Sat.’s Devo - We Must Be Born Again

Read: Judges 17:1-18:31; John 3:1-21; Psalm 104:1-23; Proverbs 14:20-21 Micah stole 1,100 pieces of silver from his mother and then confessed to his crime. She instantly forgave him and took a portion of her returned money and had an image, an idol, an ephod and other household gods made until she had a small shrine. She installed her son as the priest. This story incapsulated what was going on in the land God told them to conquer. First they steal the people’s money and use it to build altars to put false gods which hurt the people even more. Then they select false priests to run them. *** A real Levite happened upon their land and they took him in and put him in charge of their false gods. The Levite, who should have known better, fell right in with it. This time in history was when they had no king to lead them and everyone did what they thought was right in their own eyes. *** The tribe of Dan had not yet conquered and moved into the land they had been given. They sent out scouts and found that the town where Micah lived was good land. They went into Micah’s house, and recognized the accent of the Levite living there and told him to come with them. He was happy to be with fellow Israelites. Instead of burning the idols and killing all the people, they took the idols for themselves and let the people live. *** They went on to Laish and attacked it and burned it to the ground. They set up the idols they had stolen from Micah and appointed Jonathan, one of Moses’ grandsons to be their priest. They worshipped this idol all the time God’s tabernacle was in Shiloh. This is probably why the tribe of Dan is left out of the list in Revelation - they never worshipped the Lord in the promised land. *** In John, the Pharisee, Nicodemus came to him in the cover of darkness. Nicodemus means “conqueror of the populace.” The fact that he came at night and his goal is to rule over the people tells me that he wasn’t seeking to believe in Jesus, but to find a way to conquer him. Nicodemus wanted tangible signs that God was with Jesus, but Jesus kept giving him spiritual answers like, “you must be born again to see the Kingdom of God.” Nicodemus couldn’t comprehend his answers because he was carnal. Jesus explained to him that he wouldn’t even believe the testimonies of actual miracles so there was no way he was going to believe what he told him about spiritual things. Jesus reminded him that Moses had lifted up a bronze snake on a pole to save the people and in the same way, the Son of Man would be lifted up to save the people. God would give his only Son so that everyone who believes in him would be saved and have eternal life. God didn’t send his son to judge, but to save the world. *** The ones who will be judged are the ones who choose not to believe in him. Then Jesus nailed Nicodemus by saying that God’s light came into the world, but people loved the darkness more than the light, because their deeds were evil. (This was Nicodemus to a tee.) Here he was at night, seeking a way to destroy the light. Then Jesus gave him an invitation to change. He said, “But those who do what is right come to the light so others can see that they are doing what God wants.” We never see Nicodemus come to the light and claim to believe in Jesus. Lord, may we not be ashamed to declare your good news in the light of day. Thank you for loving us enough to send your Son to die for us. Thank you for salvation that is free. May we freely give it to others.