“Then Micah said, ‘Now I know that the Lord will prosper me, because I have a Levite as priest.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Consider the insanity of this for a minute. This man has set up his own household god, hired a passing Levite as his personal priest of his personal religion, and now boasts confidently of the blessing of the Lord because of it. Read the rest…
“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…
“Therefore the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are all those who wait for him.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
The people of Israel were in a pretty hard spot. They had turned on the Lord. In fact, they had been turned away from the Lord for a long time. They had been turned away from the Lord for a long time and it was beginning to show. Their world was teetering on the edge. Some of them had started to realize just how dire their situation really was. They could read the international tea leaves. They saw the Assyrian army moving steadily in their direction, gobbling up nations in their path and spitting out nothing but ruin and destruction. But, instead of heeding Isaiah’s call to return to the Lord for their hope and salvation, they were running everywhere but to Him. Read the rest…
“Be very careful, therefore, to love the Lord your God.” (ESV – Read the chapter)
What Joshua calls the people to here is not some kind of a strong feeling, but to action. This is a command. And it is one they needed to be “very careful” to obey. This suggests that loving the Lord may not be something that comes easily. Is this really the case?
“And Joshua said, ‘Alas, O Lord God, why have you brought this people over the Jordan at all, to give us into the hands of the Amorites, to destroy us? Would that we have been content to dwell beyond the Jordan! . . .The Lord said to Joshua, ‘Get up! Why have you fallen on your face?'” (ESV – Read the chapter)
Joshua was devastated and dismayed. He had put his entire being on the line before the people that God was leading them to occupy this land and drive out its inhabitants entirely. They had crossed the Jordan on dry ground. They had conquered Jericho with its impregnable walls. There was nothing that could stand in their way for the Lord was obviously with them. And then they got beat by Ai. Read the rest…
