Daily Devotions · November 15
Reading for November 15
Read the whole Bible in a year, a few chapters a day.
Job 41–42 · 2 Corinthians 1–2
Job 41–42 · 2 Corinthians 1–2, Berean Standard Bible
Job 41
“Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook or tie down his tongue with a rope? 2 Can you put a cord through his nose or pierce his jaw with a hook? 3 Will he beg you for mercy or speak to you softly? 4 Will he make a covenant with you to take him as a slave for life? 5 Can you pet him like a bird or put him on a leash for your maidens? 6 Will traders barter for him or divide him among the merchants? 7 Can you fill his hide with harpoons or his head with fishing spears? 8 If you lay a hand on him, you will remember the battle and never repeat it! 9 Surely hope of overcoming him is false. Is not the sight of him overwhelming? 10 No one is so fierce as to rouse Leviathan. Then who is able to stand against Me? 11 Who has given to Me that I should repay him? Everything under heaven is Mine. 12 I cannot keep silent about his limbs, his power and graceful form. 13 Who can strip off his outer coat? Who can approach him with a bridle? 14 Who can open his jaws, ringed by his fearsome teeth? 15 His rows of scales are his pride, tightly sealed together. 16 One scale is so near to another that no air can pass between them. 17 They are joined to one another; they clasp and cannot be separated. 18 His snorting flashes with light, and his eyes are like the rays of dawn. 19 Firebrands stream from his mouth; fiery sparks shoot forth! 20 Smoke billows from his nostrils as from a boiling pot over burning reeds. 21 His breath sets coals ablaze, and flames pour from his mouth. 22 Strength resides in his neck, and dismay leaps before him. 23 The folds of his flesh are tightly joined; they are firm and immovable. 24 His chest is as hard as a rock, as hard as a lower millstone! 25 When Leviathan rises up, the mighty are terrified; they withdraw before his thrashing. 26 The sword that reaches him has no effect, nor does the spear or dart or arrow. 27 He regards iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood. 28 No arrow can make him flee; slingstones become like chaff to him. 29 A club is regarded as straw, and he laughs at the sound of the lance. 30 His undersides are jagged potsherds, spreading out the mud like a threshing sledge. 31 He makes the depths seethe like a cauldron; he makes the sea like a jar of ointment. 32 He leaves a glistening wake behind him; one would think the deep had white hair! 33 Nothing on earth is his equal—a creature devoid of fear! 34 He looks down on all the haughty; he is king over all the proud.”
Job 42
Then Job replied to the LORD: 2 “I know that You can do all things and that no plan of Yours can be thwarted. 3 You asked, ‘Who is this who conceals My counsel without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. 4 You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak. I will question you, and you shall inform Me.’ 5 My ears had heard of You, but now my eyes have seen You. 6 Therefore I despise myself, and I repent in dust and ashes.” 7 After the LORD had spoken these words to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My wrath is kindled against you and your two friends. For you have not spoken about Me accurately, as My servant Job has. 8 So now, take seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. Then My servant Job will pray for you, for I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken accurately about Me, as My servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the LORD had told them; and the LORD accepted Job’s prayer. 10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his prosperity and doubled his former possessions. 11 All his brothers and sisters and prior acquaintances came and dined with him in his house. They consoled him and comforted him over all the adversity that the LORD had brought upon him. And each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring. 12 So the LORD blessed Job’s latter days more than his first. He owned 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. 13 And he also had seven sons and three daughters. 14 He named his first daughter Jemimah, his second Keziah, and his third Keren-happuch. 15 No women as beautiful as Job’s daughters could be found in all the land, and their father granted them an inheritance among their brothers. 16 After this, Job lived 140 years and saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so Job died, old and full of years.
2 Corinthians 1
Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother, To the church of God in Corinth, together with all the saints throughout Achaia: 2 Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ overflow to us, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6 If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which accomplishes in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we experience. 7 And our hope for you is sure, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you will share in our comfort. 8 We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the hardships we encountered in the province of Asia. We were under a burden far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired even of life. 9 Indeed, we felt we were under the sentence of death, in order that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God, who raises the dead. 10 He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and He will deliver us. In Him we have placed our hope that He will yet again deliver us, 11 as you help us by your prayers. Then many will give thanks on our behalf for the favor shown us in answer to their prayers. 12 For this is our boast: Our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world, and especially in relation to you, in the holiness and sincerity that are from God—not in worldly wisdom, but in the grace of God. 13 For we do not write you anything that is beyond your ability to read and understand. And I hope that you will understand us completely, 14 as you have already understood us in part, that you may boast of us just as we will boast of you in the day of our Lord Jesus. 15 Confident of this, I planned to visit you first, so that you might receive a double blessing. 16 I wanted to visit you on my way to Macedonia, and to return to you from Macedonia, and then to have you help me on my way to Judea. 17 When I planned this, did I do it carelessly? Or do I make my plans by human standards, so as to say “Yes, yes” and also “No, no”? 18 But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not “Yes” and “No.” 19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was proclaimed among you by me and Silvanus and Timothy, was not “Yes” and “No,” but in Him it has always been “Yes.” 20 For all the promises of God are “Yes” in Christ. And so through Him, our “Amen” is spoken to the glory of God. 21 Now it is God who establishes both us and you in Christ. He anointed us, 22 placed His seal on us, and put His Spirit in our hearts as a pledge of what is to come. 23 I call God as my witness that it was in order to spare you that I did not return to Corinth. 24 Not that we lord it over your faith, but we are fellow workers with you for your joy, because it is by faith that you stand firm.
2 Corinthians 2
So I made up my mind not to make another painful visit to you. 2 For if I grieve you, who is left to cheer me but those whom I have grieved? 3 I wrote as I did so that on my arrival I would not be grieved by those who ought to make me rejoice. I had confidence in all of you, that you would share my joy. 4 For through many tears I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart, not to grieve you but to let you know how much I love you. 5 Now if anyone has caused grief, he has not grieved me but all of you—to some degree, not to overstate it. 6 The punishment imposed on him by the majority is sufficient for him. 7 So instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 Therefore I urge you to reaffirm your love for him. 9 My purpose in writing you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. 10 If you forgive anyone, I also forgive him. And if I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven it in the presence of Christ for your sake, 11 in order that Satan should not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. 12 Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and a door stood open for me in the Lord, 13 I had no peace in my spirit, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia. 14 But thanks be to God, who always leads us triumphantly as captives in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him. 15 For we are to God the sweet aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. 16 To the one we are an odor that brings death, to the other a fragrance that brings life. And who is qualified for such a task? 17 For we are not like so many others, who peddle the word of God for profit. On the contrary, in Christ we speak before God with sincerity, as men sent from God.
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.
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.