Wed.’s Devo - Repent!

Read: Judges 11:1-12:5, John 1:1-28, Ps. 101:1-8, Pr 14:13-14 A general theme of the Judges is that the people did what was right in their own eyes. Today’s reading is an example of that. Jephthah is the son of a prostitute driven out of his house by his brothers who are the sons of the “real” wife. They don’t want to share their inheritance with Jephthah. But, when they are being attacked by the Ammonites they run ask Jephthah to help them. He agrees only if he can be their ruler which they consent to. Then he makes a rash promise to God. If God gives him the victory, he will sacrifice their first thing that comes out of his door. Apparently he had all kinds of animals in his house. God does give him the victory and instead of a lamb or ox coming out of his house, it is his only child, a daughter. The crazy thing to me is that she agrees to it and just asks for two months to go and lament the fact that she will never experience love or motherhood. I’m afraid if that would have been me, I would have gotten lost in those woods and never come home. She did and was killed. This goes right along with our Proverb: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.” We are now in John and this is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. How could they comprehend these verses? How can we fully comprehend these verses? Jesus and this Word are the same. John was sent to usher this eternal Word which would dress in an earthly form. This Word was going to be so holy that John was to cleanse the people’s hearts so they could receive it. He did that in the act of baptism. His message was “Repent, for the Messiah is coming”. Lord, you are going to come back again and your message is still, “Repent, for the Messiah is coming”.

Mon.’s Devo - Resurrection

Read Judges 8:18-9:21, Luke 23:44-24:12, Ps. 99:1-9, Pr. 14:9-10 Gideon killed the two leaders of the Midian army because they had killed his brothers. Gideon started out as a great leader, but let the fame go to his head. He acknowledged God as their ruler which was a good thing, but then he made a gold ephod which snared the people into idolatry. An ephod was a decorative vest worn only by the priest. Gideon went back home where his many wives and concubines bore him 70 sons. One of his concubines bore a son named Abimelech. The land had 40 years of peace. Gideon died and the people fell back into sin. Abimelech went to his mother’s people in Shechem and roused them to make them their king since he was one of them. They agreed and gave him 70 pieces of silver to hire assassins to help him kill his 70 brothers. The youngest brother, Jotham, managed to escape. The people of Shechem had a ceremony to make Abimelech their king and Jotham slipped in and made an announcement. He reminded the people that his father, Gideon had saved them from the Midianites. Was this how they were showing their gratitude? He spoke down a curse upon Abimelech and them for their evil deed then ran. In Luke, the sky goes dark for three hours, Joseph of Arimathaea begs Pilate for Jesus body. He wraps it in linen and lays Jesus in his own tomb. He doesn’t stay there for long. The next day, his body is gone and discovered by the women who came to anoint his body with spices. What they found instead were two angels who told them Jesus was risen. When they told the disciples, no one would believe them except Peter. When we try to take things in our own hands like Abimelech did we leave ourselves open for attack and disaster. When we leave it all to God we get resurrection and life. It may look bad at the time, but left in God’s hands is always going to turn out good. He can take death and breathe life into it. God can do what we can’t. Lord, You are the resurrection and the life! We give you our future that You may breathe on us Your life.

Sun.’s Devo - Gideon’s Victory

Read: Judges 7:1-8:17, Luke:23:13-43, Ps. 97:1-98:9, Pr. 14:7-8 wolf and raven Gideon’s name means “a warrior” but today he gets a new name: Jerubbaal which means “Baal will contend”. The Midianites were big worshippers of Baal and were instrumental in teaching the Israelites to worship Baal with all its perverse sexual practices. Gideon had come up against them to fight but first God made him whittle down his men from 3200 to 300 so God would get the glory instead of Gideon. When Gideon needed encouragement, God sent him down to his enemies’ camp. When Gideon heard the dream and interpretation of the Midianite, he knew God was going to give him the victory. I love how God uses our enemies to encourage us. God told Gideon to place trumpets and empty jars with torches inside, in the hands of all of his men. Then he sent them out at night right when the guards were changing. They blew the trumpets, smashed the jars and lit up the sky with their torches. It was definitely the shock treatment. It sent out a fear and confusion into their camp that made them fight each other. They chased them through Ephraim and Manasseh’s land where they helped them. They captured Oreb and Zeeb which mean a raven and a wolf. We are these earthen jars with the Holy Spirit inside. The trumpets are our mouths proclaiming God’s Word. When we do this, we are broken and the Holy Spirit can come out and accomplish a victory. One of Jesus’ most profound statements was “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” If this could be our prayer every time we are offended we would walk in agape love. Another of Jesus’ statements on the cross that is the most misunderstood is “to day you will be with me in paradise.” Jesus wasn’t talking about heaven. He didn’t even go to heaven till his resurrection and he was the first to rise from the grave. So what is paradise? Paradise is a type of Eden. It is a place of future happiness. “To day” is not like an immediate time as we think of today. It could mean over time of God’s day which is 1,000 years. Time in Jesus terms is not time in ours. I think Jesus was talking about a state of rest that this man would go to wait for the resurrection of his body. The Lord reigns! Let the earth rejoice and may all the people see His glory!

Sat.’s Devo - Gideon is Called

Read: Judges 6:1-40, Luke 22:54-23:12. Once again Israel has fallen into sin and once again they cried out to God. Even though they cried out to God, they worshipped Baal also and got mad when Gideon tore down the altar and the pole. God was very patient with them and with us. He was also patient with Gideon when he questioned if the angel was from God. We can all identify with Gideon who felt unqualified to do anything for the Lord and his desire for a sign. Gideon was always needing a sign and God always gave him one. He will do the same for us, too. God is the god of signs and wonder. He is always giving me signs that make me wonder! God even honored Gideon’s fear of tearing down the altar during the day. God was slowly building confidence in Gideon. God was getting Gideon ready for the victory. First he had to face persecution from his own people, misunderstanding, fear, and insecurity. Jesus faced all this before His final victory. I love how when Jesus was questioned that he would just agree to what they said. When they asked him if he was the son of God he answered, “You are right in saying I am.” Then when Pilate asked him if He were the king of the Jews, he answered, “Yes, it is as you say.” He did what they had tried to do to him for the last ten days…Jesus tricked them with their own words and made them testify the truth. Jesus was actually addressing the spirit of Satan that was inside them. Lord, thank you that you are Truth and Righteousness and you never deceive. Call us out as you did Gideon to do your will.

Fri.’s Devo - Fight and Pray

Read: Judges 4:1-5:31, Luke 22:35-53, Ps. 94:1-23, Pr. 14:3-4 Once Ehud died, the people went back into sin. God raised up Jabin to discipline them for twenty years. The commander of Jabin’s army was Sisera. When they cried out to God to deliver them, God gave them Deborah. Deborah was also a prophetess so she heard from God, then executed what see heard. She called out Barak to lead an army of 10,000 men to go up against Sisera’s 900 iron chariots. Barak refused to go without Deborah. She told him she would go but a woman would end up getting credit for the victory. I wonder if that wasn’t Jabin’s judgment for not trusting God alone to be with him. It turned out just as Deborah said. Sisera stopped to rest at an old friend’s tent and his wife, Jael took the tent peg and nailed it through his temple as he lay asleep. Israel got the victory and Jael the credit. Jesus is about to leave his disciples. He reminds them that when He was with them, they lacked nothing. Now they are going to need to be more careful and safe. Instead, they fall asleep in the garden when they were suppose to be praying and they watch as Jesus is taken from them by force to the high priest’s house. I can relate to both Barak and the disciples. All of them felt inadequate within themselves and lacked the discipline it took to be brave and fight when they needed to fight and pray when they needed to pray. Lord, help us in both areas. Make us strong warriors who know our God, and intercessors that can tap into Your power. You have become our fortress. and our God the rock in whom we take refuge.

Thurs.’s Devo - Staying in the Lord

Read: Judges 2:10-3:31, Luke 22:14-34, Ps. 92:1-93:5, Pr. 14:1-2 After Joshua was gone, Israel fell into sin. They went after foreign gods and intermarried with the very people God told them not to. Because of their rebellion, God sent their enemies to attack them. God used their enemies to tempt and try them. They oppressed them until they eventually cried out to the Lord, Then, God would raise up a judge to help the people defeat their enemies and turn back to Him. They would stay true to the Lord as long as the judge lived, but as soon as they died they would got right back into ways more corrupt than before. That is true in our own lives. When God rescues us, if our hearts don’t change, our deliverance will be very short-lived. Temporary peace or freedom will only be temporary if it doesn’t come from a deep relationship with Jesus. God will deliver us, but we have to stay close and not return to our same life style we had that got us into our pit. How easy is it for us to slip away? For Peter, it was just a few hours. He sits with Jesus and has the most important meal of his life then goes out and denies knowing Jesus three times. We have something they didn’t have in the Old Testament and that is the Holy Spirit. He is our power to stay a witness. He can keep us in the Lord and guide us in truth. We should not be living our Christian life on a roller-coaster but it should be going from glory to glory. The Holy Spirit makes that possible! Lord, thank you for the Holy Spirit - your gift to us. It is a very good gift!

Tues.’s Devo - Stones

Read Josh. 24:1-33, Luke 21:1-28, Ps. 89:38-52, Pr. 13:20-23 Today’s reading is pregnant with nuggets. Joshua met with all the tribal leaders and officials of Israel. He did a recap of their history and how God had led them to this very place and given them the land. Then he gives them a choice to serve the living God or the gods of the Amorites. He has chosen for his family to serve God. The people all agree that they choose to serve God also. Joshua reminded the people of God’s judgment if they rebelled. Then he took a large stone to be a memorial to their decision to serve God. It would be a witness against them if they chose to rebel and a reminder of their promise if they obeyed. That rock was Jesus (1 Co. 10:4). He is the witness of our righteousness. Joshua’s bones were buried in the city of refuge called Shechem. It is the same piece of land that all the patriarchs were buried. Eleazar is buried in Gibeah which is 5 miles away. In Luke, Jesus talked about the stones of Jerusalem and how one day they would come down. He proceeded to tell them the signs of the end of time. There will be persecution, wars, false prophets, signs in the sky, storms and shakings. Then Jesus will come back in a cloud with power and great glory! Lord, we choose today to serve the Rock of Ages, the stone that the builders rejected. We choose to follow You!