Daily Strength: A Devotional for Men

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Daily Strength

Daily Strength

A Devotional for Men

Sam Storms

General Editor

Daily Strength: A Devotional for Men

Copyright © 2022 by Crossway

Published by Crossway

1300 Crescent Street

Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Dan Farrell and Jordan Singer

First printing 2022

The daily devotionals were first published as part of the ESV Men’s Devotional Bible (Crossway, 2015) and are reprinted by permission.

Printed in China

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the contributors.

Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4335-7340-8

ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-7342-2

PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-7341-5

Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-7342-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Storms, C. Samuel, 1951- editor.  

Title: Daily strength : a daily devotional for men / Sam Storms, general editor.  

Description: Wheaton, Illinois : Crossway, 2021. | The daily devotionals were first published as part of the ESV Men's Devotional Bible (Crossway, 2015) | Includes bibliographical references and index. 

Identifiers: LCCN 2020019824 (print) | LCCN 2020019825 (ebook) | ISBN 9781433573408 (hardcover) | ISBN 9781433573415 (pdf) | ISBN 9781433573422 (mobi) | ISBN 9781433573422 (epub)

Subjects: LCSH: Men--Religious life. | Devotional calendars. 

Classification: LCC BV4528.2 .D3435 2021  (print) | LCC BV4528.2  (ebook) | DDC 242/.642--dc23 

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020019824

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020019825

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

2022-01-21 03:43:46 PM

Contents

Introduction

Contributors

Daily Devotionals

Notes

Index of Scripture References

Introduction

The author of the epistle to the Hebrews reminds us that it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace (13:9). Daily Strength: A Devotional for Men is uniquely designed for men to achieve that very goal. Based on the daily devotionals originally appearing in the ESV Men’s Devotional Bible, this new book presents those devotionals in a one a day format for regular reading throughout the calendar year.

This resource does more than inform the mind. Its aim is to equip and encourage men who long to experience spiritual and moral transformation in the depths of their heart. More than fifty men who serve as pastors, professors, and Christian leaders have contributed 365 daily devotional studies on biblical themes of practical importance to the lives of men today.

Perhaps never before in the history of the church have men faced the intensity of temptation and relentless assault from the world, the flesh, and the devil that we are witnessing in our day. The essence of biblical masculinity is being undermined as we are repeatedly told that a real man must be wealthy, influential, autonomous, self-made, sexually liberated, and self-reliant. The result is that marriages are being destroyed, families are in crisis, and countless men are increasingly losing their sense of identity in Jesus Christ. Daily Strength speaks pointedly to men who long for lives of integrity, self-sacrifice, love, and passionate devotion to their families and, above all, to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Our goal is to strengthen and transform the hearts of men through the power of the Spirit-inspired word of God. Daily Strength provides daily insights into Scripture that not only enlighten the mind but especially feed, nurture, and empower the hearts of men to enjoy all that God is for them in Jesus Christ. Each daily devotional study is tied to a particular biblical passage that speaks to the most pressing needs and concerns that men face today. The contributors are themselves men who understand the unique challenges we encounter in today’s world, and they have written with an eye to the application of Scripture to our most practical needs. Their insights are theologically rich, honest, vulnerable, penetrating, and always gospel-centered.

The devotionals included in Daily Strength follow the biblical text from Genesis through Revelation. The devotionals are not arranged topically or thematically but rather are tethered closely to the text on which each is based. To get the most out of the devotional readings, we strongly recommend that you read the Bible text for each day before you read the related devotional. There is at least one devotional for each book of the Bible, connected with the passages that most clearly capture key themes of that book. If the 365 devotionals are read consecutively throughout the year, along with the passages on which they are based, beginning in Genesis and ending in Revelation, the reader will have gained by the end of the year an extensive overview of Scripture and the history of salvation.

May the Lord’s grace strengthen and encourage you as you immerse yourself in his life-changing word.

Sam Storms

General Editor

Contributors

Christopher Ash

Writer-in-Residence, Tyndale House, Cambridge University; pastor, speaker, writer; former Director, Cornhill Training Course, London

Alistair Begg

Senior Minister, Parkside Church, Cleveland, Ohio

Jon Bloom

Cofounder, Desiring God

Mike Bullmore

Senior Pastor, CrossWay Community Church, Bristol, Wisconsin

Kevin Cawley

Directional Leader, Redeemer Fellowship, Kansas City, Missouri

Bryan Chapell

Pastor Emeritus, Grace Presbyterian Church, Peoria, Illinois; President Emeritus, Covenant Theological Seminary; President, Unlimited Grace Media; leader, administrative committee of the Presbyterian Church in America

Sam Crabtree

Pastor for Small Groups, North Campus, Bethlehem Baptist Church, St. Paul, Minnesota; Chairman of the Board, Bethlehem College and Seminary

Andrew M. Davis

Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church, Durham, North Carolina

Jason S. DeRouchie

Research Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Theology, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Dan Doriani

Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology, Vice President at Large, Covenant Theological Seminary

Zack Eswine

Pastor, Riverside Church, Webster Groves, Missouri

Greg Gilbert

Senior Pastor, Third Avenue Baptist Church, Louisville, Kentucky

Aaron J. Goldstein

Adjunct Professor of Old Testament, Covenant Theological Seminary

Graeme Goldsworthy

Former lecturer in Old Testament, Biblical Theology, and Hermeneutics, Moore Theological College, Sydney, Australia

James M. Hamilton Jr.

Professor of Biblical Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; Pastor, Kenwood Baptist Church, Louisville, Kentucky

John D. Hannah

Department Chairman and Distinguished Professor of Historical Theology, Dallas Theological Seminary

Justin S. Holcomb

Canon for Vocations, Episcopal Diocese of Central Florida; Adjunct Professor, Reformed Theological Seminary

Paul R. House

Professor of Divinity, Beeson Divinity School of Samford University

R. Kent Hughes

Senior Pastor Emeritus of College Church in Wheaton, Illinois; former professor of practical theology at Westminster Theological Seminary; cofounder of the Charles Simeon Trust

Ryan Kelly

Pastor for Preaching, Desert Springs Church, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Julius J. Kim

President, the Gospel Coalition; Visiting Professor, Westminster Seminary California

Dave Kraft

Life/leadership coach; leadership seminar presenter; blogger on leadership issues at www.dave kraft.org

Michael Lumpkin

Pastor, teacher, Fort Worth, Texas

Jason C. Meyer

Pastor for Preaching and Vision, Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis

Gary Millar

Principal, Queensland Theological College, Brisbane, Australia

Paul E. Miller

Founder and Executive Director, seeJesus

Andrew David Naselli

Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and New Testament, Bethlehem College and Seminary in Minneapolis; member of pastoral staff, Bethlehem Baptist Church

Tom Nelson

Senior Pastor, Christ Community Church, Kansas City, Kansas; President, Made to Flourish

Douglas Sean O’Donnell

Senior Vice President of Bible Publishing, Crossway

Dane C. Ortlund

Senior Pastor, Naperville Presbyterian Church, Naperville, Illinois

Robert L. Plummer

Chairman, New Testament Department; Collin and Evelyn Aikman Professor of Biblical Studies, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

Michael Reeves

President and Professor of Theology, Union School of Theology

Philip Ryken

President, Wheaton College

J. J. Seid

Pastor of Leadership Development, Frontline Church, Edmond, Oklahoma

Jay Sklar

Professor of Old Testament, Vice President of Academics, Covenant Theological Seminary

Colin Smith

Senior Pastor, The Orchard Evangelical Free Church, Arlington Heights and Barrington, Illinois; President and Bible teacher, Unlocking the Bible

Scotty Ward Smith

Founding Pastor, Christ Community Church, Franklin, Tennessee; Teacher in Residence, West End Community Church, Nashville

Sam Storms

Lead Pastor of Preaching and Vision, Bridgeway Church, Oklahoma City

Brian J. Tabb

Academic Dean, Associate Professor of Biblical Studies, Bethlehem College and Seminary; General Editor, Themelios

Erik Thoennes

Professor of Theology; Chair, Undergraduate Theology, Biola University/Talbot School of Theology; Pastor of Congregational Life, Grace Evangelical Free Church, La Mirada, California

Joe Thorn

Lead Pastor, Redeemer Fellowship, St. Charles, Illinois

Stephen T. Um

President and Executive Director of the Center for Gospel Culture

Miles V. Van Pelt

The Alan Hayes Belcher Jr. Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages, Director of the Summer Institute for Biblical Languages, Academic Dean, Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson

R. Fowler White

Retired pastor, professor, academic administrator

Jared C. Wilson

Assistant Professor of Pastoral Ministry, Spurgeon College; Author in Residence, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; Director of the Pastoral Training Center, Liberty Baptist Church, Kansas City, Missouri

Todd Wilson

Cofounder and President, the Center for Pastor Theologians

Robert W. Yarbrough

Professor of New Testament, Covenant Theological Seminary

January 1 • Genesis 2:4–25

God’s Purpose in Marriage

R. Kent Hughes

It was God, not Adam, who knew that it was not good for the man to be alone; it was God who honed Adam’s awareness of his need by having him provide a name for every living creature, so that he would become aware that there was no helper among them who was fit for him. And it was God who caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and removed one of his ribs, moist with Adam’s fluids and warm with his marrow and DNA, and literally built it into a woman. And then, it was God (like an earthly father) who presented her to Adam.

Adam’s ecstatic response contains the first human words recorded in the Bible, and the first poetic couplet:

This at last is bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called Woman,

because she was taken out of Man. (Gen. 2:23)

Because God had honed Adam’s naming powers, Adam restated his own name embedded in the woman’s. He saw her as a mirror of himself, with some very agreeable differences! He had found his companion and his longed-for love. He was no longer alone. Such intimacy—all of God.

Adam’s voice subsides, and Moses immediately declares, Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh (v. 24). One-flesh intimacy is the marital ideal, the marital pursuit. Men, understand that we are to be the keepers of this intimacy, rooted in the very act of creation on the culmination of the sixth day.

Such a high calling. But there is more, because, in Ephesians chapter 5, the apostle Paul concludes his teaching on marriage by referencing the declaration, the two shall become one flesh, and then adding, This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church (Eph. 5:31–32). When God created one-flesh intimacy it was a creational prophecy of the intimacy of Christ and the church. Therefore, all who name the name of Christ must understand that the relationship of a man and his wife is meant to be a window into the relationship of Christ and the church—a gospel window going all the way back to creation.

The call, Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her (Eph. 5:25), is ultimately a call to preach the gospel.

January 2 • Genesis 3

The Urgency of Hearing and Heeding God’s Word

R. Kent Hughes

The fall of mankind began when the serpent/Satan asked, with feigned incredulity, Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’ (Gen. 3:1). This innocent question was actually a calculated slur on God’s goodness, implying that he is ungenerous. In truth, God had told Adam, "You may surely eat of every tree of the garden" (2:16). But no matter, a seed of doubt had been planted in Eve’s heart that would bear immediate fruit in her response.

First, Eve diminished God’s word by leaving out the word every in her own response: And the woman said to the serpent, ‘We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden’ (3:2a). Her inexact, shrunken rendition of God’s word discounted God’s generosity. Second, Eve added to God’s word. God had told the first couple that eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil would bring death (2:17), but Eve told Satan that merely touching the tree was forbidden (3:3). Thus, she magnified God’s harshness: an inadvertent touch, and you’re history. Lastly, Eve softened God’s word as she left out the word surely from God’s original statement, you shall surely die (2:17). Her omission removed the certitude of death for eating from the tree.

With that, Satan was emboldened to declare God’s word a deception: The serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die’ (3:4). Eve, he seemed to say, the threat of death is a divine scare tactic: God is repressive and he’s jealous; he’s afraid that you might ascend too high.

It was too much for Eve. She should have run screaming from the serpent. But instead she reached forth a lovely hand and resolutely took the fruit, believing that divinity would soon be hers. Shocking! But here’s the real shocker: Adam was with her (v. 6). And, moreover, Adam was not deceived by the snake (see 1 Tim. 2:14). Adam sinned with his eyes wide open. He had watched Eve take the fruit, and nothing happened to her. So, he sinned willfully, assuming there would be no consequences.

Everything was upside down: Eve followed the snake, Adam followed Eve, and no one followed God.

Men, if there ever was a call to be a man of the word, this is it. And here is what the ultimate Man says: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God (Matt. 4:4). Feed on it and live it—for the glory of God in your life, your family, the church, and the lost world.

January 3 • Genesis 12:1–9

The Life of Faith

R. Kent Hughes

The promises of blessing that God made to Abram amid pagan, moon-worshiping Ur were immense in their personal and global scope. The personal promises were staggering: And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing (Gen. 12:2). The parallel global promise of blessing was equally overwhelming: I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed (v. 3). The immensity of these promises was beyond imagination.

Nevertheless, Abram believed and obeyed the word of God, and by faith led his entire family and entourage on an eight hundred–mile journey to the land of Canaan—where his sojourn in the Promised Land gives us wisdom about the life of faith.

The life of faith calls God’s people to be pilgrims in this world, as the writer of Hebrews says of Abram, By faith he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, living in tents. . . . For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God (Heb. 11:9–10). Father Abram personally understood and believed that this world is not my home, I’m just a passing through. What a challenge to the dominant earth-bound ideologies of our age!

The truth is, Abram never did build a home in the Promised Land. The only land that he owned was a cave that he purchased as Sarah’s grave (Genesis 23). But he did become a builder, building not a tower, nor a city, nor a house—but altars for worship across the land. The first was in Shechem (12:6–7) and the second was in Bethel (vv. 8–9), both prominent places of pagan worship; and there he offered sacrifices to the true God.

How beautiful: the only architecture that remained after Abram’s life was altars to the Lord, the artifacts of a worshiping heart. Faithful Abram worshiped wherever he went.

Today, if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise (Gal. 3:29)—and pilgrims who are called to build altars not of stone but of the heart, wherever you are, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship (Rom. 12:1).

January 4 • Genesis 15

By Faith Alone

R. Kent Hughes

Considerable time had passed since Abram first obeyed God’s call to leave Ur, which had opened with the dazzling promise, I will make of you a great nation. But Sarai, his wife, was barren, and the shadow of barrenness had only deepened through the ups and downs of the couple’s sojourns. Thus it was on a dark, fearful night that God met Abram in a vision, and Abram poured out his fear that his servant Eliezer would, of necessity, become his heir. God’s response to Abram that dark night was a revelation: a son would come from his own body.

As Abram reeled from the revelation, God took him outside and directed his vision upward, saying, Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them. . . . So shall your offspring be (Gen. 15:5). Alone under the silent stars with God Almighty, with the incredible promise still ringing, Abram was speechless.

What was happening in the heart of silent Abram? Though Abram does not tell us, the Scripture does: he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness (v. 6). Abram’s soul uttered a silent amen. He rested everything on God’s word of promise, and God counted (or reckoned, or imputed) Abram’s faith to him as righteousness. Faith alone had brought Abram the free gift of righteousness—salvation.

No other biblical text has exercised such an influence on our understanding of faith, or, indeed, such an influence on the New Testament in its entirety. For example, the fourth chapter of Romans is an extended exposition of Genesis 15:6; in fact, Paul quotes verse 6 three times and repeats the key word counted eleven times as he drives home the glorious truth that salvation has always been by faith alone.

Faith alone is the vocabulary of rest. We are called to cease from our works and rest everything on the promise of the finished work of Christ. Here is the gospel of rest: For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast (Eph. 2:8–9). Faith’s refrain is,

Jesus, I am resting, resting

In the joy of what Thou art.

January 5 • Genesis 17:15–18:15

Laughter!

R. Kent Hughes

Here is an account filled with laughter—all kinds of laughter—and ultimately the laughter of heaven.

God Almighty had just renamed Abram Abraham (father of a multitude), promising him that kings would come from him. And here God changes Sarai (princess) to Sarah, which also means princess, as a doubled affirmation that royalty would come from her barren ninety-year-old womb (Gen. 17:15–17). When Abraham heard God say, I will give you a son by her, he fell on his face and laughed! But it wasn’t necessarily the laughter of unbelief; perhaps it was simply incredulous hilarity. After all, the Bible tells us that he never wavered concerning the promise (see Rom. 4:18–21). God directly informed Abraham (with a smile?) that his and Sarah’s son would be named Isaac, literally laughter.

Abraham then received three mysterious visitors, whom he entertained with a sumptuous feast (Gen. 18:1–9). In retrospect, Abraham would understand that his guests were the Lord himself, along with two attending angels. God came to dinner! And the covenantal function of the meal with the Lord and his angels was to restate the promise of a son through Sarah, and for the old princess to hear it herself as she listened at the door of the tent and heard the Lord say, I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son. Sarah’s response was inward and silent: So Sarah laughed to herself (18:12). It was melancholy, hopeless, unbelieving laughter. Happily, her silent, hopeless humor would soon be transformed into the laughter of belief.

The epilogue in 21:3–6 chronicles the old couple’s mirth: Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac [Laughter]. And Abraham circumcised his son [Laughter] when he was eight days old, as God had commanded him. Abraham was a hundred years old when his son [Laughter] was born to him. And Sarah said, ‘God has made laughter for me; everyone who hears will laugh over me.’ There was laughter everywhere. The old man and his wife laughed and continued to laugh as they held tiny Laughter in their arms. Heaven smiled.

Abraham and Sarah had indeed birthed a royal dynasty of kings through their son Isaac, from which would come the King of kings amid peals of merriment as the angels proclaimed,

Glory to God in the highest,

and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased. (Luke 2:14)

January 6 • Genesis 22

God Will Provide

R. Kent Hughes

Abraham was intentionally vague when he said to his servants, Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you (Gen. 22:5). Worship veiled his intention to offer up Isaac as a burnt offering, and come again to you indicated his belief in the resurrection. The writer of Hebrews tells us that Abraham believed that God was able to raise Isaac from the dead (Heb. 11:19), when as yet there was nothing in history to suggest that such a thing could happen. What bold, original, amazing faith!

As father and son ascended the mount in silence, Isaac’s piercing question, My father! . . . Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? (Gen. 22:7), led to Abraham’s immortal answer, God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son (v. 8), which is the turning point in the account. God will provide states Abraham’s absolute trust in God. Abraham believed that nations and kings would come from Isaac, and he left everything in God’s good hands.

Abraham’s often-told obedience and God’s astonishing provision came together as Abraham prepared the pyre, bound his beloved Isaac so that he might not flee in sudden fear, took the knife in his trembling hand, and tightened his grip for the sacrificial cut—only to hear God roar his name twice from the heavens with the command, Do not lay your hand on the boy (v. 12). In the same instant, Abraham saw the substitute provision: the account says that Abraham lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, behind him was a ram, caught in a thicket by his horns. And Abraham went and took the ram and offered it up as a burnt offering instead of his son (v. 13). Never was there a more joyous and eager sacrifice!

In ecstasy, "Abraham called the name of that place, ‘the Lord will provide [Jehovah Jireh]’; as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the Lord it shall be provided’" (v. 14). Abraham’s declaration of faith—God will provide—as he and Isaac ascended the mountain had now become the wondrous conclusion. We see that the God who tests is the God who provides. When God tests you, he will always provide for you.

January 7 • Genesis 24

The Beauty of Divine Providence

R. Kent Hughes

For Abraham, Sarah’s death was a fresh awakening to his own advanced age and his responsibility to make sure that his forty-something son, Isaac, would marry well and produce heirs. So he called his most trusted servant and had him take a formal vow that he would return to Abraham’s country and his kindred to find a wife for Isaac. He assured the servant of divine guidance, saying that God will send his angel before you, and you shall take a wife for my son there (Gen. 24:7). Abraham believed that God’s unseen hand would do it all. He rested in God’s providential guidance.

There would be no miracle in this account (as we usually think of miracles)—no suddenly barren rivers, no solar pauses, no healings. Rather, God would bring about the discovery of Isaac’s bride through the normal events of life.

The positioning of this story here at the end of Abraham’s life serves, in effect, to tell us that this is the way God works in our everyday lives. The God of Scripture is not simply a God of miracles who occasionally injects his power into life. He is far greater, because he arranges all of life to suit and effect his providence.

The servant’s search spanned hundreds of miles as his caravan traveled north and then east to Nahor in Mesopotamia. There in the slanting rays of dusk, when women come out to draw water, Abraham’s servant directed his camels to kneel near the town well, where he offered this extraordinary prayer: Let the young woman to whom I shall say, ‘Please let down your jar that I may drink,’ and who shall say, ‘Drink, and I will water the camels’—let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac (v. 14). To be sure, the criteria were demanding! But it was not a request for a miraculous sign. He did not ask for a fleece (see Judg. 6:36–40). He did not ask for the normal effects of nature to be suspended. Nevertheless, it was a mundane miracle—a glimpse behind the everyday curtain of life.

This story means that we must live in full consciousness of the miracle of divine providence, understanding that God has total hands-on control of the world—and that all of life is to be lived for him without fear and with increasing expectation.

January 8 • Genesis 27

Resting in God’s Sure Word

R. Kent Hughes

God’s prophetic word to the matriarch Rebekah, as her twin boys struggled in her womb, was that the older shall serve the younger (Gen. 25:23). And, indeed, though her firstborn, Esau, did initially inherit the birthright, he sold it to Jacob for a bowl of stew. Thus Esau despised his birthright (25:34). One would think that this disgraceful event would seal Jacob’s position once and for all in the family’s mind. But Genesis 27 chronicles two in-house responses to the prophetic word that indicate that neither Isaac and Esau, on the one hand, nor Rebekah and Jacob, on the other, believed that God’s sure word would stand.

To begin with, old, visually impaired Isaac believed that he could nullify God’s word when he asked Esau to hunt game and then prepare a meal for him, during which he would then bless Esau and thus restore Esau’s birthright (vv. 1–4). He actually thought that his willful opposition to the stated word of God could thwart it.

The patriarch’s attempt to nullify God’s word then brought about Rebekah and Jacob’s collusion and the absurd theater of deception that followed, as Jacob (lying three times) fooled Isaac into blessing him (v. 23), so that Isaac was compelled to pronounce an anti-blessing on Esau, thus sealing the blessing for Jacob (vv. 39–40). But there is a deeper absurdity here, namely, the matriarch and her son’s belief that their sinful theatrics were necessary to make God’s word come true and, by implication, that their lying and deception were justified.

Everyone sinned—and suffered. Old Isaac tossed a relational torch into his families’ tents by attempting to nullify God’s sure word about Jacob’s prominence. The patriarch’s attempt to thwart God’s word then gave rise to Rebekah and Jacob’s disgraceful machinations—which ultimately resulted in Jacob’s flight from Esau to Mesopotamia, where he suffered long under the duplicities of double-dealing Laban. Rebekah never saw her beloved Jacob again. And Esau, who had despised his birthright, lost everything.

How much better, how good life would have been, if the patriarchal family had simply believed and rested in God’s sure word. The sinful attempts to thwart it and the sinful attempts to help it would never have taken place. Men, believe and rest in this today: Every word of God proves true (Prov. 30:5; cf. Isa. 55:10–11).

January 9 • Genesis 29:1–30

The Pruning of a Patriarch

R. Kent Hughes

At nightfall, after fleeing the wrath of Esau, Jacob in exhaustion lay his head on a stone pillow and dreamed of a ladder reaching from earth to heaven, where the Lord stood as angels ascended and descended (Gen. 28:10–13)—indicating that there was commerce between heaven and earth on his behalf. It was, and is, an apt symbol of God’s providential direction of his elect children’s lives. Fittingly, Jacob named the place Bethel, the house of God.

Some five hundred miles later, having arrived at his destination, Jacob encountered what he must certainly have regarded as a smiling providence when he met lovely cousin Rachel at a well (his mother, Rebekah, had also been discovered at a well; 24:10–21!). Jacob uncovered the well, watered his uncle Laban’s sheep, and then kissed Rachel and wept aloud (29:11). Jacob no doubt saw this as the beginning of the promised blessing. God was directing the commerce of heaven in his behalf. And this was profoundly true, but not as Jacob expected. The young patriarch-to-be (this deceiver!) needed the benefits of a frowning providence—some divine pruning. Jacob needed to experience pain and disappointment and humiliation. He needed to become compassionate. He needed to stop trusting himself and learn to rest everything in God.

Enter the archdeceiver, Uncle Laban, and the infamous matrimonial bait and switch of the less appealing older sister Leah for the beautiful young Rachel—after Jacob had worked seven years for her hand! On top of this, Jacob was forced to labor seven more humiliating years to finally earn Rachel. Where was the ladder of angels now? Actually, it was in full operation, and behind the palpable frown of God was his smiling providence indeed. Jacob’s nemesis and greatest antagonist was God’s gracious instrument in shaping him. Jacob was going to change, not overnight but over time. He would become Israel, a prince of God.

Today, the ladder of God’s providential care is administered by the ascended Son of Man, as Jesus explained to Nathanael: Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see heaven opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man (John 1:51). In Christ, there is continual, graced commerce between heaven and earth for all of God’s children, especially in the difficulties of life. In the words of William Cowper,

Judge not the Lord by feeble sense

But trust him for his grace;

Behind a frowning providence

He hides a smiling face.¹

January 10 • Genesis 35:1–15

When God Rehabilitates Your Name

R. Kent Hughes

It took thirty years of stormy, humbling existence before Jacob was ready to heed and obey God’s word to return to Bethel, where God had revealed himself when he had fled from his brother, Esau. But once there, Jacob worshiped, offering joyful sacrifices to God in fulfillment of his thirty-year-old vow (Gen. 35:7; cf. 28:21). At last, Jacob was in the place where he was supposed to be—worshiping God in whole-hearted obedience.

Jacob’s obedience was rewarded by a theophany, as God appeared to Jacob again . . . and blessed him (35:9). God’s blessing confirmed Jacob’s change of name from Jacob (deceiver) to Israel (strives with God)—a name change that had originally occurred at Peniel on the other side of the Jordan (32:28). Now, at Bethel in the Promised Land, the obedient patriarch has his new name validated and rehabilitated by the audible voice of God. He is, indeed, Israel.

God’s blessing of Jacob/Israel continues as God identifies himself to the patriarch as El Shaddai, saying, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply (v. 11). The divine title El Shaddai was first used in Scripture to confirm God’s promise to Abraham of fruitfulness, a nation, kings, and the land (17:1–8), and here the promise to Jacob continues in concert with that to Father Abraham (35:11–12). El Shaddai identifies God as the one who fulfills every promise by means of his sovereign might.

God Almighty’s stunning blessing evoked Jacob’s deeper consecration: And Jacob set up a pillar in the place where he had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. He poured out a drink offering on it and poured oil on it. So Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken to him Bethel (vv. 14–15). The fact that the consecration went beyond the oil-anointing of some thirty years earlier (now, by pouring out a drink offering on the pillar) indicates that Jacob was investing the pillar with fresh new meaning. This was Bethel, the house of God. Jacob understood the place with a depth of devotion that he had not been capable of in his youth.

Jacob’s experience of expanded understanding is common to us all. As new, inexperienced believers, we came to learn some new truth, and it did us much good. Then, years later, after the ups and downs of spiritual life, and some progress in obedience and consecration, we had cause to reflect on the same truth—but with a far deeper level of understanding and application.

January 11 • Genesis 39

The Energizing Power of God’s Presence

R. Kent Hughes

Joseph was so extraordinary that, even in the context of the greats of the Bible, he towers like a skyscraper. As to why this is so, the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife leaves no doubt: Moses’s narrative voice-over at both the beginning and end of the account states that Joseph was successful because the Lord was with him (stated twice at the beginning of the story [Gen. 39:2–3] and three times at the end [vv. 21–23]). So we must understand that the unseen hand in the story is God’s, who was present and working on Joseph’s behalf in his phenomenal rise, his humiliating downfall, and his quick restoration to prominence.

But it is one thing to be outside the story and observe that God was with Joseph, and quite another to be Joseph inside the story and believe that God is with you, when all you have worked for is being ripped from you because of your integrity. And here Joseph shines because he knew that God was with him as he refused Mrs. Potiphar’s advances, declaring to her, How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? (v. 9). The grand deterrent to the seductive pleas was Joseph’s awareness that God is present and sees all, and that a sin that no one else knows about, committed behind locked doors in a dark room, is actually committed in the presence of a holy God.

Such a temptation! Joseph was seventeen or eighteen years old (see 37:2), and surely his hormones were raging, so that he brimmed with sexual curiosity and drive. The rationalizations were so natural and logical. No one would ever know (see 39:11). He was a slave. His life was not his own. And besides, a little strategic fornication could benefit his career. But Joseph said no!

What a towering figure Joseph had become. Never once, whether in prosperity or adversity, had Joseph doubted God. He sensed and appropriated God’s presence in every circumstance. And never had Joseph been more of a success than now. He dwarfed the monuments of the Nile.

How does the story of Joseph intersect our lives today? It does so beautifully and powerfully in the incarnation of Christ the Messiah, who is Immanuel, God with us (Matt. 1:23). Brothers, the key to our day-to-day success is to believe this with all our being, and conduct every moment of life in the dazzling reality of Christ’s presence.

January 12 • Genesis 41:37–57

From the Pit to the Palace

R. Kent Hughes

Think of it. Joseph went from the pit to the palace in a single day. In the morning he was an imprisoned slave, and by nightfall he was second only to Pharaoh, dressed in fine linen, a golden chain about his neck, and Pharaoh’s signet ring on his hand. And more, Joseph would become an astonishing success from day one—ultimately rescuing Egypt and the surrounding lands.

But his sudden elevation was infused with peril. It is one thing to remain believing and God-centered and faithful in the pit; it is quite another to be faithful at the pinnacle. While in the pit, there was only one way for Joseph to look, and that was up—to God. But at the top, looking up was not so natural. The truth was that this newly minted thirty-year-old viceroy of Egypt (a handsome man with acute mental capacity) was in real danger.

But as we look at Joseph here, and at the whole of his life, it is clear that the Oval Office never did get to Joseph. He knew who he was and who God was. He knew that there was no power in himself. His own God-infused rhetoric in interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams, as he repeatedly asserted variations of God has revealed to Pharaoh, provides glimpses of his God-focused existence. Joseph stood alone, and above every soul in the world, in his profound understanding of God. No one on earth saw God as he did, or believed in God as he did!

Fellow believers, lay this to heart: the most important thing about you is what you believe about God, because what you believe about God will not only determine the way you live; it will determine your eternal destiny. This side of the cross, the revelation of God is immense: No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known (John 1:18). He [Jesus] is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power (Heb. 1:3). Jesus is the supreme revelation of God. The revelation is massive, and if you believe it with all your heart, your eternal destiny is sealed, and you will navigate the pits and pinnacles of life knowing who God is and who you are—to the glory of God.

January 13 • Genesis 45

The Natural, Supernatural Work of God

R. Kent Hughes

When Joseph called his brothers to him and revealed his identity, it is apparent that he had spent years praying, thinking, and rethinking what had gone on between them, and God had given him wisdom. So, with all eleven brothers assembled, Joseph stripped away the superficial surface of human activity to reveal the hand of God, with four explicit references to God’s overriding of the brothers’ selling him into slavery: God sent me before you to preserve life (Gen. 45:5); God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant (v. 7); So it was not you who sent me here, but God (v. 8); and God has made me lord of all Egypt (v. 9).

These lines provide a magisterial declaration of divine providence: God works his will in and through the actions of all people, be they good or bad.

Joseph understood that every episode in his life’s story, and in that of his brothers, was under God’s direct rule—the robe of many colors; the offending dreams of his youth; the sudden appearance of a caravan bound for Egypt; his rise and fall in the house of Potiphar; Pharaoh’s imprisonment of his baker and his cupbearer; their strange dreams and Joseph’s supernatural interpretation; his summons to interpret Pharaoh’s terrifying dreams; the astonishing elevation of Joseph to power in Egypt; the drought in Egypt—all these things were brought about naturally by the supernatural work of God in everyday life.

The providential events of Joseph’s life have been written large on the canvas of patriarchal history for our benefit. And, if we could pull back the curtain of natural life, we would see that this is the way God works in all of our lives.

The God of Joseph is our God, and therefore everyday life brims with his providential care: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Rom. 8:28).

Believe it, and rest in it, because it is eternally true.

January 14 • Genesis 49:1–27

The Wine of the Coming King

R. Kent Hughes

When Jacob assembled his twelve sons at his deathbed and blessed them, the transcending blessing went to Judah, as Jacob pronounced upon him an astonishing oracle that established the kingly role of the tribe of Judah until the Messiah would come.

The oracle announced the tribe’s dominance (Gen. 49:8), its lionlike might (v. 9), its messianic mission (v. 10), and the future reign of the Messiah:

Binding his foal to the vine

and his donkey’s colt to the choice vine,

he has washed his garments in wine

and his vesture in the blood of grapes.

His eyes are darker than wine,

and his teeth whiter than milk. (vv. 11–12)

In that day, there will be such an abundance of grapes that the Messiah will tether his donkey to a choice grapevine with no concern as to his ride helping itself to the vintage. There will be such a surplus of wine that clothes will be washed in it. He, the Messiah, will be altogether lovely.

What dizzying, evocative imagery! And when the Messiah came, he announced the age to come using just this imagery when he changed the water into wine at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. The apostle John tells us, This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him (John 2:11). For a shimmering, golden moment, donkeys were hitched to grapevines, and wine was as abundant as water. In fact, water was turned into wine! Jesus’s disciples knew that the scepter-bearing Messiah would come out of the tribe of Judah. And when he changed the water into wine, his disciples knew that he was the Messiah. It was a day of intoxicating, exuberant abundance—and a taste of the eternal day.

This side of the cross, we know that the path to that joy led through the cross. Jesus, on the eve of the crucifixion, offered a different wine to his followers—the cup of the new covenant in his blood that was shed for his people.

So we understand that the exuberant, endless wine of the kingdom can be ours only through the shed blood of the Lion of the tribe of Judah:

Worthy is the Lamb who was slain,

to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might

and honor and glory and blessing! (Rev. 5:12)

January 15 • Genesis 50:15–21

God’s Good Plans for His People

R. Kent Hughes

Joseph’s brothers were pathetic. They actually thought that, with Jacob dead and buried, Joseph would avenge himself for the evil they had done to him. Their groveling pleas for mercy wounded Joseph so deeply that he wept. Joseph told his brothers not to fear. He comforted them by letting them know that he had no desire to play God. And more, in addition to his having no desire to stand in the place of God, he discerned God’s good providence in their evil: As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive (Gen. 50:20). This is the mysterious heart of the Joseph story: God works good through the sins of wicked people. Indeed this truth informs all of Genesis. God created everything good (1:4–31) and then—through all his dealings with his people’s sins and machinations before and after the flood—he worked out his good plan.

The prophet Jeremiah voiced this same truth to encourage his people when they were about to go into captivity in evil Babylon: For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope (Jer. 29:11). Welfare here is the Hebrew word shalom. It means peace, or wholeness; it means God’s good plans for us. God can have no evil thoughts toward his children—no thoughts of calamity. He has never had an evil thought toward a child of his, and he never will. This doesn’t mean that his people are shielded from hardship or misery (consider Joseph’s life!). What it does mean is that God’s plans are never for evil in the believer’s life, but with an eye to their well-being and wholeness—always. The apparent evil that we suffer is for our good.

The grand New Testament expression of this truth is, of course, Romans 8:28: And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good. This means that everything that happens to those who love God (both the good things and the bad) works for their good.

Now, when we add these great texts together (Gen. 50:20 + Jer. 29:11 + Rom. 8:28), when we stack them theologically, they teach that the God of the Bible is so great that he is involved concurrently and confluently in the flow of his children’s lives so as to work out his good plans for them.

If you have never understood or believed this, taking it to heart will change your life.

January 16 • Exodus 2:1–10

The Birth of a Savior

Philip Ryken

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Worried by the rising tide of immigration, Pharaoh tried everything he could to stop the Israelites from flooding over Egypt, until finally