Thurs.’s Devo - The Judges

Read: Judges 2:10-3:31;Luke 22:14-34; Psalm 92:1-93:5; Proverbs 14:1-2 Once the generation who had personal experience with the Lord all died, the people turned from God to worship Baal and Ashroreth. The Lord handed them over to their enemies who raided them and stole from them. They were no longer able to defeat their enemies because the Lord fought against them. *** God raised up judges to rescue them and they would have peace until that judge died, then they would lapse back into idolatry and God would send another judge to deliver them. *** The “ites” that they had not conquered and had allowed to stay in the land now became the thorns in their sides. One of the Kings who reigned over them was Aram-naharaim which means “of double wickedness”. He oppressed them for eight years until finally, the people cried out to the Lord. God sent them Othniel, Caleb’s nephew who married his daughter because he led the attack against Acsah in Judges 1:11-13. God gave them the victory and they had peace for 40 years until they went back into idolatry. *** God turned them over to Eglon, king of the Moabites. He united with the Ammonites and Amelekites and defeated Israel and took Jericho, Israel’s first place of victory. Israel was made to serve under Eglon for 18 years. When they cried out to the Lord, he sent Ehud from the tribe of Benjamin. He went to Eglon to give him the tribute money, then returned to give him a secret message from God. When everyone had left the room except him and Eglon, Ehud thrust a two-edged sword into the fat of Eglon and his bowels emptied and he fell dead. When the servants came to check on him they could smell of Eglon’s poop and thought he was in the privy releaving himself. When he delayed a long time, they finally got the key to check on him and found him dead. Ehud had long escaped and came back with his army. They attacked and God have them a victory over the Moabites. After that they had peace for 80 years. *** The next judge was Shamgar who killed 600 Philistines with an ox goad. *** In Luke, Jesus sat eating the Passover meal with his disciples. He told them that he wouldn’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God. The meaning was that his blood was the blood that sealed the new covenant. His blood was going to save humanity from sin. When everyone who is ever going to be saved is saved, he would eat this meal again with us. His body was the bread that would be the sacrifice on our behalf granting us salvation. *** Jesus told them that one of them would betray him which would bring that person much sorrow. *** The disciples began to ask who would ever do such a thing but ended up arguing about who would be the greatest among them. *** Jesus told them that the one who was the greatest was himself, and yet he was serving them, so if they wanted to be great they needed to learn to serve. *** Jesus singled out Simon Peter and told him that he was praying for him because Satan was targeting him. Peter told him he was ready to die for Jesus, but Jesus told him he would deny him three times tomorrow before the rooster woke up. He was letting Peter know that he was not as strong as he thought he was and His prayers would sustain him till he returned. Then his Spirit would give him the power to be bold as a lion. *** Lord, may we not realize our weaknesses but also the power of your prayers for us. We are so thankful for your blood and your body that you sacrificed for us. Thank you for your Holy Spirit that empowers us to be your witnesses. May we build our houses on you as our foundation.