Sat.’s Devo - Failures -

Read: Judges 1:1-2:9; Luke 21:29-22:13; Psalm 90:1-91:16; Proverbs 13:24-25 In Judges we go back and see the take over of the land and how it ended up. Judges, Chapter One is the chapter of failures. It lists the tribes who failed to drive out the people in their territories even though the Lord had promised to do that for them. At the end of the chapter the angel of the Lord spoke to the people at Bochim and told them he would no longer drive out the people living in their land because they refused to obey the Lord. They had made covenants with the people of the land and didn’t destroy their altars. They would now be constant thorns in their sides and their gods would be a constant temptation to you. One of the examples of this was in the descendants of Joseph (vs. 21-26). They sent a spy to Bethel which was then known as Luz. Luz means “perverseness”. They made a covenant with one of the men in the town to save him if he would show them a way into the city. He did and they allowed him to live. He went down the road and rebuilt the city and named it Luz. All he did was to take his perverseness to the land of the Hittites. The people wept when they heard his words but it did not reach their hearts. They offered sacrifices to the Lord and served the Lord till Joshua and the leaders who outlived him and had experienced the Lord’s hand. Most of the people they couldn’t take over, ended up living among them. They taught the people of Israel about their gods and their way of worship. In Luke, Jesus had just given them a picture of what the world would look like just before he came back. He warned them that when they saw these signs they were not to just keep living their lives drinking and carrying on, but to pray for strength to go through what was coming. Many people think we are living in that time but that is not what I see coming. Instead of destruction, I see a wonderful picture about to unfold. Wickedness and evil is being exposed so we can repent and get rid of it. This is the greatest time in history so far. We will have such stories to tell our grandkids and great grandkids about the day that we overcame the enemies in our land and drove them out. We have many battles ahead but we need to be courageous and strong because God is giving us back our land. We just need to be careful to drive out every power and principality of evil and not leave any living among us. It was nearing the time of Jesus’ departure from earth so he was diligent to teach every day and pray all night. Passover was approaching so everyone was gathering at Jerusalem to celebrate. Satan entered Judas Iscarot and he went to the leading priests and together they plotted how to kill Jesus. Judas was promised money to give them Jesus in a time when the crowds were not there. Jesus sent Peter and John ahead of them to prepare the Passover meal. God had angels to lead them to the place he had arranged for them to meet. Lord, may we learn from our failures and become stronger. May we defeat the enemies of Satan with the power of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for going before us and being our Captain and Lord.