Daily Devotions · October 17
Reading for October 17
Read the whole Bible in a year, a few chapters a day.
Job 1–2 · Acts 6–7
Job 1–2 · Acts 6–7, Berean Standard Bible
Job 1
There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. And this man was blameless and upright, fearing God and shunning evil. 2 He had seven sons and three daughters, 3 and he owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and a very large number of servants. Job was the greatest man of all the people of the East. 4 Job’s sons would take turns holding feasts in their homes, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. 5 And when the days of feasting were over, Job would send for his children to purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice. 6 One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. 7 “Where have you come from?” said the LORD to Satan. “From roaming through the earth,” he replied, “and walking back and forth in it.” 8 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one on earth like him, a man who is blameless and upright, who fears God and shuns evil.” 9 Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing? 10 Have You not placed a hedge on every side around him and his household and all that he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out Your hand and strike all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face.” 12 “Very well,” said the LORD to Satan. “Everything he has is in your hands, but you must not lay a hand on the man himself.” Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD. 13 One day, while Job’s sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 14 a messenger came and reported to Job: “While the oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby, 15 the Sabeans swooped down and took them away. They put the servants to the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!” 16 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and reported: “The fire of God fell from heaven. It burned and consumed the sheep and the servants, and I alone have escaped to tell you!” 17 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and reported: “The Chaldeans formed three bands, raided the camels, and took them away. They put the servants to the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you!” 18 While he was still speaking, another messenger came and reported: “Your sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, 19 when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on the young people and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you!” 20 Then Job stood up, tore his robe, and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped, 21 saying: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the name of the LORD.” 22 In all this, Job did not sin or charge God with wrongdoing.
Job 2
On another day the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them to present himself before Him. 2 “Where have you come from?” said the LORD to Satan. “From roaming through the earth,” he replied, “and walking back and forth in it.” 3 Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one on earth like him, a man who is blameless and upright, who fears God and shuns evil. He still retains his integrity, even though you incited Me against him to ruin him without cause.” 4 “Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give up all he owns in exchange for his life. 5 But stretch out Your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse You to Your face.” 6 “Very well,” said the LORD to Satan. “He is in your hands, but you must spare his life.” 7 So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and infected Job with terrible boils from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head. 8 And Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself as he sat among the ashes. 9 Then Job’s wife said to him, “Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die!” 10 “You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept from God only good and not adversity?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said. 11 Now when Job’s three friends—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite—heard about all this adversity that had come upon him, each of them came from his home, and they met together to go and sympathize with Job and comfort him. 12 When they lifted up their eyes from afar, they could barely recognize Job. They began to weep aloud, and each man tore his robe and threw dust in the air over his head. 13 Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights, but no one spoke a word to him because they saw how intense his suffering was.
Acts 6
In those days when the disciples were increasing in number, the Grecian Jews among them began to grumble against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2 So the Twelve summoned all the disciples and said, “It is unacceptable for us to neglect the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Therefore, brothers, select from among you seven men confirmed to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will assign this responsibility to them 4 and will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.” 5 This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, as well as Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. 6 They presented these seven to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. 7 So the word of God continued to spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem grew rapidly, and a great number of priests became obedient to the faith. 8 Now Stephen, who was full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and signs among the people. 9 But resistance arose from what was called the Synagogue of the Freedmen, including Cyrenians, Alexandrians, and men from the provinces of Cilicia and Asia. They disputed with Stephen, 10 but they could not stand up to his wisdom or the Spirit by whom he spoke. 11 Then they prompted some men to say, “We heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God.” 12 So they stirred up the people, elders, and scribes and confronted Stephen. They seized him and brought him before the Sanhedrin, 13 where they presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. 14 For we have heard him say that Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs that Moses handed down to us.” 15 All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
Acts 7
Then the high priest asked Stephen, “Are these charges true?” 2 And Stephen declared: “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham while he was still in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and told him, ‘Leave your country and your kindred and go to the land I will show you.’ 4 So Abraham left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After his father died, God brought him out of that place and into this land where you are now living. 5 He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised to give possession of the land to Abraham and his descendants, even though he did not yet have a child. 6 God told him that his descendants would be foreigners in a strange land, and that they would be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years. 7 ‘But I will punish the nation that enslaves them,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come forth and worship Me in this place.’ 8 Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision, and Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day. And Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob of the twelve patriarchs. 9 Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him 10 and rescued him from all his troubles. He granted Joseph favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh king of Egypt, who appointed him ruler over Egypt and all his household. 11 Then famine and great suffering swept across Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers could not find food. 12 When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit. 13 On their second visit, Joseph revealed his identity to his brothers, and his family became known to Pharaoh. 14 Then Joseph sent for his father Jacob and all his relatives, seventy-five in all. 15 So Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our fathers died. 16 Their bones were carried back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a price he paid in silver. 17 As the time drew near for God to fulfill His promise to Abraham, our people in Egypt increased greatly in number. 18 Then another king, who knew nothing of Joseph, arose over Egypt. 19 He exploited our people and oppressed our fathers, forcing them to abandon their infants so they would die. 20 At that time Moses was born, and he was beautiful in the sight of God. For three months he was nurtured in his father’s house. 21 When he was set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and brought him up as her own son. 22 So Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in speech and action. 23 When Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his brothers, the children of Israel. 24 And when he saw one of them being mistreated, Moses went to his defense and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian who was oppressing him. 25 He assumed his brothers would understand that God was using him to deliver them, but they did not. 26 The next day he came upon two Israelites who were fighting, and he tried to reconcile them, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why are you mistreating each other?’ 27 But the man who was abusing his neighbor pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? 28 Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’ 29 At this remark, Moses fled to the land of Midian, where he lived as a foreigner and had two sons. 30 After forty years had passed, an angel appeared to Moses in the flames of a burning bush in the desert near Mount Sinai. 31 When Moses saw it, he marveled at the sight. As he approached to look more closely, the voice of the Lord came to him: 32 ‘I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.’ Moses trembled with fear and did not dare to look. 33 Then the Lord said to him, ‘Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground. 34 I have indeed seen the oppression of My people in Egypt. I have heard their groaning and have come down to deliver them. Now come, I will send you back to Egypt.’ 35 This Moses, whom they had rejected with the words, ‘Who made you ruler and judge?’ is the one whom God sent to be their ruler and redeemer through the angel who appeared to him in the bush. 36 He led them out and performed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, at the Red Sea, and for forty years in the wilderness. 37 This is the same Moses who told the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers.’ 38 He was in the assembly in the wilderness with the angel who spoke to him on Mount Sinai, and with our fathers. And he received living words to pass on to us. 39 But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt. 40 They said to Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us! As for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’ 41 At that time they made a calf and offered a sacrifice to the idol, rejoicing in the works of their hands. 42 But God turned away from them and gave them over to the worship of the host of heaven, as it is written in the book of the prophets: ‘Did you bring Me sacrifices and offerings forty years in the wilderness, O house of Israel? 43 You have taken along the tabernacle of Molech and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile beyond Babylon.’ 44 Our fathers had the tabernacle of the Testimony with them in the wilderness. It was constructed exactly as God had directed Moses, according to the pattern he had seen. 45 And our fathers who received it brought it in with Joshua when they dispossessed the nations God drove out before them. It remained until the time of David, 46 who found favor in the sight of God and asked to provide a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. 47 But it was Solomon who built the house for Him. 48 However, the Most High does not dwell in houses made by human hands. As the prophet says: 49 ‘Heaven is My throne and the earth is My footstool. What kind of house will you build for Me, says the Lord, or where will My place of repose be? 50 Has not My hand made all these things?’ 51 You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers— 53 you who received the law ordained by angels, yet have not kept it.” 54 On hearing this, the members of the Sanhedrin were enraged, and they gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 At this they covered their ears, cried out in a loud voice, and rushed together at him. 58 They dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile the witnesses laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 While they were stoning him, Stephen appealed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Falling on his knees, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.
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.