to this day. 16 Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and stiffen your necks no more. 17 For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and accepting no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and widow, and He loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing. 19 So you also must love the foreigner, since you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt. 20 You are to fear the LORD your God and serve Him. Hold fast to Him and take your oaths in His name. 21 He is your praise and He is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome wonders that your eyes have seen. 22 Your fathers went down to Egypt, seventy in all, and now the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.
Deuteronomy 11
You shall therefore love the LORD your God and always keep His charge, His statutes, His ordinances, and His commandments. 2 Know this day that it is not your children who have known and seen the discipline of the LORD your God: His greatness, His mighty hand, and His outstretched arm; 3 the signs and works He did in Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land; 4 what He did to the Egyptian army and horses and chariots when He made the waters of the Red Sea engulf them as they pursued you, and how He destroyed them completely, even to this day; 5 what He did for you in the wilderness until you reached this place; 6 and what He did in the midst of all the Israelites to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing that belonged to them. 7 For it is your own eyes that have seen every great work that the LORD has done. 8 You shall therefore keep every commandment I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and possess the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 9 and so that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10 For the land that you are entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated on foot, like a vegetable garden. 11 But the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks in the rain from heaven. 12 It is a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning to the end of the year. 13 So if you carefully obey the commandments I am giving you today, to love the LORD your God and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 then I will provide rain for your land in season, the autumn and spring rains, that you may gather your grain, new wine, and oil. 15 And I will provide grass in the fields for your livestock, and you will eat and be satisfied. 16 But be careful that you are not enticed to turn aside to worship and bow down to other gods, 17 or the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you. He will shut the heavens so that there will be no rain, nor will the land yield its produce, and you will soon perish from the good land that the LORD is giving you. 18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on the doorposts of your houses and on your gates, 21 so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be multiplied in the land that the LORD swore to give your fathers. 22 For if you carefully keep all these commandments I am giving you to follow—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him— 23 then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and stronger than you. 24 Every place where the sole of your foot treads will be yours. Your territory will extend from the wilderness to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the Western Sea. 25 No man will be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put the fear and dread of you upon all the land, wherever you set foot, as He has promised you. 26 See, today I am setting before you a blessing and a curse— 27 a blessing if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, 28 but a curse if you disobey the commandments of the LORD your God and turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known. 29 When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30 Are not these mountains across the Jordan, west of the road toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah opposite Gilgal near the Oak of Moreh? 31 For you are about to cross the Jordan to enter and possess the land that the LORD your God is giving you. When you take possession of it and settle in it, 32 be careful to follow all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.
Deuteronomy 12
These are the statutes and ordinances you must be careful to follow all the days you live in the land that the LORD, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess. 2 Destroy completely all the places where the nations you are dispossessing have served their gods—atop the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree. 3 Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn up their Asherah poles, cut down the idols of their gods, and wipe out their names from every place. 4 You shall not worship the LORD your God in this way. 5 Instead, you must seek the place the LORD your God will choose from among all your tribes to establish as a dwelling for His Name, and there you must go. 6 To that place you are to bring your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and heave offerings, your vow offerings and freewill offerings, as well as the firstborn of your herds and flocks. 7 There, in the presence of the LORD your God, you and your households shall eat and rejoice in all you do, because the LORD your God has blessed you. 8 You are not to do as we are doing here today, where everyone does what seems right in his own eyes. 9 For you have not yet come to the resting place and the inheritance that the LORD your God is giving you. 10 When you cross the Jordan and live in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, and He gives you rest from all the enemies around you and you dwell securely, 11 then the LORD your God will choose a dwelling for His Name. And there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice offerings you vow to the LORD. 12 And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates, since he has no portion or inheritance among you. 13 Be careful not to offer your burnt offerings in just any place you see; 14 you must offer them only in the place the LORD will choose in one of your tribal territories, and there you shall do all that I command you. 15 But whenever you want, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your gates, according to the blessing the LORD your God has given you. Both the ceremonially clean and unclean may eat it as they would a gazelle or deer, 16 but you must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water. 17 Within your gates you must not eat the tithe of your grain or new wine or oil, the firstborn of your herds or flocks, any of the offerings that you have vowed to give, or your freewill offerings or special gifts. 18 Instead, you must eat them in the presence of the LORD your God at the place the LORD your God will choose—you, your sons and daughters, your menservants and maidservants, and the Levite within your gates. Rejoice before the LORD your God in all you do, 19 and be careful not to neglect the Levites as long as you live in your land. 20 When the LORD your God expands your territory as He has promised, and you crave meat and say, “I want to eat meat,” you may eat it whenever you want. 21 If the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His Name is too far from you, then you may slaughter any of the herd or flock He has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat it within your gates whenever you want. 22 Indeed, you may eat it as you would eat a gazelle or deer; both the ceremonially unclean and the clean may eat it. 23 Only be sure not to eat the blood, because the blood is the life, and you must not eat the life with the meat. 24 You must not eat the blood; pour it on the ground like water. 25 Do not eat it, so that it may go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is right in the eyes of the LORD. 26 But you are to take your holy things and your vow offerings and go to the place the LORD will choose. 27 Present the meat and blood of your burnt offerings on the altar of the LORD your God. The blood of your other sacrifices must be poured out beside the altar of the LORD your God, but you may eat the meat. 28 Be careful to obey all these things I command you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of the LORD your God. 29 When the LORD your God cuts off before you the nations you are entering to dispossess, and you drive them out and live in their land, 30 be careful not to be ensnared by their ways after they have been destroyed before you. Do not inquire about their gods, asking, “How do these nations serve their gods? I will do likewise.” 31 You must not worship the LORD your God in this way, because they practice for their gods every abomination which the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. 32 See that you do everything I command you; do not add to it or subtract from it.
Mark 16
When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices so they could go and anoint the body of Jesus. 2 Very early on the first day of the week, just after sunrise, they went to the tomb. 3 They were asking one another, “Who will roll away the stone from the entrance of the tomb?” 4 But when they looked up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, even though it was extremely large. 5 When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed. 6 But he said to them, “Do not be alarmed. You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here! See the place where they put Him. 7 But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see Him, just as He told you.’” 8 So the women left the tomb and ran away, trembling and bewildered. And in their fear they did not say a word to anyone. 9 Early on the first day of the week, after Jesus had risen, He appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom He had driven out seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with Him, who were mourning and weeping. 11 And when they heard that Jesus was alive and she had seen Him, they did not believe it. 12 After this, Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them as they walked along in the country. 13 And they went back and reported it to the rest, but they did not believe them either. 14 Later, as they were eating, Jesus appeared to the Eleven and rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. 15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In My name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not harm them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will be made well.” 19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, He was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked through them, confirming His word by the signs that accompanied it.
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.
-
Scripture
Write out the verse that stood out to you.
-
Observation
What is it saying? Who is speaking, and to whom?
-
Application
What does it mean for your life today? Be specific.
-
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.