July 14-18
[M] 1 Kings 19-21; 2 Chr 17; Ps 129; Matt 1
[T] 1 Kings 22; 2 Chr 18; Matt 2
[W] 2 Chr 19-20; 2 Kings 1; Ps 20; Matt 3
[T] 2 Kings 2-3; Ps 48; Matt 4
[F] 2 Kings 4-6; Matt 5
Dwell Plan Day 141-145 | CSB | Digital PDF | Printable PDF
Notes from Jon & Chris
Monday
1 Kings 19:4-8 | Life isn't that complicated. Sometimes, you just need a snack and a nap.
1 Kings 19:10, 14, 18 | Elijah is a man just like us. That’s what James insists on, and it’s a bold call to bold faith. If Elijah is just like us, what can we hope for in prayer? What amazing things can and will God do for us? But why does James say that?
It’s rare in the Old Testament to get a real picture of a person’s attitudes and moods. The text tends to just tell a story. But we get glimpses of Elijah’s heart a number of times. In a previous chapter he sat under a tree and asked God to let him die. Here he twice tells God that he’s the only one left who is faithful. He doubles down on the way he says it and then says it twice. He thinks he’s all alone in following God. He’s unique in his devotion and suffering—or so he imagines. As my mom would have said, he’s having a pity party. But God corrects him. He gives him a job to do, an assistant to help him (who would become his successor) and He lets Elijah in on the bigger picture. He’s still got seven thousand folks who haven’t kissed the evil idols of Baal.
Two principles are here in this story. The first is a heads up about self pity. Don’t do it. Some folks have called it an “Elijah complex” when Christians sulk and complain that they’re all alone in this world. We all do it. Elijah is a man just like us in feeling sorry for himself. We’re also introduced to another beautiful truth we can trust in: God always has His remnant, His folks that still love Him. They’re in our city and all around the world. Sometimes they’ve been forced underground or can be hard to find, but they’re there. This is called the “remnant principle.”
I Kings 19:21 | Elijah gets his assistant Elisha here. This is a transition moment, and we know that from this point forward that everywhere that Elijah went, Elisha was right there with him. This becomes an important detail in the unfolding story. As you read, remember that Elisha is seeing all of the things that Elijah does. He’s watching and serving Elijah the whole time. He’s a witness to amazing things, and it builds up his faith. Later on, after Elijah is taken up into heaven, Elisha is bold in his faith. Where did this boldness come from? It came from what he had witnessed and seen. See what connections you can draw between Elijah’s amazing miracles and Elisha’s amazing miracles. What expectations should these amazing stories create in us?
I Kings 21:25-29 | How the heck does the wickedest man in this whole book get a break like this? And why does God make sure that Elijah knows about how Ahab has humbled himself? This is one of those blinding moments of eternal gospel love that just bursts out of our Bibles. It’s a moment of hope for desperate and wicked sinners who have cheated, murdered, and destroyed people. It’s a message of rescue for those who have completely abandoned God and run from Him. God looks on Ahab and has mercy because of how he humbles himself. I’m not saying that Ahab is a believer who then followed God. The story doesn’t say that. But in this weird way of God’s grace, Ahab’s legacy ends with a question mark and not an exclamation point. His epitaph is not “look at the certain eternal fate of a son of hell!” It’s “Huh? God showed mercy to him?!?”
Matthew 1:1-17 | Christ comes from a genealogy of kings, which establishes His legitimate claim to kingship. That’s the message on the surface, but there’s more to this. Along with faithful heroes of faith like Abraham and David, you have scoundrels and idolaters too. Then you have many names we don’t have any info on. Just anonymous folks. And then you’ve got four women, each with their own compromised stories. Why mention the sordid bits in His family story? Because He isn’t ashamed to call them family. That’s His glory and His amazing love for sinners. He isn’t ashamed of His family tree because He came to rescue His family forever. The message of the genealogy is that He isn’t ashamed of calling us family either. Praise Him!
Tuesday
I Kings 22:14 | Four heundered false prophets to one faithful prophet. Remember this when you see so many false teachers and fake preachers and dead churches. It’s always been this sort of proportion in God’s kingdom. You can’t escape it. It might sound grim, but don’t let that get to you. Like Jehosaphat, look for the true prophets that speak God’s words, who believe and trust in His scripture and love and trust His son. They’re out there. They won’t say what you want to hear and they might be ostracized by everyone else. That’s a part of the story of our Father’s kingdom too.
2 Chronicles 18:7 | King Ahab admits his hatred for the prophet Micaiah is because he never prophesies good concerning me, but always evil. This is a revealing window into the human heart: we often want God’s voice to affirm our desires, not challenge them. Like Ahab, we are tempted to listen selectively, embracing the parts of Scripture that comfort us while ignoring those that confront us. But God is not a consultant; He is King. His Word isn’t a buffet where we pick what we like, it’s the bread of life, given in full. True discipleship means submitting to all of God’s word, trusting that even the hard truths are spoken in love for our good.
Matthew 2:1 | This is all wrong. These are “magi,” magicians and astrologers. They’re outsiders, ignorant and confused by the “wisdom of the east.” We don’t know where they really came from or what they actually believed or what weirdness they used to know about Jesus. But they came to honor Him. This is a constant principle in the Bible: if the unfaithful faithful won’t seek and know God, He will find someone else for the job. The trajectory and arc of God’s love is to those outside. This is how the book of Matthew ends, with Jesus sending the disciples out into the world with the good news—sending them out to those who came in in the first place. Praise Him!
Wednesday
2 Chronicles 20:3 | Jehoshaphat was afraid, but his first response was to seek the Lord. Fear doesn’t have to drive us away from God; it can drive us toward Him. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus faced the full weight of the cross—far greater than anything we will ever bear—and He fell to His knees before the Father. Because He endured the ultimate suffering for us, we are now welcomed into the same kind of intimate access with God. If seeking the Father was enough for Christ in His darkest hour, it is more than enough for us in ours.
Psalm 20 | This psalm is a prayer of confidence that the Lord saves His anointed and answers from His holy heaven, and Jehoshaphat’s prayer in 2 Chronicles 20:5–12 is a living expression of that same trust. Surrounded by enemies, Jehoshaphat doesn’t rely on chariots or horses, but calls on the name of the Lord, just as Psalm 20:7 declares. The psalm gives voice to the very hope that drives Jehoshaphat’s prayer: that victory belongs to the Lord alone.
Thursday
2 Kings 2:23-24 | A good reminder.
Matthew 4:1–11 | This passage presents a profound lesson. Jesus doesn’t engage in a verbal argument with the devil; instead, he employs scripture as a powerful tool. He demonstrates a wise pattern: when faced with temptation, respond with truth. The more I immerse myself in God’s word, the more fortified I become in my resistance to sin. While it may not be a magical formula, it is an established path. Truth profoundly influences my desires and weakens the allure of sin. If Jesus relied on scripture during His moment of testing, how much more should I?
Friday
Matthew 5-7 | In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus paints a breathtaking vision of life in the kingdom of God. He speaks of hearts that are pure, enemies that are loved, and generosity that is hidden. It’s a call to a deep, inner righteousness—not just outward conformity to rules—but lives shaped by mercy, humility, and love. This is not a list of abstract ideals; it’s a real blueprint for how God’s people are meant to live. The sermon confronts our selfishness and reorients our priorities, calling us into a new kind of humanity that reflects the character of our King.
Yet as we read these chapters honestly, we also come face to face with our inability to live this way consistently. Who among us is truly pure in heart? Who never worries, never judges, never retaliates, never lusts or lies or withholds forgiveness? The Sermon on the Mount, then, is not just a guide, it’s a mirror. It exposes our need for grace. It reminds us that we fall short of the righteousness required and that left to ourselves, we can’t live this kingdom life on our own strength. This is why we need a Savior.
And in Jesus, we have one. He didn’t just teach the Sermon on the Mount—He lived it perfectly. Every beatitude, every command, every call to love and trust and forgive, He fulfilled it all without fail. And in the great exchange of the gospel, His perfect obedience is credited to us, while our sin was laid on Him at the cross. Because of His resurrection, we are now made right with God—not by earning His favor, but by receiving His mercy. So when we seek to live holy lives, we do so not to earn love, but because we’ve already been loved. Our obedience becomes a response to grace, not a ladder to heaven.