Month: March 2024

Oh, mighty hero!

What a mess! Today’s reading opens with Israel hiding in caves. The enemy is so thick you can’t count them all. They are destroying Israel’s crops and stealing their livestock. Israel is left to starve! Baal, the god of the hour, is powerless to protect them! It seems this idolatry thing isn’t working out so well! So, a pillaged and starving Israel cries out to the LORD God!

Gideon! What an interesting answer from God! God finds this man threshing wheat at the bottom of a winepress, hiding from the enemy. Creative? Sure! Glorious? No! So, who is Gideon? Gideon is from the weakest clan in the whole tribe of Manasseh and the least in his entire family. To make matters more interesting, his top three strengths are fear, doubt, and confusion. Ouch! What is God doing? Here, we have an enemy too big to count and too powerful to stop. God’s answer? A man known by no one, equally outsized in fear, doubt, and confusion! Hum… let’s sit in on this conversation between God and Gideon.

The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said, “Mighty hero, the LORD is with you!” “Sir,” Gideon replied, “if the LORD is with us, why has all this happened to us? And where are all the miracles our ancestors told us about? Didn’t they say, ‘The LORD brought us up out of Egypt’? But now the LORD has abandoned us and handed us over to the Midianites.” Then the LORD turned to him and said, “Go with the strength you have, and rescue Israel from the Midianites. I am sending you!” “But Lord,” Gideon replied, “how can I rescue Israel? My clan is the weakest in the whole tribe of Manasseh, and I am the least in my entire family!” The LORD said to him, “I will be with you. And you will destroy the Midianites as if you were fighting against one man.” (Judges 6:12–16, NLT)

Wow! This morning, the phrase that stood out to me is from verse 14, “Go with the strength you have…” Is Gideon to go with the strength he has? Yes! But his strength is best understood as fear, doubt, and confusion! Here is what God is doing. We see the minimizing of man and the maximizing of God’s Glory in preparation for the upcoming deliverance of Israel! 

Believer, what has God set before you? Is His will scary? Do you feel the least qualified for the call echoing in your heart? Are you fighting back the doubts? Are you confused because the path requires an uncomfortable amount of faith and exposure? Perhaps every step you need to take looks like an entire war all by itself. 

Then go, oh mighty hero, in the strength that you have, for God will be with you! God specializes in minimizing us so that His glory might be maximized through us, not in canceling the mission! If we could do it all, there would be no room for God at all! He must increase; we must decrease. Has God already prepared the way? Yes! Then, let’s go with the strength we have; God is with us!

Thank you for joining with me as I read and journal chronologically through the Bible! This devotional reflection comes from Judges 6:1-7:25.

Tent pegs, oxgoads, and victory!

Today’s reading covers about two hundred-plus years of Israel’s history. During this time, God’s faithfulness and mercy are apparent! God is faithful to chasten Israel when they stray from Him into idolatry. God’s mercy is evident when Israel repents, rescuing them from their oppression by raising up a judge.

Then the LORD…gave them over to King Cushan-rishathaim of Aram-naharaim…But when the people of Israel cried out to the LORD for help, the LORD raised up a rescuer to save them… (Judges 3:8–9, NLT)

Once again the Israelites did evil…and the LORD gave King Eglon of Moab control over Israel because of their evil. But when the people of Israel cried out to the LORD for help, the LORD again raised up a rescuer to save them… (Judges 3:12 & 15, NLT)

So the LORD turned them over to King Jabin of Hazor, a Canaanite king…So on that day Israel saw God defeat Jabin, the Canaanite king. (Judges 4:2 & 23, NLT)

What stood out to me in the reading were the instruments God’s mercy blessed in overcoming the enemy once there was repentance. For example, Ehud used a homemade dagger to kill a king. Shamgar used an oxgoad (a wooden pole with a point on one end to “goad” the oxen when plowing; the other had a flat piece of iron to scrape mud off the plow). And a woman, Jael, used a hammer and a tent peg to kill the commander of an entire army! In other words, once Israel repented, God mercifully blessed some humble, ordinary means to either start or secure victory over the enemy! Wow!

This same God is just as faithful and merciful in our lives as believers! He lovingly corrects His children when they stray and is merciful to them when they repent. Victory over sin, empowered by repentance, is often far more humble, simple, practical, and far more frustrating to the enemy than we tend to think.

No discipline is enjoyable while it is happening—it’s painful! But afterward there will be a peaceful harvest of right living for those who are trained in this way. So take a new grip with your tired hands and strengthen your weak knees. Mark out a straight path for your feet so that those who are weak and lame will not fall but become strong. (Hebrews 12:11–13, NLT)

Believer, no sin has such a hold on us that repentance and a “tent peg” can’t overcome it! There is no enemy that God’s mercy and an oxgoad can’t defeat! No child belongs to God that He won’t faithfully correct so that there is the blessed harvest of right living! Therefore, rejoice that God loves us! He is faithful and merciful in correcting us. Through repentance and practicality, we can experience the blessing of right living in our lives for His glory and our good!

Loving God means keeping his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. For every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle against the world? Only those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. (1 John 5:3–5, NLT)

Thank you for joining with me as I read and journal chronologically through the Bible! This devotional reflection comes from Judges 3:1-5:31.

What a contrast!

Wow! The start of the book of Judges couldn’t be more opposite from the ending of the book of Joshua! Notice what Israel said to Joshua in Joshua chapter 24.

The people replied, “We would never abandon the Lord and serve other gods. For the LORD our God is the one who rescued us and our ancestors from slavery in the land of Egypt. He performed mighty miracles before our very eyes. As we traveled through the wilderness among our enemies, he preserved us. It was the Lord who drove out the Amorites and the other nations living here in the land. So we, too, will serve the LORD, for he alone is our God.” (Joshua 24:16–18, NLT)

The generation speaking here in Joshua couldn’t and wouldn’t forget all the LORD their God had done for them.

Now, notice the following from the book of Judges.

After that generation died, another generation grew up who did not acknowledge the Lord or remember the mighty things he had done for Israel. The Israelites did evil in the Lord’s sight and served the images of Baal. They abandoned the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They went after other gods, worshiping the gods of the people around them. And they angered the Lord. They abandoned the Lord to serve Baal and the images of Ashtoreth. (Judges 2:10–13, NLT)

After Joshua and the elders who outlived him had all died, the following generation thought the LORD God was not worth acknowledgment. While they enjoyed the blessing of living in a land God gave them, they were fascinated by and worshipped the gods of the people around them. Really!?

These gods that Israel went after couldn’t part a drop of water, a Red Sea, or a Jordan River! These gods couldn’t conquer an ant hill, let alone the land of Canaan! What, then, are these gods capable of? They can become as thorns in the side—and thorns they became! These are the gods for which Israel abandoned the LORD God. Wow!

There is a caution here for us as believers. Like Israel, how easily and quickly our hearts can turn away from God towards that which is not worth acknowledging! It is easy to remember less and less where God found us, the pit of sin and misery from which he lifted us up, and the rock upon which he set us. It is easy to become fascinated with the sophistication of this world and ashamed of the simplicity and power of the gospel. Thorns and distress quickly spring up because of compromise with the enemy!

How do we overcome this tendency for our hearts to turn away from God? The remedy is simple: it is the practice of remembering and being grateful to God for what Jesus has done for us! And what has He done for us that only He alone could do?

He personally carried our sins in his body on the cross so that we can be dead to sin and live for what is right. By his wounds you are healed. Once you were like sheep who wandered away. But now you have turned to your Shepherd, the Guardian of your souls. (1 Peter 2:24–25, NLT)

Oh, where would we be without God? What a contrast our lives would be! Let us love Him, the Great Shepherd of our souls!

Thank you for joining with me as I read and journal chronologically through the Bible! This devotional reflection comes from Judges 1:1-2:23.

Thoughtfully!

Today’s reading marks the end of the book of Joshua, the end of Joshua the man, and the end of a unique era. What an era it has been! Victory, the possession of land, towns, vineyards, and the fulfillment of every good promise God made to Israel!

And I sent terror ahead of you…It was not your swords or bows that brought you victory. I gave you land you had not worked on, and I gave you towns you did not build—the towns where you are now living. I gave you vineyards and olive groves for food, though you did not plant them. (Joshua 24:12–13, NLT)

What an era! Yet, past blessings do not guarantee future blessings. As Joshua nears the end of his life, he echoes Moses’ concerns from a previous era. The danger is that though they possess the land, not all enemies with their gods have been driven out from among them. So what does Joshua say to the people in his farewell address?

So be very careful to follow everything Moses wrote in the Book of Instruction. Do not deviate from it, turning either to the right or to the left….cling tightly to the LORD your God as you have done until now….be very careful to love the LORD your God. (Joshua 23:6–11, NLT)

This morning, the phrase that stood out to me was, “…be very careful to love the LORD your God.” Each day, Israel would need to be filled with care to follow what Moses had written and cling to the LORD, loving only Him. Loving God is not automatic; it is an active, intentional work—and anything intentional for God, especially love, will be challenged by the enemy.

As believers, our day and time are really no different. Our enemies, the flesh, the world, and the devil all actively challenge our love for God. In fact, speaking of a time that will come, the Bible says sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold. (Matthew 24:12, NLT) Yes, we, too, must be careful to love God as Israel was to be careful. So how do we do this?

So be careful how you live. Don’t live like fools, but like those who are wise. Make the most of every opportunity in these evil days. Don’t act thoughtlessly, but understand what the Lord wants you to do. (Ephesians 5:15–17, NLT)

Being careful to love God means being thoughtfully obedient to God. As we refresh our minds by remembering His ultimate act of love, dying for us on the cross, God’s goodness will fill us with care to love Him! How often do we take the time to think about what God did for us by offering up His Son?

As believers, let us rejoice in our God, who has vanquished our enemies through His cross! Let us never tire of this new life He has given us! Let us carefully and thoughtfully walk in His light so our love for Him may abound!

Thank you for joining with me as I read and journal chronologically through the Bible! This devotional reflection comes from Joshua 22:1-24:33.

Last of all!

In this morning’s reading, Joshua finishes assigning the Promised Land to Israel’s tribes! Israel finally takes possession of the land and settles it. The LORD gives them rest from their enemies, and not one of all the good promises the LORD had given was left unfulfilled! After some rather tedious reading about all the land grants, borders, and cities, we see something unique about Joshua.

After all the land was divided among the tribes, the Israelites gave a piece of land to Joshua as his allocation. For the Lord had said he could have any town he wanted. He chose Timnath-serah in the hill country of Ephraim. He rebuilt the town and lived there. (Joshua 19:49–50, NLT)

In the end, Joshua got his portion after all the land was given out. Umm…wow! What a leader! After everyone was served, he took his portion. After everyone’s needs were met, he met his own. He waited four decades and stood at the back of the line. It’s no wonder the LORD chose him to lead his people! He was the last of all!

How backward is this thinking in a selfish, me-first world? This world believes that nice guys finish last. What’s mine is mine, and what’s yours is now mine. Who cares how you get to the top? Get to the top! It is all about first of all, not last of all! And the results? Misery, to say the least! While this is how the world’s economy works, how does God’s economy work? Notice the following teaching from Jesus.

The greatest among you must be a servant. But those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted. (Matthew 23:11–12, NLT)

What kind of world would this be if this teaching was practiced? What kind of experience would we have in our nation, churches, workplaces, or families if the practice was last of all, not first of all? While this sounds fantastic, it is not practical. So, what is practical? As believers, you and I can let our light shine in a dark world and live “last of all” among the lost. The results?

…let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father. (Matthew 5:16, NLT)

Oh…and last of all…

God blesses those who are humble, for they will inherit the whole earth. (Matthew 5:5, NLT)

Thank you for joining with me as I read and journal chronologically through the Bible! This devotional reflection comes from Joshua 19:1-21:45.