DAILY READING WEEK 43
Sunday
The Naked Truth: The Truth about Politics
SUMMARY OF CHAPTER:
Politics polarizes conversations and risks becoming an idol, yet Scripture addresses government, authority, taxes, justice, and allegiance, as Jesus and Paul did while living under oppressive systems. Paul wrote Romans to believers in the mighty Roman Empire, where emperors claimed titles like “Lord” and later persecuted Christians under Nero after the Great Fire of Rome. Despite this, Paul instructs submission to governing authorities because God establishes them for order, protection, and punishing evil (Romans 13:1-5). Christians must pay taxes, show respect and honor, and do what is right, maintaining a clear conscience. Respect and submission are not based on agreement, liking the leader, or their godliness. The only exception is when earthly commands directly contradict God’s commands, in which case believers obey God while responding respectfully.
Believers hold heavenly citizenship first (Philippians 3:20), therefore should be the most gracious, and truthful participants in politics. The church’s mission is advancing the gospel, not placing ultimate hope in parties, candidates, or nations. Politics affects culture, but ultimate allegiance belongs to King Jesus. Christians engage by honoring all people as image-bearers, loving the brotherhood, fearing God, advocating for justice and truth with integrity, and representing Christ’s kingdom through words, actions, and relationships. Earthly powers rise and fall, but God’s kingdom endures; live now as citizens of that eternal kingdom.
Scripture Text: Romans 13 (Focus V. 1-7)
DISCUSSION GUIDE:
Who is your favorite politician of all time?
How does remembering our primary citizenship is in heaven change the way we engage politics, discuss leaders we disagree with, or respond when policies conflict with biblical convictions?
R — Reveal: What does this passage REVEAL about God and His character? What does it teach you about who He is and what He does?
E — Explain: What does this passage EXPLAIN about mankind? What does it express about who we are, how we think, and how we live?
A — Apply: What is one specific thing you can APPLY to your life today because of this passage?
D — Discuss: Who can you DISCUSS this passage with in the next 48 hours? Share what you learned, what challenged you, or what encouraged you.
Monday
1 SAMUEL 26 (focus v.7–11)
Discover:
After David spared Saul in the cave at Engedi, Saul seemed ready to stop. He admitted David would be king and asked him not to wipe out his family (1 Samuel 24). The peace did not hold. Soon Saul and his army were after David again.
The Ziphites told Saul where David was hiding, and Saul camped on the hill of Hachilah (1 Samuel 26:1–5). David could have run. Instead he waited until night. Then he and Abishai, Joab’s brother, slipped into the camp. Everyone was asleep. God had put them into a deep sleep, so David and Abishai took Saul’s spear and water jar and left unseen (vv. 6–12).
David had another chance to kill Saul. He refused again. From a safe distance he called out and told Saul what had happened (vv. 13–20). He trusted God to deal with Saul in His own time, either in battle or by striking him down (vv. 10–11). He would not take the throne by force. For a moment Saul saw it clearly. He confessed he had been wrong, promised to stop the chase, and said the Lord would give David success. David returned the spear. Saul later used it against the Philistines, not against David (vv. 21–25).
We do not share David’s place in the plan of redemption. The same Lord who watched over him is at work for us. He promises to work all things together for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). If you belong to Christ, whatever you are facing today, God is working for your good.
Respond:
R — Reveal: What does this passage REVEAL about God and His character? What does it teach you about who He is and what He does?
E — Explain: What does this passage EXPLAIN about mankind? What does it express about who we are, how we think, and how we live?
A — Apply: What is one specific thing you can APPLY to your life today because of this passage?
D — Discuss: Who can you DISCUSS this passage with in the next 48 hours? Share what you learned, what challenged you, or what encouraged you.
Tuesday
DANIEL 2 (focus v.20–22)
Discover:
God’s rule over history runs through Scripture. Daniel makes it plain.
Nebuchadnezzar had a dream that kept him awake (Daniel 2:1). The Babylonians looked for signs in dreams, stars, and even animal livers. He took the dream as a message from above, but he could not read it, so he called his wise men (v. 2). He usually told them what he had seen. This time he wanted proof they were not guessing. Anyone can invent a meaning for symbols. Naming the dream itself would show that God had given it. That is why he demanded both the dream and its meaning (vv. 3–11).
None of them could do it. He threatened to kill them all, Daniel included. Daniel prayed, and God revealed the dream. Daniel gave thanks. He said the Lord could give the true sense of it because He makes kings rise and fall (vv. 12–24).
The dream was about the empires that would follow. The head of gold is Babylon. The chest and arms of silver are Media-Persia. The middle and thighs of bronze are Greece. The legs of iron and feet of iron mixed with clay are Rome (vv. 25–43). Then a rock not cut by human hands breaks them all and grows into a mountain that fills the earth (vv. 44–45). That is a clear word about Jesus Christ.
Our Lord is that rock. He is the virgin-born Savior who strikes God’s enemies, and whose kingdom spreads to cover the earth. When nations rise and fall, we are not to be alarmed. This is how the Lord shows Himself in history. Jesus has already triumphed. His kingdom is growing even now.
Respond:
R — Reveal: What does this passage REVEAL about God and His character? What does it teach you about who He is and what He does?
E — Explain: What does this passage EXPLAIN about mankind? What does it express about who we are, how we think, and how we live?
A — Apply: What is one specific thing you can APPLY to your life today because of this passage?
D — Discuss: Who can you DISCUSS this passage with in the next 48 hours? Share what you learned, what challenged you, or what encouraged you.
Wednesday
LUKE 20 (focus v.20–26)
Discover:
Pompey brought Palestine under Rome in 63 BC when he backed one side in a Jewish civil war. From then on Israel was no longer an independent kingdom. It was ruled by client kings, like Herod the Great, who answered to Caesar. In AD 6 Rome began to govern Judea directly through procurators. With that rule came a yearly poll tax of one denarius, a normal day’s wage, levied on every adult from puberty to age sixty-five. Most Jews hated the tax because it stood for Rome’s control.
That is the setting for the test Jesus faces. The Herodians and some disciples of the Pharisees come to “entangle him,” flattering Him before they ask about the poll tax. These two groups usually agreed on nothing. The Herodians accepted Roman rule. These Pharisees wanted independence. Jesus is their common enemy, so they unite.
As in earlier traps, Jesus is in a no-win place. The people will hate Him if He says the tax is lawful. If He says it is not, He can be charged with treason. He sees through it. He asks for the coin used to pay the tax. Pious Jews were supposed to use a special copper coin minted with Rome’s approval, not the silver denarius. The denarius was treated as idolatrous because it bore Caesar’s image and the title divus et pontifex maximus, “divine and high priest.” When they produce the denarius, they are exposed. The men who hate the coin are carrying it.
The coin has Caesar’s image, so it is his and should be given back to him. What belongs to God must also be given to God (vv. 21–22). That silences them. Jesus’ people respect the governing authorities. They do not promote rebellion.
This is a clear principle for when we obey the state. As long as it does not claim what belongs to God, Christians are to obey the ruling authorities. That includes tax rates, speed limits, and other rules we may not like.
Respond:
R — Reveal: What does this passage REVEAL about God and His character? What does it teach you about who He is and what He does?
E — Explain: What does this passage EXPLAIN about mankind? What does it express about who we are, how we think, and how we live?
A — Apply: What is one specific thing you can APPLY to your life today because of this passage?
D — Discuss: Who can you DISCUSS this passage with in the next 48 hours? Share what you learned, what challenged you, or what encouraged you.
Thursday
EZRA 6 (focus v.8–10)
Discover:
The Jews who returned from exile faced opposition as they rebuilt the temple. Tattenai, an official above Zerubbabel in the Persian hierarchy, demanded to know who had authorized the work. The Jews said Cyrus the Great had sent them back to rebuild the temple, and that the work had begun under the governor Sheshbazzar. (Sheshbazzar was either another name for Zerubbabel or a governor who served only briefly before him.) Tattenai wrote to Emperor Darius I to check their story (Ezra 5).
Darius searched the royal archives and found the record. His officials located it in Ecbatana, one of the cities where the emperors lived for part of each year. He wrote back to Tattenai and told him to let the Jews proceed (6:1–12).
Two things stand out in Cyrus’s decree and Darius’s letter. The temple measurements and the instructions for provisions are specific enough to show that Jews in Persia helped shape the documents (vv. 3–4, 9). And the concern that the temple be rebuilt accurately fits what we know of Persian policy. The Persians wanted their subjects to worship their own gods by their own laws, partly to keep them content and less likely to rebel. They also wanted their subjects to pray to those gods on their behalf. In ancient polytheism, the more gods who looked on you with favor, the better. Darius asked the Jews to pray for him not because he held the God of Israel to be the only true God, but because he was covering his bases (v. 10).
In Darius’s decree the Lord brought good out of opposition. The mission to rebuild was confirmed, and the Jews received additional supplies. Taxes from the province “Beyond the River,” Tattenai’s whole district, would pay for the work (vv. 8–9; see 5:3). As in the days of Joseph, what others meant for harm, God meant for good (Genesis 50:20). Tattenai’s interference advanced the project.
Our God is sovereign over all. He can redeem even the situations that seem most hopeless and turn the plans of adversaries in favor of His people. He promises to do this, whether in this life or in the new creation. When we face difficulties, we should not lose heart. The Lord is able to bring good out of what others have meant for evil.
Respond:
R — Reveal: What does this passage REVEAL about God and His character? What does it teach you about who He is and what He does?
E — Explain: What does this passage EXPLAIN about mankind? What does it express about who we are, how we think, and how we live?
A — Apply: What is one specific thing you can APPLY to your life today because of this passage?
D — Discuss: Who can you DISCUSS this passage with in the next 48 hours? Share what you learned, what challenged you, or what encouraged you.
Friday
ACTS 4 (focus v.18–20)
Discover:
From the earliest days of the church, Christians have stressed the duty to be good citizens. Paul writes in Romans 13 of the obligation to pay taxes and submit to the proper use of governmental authority. Defenders of the faith in the first and second centuries, such as Justin Martyr (AD 100–165), answered pagans who accused believers of thinking they did not have to submit to the state. Throughout church history, believers have followed the New Testament call to pray “for kings and all who are in high positions” (1 Timothy 2:1–2).
At the same time, Christians have generally understood that there are points where the godly response is to disobey. In today’s passage Peter and John have been arrested by the Jewish authorities in Jerusalem for proclaiming Jesus as the Messiah. When they are forbidden to preach, they answer by placing the burden on the council. The council would have to show that they must listen to men rather than to God’s command to proclaim Christ. Their point is clear: the command is illegitimate. Followers of Jesus must keep His commandments even when those commandments violate the orders of the state (Acts 4:19–20).
That is the governing principle. When the state’s commands conflict with God’s commands, believers follow the Lord. Christians have the duty to disobey whenever the government forbids what the Lord commands or commands what the Lord forbids. Daniel refused to pray to the king when the king ordered it. We place obedience to God above obedience to the state (Daniel 6).
It is not always simple to tell whether a law actually forbids what God commands or commands what God forbids. The principle remains. Christ is Lord even over the state. When the state rejects His lordship, Christians still submit to His law.
Respond:
R — Reveal: What does this passage REVEAL about God and His character? What does it teach you about who He is and what He does?
E — Explain: What does this passage EXPLAIN about mankind? What does it express about who we are, how we think, and how we live?
A — Apply: What is one specific thing you can APPLY to your life today because of this passage?
D — Discuss: Who can you DISCUSS this passage with in the next 48 hours? Share what you learned, what challenged you, or what encouraged you.
Saturday
REVELATION 11 (focus v.15)
Discover:
The repeated patterns of seven, and the pauses between the sixth and seventh seals and between the sixth and seventh trumpets (Revelation 7; 10:1–11:14), most likely mean that Revelation is not giving a strict chronology of the last days. It looks at the same things again and again from different angles. John’s visions cover the whole era between Christ’s ascension and His return, with occasional references to first-century events such as the destruction of Jerusalem and the Roman persecution of Christians. Revelation shows us the kinds of things that have happened, are happening, and will keep happening until Jesus returns.
We see this with the seventh trumpet. John hears it, and heaven announces, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever” (Revelation 11:15). God and His Son are worshiped because they have begun to reign and to judge the earth (vv. 16–18).
It can sound strange to speak of the kingdom of the world becoming the kingdom of “our Lord and of his Christ.” Scripture teaches that God has always reigned over the universe (Psalms 10:16; 29:10). We must not forget that our Creator is sovereign over all, ordaining whatever comes to pass according to His perfect will (Ephesians 1:11).
Today’s passage has a different kind of reign in view. It is God’s rule over a creation that willingly submits to Him, exercised through His appointed human king. That reign was first given to humanity through Adam, who was commanded to take dominion over creation for God’s glory. When Adam sinned, we lost that right, and the creation was subjected to futility in rebellion against the Lord (Genesis 1–3; Romans 8:19–22). God in His grace purposed to restore it, preeminently in His Messiah, the anointed King set over all nations. Psalm 2 tells of that King’s enthronement and the submission of the nations to Him. Revelation 11:15–19 echoes the psalm and points to its fulfillment in Christ. Jesus is the truly human King who is also truly divine. In Him, God’s reign over a creation no longer in rebellion is reestablished.
That reign was reestablished when Christ ascended to God’s right hand. He sat down there, ruling until all things are put under His feet. Jesus is reigning even now, and all creation is groaning as we await His return. As subjects of that reign, we willingly obey Him and tell others of His kingship.
Respond:
R — Reveal: What does this passage REVEAL about God and His character? What does it teach you about who He is and what He does?
E — Explain: What does this passage EXPLAIN about mankind? What does it express about who we are, how we think, and how we live?
A — Apply: What is one specific thing you can APPLY to your life today because of this passage?
D — Discuss: Who can you DISCUSS this passage with in the next 48 hours? Share what you learned, what challenged you, or what encouraged you.