Daily Morning Watch

January 22, 2022

How strange and frightening it must have been for that small family when they came out of the ark. Before them spread what must have seemed like a whole new planet. Nothing was the same. They were the only living people left. And still…God was there. As you read God’s new covenant in verses 8-17, imagine you are one of them. What is the most comforting thing to you? How does it apply to your life now?

January 21, 2022

The story in this chapter is a fun one, with more detail than we’ve seen so far. Take the scenes in your imagination—sending out the birds, opening the window, and eventually getting out—on a drastically changed landscape—a whole year after you first got in! (We can know this by adding up all the days and months in these two chapters.) The Flood was one of the major tragedies of this earth’s history. Yet, what is the first thing God does? He is still there for His children, isn’t He?

January 20, 2022

We can barely imagine what this was like for those people of the early ages of earth. Try to put yourself in the place of Noah or one of his family members. Then try to imagine being one of their hearers. How can you possibly believe this guy who says water is going to fall from the sky? What would make you listen? Then, imagine what it was like inside that ark—for a long time! We’ll find out how long in the next chapter.

January 19, 2022

As time passed, people who lived hundreds of years had plenty of time…either to study how to honor God and live gently on the earth, or to study how to do evil and mess everything up. Which did most people choose? God must have been so unhappy! What do you think when you read verse 6? Yet still, how did God set up a chance at hope?

January 18, 2022

This sort of chapter can seem boring, and it’s tempting to skip it, but don’t. If you pay attention, you might learn some interesting details about the early, pre-Flood world. First of all, note the ages. What do you see happening? Then take a look at verses 24 and 29. What do you learn? It’s even more interesting if you want to take time to look up the meanings of the various names. If you do, share with a friend the things you find out.

January 17, 2022

It didn’t take long, once people were under Satan’s influence, before things started to get very ugly. How shocking, for the first murder of all time to be a brother killing his brother! And still, God came calling. Astonishing! God cared, and even put protection on Cain—perhaps so he had a chance to change. We don’t know if he did, but by the end of this chapter, people were beginning to have prayer lives, understanding that even though they could no longer see God, God was still there.

January 16, 2022

We don’t know how long Adam and Eve lived in the garden before they gave in to the serpent’s temptations. It almost seems immediate. If Eve could have seen what you see today, she might have made a different choice! The most important part of this story, though, comes in verse 9. God still came calling! And He still comes calling you and me, too. Do you know where you are in relation to God?

January 15, 2022

In the original Hebrew, Adam simply means “earthling.” In this chapter, God separates that earthling into two—male and female, as mentioned in the first chapter. God makes clear that the goal is that those two be one in the same way that God is one. We’ve wandered far from that ideal, but it is still possible to see hints of that original oneness in godly marriages. Do you know of one or more marriages like that?

January 14, 2022

It’s a little mind-boggling to drop back to the very beginning, right after reading and rejoicing about the very end. But the most important thing is, God is at both ends. In this chapter, Elohim (a plural name for God) creates the world and the first people. God makes clear that both male and female are created “in our image.” Nowadays, we use “they” for one person if we don’t know if it’s male or female. Since God is a Trinity, we could use They that way for God, while still being clear that God is one. What do you think?