Morning Musing: 1 Samuel 15:20-21

“And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.””
(ESV – Read the chapter) ‬‬

Have you ever tried to confront someone with the truth and they just wouldn’t see it. Saul had been caught not doing what God had commanded. God send Samuel to confront him about not doing what He had commanded. But Saul just wouldn’t see it. And now that Samuel was getting more insistent with his charge, Saul was trying to deflect and point the blame other places. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Judges 2:4

“As soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Do you remember a time as a kid when you were misbehaving, knew it, but weren’t doing anything about it? You just kept right on down that path figuring that you’d deal with the consequences when that time came. And eventually, the time did indeed come. Your parent or teacher or some other authority finally caught you and sat you down and basically said, “You’ve had your fun, but what were you thinking? Now it’s time to pay the Piper.” Read the rest…

Morning Musing: Judges 21:6-7

“And the people of Israel had compassion for Benjamin their brother and said, ‘One tribe is cut off from Israel this day.  What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by the Lord that we will not give them any of our daughters for wives?'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

You would think that here at the end of the book we would get some kind of a happy ending.  And as this chapter starts, it looks like we might.  The people collectively realize what they have done in nearly completely eliminating the tribe of Benjamin by civil war.  They also consider the gravity of having sworn an oath to the Lord together that they would not give their daughters as wives to the surviving men, thereby guaranteeing their eventually disappearance.  It leaves the reader finally cheering a bit: “Here, now they will finally turn back to the Lord and get back on the right track.”  But, that’s not the kind of book this is. Read the rest…

Digging in Deeper: Judges 6:22-23

“Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord.  And Gideon said, ‘Alas, O Lord God!  For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.’  But the Lord said to him, ‘Peace be to you.  Do not fear; you shall not die.'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Have you ever been so upset about something that you were missing the world right in front of your face?  Most of us have at some point.  Life doesn’t go our way and we let it put us in a place where we can’t get past what went wrong.  All of our attention gets sucked into the frustration and things that most people would say are obvious don’t even register on our radar. Read the rest…