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Pharaoh’s Epistemology — Readers’ Choice


Readers’ Choice is here: Over two-thirds of our devotionals get emailed responses from readers like you. Hearing that what we have written is meaningful to you is meaningful to us. That’s why we love sharing some of your comments and messages. Thank you, readers. We do what we do to serve you. There’s still time to tell us about your favorite, most meaningful posts of the year. If you shared it with someone, or it helped you, let us know via email, direct message, or by filling out the linked form.

Links for today’s readings:

Oct 24  Read: 2 Kings 5 Listen: (5:13) Read: Psalms 50 Listen: (2:26)

Links for this weekend’s readings:

Oct 25  Read: 2 Kings 6 Listen: (5:05) Read: Psalms 51 Listen: (2:19)
Oct 26  Read: 2 Kings 7 Listen: (3:55) Read: Psalms 52-54 Listen: (3:18)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

Michele, CO — Thanks for this reflection. I agree and shout AMEN!!!

This post was originally published on February 25, 2025, based on readings from Exodus 7.22b-23 and Exodus 5.2.

Scripture Focus: Exodus 7.22b-23

22 …Pharaoh’s heart became hard; he would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the Lord had said. 23 Instead, he turned and went into his palace, and did not take even this to heart.

Exodus 5.2

2 Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord and I will not let Israel go.”

Reflection: Pharaoh’s Epistemology — Readers’ Choice

By John Tillman

The first person God called “prophet” was Abraham. Moses and Aaron were next. It is interesting to compare the results.

God warned Abimelek in a supernatural dream to let Sarah go. God’s prophet, Abraham, would pray for the king and bless him if he did. If Abimelek did not, all his people would die. Abimelek could have hardened his heart and doubted his dream but he didn’t.

God warned Pharaoh through Moses, Aaron, and supernatural signs, to let his people go. If Pharaoh did not let the people go, he and his kingdom would suffer. Pharaoh could have believed the signs but hardened his heart and the hard-hearted find excuses not to listen.

Pharaoh questioned the prophets’ motives, their political alignment, and their honesty, calling them lazy, troublemakers, deceptive, and divisive. Pharaoh had an identity-based epistemology. “Who is the Lord that I should obey him…?” (Exodus 5.4)

Pharaoh doubled down and reaped disaster. Abimelek relented and reaped blessings. How kings and citizens respond to prophetic warnings matters.

Before being too hard on Pharaoh, consider whether we share his identity-based epistemology. Today, we don’t distrust supernatural prophets. We distrust everything.

If our news source says it, it’s true. If your news source says it, it’s biased. If the facts make our side look bad, they are fake. If scientific results challenge us, it’s a conspiracy. If the courts rule against our side, they are corrupt.

This skepticism extends to biblical teaching. We too often judge the trustworthiness and orthodoxy of pastors by their politics rather than their theological claims. We are in an epistemological crisis. Hard hearts find excuses not to listen. We only trust ear-tickling prophets.

How do we escape this crisis of truth? How can Christians reclaim the mantle of being people devoted to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help us God?

If I had 10,000 words instead of 400, I still couldn’t answer that. However, I know one step is not asking like Pharaoh, “Who said this that I should believe it?”

We need an Exodus from Pharaoh’s epistemology even if it means wandering in the desert. How we respond to prophets of any kind, matters. Let’s recover a commitment to the truth, no matter who says it or benefits from it.

Read more: Tortured Prophets Department

Conspiracy, disloyalty, and financial gain are common accusations used today to discredit whistleblowers and victims. Amaziah is alive and well.

Tortured Prophets Department — Readers’ Choice
Read more: Conspiracy Theology

“Trust no one” is the mantra for our day. We have seen the news turn from a daily source of information to headlines judged for signs of misinformation.

Conspiracy Theology

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What If I Don’t Have an Ox? — Readers’ Choice


Readers’ Choice is here: Over two-thirds of our devotionals get emailed responses from readers like you. Hearing that what we have written is meaningful to you is meaningful to us. That’s why we love sharing some of your comments and messages. Thank you, readers. We do what we do to serve you. There’s still time to tell us about your favorite, most meaningful posts of the year. If you shared it with someone, or it helped you, let us know via email, direct message, or by filling out the linked form.

Links for today’s readings:

Oct 23 Read: 2 Kings 4 Listen: (6:17) Read: Psalms 49 Listen: (2:10)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

Susan, TX — Wow. That was helpful…the “by” “to” and “for”.

This post was originally published on June 20, 2025, based on readings from Deuteronomy 25.4 and 1 Corinthians 9.9-11.

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 25.4

4 Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.

1 Corinthians 9.9-11

9 For it is written in the Law of Moses: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain.”  Is it about oxen that God is concerned? 10 Surely he says this for us, doesn’t he? Yes, this was written for us, because whoever plows and threshes should be able to do so in the hope of sharing in the harvest. 11 If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you?

Reflection: What If I Don’t Have an Ox? — Readers’ Choice

By John Tillman

Instruction manuals often describe features your model lacks. If there’s no in-door ice dispenser in your refrigerator or no sunroof in your vehicle, you just skip those sections. They don’t apply.

If the Bible was an instruction manual, we’d all need oxen to follow it or we’d be skipping a lot of passages. Are these passages a waste of space? No. Because the Bible isn’t written to us, it is written for us.

The Bible has instructions, but isn’t a manual. It has laws, but isn’t a constitution or legislation. It has prophecies, but doesn’t tell your fortune. It has histories, but isn’t a record book. The Bible is written by and to people who lived in ancient cultures, economies, and political systems.

Commands about living in tribal or monarchical political systems don’t translate well to modern democratic republics. Regulations about debt management, property rights, and poverty don’t compute in our economic systems. Instructions about planting crops and managing animals don’t apply to city-dwellers or modern agriculture. If scripture is “to them” how is it “for us?”

Paul didn’t have an ox. He was a city-dwelling scholar and a world-traveling preacher of the gospel, but he told the church at Corinth, also urban city-dwellers, that this passage about oxen was “for us.” Paul made an amazing claim. He said that when Moses wrote this down, God was concerned about wisdom for his people, not grain for oxen. From this simple agricultural instruction, Paul taught on God’s authority that those who share in the work should share in the profits. 

Paul applied this passage specifically to those, like himself, who were teaching the gospel. They were not grinding grain but sharing the bread of life. But that is surely not all that God intended either. We should apply this wisdom today to the workers in our fields, factories, offices, coffee shops, and markets.

Paul says the Bible “is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.” (2 Timothy 3.16) There is wisdom to apply to our political and economic systems and choices. There is wisdom to apply to our labor markets and business practices. There is wisdom to apply to our personal finances and use of power and resources. 

Tune your heart to the Holy Spirit and listen to scripture in this way. There is wisdom to be revealed in every corner of scripture, even in passages about oxen we don’t own.

The Lord’s Prayer:

We will take a break from The Divine Hours prayers for the month of October and instead pray Dallas Willard’s paraphrase of The Lord’s Prayer:

Dear Father, always near us, may your name be treasured and loved, may your rule be completed in us—may your will be done here on earth in just the way it is done in heaven.

Give us today the things we need today, and forgive us our sins and impositions on you as we are forgiving all who in any way offend us.

Please don’t put us through trials, but deliver us from everything bad. Because you are the one in charge, and you have all the power, and the glory too is all yours-forever-which is just the way we want it!

Read more: Kingly Qualifications

Americans rated important traits in a president. They don’t compare well with God’s priorities.

Kingly Qualifications
Consider Supporting Our Work

If our work has profited your spiritual life, please consider donating to help us serve others.

Supporting our Work
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Tribe Over Truth — Readers’ Choice


Readers’ Choice is here: Over two-thirds of our devotionals get emailed responses from readers like you. Hearing that what we have written is meaningful to you is meaningful to us. That’s why we love sharing some of your comments and messages. Thank you, readers. We do what we do to serve you. There’s still time to tell us about your favorite, most meaningful posts of the year. If you shared it with someone, or it helped you, let us know via email, direct message, or by filling out the linked form.

Links for today’s readings:

Oct 22  Read: 2 Kings 3 Listen: (4:29) Read: Psalms 48 Listen: (1:28)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

Brian, DC — YES! We must choose truth over tribe at all costs. God’s word tells us this in many ways throughout the Bible…Thank you so much for sharing this great word!

This post was originally published on August 6, 2025, based on readings from Judges 20: 12-13, 35-36.

Scripture Focus: Judges 20: 12-13, 35-36

12 The tribes of Israel sent messengers throughout the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What about this awful crime that was committed among you? 13 Now turn those wicked men of Gibeah over to us so that we may put them to death and purge the evil from Israel.”

But the Benjamites would not listen to their fellow Israelites. 

35 The Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel, and on that day the Israelites struck down 25,100 Benjamites, all armed with swords. 36 Then the Benjamites saw that they were beaten.

Reflection: Tribe Over Truth — Readers’ Choice

By Erin Newton

I have stood in that precarious place, watching and waiting to see how people—people I trusted with my story—would respond. Would they believe me? What about the perpetrator’s friends? Whose side would they pick?

The burden of proof for a victim of abuse is almost unbearable. Not only has one endured abuse, but it often falls on the victim to convince others that a wrong has been committed. Sadly, some people choose friendships over accepting the grim reality that a person in their circle has harmed another human being.

When those who should purge such wickedness instead grant it safe harbor, they too become complicit.

After the heinous acts were committed against the woman in Judges 19, a glimmer of hope arises as Israel responds. Envoys were sent to Benjamin to make them aware of what happened “and give them the opportunity to acknowledge the crime, to distance themselves from Gibeah and to ensure that justice was done” (Mary Evans, Tyndale Old Testament Commentary: Judges and Ruth). Now was the community’s chance to stand for what was right, but they chose their tribe over the truth.

War ensued after Benjamin defiantly refused to support the victim. (Some see the Levite’s description of the event as an attempt to cover his own complicit nature and an attempt to make himself the victim of “lost/damaged property.” The woman was clearly the victim here and Israel was right to respond in outrage.)

Let us not forget: The Levite sent proof! Even in this scenario, it is not a question of evidence, but of morality. It is a battle between allegiance to other humans and the justice God demands.  

Through Benjamin’s refusal to listen to the envoys and to react in a way that enacted justice, they were choosing either their own collective self-image or choosing to ignore faults for the sake of some past glory they had as a tribe. The motive in Judges 20 is not stated.

What is clear in this story is this: Evil should never be allowed a foothold within the community. This goes beyond abuse. Evil of all kinds cannot be tolerated; God hates unjust scales. This means that God not only hates it when evil is tolerated, but when people discriminate against which kind of evil is punished and which kind is pardoned.

We are called to be a voice for the voiceless. Don’t choose tribe over truth.

Read more: Facing Ugly Truths

When ugly truths that should shock us come to light today, how do we face them?

Facing Ugly Truths
Read more: Allowing Injustice to Save Face

Jephthah’s vow was to his pride, not God. He saved face rather than his daughter.

Allowing Injustice to Save Face

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Embracing Uncertainty — Readers’ Choice


Readers’ Choice is here: Over two-thirds of our devotionals get emailed responses from readers like you. Hearing that what we have written is meaningful to you is meaningful to us. That’s why we love sharing some of your comments and messages. Thank you, readers. We do what we do to serve you. There’s still time to tell us about your favorite, most meaningful posts of the year. If you shared it with someone, or it helped you, let us know via email, direct message, or by filling out the linked form.

Links for today’s readings:

Oct 21  Read: 2 Kings 2 Listen: (4:26)  Read: Psalms 46-47 Listen: (2:15)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

Shelley, OR — How reassuring that times of anxiety and insecurity can coexist  with the “surety of our faith in Christ.”

This post was originally published on July 23, 2025, based on readings from Judges 6:39-40 and John 14:8.

Scripture Focus: Judges 6:39-40

39 Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece, but this time make the fleece dry and let the ground be covered with dew.” 40 That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.

John 14:8

8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Reflection: Embracing Uncertainty — Readers’ Choice

By Erin Newton

Anxiety was always part of my life, so adding it to my faith was natural.

If your early days in the faith look like mine, you repeatedly prayed for supernatural signs. I always needed God to prove my salvation was secure. Did that prayer “stick”? Maybe I should do it again.

When I read Scripture that spoke of “ye of little faith,” I was the “ye.” Paired with comments that doubting was a lack of faith, I assumed my doubt meant my faith was in jeopardy.

Unfortunately, this mindset about faith caused me to read the story of Gideon in a condescending way. Gideon, he of little faith. An Old Testament Doubting Thomas.

Susan Niditch calls Gideon our most “pleasingly insecure” hero. Yet God loves this insecure hero. He doesn’t back away from using him.

Gideon is called to save Israel from the hands of the Midianites. Despite the God-given instructions, he’s not free from his own insecurity. Has his faith faltered? Have the previous days or years following God suddenly become nullified because he asks God for a sign? And one more sign? No. Gideon the hero struggles with anxiety just like any one of us.

Philip, one of the apostles, repeats this same scenario in John 14. Jesus tells his disciples that he is about to leave them. Things are about to get a lot worse. Philip, looking for some place to alleviate his insecure feelings, says: “Show us the Father and that will be enough.” One more sign. Then I can keep going.

God didn’t hesitate to answer Gideon. Insecurity does not offend God. Jesus answers Philip by pointing out the answer has always been his presence. He was answering his insecurity before Philip realized his own anxiety.

Gideon cannot escape his insecurity. Philip is not immune to doubts. Our repetitive pleas to God to help our uncertainty is not a sign of diminishing faith. Asking for a sign is met with God’s own reassuring words, “I’ve been with you all this time.”

The indwelling of the Spirit will not erase our anxieties. (Oh, how I wish he would remove this thorn in the flesh!) Embracing uncertainty is a part of faith. But like our own fears—our best method is to embrace the overwhelming uncertainty, learning to live in the tension between the surety of our faith in Christ and the common human reaction to ask for one more reassurance.

The Lord’s Prayer:

We will take a break from The Divine Hours prayers for the month of October and instead pray Dallas Willard’s paraphrase of The Lord’s Prayer:

Dear Father, always near us, may your name be treasured and loved, may your rule be completed in us—may your will be done here on earth in just the way it is done in heaven.

Give us today the things we need today, and forgive us our sins and impositions on you as we are forgiving all who in any way offend us.

Please don’t put us through trials, but deliver us from everything bad. Because you are the one in charge, and you have all the power, and the glory too is all yours-forever-which is just the way we want it!

Read more: Count Your Hardships

Balanced with the various ways God provided, the anxiety-inducing “what-if” turns into the hope-filled “even-if.”

Count Your Hardships
Read The Bible With Us

Who could you invite to read the Bible with you to find joy in God’s word? Read together at a sustainable, two-year pace.

https://mailchi.mp/theparkforum/m-f-daily-email-devotional

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Walk-on Roles — Readers’ Choice


Readers’ Choice is here: Over two-thirds of our devotionals get emailed responses from readers like you. Hearing that what we have written is meaningful to you is meaningful to us. That’s why we love sharing some of your comments and messages. Thank you, readers. We do what we do to serve you. There’s still time to tell us about your favorite, most meaningful posts of the year. If you shared it with someone, or it helped you, let us know via email, direct message, or by filling out the linked form.

Links for today’s readings:

Oct 20  Read: 2 Kings 1 Listen: (3:13)  Read: Psalms 45 Listen: (2:17)

Readers’ Choice posts are selected by our readers:

Barbara, TN — Love this.
Jason, TX — I love the perspective you give here. It puts my life and that of those I encounter into a “bigger frame” of experiencing life following Jesus.
Brian, DC — Thanks for this reflection. The timing is perfect as I have been remembering how arrogant I was with pastors and ministry leaders here in Washington, DC when I arrived in 2001…Over the past 24 years I have learned to be gracious and kind to the pastors and ministry leaders…I have been thanking God for grace and patience. 

This post was originally published on January 13, 2025, based on readings from Genesis 14.18-20, Psalm 110.4, and Hebrews 7.1-3.

Scripture Focus: Genesis 14.18-20

18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, 19 and he blessed Abram, saying, 
“Blessed be Abram by God Most High, 
Creator of heaven and earth. 
20 And praise be to God Most High, 
who delivered your enemies into your hand.” 
Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Psalm 110.4

4 The Lord has sworn 
and will not change his mind: 
“You are a priest forever, 
in the order of Melchizedek.”

Hebrews 7.1-3

1 This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High. He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, 2 and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, the name Melchizedek means “king of righteousness”; then also, “king of Salem” means “king of peace.” 3 Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, resembling the Son of God, he remains a priest forever.

“I am telling you your story, not hers. No one is told any story but their own.” — Aslan in The Horse and His Boy, by C.S. Lewis

Reflection: Walk-on Roles — Readers’ Choice

By John Tillman

The camera of scripture “zooms in” on Abram, cropping out the rest of the world, but occasionally others who know of God or follow God walk into the frame. One of the most notable and intriguing “walk-on” God-followers in the Old Testament is Melchizedek.

What is the rest of Melchizedek’s story? How did he come to know “God Most High”? How did he become king and priest? There’s no definitive answer within scripture. 

In The Horse and His Boy, Aravis asks Aslan what will happen to her family’s servant, whom she drugged to make her escape. Aslan says that he will not tell her someone else’s story.

When Jesus tells Peter about his own death, Peter asks Jesus “What about him?” referring to John. “What is that to you?”, Jesus responded. (John 21.18-22) Jesus refused to tell Peter about the rest of John’s story.

No matter how much we ask God, scripture, or each other, “What about him?” regarding Melchizedek, we will come up empty. The Melchizedek mystery is intriguing and intractable. However, there is something we can learn from the story.

God is working even when you don’t see it. Much of what God does is outside of our limited knowledge. Therefore, when it seems like God is doing nothing, it just means he is doing something we can’t see.

God is working through people outside your group. Whether outside your church, city, denomination, or country, God is working among and using people you don’t know and probably using some you wouldn’t approve of. When we encounter God’s work, we can bless it even if the workers are “not part of our group.” (Luke 9.49-50)

God is working through you where you are. Melchizedek didn’t join Abram’s daring rescue but he was still part of God’s work. Meanwhile, Melchizedek was king of a city while Abram was a migrant, living in tents. Both stood for and established righteousness in God’s name. Your position or role doesn’t make your part of God’s work less valuable. God wants to work through you to stand for and establish righteousness where you are in the role you have.

Melchizedek means “King of Righteousness” and, as priests under Jesus, we are priests in Melchizedek’s line. We are all walk-ons in God’s work. Serve your role, whether as priest, ruler, servant, or “walk-on.”

When it seems like “the action” is somewhere else, you are still part of God’s story.

Read more: Last Priest Standing

Jesus’ high priestly ministry on our behalf is perpetual, never-ending. If we could grasp the full ramifications of this reality, it would radically impact our daily lives.

Last Priest Standing
Read The Bible With Us

It’s never too late to join our Bible reading plan. Immerse in the Bible with us at a sustainable, two-year pace.

https://mailchi.mp/theparkforum/m-f-daily-email-devotional