Bible Readings for August 26th 1 Samuel 18 | Romans 16 | Lamentations 3 | Psalm 34 It was not Yahweh’s intention for David to wait passively for the throne of Israel, hidden from the public eye, until the day Saul died. Rather, Yahweh sovereignly orchestrated that the lives of the two anointed kings should begin intersecting immediately upon the anointing of David. David first encountered Saul when he played the harp for Saul (1 Sam. 16), and later when he joined Israel’s battle against Goliath ...
Aug 26, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 25th 1 Samuel 17 | Romans 15 | Lamentations 2 | Psalm 33 The story of David and Goliath is one of the more well known stories of the Bible, and with good reason. While the entire nation of Israel was quivering before the booming taunts of the giant Philistine named Goliath, the youngest son of Jesse arrives at the battlefield and quickly volunteers to fight as Israel’s champion. David faces opposition from his brother (1 Sam. 17:28), from Saul (1 Sam. 17:33), and especi...
Aug 25, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 24th 1 Samuel 16 | Romans 14 | Lamentations 1 | Psalm 32 The introduction of David in 1 Samuel 16 is a giant leap forward in the unfolding story of the Bible, even if the story starts with a small step as Samuel travels to Bethlehem to anoint the youngest son of Jesse. Before we get to the long-term implications of David’s kingship, there are two critical issues we first must notice in this passage. First, Yahweh implicitly contrasts the physical appearance of Saul with...
Aug 24, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 23rd 1 Samuel 15 | Romans 13 | Jeremiah 52 | Psalm 31 A major issue in biblical theology arises in 1 Samuel 15: What does it mean to read that Yahweh “regrets” decisions he has made? When Yahweh commands Saul to devote everything among the Amalekites to destruction, Saul obeys only insofar as it is convenient for him: “All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction” (1 Sam. 15:9). And when obedience to Yahweh proves inconvenient, Saul disobeys, choosing...
Aug 23, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 22nd 1 Samuel 14 | Romans 12 | Jeremiah 51 | Psalm 30 The story of salvation history in the Bible does not progress in nice, straight, neat lines. This is a comforting thought, since spiritual growth in our own lives moves forward not with perfect, unbroken progress but rather in fits and starts as we awkwardly advance in the grace of the gospel. In today’s reading, we see Israel simultaneously taking steps forward and backward in a few interesting ways. Importantly, 1 ...
Aug 22, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 21st 1 Samuel 13 | Romans 11 | Jeremiah 50 | Psalms 28 – 29 Saul’s sacrifice in 1 Samuel 13 was a serious sin—so serious, in fact, that Yahweh tore the kingdom away from Saul for it (1 Sam. 13:13–14). In essence, Saul had usurped the priesthood, since Yahweh had appointed only the offspring of Aaron to serve him as priests and Saul was descended from Benjamin. Saul did not qualify as a priest, and to highjack priestly ministry was blasphemous. There is an irony to this ...
Aug 21, 2025•5 min
Bible Readings for August 20th 1 Samuel 12 | Romans 10 | Jeremiah 49 | Psalms 26 – 27 There are some striking similarities between the farewell address of Samuel in 1 Samuel 12 and the speech of Paul to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20. Like Samuel, Paul also insists that he had not defrauded anything from the Ephesians while he was in their midst (Acts 20:33–34; cf. 1 Sam. 12:3–4), and, like Samuel, Paul also urges the Ephesians to continue to walk faithfully in the gospel after his departure (Ac...
Aug 20, 2025•5 min
Bible Readings for August 19th 1 Samuel 11 | Romans 9 | Jeremiah 48 | Psalm 25 At the end of 1 Samuel 10, the narrator gave us a new, critical detail about Saul: “Saul also went to his home at Gibeah…” (1 Sam. 10:26). We knew that Saul was a Benjaminite, and we knew that Saul claimed to be from the humblest clan of the tribe of Benjamin (1 Sam. 9:21), but now we discover what Saul meant: Israel’s first king descends from the clan who lived in Gibeah, where the brutal rape and murder of the Levit...
Aug 19, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 18 1 Samuel 10 | Romans 8 | Jeremiah 47 | Psalms 23 – 24 The introduction of a king in 1 Samuel 10 marks uncharted territory for everyone, raising all kinds of questions. How would Yahweh set apart his king, and what resources would Yahweh give to him to help him serve Israel well? How should the king himself act, and how should the people of Israel respond to their new ruler? First, Samuel anoints Saul as king with oil (1 Sam. 10:1). The oil, however, was merely a sign...
Aug 18, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 17th 1 Samuel 9 | Romans 7 | Jeremiah 46 | Psalm 22 At last, Yahweh chooses a king to reign over his people. Nevertheless, we ought to read 1 Samuel 9 with some concern, since Israel’s demand for a king stems from the fact that they have rejected Yahweh from reigning as king over them (1 Sam. 8:7). What kind of a king will Yahweh give to his rebellious people? In 1 Samuel 9, we read three important principles to explain the selection of Saul as the first king over Israe...
Aug 17, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 16th 1 Samuel 7 – 8 | Romans 6 | Jeremiah 44 – 45 | Psalms 20 – 21 In 1 Samuel 7, we see the last iteration of the cycle of Israel’s judges: Israel sins, Yahweh delivers Israel to their enemies, Israel cries for deliverance, and Yahweh sends a judge to reform Israel. In 1 Samuel 7:3, Samuel instructs the people to reform their worship in order to regain the blessings of Yahweh: “If you are returning to the LORD with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the...
Aug 16, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 15th 1 Samuel 5 – 6 | Romans 5 | Jeremiah 43 | Psalm 19 If the Israelites had treated Yahweh’s glory with contempt in 1 Samuel 4, the Philistines do so much more in 1 Samuel 5. When the Philistines capture the ark of the covenant in battle, they set it next to their god Dagon as a trophy of war (1 Sam. 5:2)—a situation that does not please Yahweh. This whole story is written humorously, so we should feel free to laugh as we read about Dagon twice falling facedown before...
Aug 15, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 14th 1 Samuel 4 | Romans 4 | Jeremiah 42 | Psalm 18 In 1 Samuel 4, Yahweh brings three major forms of judgment against the people of Israel. First, when the Israelites bring the ark of the covenant out in battle with them against the Philistines, Yahweh hands them over to defeat, and the Philistines capture the ark (1 Sam. 4:11). Second, Hophni and Phinehas are put to death in battle just as Yahweh had promised in 1 Samuel 2 and 3 (1 Sam. 4:11). Third, when Eli hears th...
Aug 14, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 13th 1 Samuel 3 | Romans 3 | Jeremiah 41 | Psalm 17 Sometimes we imagine that the people living in the Old Testament were constantly surrounded by great signs and wonders—a parted sea here, a prophetic vision there—but that wasn’t the case. Here in 1 Samuel 3:1, we read specifically that “the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.” The reason God communicated so infrequently with his people is obvious if we remember the stories we have be...
Aug 13, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 12th 1 Samuel 2 | Romans 2 | Jeremiah 40 | Psalms 15 – 16 If Hannah is put forward as a model for godly parenting, the second half of 1 Samuel 2 reveals the priest Eli as a model for negligent parenting. Eli’s sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are worthless men who do not know Yahweh (1 Sam. 2:12). They steal for themselves the choicest parts of the sacrifices that people bring to the tabernacle (1 Sam. 2:13–17), and they abuse their priestly authority by seducing the women wh...
Aug 12, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 11th 1 Samuel 1 | Romans 1 | Jeremiah 39 | Psalms 13 – 14 Quietly, through a poor, widowed Moabite woman—the most unlikely person possible—God put into motion a plan in the book of Ruth for raising up a king. This king would shepherd God’s people away from doing what was right in their own eyes and instead toward obeying God by doing everything that was right in his eyes. And in 1 Samuel, God finally anoints his chosen king to the throne of Israel—but not right away. In...
Aug 11, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 10th Ruth 3 – 4 | Acts 28 | Jeremiah 38 | Psalms 11 – 12 In Ruth 3–4, the other sandal drops. We discover here that there is another, closer kinsman-redeemer to the family of Elimelech who would have priority in choosing to marry Ruth (Ruth 3:12–13) and that redeeming Ruth would put that man’s inheritance at risk (Ruth 4:6). Under the Mosaic law, a surviving brother would marry his dead brother’s widow in a Levirate marriage. When the woman bore a son, that son would be...
Aug 10, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 9th Ruth 2 | Acts 27 | Jeremiah 37 | Psalm 10 In Ruth 2, we meet the third major figure in this story, a man named Boaz. Ruth, eager to keep the covenant vows she had made to Naomi, sought to provide for her anguished mother-in-law by gleaning in fields, and as she set out, “she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the clan of Elimelech” (Ruth 2:3). In Ruth 2, we learn two important details about Boaz that shape the story of Ruth, and ...
Aug 09, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 8th Ruth 1 | Acts 26 | Jeremiah 36 | Psalm 9 In the book of Judges, Israel descended deeper and deeper into sinfulness, idolatry, and rebellion. The opening verse of the book of Ruth, then, is ominous: “In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land…” (Ruth 1:1). Will the story of the book of Ruth be another story like what we just read—a story culminating in the crimes of Gibeah? Certainly, every sign at the beginning of Ruth suggests that something t...
Aug 08, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 7th Judges 21 | Acts 25 | Jeremiah 35 | Psalms 7 – 8 In Judges 21, we learn that the eleven tribes of Israel had sworn an oath among themselves, saying, “Cursed be he who gives a wife to Benjamin” (Judg. 21:18). Quickly, however, Israel recognizes that their rash vow created a terrible problem—without wives, an entire tribe would be blotted out from among Israel. In the last chapter of Judges, we see Israel leveraging their own wisdom to create their own solutions once ...
Aug 07, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 6th Judges 20 | Acts 24 | Jeremiah 34 | Psalms 5 – 6 When all Israel arrives to inquire into what has happened in Gibeah, neither the Levite nor the tribe of Benjamin comes off looking good. Conveniently, the Levite leaves out the fact that he had pushed his concubine out the door to face the violence of the men of Gibeah: “They meant to kill me, and they violated my concubine, and she is dead” (Judg. 20:5). But even worse, the Benjaminites shockingly refuse to give up ...
Aug 06, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 5th Judges 19 | Acts 23 | Jeremiah 33 | Psalms 3 – 4 In Judges 19:1, we read that a “certain Levite” took a wife from Bethlehem in Judah. The author of the book of Judges is careful to state, once again, that this all happened “in those days, when there was no king in Israel” (Judg. 19:1), underscoring the wickedness that we are about to read. Now, the text doesn’t absolutely identify this “certain Levite” sojourning in the hill country of Ephraim as Jonathan, the Levit...
Aug 05, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 4th Judges 18 | Acts 22 | Jeremiah 32 | Psalms 1 – 2 Judges 18 opens with a repetition of the first half of the theme verse of Judges: “In those days there was no king in Israel” (Judg. 18:1). Little by little, bit by bit, Israel is descending further into sin, idolatry, and rebellion as they forsake Yahweh to do whatever is right in their own eyes. In Judges 18, that downward slide increases in speed. Now, it is important to understand that the Danites are doing the ri...
Aug 04, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 3rd Judges 17 | Acts 21 | Jeremiah 30 – 31 | Mark 16 After the death of Samson in Judges 16, the book of Judges turns to narrate the final storyline we will read in this dark section of Israel’s history. This last, ugly narrative begins abruptly with a woman cursing whoever it is who had stolen 1,100 pieces of her silver (Judg. 17:2). Now, 1,100 pieces of silver is the exact amount the Philistines had promised to Delilah for betraying Samson in Judges 16:5, raising the ...
Aug 03, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 2nd Judges 16 | Acts 20 | Jeremiah 29 | Mark 15 Samson’s end in Judges 16 comes as a tragedy but not as a surprise. As in Judges 14, we find Samson’s weakness for women getting the best of him here in Judges 16, first in a Philistine prostitute in Judges 16:1–3 and then in Delilah, a Philistine woman who loved her people more than she ever loved Samson. Also, just as the Philistines had used Samson’s wife in Judges 14 to learn the secret of Samson’s riddle, the Philisti...
Aug 02, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for August 1st Judges 15 | Acts 19 | Jeremiah 28 | Mark 14 The last two days, we have been meditating on the ways the life of Samson foreshadows the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. We will return to that theme tomorrow, but for today, we should spend some time thinking about the tragedy of Samson’s life. Certainly, God accomplished his plans through Samson, but Samson stands as a warning not to waste the gifts God has given to us, since God gives us gifts for his purposes, not ...
Aug 01, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 31st Judges 14 | Acts 18 | Jeremiah 27 | Mark 13 Through Samson, God was not merely saving his people by raising up one more judge, as we began to discuss yesterday. Through Samson, God was also uniquely foreshadowing the life and ministry of his own Son, Jesus Christ. Today, we get a few more clues about what the coming Messiah would look like. First, Samson chooses a wife who would eventually bring disaster upon him, but we are told explicitly that Samson’s desire to ma...
Jul 31, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 30th Judges 13 | Acts 17 | Jeremiah 26 | Mark 12 In Judges 13, we read the beginning of the story of one of the more prominent figures in the book of Judges: Samson. Most importantly, the story of Samson foreshadows the story of Jesus in significant ways—very similar to how the story of Joseph foreshadows the story of Christ. 1 Samson, however, is not a righteous figure as Joseph was but rather a deeply flawed person whose failures, more than his successes, cast light on ...
Jul 30, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 29th Judges 12 | Acts 16 | Jeremiah 25 | Mark 11 At this point, it is already obvious that the book of Judges is an extremely low point in the Bible. Because there is no king in Israel, every man does what is right in his own eyes. Here in Judges 12, we see another step down the long, deep stairway into the dungeon of Israel’s apostasy. This time, Israel destroys itself not with idolatry but with petty, deadly bickering among themselves. Immediately on the heels of a grea...
Jul 29, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 28th Judges 11 | Acts 15 | Jeremiah 24 | Mark 10 In yesterday’s reading, Yahweh tested Israel by promising not to save them after the latest round of rebellion and idolatry. To their credit, Israel repents for seemingly the thousandth time, putting away the foreign gods and returning to serve Yahweh. In response, we read that Yahweh “became impatient over the misery of Israel” (Judg. 10:16)—that is, he was moved compassionately to save his people. To accomplish this salva...
Jul 28, 2025•4 min
