READING FOR MAY 20, 2026: ZEPHANIAH 1, MARK 5, PSALM 44:17-26
ZEPHANIAH 1 Verse one informs us that God’s word came to Zephaniah who, from the brief genealogy given, appears to be a great-great grandson of King Hezekiah, one of the best kings of Judah. Zephaniah’s ministry occurred during the reign of King Josiah, in the waning days of pre-exilic Judah. Given its content and timing, the message is one of upcomingjudgment upon Judah. Verses 2-3, however, sound more universal in scope, similar to the statement God made before the great flood: “The Lord said, ‘I will wipe out mankind whom I have created from the face of the land; mankind, and animals as well, and crawling things, and the birds of the sky’” (Gen. 6:7). Perhaps God used that language to convey the extreme severity of the coming judgment to shake His people out of their complacency. For them, the result was indeed calamitous.
Starting with verse four and through the rest of the chapter, the statements are definitely targeted toward Judah. God promises to finally eliminate Baal worship from the land. This includes the places of worship and the idolatrous priests. God says He will even eliminate their names. This may refer to either any memory of them or descendants who might carry on their family name. Verse five includes worshipers of the stars (perhaps astrology) and those who hedge their bets by worshiping the true God and Milcom, chief god of the Ammonites. Finally verse five includes those who have basically drifted away from God and no long seek Him. These different categories cover all those who are not God’s people. Certainly, they describe the range of spirituality we find today.
In verses 7-9, God says they/we need to be silent and listen to what God is saying to them/us. The “day of the Lord” in terms of the coming exile to Babylon was definitely close at hand for Judah. According to what Jesus tells us in Matthew 24, there are difficult times still ahead for all the earth. But there will an ultimate happy ending for followers of Jesus: “Many false prophets will rise up and mislead many people. And because lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will become cold. But the one who endures to the end is the one who will be saved. This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come” (Matt. 24: 11-14).
Verses 10-14 paint an image of God going from place to place in Jerusalem searching out the guilty for their punishment. One cannot hide from God. These individuals include the wealthy whose focus is on commerce and those who think they can take God or leave Him. Since they are headed toward Babylon, the houses they have just built will not be inhabited and fields they planted not harvested. The rest of the chapter doubles down on the terrible pain of these coming days. Verse 15 explains the reason for this disaster God is bringing upon them:“Because they have sinned against the Lord.” The good news for us is that God saves those of us who believe because God brought about an even worse disaster upon Jesus even though it was our sins that caused His extreme punishment.
READING FOR MAY 20, 2026 CONTINUED: MARK 5, PSALM 44:17-26
MARK 5 We first read this story of exorcism when studying Matthew 8. In the Matthew account there were two demon-possessed men. Mark’s account just focuses on one of these men. We can’t know why the accounts differ, but their differences do not make them contradictory. By looking at both, we receive a fuller picture. In Mark, we learn about the extent of physical strength, constant screaming, and self-harming of this possessed man. In Matthew 8 it says people avoided these men. Likely, we would do the same. Jesus, however, commanded the unclean spirit to leave and asked its name. The demons, named Legion, signifying many, made a request to Jesus, which He granted. Might this mean that demons are ultimately limited in their actions by what God permits? That was certainly the case in the book of Job. Consider 1 Cor. 10:13: “God is faithful, so He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” If we really rely on God, then Satan cannot defeat us. In this account we learn that the demons entered a herd of 2,000 pigs that then ran off a cliff into the sea. Try to picture that scene. Who said the Bible is boring? When the town tragically asked Jesus to leave, He did. Jesus never pushed faith in Him on anyone. Perhaps that should inform our methods of sharing the Gospel. We can, as Jesus told the formerly possessed man, just go to our people and tell what the Lord has done for us.
The rest of the chapter deals with two intertwined healing storylines: the hemorrhaging woman and synagogue official’s dying daughter. Stop to imagine how many requests for healing come to God simultaneously. Millions? Yet, even in Jesus’s human body He was able to address both of these requests with compassion and unhurried attention. This woman had a chronic condition of 12 years that drained all her finances. Yet, she still had a positive belief in what Jesus could do. Notice Jesus told the woman that her faith made her well. After learning the official’s daughter had died, Jesus told the father not to be afraid but to believe. Jesus does not always promise a specific clinical result from our faith, but He does say our faith can make us well and unafraid. In this case, the woman’s bleeding stopped, and the daughter sprang to life. This may not be our experience, but we can be unafraid and well with our soul.
PSALM 44:17-26 The lament of this Psalm continues with the extra information that Israel did not violate their end of the Mosaic Covenant (Deut. 28) by disobeying God’s commands. Yet, Israel still had not experienced the promised blessings of God from this covenant at that moment. This seeming nonresponsive God adds to their pain, but, and a big but it is, does not cause them to “deviate from [God’s] way” (vs.18).
They remain persistent in prayer and confident in His power, even as they are perplexed by His actions. We might pray this prayer today as some of us struggle yet remain faithful in our obedience, as did Job. Paul quotes from vs. 22 when he writes in Rom. 8:36, “For Your sake we are killed all day long; We were regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” Yet with the advantage of living after the cross and resurrection, he adds: “But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom. 8:37-39).
