Wed.’s Devo - Job’s Test

Read: Job 1:1-3:26; 1 Corinthians 14:1-17; Psalm 37:12-29; Proverbs 21:25-26 Job means “the cry of woe”. He lived in the land of Uz which means “counsel”. He was a very rich man who feared God and lived his life with integrity. He and his wife had 10 children: 7 sons and 3 daughters. Job became the center of a challenge God made with Satan, unbeknownst to Job. *** One day God met with his heavenly court and Satan, the Accuser came. God asked Satan where he had been and he told him he had been patrolling the earth. God asked if he had observed Job and his fear of him. Satan said he feared God because he was protected with blessings and prosperity. So God told Satan he could test him in the area of his possessions. *** Satan lost no time in taking it all in one day. He took his children and everything he had. Job’s immediate response was to bow and worship the Lord. He proclaimed that everything he had had come from God and now he had taken it away. Then he praised the Lord. *** God met again with his heavenly court and Satan came with them. Once again God asked Satan where he had been and he replied he had been patrolling the earth, watching. God asked Satan if he had noticed Job’s reaction, and he had. Satan said that a man would give up everything to save his own life, but if you take away his health he would surely curse the Lord. God trusted Job so much he allowed Satan to take his health, but he could not take his life. *** Satan lost no time. He put itching boils all over Job’s body. Job sat in the ashes scraping his boils with broken pottery. Even his wife told him to curse God and die. *** Job’s three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar came to visit him. They were devastated when they saw him. They sat with him a week not saying a thing. *** Finally Job spoke up and cursed the day of his birth. He wondered why God would create a person who had no future. What he had feared had happened to him. He had lost his peace. *** We read about how Haman told the king how he would like to be honored only to have to do that to Mordecai. We see the reverse here. Satan knew what Job feared and he did that to him. But, no fear, God always has the last say. *** In Corinthians, Paul says that love should be our highest goal but when it comes to spiritual gifts we should desire above all the ability to prophesy. Prophesy strengthens, encourages and comforts others. *** Speaking in tongues is great to build up the speaker, but unless there is someone there to interpret what is being said, it only benefits the one speaking in tongues. Paul encouraged them to look for ways to help build up one another. *** Lord, help us to tend to our own garden by speaking in tongues, reading our Bible and talking to God. But, let us desire to use our gifts and energy helping others. May we be encouragers and strengthen our brothers and sisters with God’s words.

Tues.’s Devo - Divine Reversals

Read: Esther 8:1-10:3; 1 Corinthians 12:27-13:13; Psalm 37:1-11; Proverbs 21:23-24 Once Haman was out of the way, Mordecai was put in his place and given the king’s ring. Now he had the authority to put laws into place. Since what the king had written with his ring couldn’t be revoked, Mordecai wrote a new law to counteract his law. It gave the Jews the right to defend themselves against their enemies on the set day. So the opposite happened to what Haman had wanted. The Jews overpowered their enemies and all the nobles and governors in the provinces helped the Jews because they were afraid of them and of Mordecai. In Susa alone, they killed 500 men who came against the Jews. *** The next day, the king called in Esther and asked what else he could do for her and she asked for another day for the Jews to defend themselves and if the bodies of Hamans ten sons could be impaled on a pole. The king agreed. The sons were impaled and 300 more men were killed. The Jews took none of their plunder. In the other provinces they killed 75,000 of men who hated them and didn’t take any plunder. The next two days they rested and had a celebration of their victory. They rejoiced and gave gifts to one another. Mordecai sent a message saying that every year they would celebrate this great victory and called it Purim meaning “lots”. It was the day that Haman’s evil plot backfired and Haman and his sons were impaled on a sharpened pole. *** Mordecai became the prime minister with authority next to that of the king and was held in high esteem. He continued to work for the good of his people and to speak up for the welfare of all their descendants. *** Esther is the story of divine reversals. We are about to experience that same story in our world as we will see the defeat of those who want to annihilate us. We will come out the victors and see the goodness of God in the land of the living. *** In Corinthians, Paul lists the gifts of the church: apostles, prophets, teacher, miracles, healing, helps, leadership, and speaking in tongues. Then he showed them how to do their different offices - with love. No matter how good they might be in their gifts, if it isn’t done in love, it will not prosper or help God’s body. *** Paul explains what love looks like in verses 4-7. Those are so good to read over and over. All the gifts will become useless in time, but love will never expire. Faith, hope and love are the foundation of God’s kingdom. *** Lord, may we not forget the power of faith, hope and love. Thank you for stories to build up our faith like Esther. Thank you that you are always working for the good of your children and their posterity. May we exercise your gifts in our lives and do them through love.

Mon.’s Devo - For Such a Time as This

Read: Esther 4:1-7:10; 1 Corinthians 12:1-26; Psalm 36:1-12; Proverbs 21:21-22 When Mordecai heard the evil decree to kill the Jews and take their land, he tore his clothes, dressed in burlap and ashes and went out crying with a loud wail. This was repeated by the Jews throughout the provinces as the news traveled. *** Esther heard that Mordecai was in mourning and sent word to find out why. He explained the decree and told her that she had to appeal to the king for her people. She was afraid to approach him because it might cost her her life. Mordecai told her it would cost her her life if she didn’t and maybe this was why God had made her the queen. She agreed to go to the king if all the Jews would fast for three days. *** On the third day, Esther went to the king and he held up his scepter to her. When he asked her her request, she asked for him and Haman to come to a banquet she would prepare. He agreed. *** Haman and the king went to the banquet but when the king asked Esther what her request was she asked them to come the next night to a banquet and then she would give him her request. They gladly agreed. *** Haman went home happy and boasted to his wife and friends about all his wealth, position and favor with the king. Then he told them about Mordecai who refused to bow to him. They suggested he erect a pole 75 feet tall in his backyard and asks the king permission to empale Mordecai on it the next day. *** Than night the king couldn’t sleep and he called for the books of his kingdom to be read to him. When he reached the part where Mordecai reported the assassins, he asked what had been done to reward him. Nothing had been done. *** Then next morning the king asked Haman what he would do for the man the king would want to honor. Haman thought it had to be him, so he told him what he would want done to him to show the world how the king honored him. *** The king liked his idea and told him to go and do it for Mordecai. So Haman had to put Mordecai on the king’s horse with the king’s robe on and yell, “this is what the king does for someone he wishes to honor!” Mordecai went home humiliated. *** He told his wife and friends about what had happened and they changed their tune. They told him since Mordecai was of Jewish origin, he would never succeed in his plans against him. It would be fatal to try. (Now they tell him.) *** Haman didn’t have time to think about it because the king’s eunuchs arrived to escort him to Esther’s banquet. *** When the men had had their wine, the king asked Esther what her request was. This was when Esther exposed Haman for plotting to kill her and her people. The king was enraged and went immediately to get someone to take Haman to his death. Haman fell on Esther to beg for his life. When the king came back in he accused Haman of assaulting his wife. *** The kings eunuch told the king that Haman had erected the pole in his yard to impale Mordecai on. The king told him to use it for Haman. So Haman was impaled in his own yard on the pole he had erected for Mordecai. *** In Corinthians, Paul was asked about spiritual gifts. Paul explained that the Spirit of God would never curse Jesus. There were different kinds of spiritual gifts but they all came from the Spirit of the Lord. They did different services but they all served the Lord. They worked in different ways but God was the one who worked them. *** Everyone is given a spiritual gift. Some have the gift to give wise advice, another has the gift to give a message of knowledge. Another has the gift of great faith and to another God gives the gift to heal. He gives one person the power to perform miracles and to another the ability to prophesy. He gives to one the ability to discern whether a spirit is from God or not. Another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages while another can interpret the unknown languages. God’s Holy Spirit decides who gets what spirit and gives it to them. *** God set up the Church to run like our bodies do. Each member of the Body of Christ has its purpose just like each member of our physical body does. We all need each other. Every part is extremely important whether they are seen or not. Each part is necessary in the whole success of the body. God made it this way so we would work together in love and unity. *** If one part is suffering, the whole body suffers and if one part is honored, the whole body is honored. *** Lord, may we have eyes to see the way the Kingdom is supposed to work. May we stop competing against one another and work together in love. May we learn our spiritual gifts and how to use them to give help the rest of the body.

Sun.’s Devo - Esther’s Rise

Read: Esther 1:1-3:15; 1 Corinthians 11:17-34; Psalm 35:17-28; Proverbs 21:19-20 Esther happened about 50 years after the Jews were allowed to go back to Jerusalem. Xerxes was the king who ruled 127 provinces from India to Ethiopia. His throne was in Susa. Xerxes gave a lavish banquet for his nobles and officials that lasted 180 days. Then he gave a banquet for the people that lived in his fortress of Susa which lasted for seven days. The queen, Vashti also gave a banquet for the women of the fortress. *** On the last day of the banquet when the men were good and drunk, he asked for Vashti to come so the men could gaze on her beauty. She was busy with her banquet and refused to come. This embarrassed the king and made him furious. He consulted with his advisors who knew all the Persian laws to see what could be done legally to punish Vashti. *** They were cunning and knew that if Vashti got away with this, it would affect how their wives treated them. They advised him to send a letter to all the provinces saying that every man should rule his own home and what he says should be obeyed. He followed their advise and banished Vashti from his presence. *** After a while, the king regretted his decision and missed Vashti. His advisors came up with a plan to replace Vashti. They would bring all the beautiful women of his kingdom to his palace where they would go through beauty treatments. Then he would have his pick. This pleased him. *** Meanwhile, there was a man named Mordecai whose family had been taken with King Jehoiakim and the nobility to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar. His family were from the family of Saul. He had a cousin named Esther who had become an orphan and he adopted her into his own family and raised her as his own daughter. *** Esther was beautiful and had been taken into the king’s harem. Mordecai told Esther not to share her nationality with anyone. Everyday, Mordecai would check up on Esther. Her beauty treatment lasted a year and a half. When it was time to go before the king she took the advise of Hegai who was in charge of the harem. God had given her favor with Hegai and he gave her good advice. *** The king was so delighted with Esther, he crowned her the queen right away. He held a great banquet in her honor. *** One day as Mordecai was on duty at the king’s gate he overheard two of the kings’ eunuchs plot to assassinate the king. He told Esther to tell the king and give Mordecai the credit of the report. The plot was investigated and the men were impaled on a pole. *** Later, Haman was promoted over all the other nobles making him the second most powerful man in the kingdom. Everyone was ordered by the king to bow before Haman whenever he passed them. Mordecai refused to bow to him or show him respect. The palace officers told on Mordecai and also told that he was a Jew. When Haman noticed this, he was outraged. He looked for a way to not only kill Mordecai but all the Jews throughout the empire of Xerxes. When he was casting lots or purim for the years events, he scheduled a day to get rid of the Jews. He told the king that there were some people in his kingdom that were scattered throughout his province who refused to obey his laws. He wanted permission to issue a decree to get rid of them. He would personally give 10,000 large sacks of silver to do this. The king agreed and gave him his signet ring to make it a law. *** On the 13th day of Nisan (two days before the Passover) the law went forth to all the provinces that on the 13th day of Adar, the next year the property of the Jews would be given to whoever killed them. This date was exactly a month after Nisan. So they had 13 months to worry about being killed by their neighbors for their property. *** The king and Haman sat down to drink, but the city of Susa fell into confusion. *** Confusion was also going on in the churches in Corinth. Paul said that it sounded like it was more harmful when they met than when they didn’t. There were many divisions. The Lord’s Supper was being blasphemed. Some were getting drunk while others were going hungry. *** Paul went over with them the first Last supper Christ had with his disciples. He explained the significance of the supper. It was a covenant between God and his people confirmed with blood. It was to be repeated to remember that solemn covenant. They were to take this supper with extreme honor to God. Those who didn’t were eating and drinking God’s judgment upon themselves. That was why they were weak and sick and some had died. *** Lord, help us to put everything in your order in our churches and in our lives. Show us the things that do not give your honor. Help us to love the things you love and hate the things you hate. All for your glory!

Sat.’s Devo - Cleansing the Temple

Read: Nehemiah 12:27-13:31; 1 Corinthians 11:1-16; Psalm 35:1-16; Proverbs 21:17-18 All the Levites throughout the land were called to Jerusalem to help in the celebration of the dedication of the wall. The priests and Levites purified themselves, then the people. *** Nehemiah led a group of priests and musicians to the top of the wall and they began walking southward singing and playing their instruments. Another group began walking northward around the top of the wall. They sang and played their music. It was like surround sound in the city. The celebration and joy of the people could be heard far away. On that day, they appointed men to be in charge of the storerooms for the offerings. Sacrifices and offerings were given. The people took joy in the priests and Levites and gave to the Temple. *** The book of Moses was read to the people and they got to the place that said no Ammonite or Moabite should ever be permitted to enter the assemble of God became they hadn’t provided food and water in the wilderness to God’s people. Instead, they had hired Balaam to curse them, but God turned Balaam’s curse into a blessing. *** Nehemiah left Jerusalem to go back to Babylon to serve King Artaxerxes but when he returned years later he found out that Tobiah, an Ammonite and the one who greatly opposed the Jews while building the wall had been given a storeroom in the Temple by the priest, Eliashib. Nehemiah threw all Tobiah’s belongings out of the room and had it purified and brought back the articles for God’s Temple and grain offerings and frankincense. *** Satan’s plan is first to attack from the outside and if he can’t enter there he will look for any door he can find. Tobiah’s door was that he was a relative to Eliashib, the priest. He probably found some way to blackmail him, flatter him, or guilt him into giving him the room. Nehemiah took care of Tobiah. *** Nehemiah also found that the Levites had not been given their portions of food and so the singers had to return to the fields to work to provide for their families. Nehemiah confronted the leaders and demanded to know why the Temple of God had been neglected. He called back the Levites and restored them to their jobs. The people began to give their tithes again. Nehemiah placed responsible men of integrity to watch over the tithes and distribute the money fairly to the Levites. *** Nehemiah saw how the people were working and selling their grain on the Sabbath. He shut this down and rebuked them. He had the gates of the city closed on Friday afternoon and not opened again until after the Sabbath. *** Next, Nehemiah found that some of the men had married women from Ashdod, Ammon, and Moab. Their children spoke those languages instead of Hebrew. Many of the people couldn’t speak Hebrew. Nehemiah confronted them and cursed them. He beat some of them and pulled out their hair. He made them swear that they wouldn’t let their children intermarry with the pagan people. *** When Nehemiah found out one of the priests had married the daughter of Sanballat another enemy of the Jews, he banished him from his presence. He banished everything that was foreign from the Temple and assigned the tasks to the priests and Levites and made sure they knew what to do. He prayed God would not forget all he had done for his name’s sake. *** In Corinthians, Paul went in great detail to put the order of things. Women are under man and man is under Christ. We can say it another way: Christ covers us all - he covers man who is to cover the woman. They all work together as one. In Paul’s day, the woman was to wear a covering over her head when praying to show that she is under her husband. The husband was not to cover his head to show that he was the made in the image of God and reflects God’s glory. The man is a picture of Christ who became a man. The woman is the picture of the Body of Christ who is his bride. Woman was made from man so she reflects man’s glory. We are made from Christ and reflect his glory. Christ stood before God in his glory. *** Lord, may we honor you and your glory through our lives. Help us to keep our temple’s clean and not neglect your purifying process.

Fri.’s Devo - The Law of Love

Read: Nehemiah 11:1-12:26; 1 Corinthians 10:14-33; Psalm 34:11-22; Proverbs 21:14-16 They chose lots to see which families would move to live in Jerusalem. A tenth were chosen and the rest of the people went back to live in their homes outside of Jerusalem. Volunteers were also asked to come and resettle in Jerusalem. The list was given of the people who were to live in Jerusalem. *** A list of priests and the high priest, Jeshua returned with Zerrubabel. Six Levites returned with him. A record was kept of all the priests, high priests and Levites that served in Jerusalem. The book was The Book of History. It is probably in the Vatican along with all the archives of books we will hopefully one day soon have access to. *** Paul in Corinthians begged the people to run from worshiping idols. He reminded them that when they take the Lord’s communion the blood represents his blood and the bread represents his body. They all share in Christ and are united when they eat the Lord’s Communion. *** The people were taking of the Lord’s supper then going and partaking in the idol ceremonies and eating their food. This was wrong. Paul explained that it wasn’t the food that was bad, it was their worship that was wrong. *** Some of the merchants would sell the food offered to their idols and Paul explained that this wasn’t bad because the food was not altered. They could buy this food - it was just food. But, it was not OK to worship the idols. He also told them that if someone who did worship idols asked you to their house to eat, they didn’t have to worry about the meat if it was offered to idols. Eating it would not hurt them. *** Then Paul goes on to say that if someone brings up the fact that you are eating food offered to idols and this offends them, then out of love for them shouldn’t eat it in front of them. We are to honor others consciences as much as we can. *** Lord, help us to be sensitive of others but I pray most of all that we would be free of religious laws that aren’t offensive to you. May the law of love cover all!

Thurs.’s Devo- Repentance

Read: Nehemiah 9:22-10:39; 1 Corinthians 9:19-10:13; Psalm 34:1-10; Proverbs 21:13 The leaders of the Levites continued their prayer to the Lord praising all God had done for them over the ages because they were his chosen possession. He had helped them conquer nations and possess the land he had promised them. As soon as they had peace, they because proud and turned away from the Lord. God had sent his prophets to turn them back but they refused to listen so the Lord allowed the people of the land to conquer them. But by God’s great mercy, he left a remnant of them alive. They were a part of that remnant. *** They made a promise and put it in writing and all the people agreed that they would not let their daughters or sons marry the pagan people. They would not trade on the Sabbath. They would let their land rest every seventh year and cancel all debts. They would pay the annual Temple tax to keep the Temple in operation. They would bring their allotment of wood for the sacrifices and the first fruits of all their produce. They would give their first born to the Lord. One of the priests would receive the tithes of the people and put them in the storerooms. They would not neglect the Temple of God. *** Paul defended his ministry. He had become a slave to man for the sake of the Gospel of Christ. He had followed the law when he was with the Jews and he had lived free from the law when he was with the Gentiles. He found a common ground with everyone in order to fellowship with them and share his faith. *** Paul reminded them of their ancestors who were all saved from Egypt and led through the wilderness. Christ was with them as the rock and saw all they did. Some worshiped other idols and engaged in all sorts of perversity and sin. They ended up dying in the wilderness and not entering into their promise. *** Paul warned them and us of testing the grace of God with their/our sins. Jesus knows and experienced the same temptations we do and he didn’t sin because God always gives us a way of escape and can help us endure our temptations if we let him. *** Lord, may we turn to you when tempted and allow you to show us the way out. May we choose to walk in holiness and truth.