We may not break a covenant with Jehovah, but if we make a deal with the devil, same difference. At the beginning of Judges 2, we are confronted with an awe-inspiring Visitor. “Then the Angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to Bochim” (v 1). There is a debate as to who this is, […]
“You have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise” (Heb 10:36). Judges 1:17-36 might well be described as a catalog of mixed reviews. There were some wonderful victories, like this: “Judah took Gaza with its territory, Ashkelon with its territory, and Ekron with its […]
Read More… from June 14, 2023 — When Second-Best Is Really Worst
Before a report card on the tribal mopping-up operations, the Lord adds a note about some Gentiles! “Now the children of the Kenite, Moses’ father-in-law, went up from the City of Palms with the children of Judah into the Wilderness of Judah, which lies in the South near Arad; and they went and dwelt among […]
Oh for a heart like Achsah’s, seeking all that the Giver of every good and perfect gift has for us. If these judges are also “saviors,” in what way does Othniel picture our Lord? The link should be obvious. Kirjath Sepher means “City of the Book,” and our Lord first came to reclaim the Scriptures […]
The first judge, the young man Othniel, is very ready to jeopard his life to capture—a wife! The story we are about to discuss actually occurred where it was first recounted, in Joshua 15:13-19. Although it is significant in that context as the first step in God’s promise of the land being dispersed, we passed […]
The devil doesn’t take you seriously, as long as you have no grasp on the Sword of the Spirit. I’m told that poltroon was one of the nineteenth century’s favorite insults. It means “coward,” in fact, a coward of the worst sort. The word comes from the Latin poltrone, which interestingly referred to someone whose […]
The first short paragraph of Judges chapter 1 is a portend of things to come. Who will lead them? When we open the book of Judges, Joshua has died. When Moses died, Joshua took over. With Joshua gone, Israel asks the Lord, “Who shall be first to go up for us against the Canaanites to […]
Judges spans the years between the conquest under Joshua and the kingship under Saul. Although the book of Judges seems to start brightly, as when “they defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites” in the battle for Bezek (Jdg 1:5), the tide of war soon turns, with the encroaching waves of disobedience and unbelief. The period […]