Devotional
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Daily Readings: Judges 13 and Psalm 37 Samson was not even born yet when the Lord proclaimed that he would be a “Nazirite of God from the womb until the day of his death.” (Judges 13:7) This was highly unusual. Numbers 6:1-21 explains the Nazirite vow, and it is clearly a voluntary commitment of oneself…
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Daily Readings: Judges 12 and Psalm 36 Judges 12 is yet another example of the moral failure of God’s people. The Ephraimites had wronged Jephtha by not assisting him in battle, and now they were adding insult to injury by threatening to burn down his house. It’s so illogical it would be laughable – if…
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Daily Readings: Judges 11 and Psalm 35 Charles Spurgeon’s commentary on Jephthah’s vow in Judges 11 is very helpful. He writes: “He had made a rash vow, and such things are much better broken than kept. If a man makes a vow to commit a crime his vow to do so is in itself a…
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Daily Readings: Judges 10 and Psalm 34 The One True God revealed in the Bible is not a comfortable, cuddly God. Psalm 34:15-16 proclaims: “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to blot out their name from…
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Daily Readings: Judges 9 and Psalm 33 We should not think that the awful acts of violence and treachery we read of in the book of Judges reflect the heart of God. They do nothing of the sort. Rather, they are a sobering revelation of what happens when a nation turns away from the God…
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Daily Readings: Judges 8 and Psalm 32 In Judges 8, Gideon was given a great victory by the LORD. With very little help from the other tribes of the land, he defeated the Midianite kings. In celebration he crafted a golden ephod. This was a garment used in the worship of the LORD, and usually…
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Judges 7 and Psalm 31 “You have too many men,” the LORD said to Gideon, “I cannot deliver Midian into their hands, or Israel would boast against me, ‘My own strength has saved me.’” (v.2) That is astounding. God calls Gideon to get rid of some of his soldiers because he is too well resourced…
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Daily Readings: Judges 6 and Psalm 30 “If the Lord is with us, why has all this happened to us?” Gideon asked the angel of the Lord in Judges 6:13. The unspoken answer is recorded in v.1, “The Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord.” The angel could well have replied, “You brought this down…
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Daily Readings: Judges 5 and Psalm 29 Deborah’s song in Judges 5 is a victory celebration that feels rather awkward. Certainly, she praises God and acknowledges that He won this great victory for her and for Israel. Yet it carries a note of self-congratulation (“until, I, Deborah arose” v.7), of naming and shaming those who…
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Daily Readings: Judges 4 and Psalm 28 “Save your people and bless your inheritance; be their shepherd and carry them for ever.” (v.9) David’s prayer in Psalm 28 must be the sort of cry the Israelites also raised to God from beneath the cruel oppression of Jabin (Judges 4). It was their own rebellion against…
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