Daily Devotional Friday | May 8, 2026

Happy Friday! It’s time for your daily devotional. Jesus’ seven woes in Matthew 23 were meant to steer the scribes and Pharisees to repentance. In Exodus 32:9, God called Israel a stiff-necked people who were warned through prophets to turn from their evil ways. In today’s daily devotional, don’t make it difficult to lead; obey the Master’s guidance. 

Don’t Be Stiff-Necked

The word stiff-necked was a familiar term in Israel because it was originally used for oxen that resisted a farmer’s direction with an ox goad, a wooden stick with an iron spike at one end. When a team of oxen was yoked to a plow, the farmer poked them lightly so they’d turn or speed up. Oxen refusing direction in this manner were called “stiff-necked.” Therefore, when Jesus used this term, they knew its meaning.

Stiff-necked oxen were useless and disappointing because they wouldn’t perform their intended tasks. When Israel refused to honor God in love and obedience, they were living outside their purpose as His chosen people. They refused the “goads” sent to redirect them. In your daily devotional, don’t ignore God’s warnings meant to redirect you onto the right path. 

Goads That Were Sent

In verse 23, Jesus declared more goads would be sent to them: “Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city.” Jesus has just called them blind leaders, referring to them as a “generation of vipers,” who won’t “escape the damnation of hell.”

However, in His grace, He still sends prophets to continue trying to turn them, and if not, it will be their ruin, rendering them inexcusable. In this daily devotional, learn that rejecting God’s grace and mercy leads to perdition. 

The Righteous Blood

In verse 35, Jesus declares, “That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.” God’s mercy is on display by giving them more chances to change. He sends prophets and Holy men to a stiff-necked group that they may repent. Yet they persecute and kill them just like their fathers.

Before Jesus left the earth, He commissioned His disciples to teach all nations. In Jerusalem, they faced persecution and death. In Acts 7, Stephen exclaimed, “Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.”  Verse 54 says that upon hearing Stephen’s words, they stoned him, killing a man anointed by God.

They killed James by the sword, and arrested Peter for execution, but an angel rescued him from prison. Acts 8 reveals that great persecution broke out against God’s people in Jerusalem, and in verse 3, Saul of Tarsus “made havoc of the church, entering every house, and dragging off men and women, committing them to prison.” When Saul, later Paul, converted to Christianity, he became a target of the religious elite. In your daily devotional, learn to trust God in every circumstance, for He is with you.

Have a Heart of Obedience to God

In Friday’s daily devotional, Jesus said,  “All these things shall come upon this generation.” They would be held accountable for the bloodshed of the prophets. In today’s daily devotional, learn from the past to have a heart of obedience to God. Don’t be stiff-necked, but be more like Christ.