Latest Thoughts of the Day

I Kings 1:7

5/5/2026

Adonijah conferred with Joab son of Seruiah and with Abiathar the priest and they gave their consent.

David’s son Abiathar is poltting to take over the throne before his father dies and leaves it to Solomon. He wants to demonstrate his support as broadly as possible, so he invites everybody but the most important characters to attend his coming out party. They move quickly to sustain as much surprise as they can. The prophet Nathan and Bathsheba get wind of the venture and themselves move quickly to circumvent what is going on. Manipulation and trickery are seen on their part, too, as they try to outwit the manipulation and trickery of Abiathar. David recognizes what is happening and is quick to call in the officials needed to bring about his will. In all of this God is working and Israel is moving toward the coming of Jesus.

2 Samuel 1:7

5/4/2026

When he turned around and saw me he called our to me and I said, "What can iI do?"

We can get into big trouble when we didn’t mean any harm. This young man probably expected a reward from David, and instead David had him killed. Society dictates how people should respond to things, and it was to this man’s harm that he did not think about the protocol. David could not have taken the situation lightly. The way the young man describes the scene reflects no sensitivity at all to who it was he was dealing with. Somebody who is somebody should not be treated like a nobody. The crown and the armband were enough of a clue. Lord, help us to be sensitive to give honor where honor is due. Make is to be wise unto salvation. Help us appropriately to honor our Lord Jesus.

1 Samuel 1:7

5/3/2026

This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat.

Peninnah knew that her husband loved Hannah more, and this made her all the more eager to rub in the reproach of childlessness. It made Hannah all the more earnest in her prayers, so it must have especially hurt when Eli the priest mistook Hannah’s praying for drunkenness. When Hannah spoke in her own defense, Eli added his prayer to hers and sent her on her way. Hannah had made a deal with God to devote to God the child, if God would hear her prayer. God did hear, Samuel was born, and Samuel was presented for tabernacle service soon after he was weaned. This child became a crucial figure in God’s preparing of Israel for the coming of Jesus.

Ruth 1:7

5/2/2026

With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take her back to the land of Judah,

Naomi’s return to the land of Judah was because she had nowhere else to go. God had dashed whatever hopes she had. There was a sense of belonging to the land of Judah, but no sense of deserving anything but mercy. It made no sense to her for her daughters- in law to accompany her, since disaster seemed the only likely outcome. The beautiful faith of this book lies in one daughter-in-law—in Ruth. She had learned of God from Naomi, and her heart had been captured. She did not want the life she had had before. It was not a deep love for Naomi that moved her, but a longing for Naomi’s God. She was longing for Jesus.

Judges 1:7

5/1/2026

Then Adoni-Bezek said, "Seventy kings with their thumbs and big toes cut off have picked up scraps under my table. Now God has paid me back for what I did to them."They brought him to Jerusalem and he died there.

The Israelites have been given the land because the cruelty and wickedness of the inhabitants has reached its fullness. Adoni-Bezek’s response to this dealing contains almost a shrug of the shoulders, and there is not trace of repentance at all. The vengeance this man deserves is a great deal more than he imagines, and we are thankful that vengeance belongs to our God. Thank You, Lord, that Your mercy to us included something of a sense of how wrong were our sins. It is not a joke. It is not tit for tat. Our sins call out for more. Thank You for paying it all, Lord Jesus.

Joshua 1:7

4/30/2026

Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey the law my servant Moses gave you; do not turn from it to the right or to the left, that you may be successful wherever you go.

If God has worked in us by His Holy Spirit, we don’t want the things that the law of God forbids and we do want the positive things it commands. The same enemy who ruined our first parents tries to accomplish with us what seemed to work with them. Doubt God and consider what He has commanded as if it were not in our interest. Help us, Lord, to develop a default instinct that coincides with what you have commanded. When our minds and hearts are where they should be, we want what is good and detest that which is evil. Help us to stay in that frame of mind, Lord Jesus.

Deuteronlmy 1:7

4/29/2026

Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites, go to all the neighboring people in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the seacoast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon as far as the great river, the Euphrates.

The Lord outlines exactly and specifically the boundaries of the land that He has purposed to give to His people, and He tells them to rise up and to get going. We know that it is because of the wickedness of these nations that God had determined to wipe them out. We know that Israel’s success will depend upon His help. Would that they had trusted Him! We all battle with enemies without and enemies within. God is directing all this that He might establish a nation into which He will one day send His Son, Jesus.

Numbers 1:7

4/28/2026

From Judah, Nahshon son of Aminadab.

God is confirming the leadership that has already manifested itself in the various tribes. This is not a random picking of a random individual to take on something that he is not in himself prepared to do. There is an order and a practical functioning of each tribe, and the one recognized by the tribe as its head is confirmed in the word before us. A similar thing goes on in the church. A congregation recognizes an individual that God has gifted to lead, that person embraces the responsibility and things move on in harmony and purpose. It is well when a leader recognizes the call of God upon himself and commits himself to serve a congregation for the glory of God. Lord, help Your people to recognize Your gifts to their assembly, to honor and respect them as gifts from Jesus.