Thurs.’s Devo - The Word Fulfilled

Read: Judges 9:22-10:18; Luke 24:13-53: Psalm 100:1-5; Proverbs 14:11-12 It’s hard to understand Judges because like in the story we read today, there are no “good guys”. Both sides are equally wrong. Judges was the time when people were “doing what was right in their own eyes” so very few were doing what was good in God’s eyes. Abimelech had killed 69 of the sons of Gideon to make himself the judge over Israel. One of the sons, Jotham had escaped Abimelech’s ruthless killing and came back to curse Abimelech. He said that if Abimelech was wrong for what he did then may fire come out from the citizens of Shechem and Beth-millo and detour Abimelech. Today we see that curse come to pass. After ruling over Israel for three years, God stirred up dissection between Abimelech and the leading citizens of Shechem. They set an ambush for Abmielch on the hilltops and robbed everyone who passed them. Abimelech was warned of what they were doing. Gaal and his brothers moved to Shechem and became very popular with the people of Shechem. As they were celebrating some god for giving them a good harvest (which was suppose to be God’s feast they were celebrating) they got good and drunk. Gaal stood up and started cursing Abimelech and tried to rouse up a revolution. Zebul, Abimelech’s deputy was at the party so he sent messengers to tell Abimelech what was happening. He advised Abimelech to come with an army and have them surround Shechem. The next morning as Gaal was standing at the city gates he saw men in the hills. Zebul told them it was just shadows looking like men. When they got closer he was sure it was men and he saw others coming down the road. Zebul turned on him and asked him where his big talk was now. Gaal led the citizens of Shechem into battle against Abimelech but were chased out of Shechem. The next day, the people of Shechem came out to the fields to fight Abimelech’s army. They surrounded them once again and stood between them and the city. They killed the people and leveled the city to the ground. The leading citizens who lived in the tower of Shechem ran to the temple of Baal-berith. Baal didn’t save them. Abimelech had his men burn the temple to the ground killing 1,000 people. Next, Abimelech went to the town of Thebez to capture it. The people ran into the tower so Abimelech thought he would do the same thing to the tower as he had done to the temple in Shechem. As he was piling lumber around the tower a woman from the tower dropped a millstone on his head. He called for his soldier to kill him with his sword so it would not be told that a woman killed him. Thus, the curse of Jotham was fulfilled. The next judge was Tola who ruled for 23 years. He was born and died in Shamir which means “keeping guard” which was what Tola did for Israel. After him, God raised up Jair who judged for 22 years. When Jair died, Israel went into idolatry so Israel was turned over to the Philistines to judge them for 18 years. The Lord told them that he had delivered them from 7 nations and he was not going to rescue them again. They needed to ask the gods that they were so eager to serve to deliver them. The armies of Ammon had gathered to fight them at Gilead. The leaders of Gilead offered the rulership to whoever led the attack. Cliffhanger! In Luke, it was the third day and the women had seen the empty tomb and told the men. Two of the men who heard all this were from Emmaus which was 7 miles from Jerusalem. They were on their way home discussing all the events of Passover when Jesus came up along side them. God hid his identity from them. They were amazed that Jesus hadn’t heard about all that happened and filled him in. Jesus rebuked them for not understanding all the prophecy’s God had given them and taught them about himself starting at Moses. That was one conversation I want to hear when I get to heaven. They hung on every word. Jesus opened their eyes when he blessed and broke bread for them that night. Then Jesus disappeared. They left and went back to Jerusalem and told the disciples what had happened. Suddenly, Jesus appeared in the room. While the disciples were in awe, Jesus asked to be fed. (He probably hadn’t had anything to eat for 4 days!) He then taught them what he had taught the two other men. He told them to go to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit to come. Then led them to Bethany, blessed them and was taken up to heaven. Lord, may it not be said of us that we didn’t understand what You have written in your Word about your second coming. May we be awake and looking for your return.