Daily Reading
Daily Thought
God delivers the Israelites from slavery to Egypt and Moses breaks out in song, thirty-two verses begin with, "Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. For I will proclaim the name of the Lord; ascribe greatness to our God!" (Deuteronomy 32). God destroys the Canaanites in Judges 4, and Judges 5 is another song, this time by Deborah and Barak, "Hear, O kings; give ear, O princes; to the Lord I will sing; I will make melody to the Lord, the God of Israel." God is great. God is good! But now, the people have forgotten their God. A mighty victory over the Midianites in Judges 7. Turn the page and nothing. Nary a note. One fleeting reference from Gideon, but that an attempt to duck the anger of Ephraim. They accosted Gideon for not including them in the fight, and Gideon excuses himself, "Well, God was in charge." Blame him.
Instead, the Israelites want to make Gideon king. To his credit, Gideon responds with a rare word of wisdom, "I will not rule over you, and my son will not rule over you; the Lord will rule over you." But I will take your gold, thank you. In word, "One nation under God," but actions speak louder. When their leaders prefer the gold of the people to the glory of God, "the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals" (Judges 8:33).
Daily Prayer
Sovereign God, Maker of everything. Your Son, King of kings, Firstborn over all creation. You hold all things together. You not only made the planets, the stars, the suns, and the moons, You determined their path. Silly people worship the created rather than the Creator.
God, may I always keep You in my thoughts. May I always allow You to determine my steps. God, may I have the wisdom it takes to hear Your voice, know Your thoughts, follow Your lead.
Amen
Daily Reading
Daily Thought
We meet Gideon, judge of Israel and commander of God's army, in Judges 6. "Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house" (v 15). "Show me a sign that it is you who speak with me" (v 17). Because he was too afraid of his family and the men of the town to do it by day, he did it by night (v 27). "Behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said" (v 37). "Let not your anger burn against me; let me speak just once more. Please let me test just once more with the fleece. Please let it be dry on the fleece only, and on all the ground let there be dew" (v 39). The Lord said to him, "If you are afraid, go down to the camp with Purah your servant." He went down with Purah (Judges 7:10-11).
This is anything but inspiring. Certainly (maybe?) God could find someone else in Israel with more faith and courage, but that's not what the Israelites needed. When, finally, Gideon stepped up, God trimmed his army from 32,000 to 300, "lest Israel boast, saying, 'My own hand has saved me'" (Judges 7:2). This is the "generation who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel" (Judges 2:10). A cowardly commander leading 300 men armed with trumpets against the menacing army of Midian. It was time for the people of Israel to get to know again the might of their God.
When God chooses you to accomplish his will, do not imagine it is because of all you bring to the table. Just do what he says and get ready to stand amazed at the might of your God.
Daily Prayer
God, You are God. Simple as that. In fact, it's Your Name, the Name You gave Moses. The Name we are to remember You by. "I Am That I Am." You are God. There is no other.
What You say, You do. God, I pray that my faith is full, that my devotion is pure, that I follow You without fail, that I never take my eyes off of You. You are God. There is no other.
Amen
Daily Reading
Daily Thought
"And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord." That's Judges 3:12. It's also Judges 2:11; 3:7; 4:1; 6:1; 10:6; and 13:1; and that's just the book of Judges. "Again" puts it mildly, but what is astonishing is they continued to behave badly in God's sight. God was watching them and they weren't even concerned. Actually, they weren't even thinking about him.
This guy walking along the sidewalk near the middle school in our neighborhood had finished a can of coke. I watched him (he couldn't see me) glance to his left, then over his shoulder, and seeing the coast was clear, toss the can into the hedge on his right. Let's think through his thought process. He's looking forward and no one is there. Left, no one; behind, no one. Don't have to look down since that's the ground, and the hedge is on his right. No one's looking, so it's safe to litter. Forward, behind, left, right, and down, he had every direction covered, except one. Up. He didn't even consider God.
The book of Judges begins with the generation after the generation of Joshua. "And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord" (Joshua 2:10). Little wonder "the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the Lord" (Judges 2:11; 3:7, 12; 4:1; 6:1; 10:6; and 13:1). They weren't looking up.
Daily Prayer
Heavenly Father, by Your grace I am saved. Not by anything I did. I add nothing. Your Son, Jesus Christ, paid the price for my sins by His death on the cross. You have given me life, a life overflowing.
I am Your workmanship, made to do good works. Father, You lead and I follow and You get the glory and I have a life that is full and satisfying and good. On the night before Jesus died, He ate bread with His disciples and drank from the cup, and said, from now on whenever I do this, remember He gave His life for me. God, may I always remember, never forget, always look up.
Amen
Daily Reading
Daily Thought
Life moves forward, a generation dies and then another. And there arose another generation after them who did not know the Lord or the work that he had done for Israel (Judges 2:10). This doesn't mean they had not heard the stories. The stories passed down, but the generation that knew the stories was gone. To the Hebrew, the word "know" contains a personal intimacy that is not embraced by simply hearing the stories.
In 2005, my son was in 8th grade history class at Springview Middle School. His assignment was to write an essay on the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In 1945, my dad was in the 6th Marine Division on the Island of Guam. His assignment was to invade the mainland of Japan. Until two bombs dropped. I'm glad my dad and my son had a chance to talk.
So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he said, "Because this people have transgressed my covenant that I commanded their fathers and have not obeyed my voice, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations that Joshua left when he died, in order to test Israel by them, whether they will take care to walk in the way of the Lord as their fathers did, or not" (Judges 2:20-22).
When God disciplined the nation of Israel, he was providing an opportunity to make it personal again. Opening his Word introduces me to my God. Walking his Word, living by faith, trusting through trials, makes it personal.
Daily Prayer
My God, You enter history and You walk with us. You guide us, You lead us, You go before us. In the work of Your Son, Jesus Christ, through death on the cross and resurrection from the grave, there is victory over death, over sin, and over evil. You are Almighty, the God of righteousness.
God, may we truly know what You have done, passing it along to our sons and daughters by living a life of faith and trust, following You wherever You lead.
Amen
Daily Reading
Daily Thought
We all follow someone or something, each of us must choose, and there are only two choices: God and not-God. From the words of Jesus, "Whoever is not with me is against me" (Matthew 12:30), and, "For the one who is not against us is for us" (Mark 9:40). You cannot not choose. Did you hear the one about the Civil War soldier who couldn't decide who to fight for, North or South? He donned a Dixie gray shirt and Yankee blue pants and stood in the middle. Both sides shot him. "I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth" (Revelation 3:15-16).
Joshua gathers all the tribes of Israel for a his final words (he is about to die), "And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell."
You cannot not choose, so make a choice. "But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." ~Joshua 24:15
And choose wisely.
Daily Prayer
Father in Heaven, make Your love the foundation of my life. May my love for You express itself in eagerness to serve, to do good for others. May I learn humility from Your Son, sacrifice from the Cross, wisdom from Your Word.
You are God, most wonderful. Your wisdom confounds the world. May I think like You. May I listen to Your Spirit. Give me the desires of my heart; that is, may I delight in Your desires.
Amen
Daily Reading
Daily Thought
Not one word of all the good promises that the Lord had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass (Joshua 21:45).
Have you seen that bumper sticker, "God said it. I believe it. That settles it"? It is three words too long. If God said it, that settles it. "I believe it" adds nothing.
I looked up some streaks. Joe DiMaggio hit safely in 56 straight baseball games. He was a good bet for a hit, but not in game 57. UCLA won every basketball game from January 30, 1971, to January 17, 1974. Eighty-eight straight. But on January 19, 1974, they lost. Ted St. Martin sunk 5,221 consecutive free throws. You could bet he'd make the next one. But then he missed.
We have some good streaks, but even the best eventually fall. God keeps all of his promises. Every single one ...and counting. "Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End" (Revelation 22:12-13).
It's a sure thing, and you can bet your life on a sure thing.
Daily Prayer
Our Father, God, Thank You for Your promises. Thank You for telling us what You are going to do, then doing it. Thank You that we can fully trust in You. May I walk forward in faith, always trusting, always true.
God, you are the beginning and the end, the first and the last. In You there is no change, no uncertainty. You are the Creator and Sustainer of all things. We read Your Word and we know what eternity holds in front of us. What a great God You are!
Amen
Daily Reading
Daily Thought
The tribes of Israel divide the land and draw boundaries (Joshua 16-18), and yes, reading about it can be tedious. Weaving through these chapters, however, is a continuing thread of disobedience that merits attention. Joshua 16:10, However, they did not drive out the Canaanites who lived in Gezer. Joshua 17:12-13, Yet the people of Manasseh could not take possession of those cities, but the Canaanites persisted in dwelling in that land. Now when the people of Israel grew strong, they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but did not utterly drive them out. Israel continued to permit the ungodly to live among them and share the land. Initially, there seemed some advantage. The Canaanites provided an additional labor force that served the Jewish nation. Maybe it would be okay.
Maybe not, and here's why. The Israelites discovered that the Jordan River could not be counted on for water and irrigation. The cities were built on higher ground, and half the year, the Jordan slowed to a trickle. Israel needed rain; life depended on it. The Canaanite's number one god was Baal, the rain god. Israel now had to choose: depend on the one true God or the false, but enticingly named, rain god. Too often, Baal prevailed. Thumb through the remainder of the Old Testament and the name of Baal never goes away, and eventually it leads Israel back into slavery. God delivered Israel out of Egypt, out of slavery. Baal put them back.
As God is at work shaping us into his likeness, he is frustrated not so much by our great sins, but by our dragging feet. Joshua said to the people of Israel, "How long will you put off going in to take possession of the land, which the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you?" ~Joshua 18:3
Daily Prayer
God Almighty, as I watch the world around me, my faith is strengthened daily. There are signs of You everywhere. The joys of spring as the world blossoms and new life emerges everywhere reminds me that You are the Author of all life, and I can trust fully in You.
My God, I pray that my life, as well, is a continual reminder of You. That I reflect You in my actions, my thoughts, my faith. That I trust my life to You and walk forward at once in courage and faith, knowing that You go before me.
Amen
