Devotions from Judges

Passage Read: Judges 2-5 Meditation Verses: 2:1-2 The Israelites chose to live in peace with the remaining Canaanites rather than destroy them as God commanded. At first, they said the Canaanites were too strong for them, but they weren't too strong for the Lord. Instead,…

Passage Read: Judges 6-9 Meditation Verses: 9:55-57 Gideon risked his life and saved the Israelites from the Midianites. They wanted to make him king, but he refused. Yet still, he judged Israel and his sons apparently judged Israel after him. Until the son of his…

Passage Read: Judges 10-13 Meditation Verses: 13:12-14 Manoah seems to not believe his wife, that an angel visited her and promised a son. So Manoah asked the Lord to send the angel again, apparently wanting to see for himself. When the angel arrived, he had…

Passage Read: Judges 14-17 Meditation Verse: 17:13 Things are getting worse and worse for Israel. They know their God less and less! So when God chooses to deliver them, He has fewer and fewer godly men to choose from. Samson was a slave to his…

Passage Read: Judges 18-21 Meditation Verse: 21:25 This statement appears several times in these last chapters of Judges, as if to say that had there been a king, then everyone would have followed the Lord. But they had the priests who should have been studying…

Passage Read: Judges 2-5 Meditation Verse: 2:10 How could a generation grow up not knowing the Lord or what He had done for Israel? Their fathers knew Him and His deeds, didn't they teach their children? They were supposed to! Why were the fathers so…

Passage Read: Judges 6-9 Meditation Verse: 8:18 So Gideon who was the smallest in his own eyes, when he believed the Lord and attacked the Midianites, was transformed in bearing to that like a prince. He was at first very timid, and asked for proof…

Passage Read: Judges 10-13 Meditation Verse: 13:16 The Lord had said that the people were to offer their sacrifices at that place he would choose. They were not to do as the Canaanites did or as they were doing in the wilderness, every man sacrificing…

Passage Read: Judges 14-17 Meditation Verse: 17:6 There is value in having a clear leader who will uphold the word of the Lord and promote His ways. The priests should have been sufficient, but there appears to be little evidence that they taught the people…

Passage Read: Judges 18-21 Meditation Verses: 20:4-7 How easy it is to conceal information that could make me look bad, that could complicate matters when an issue of injustice arises. There was a serious problem with the men of Gibeah, and another problem with the…

Passage Read: Judges 2-5 Meditation Verses: 2:21-22 The Israelites fail over and over again. They intermarried with the Canaanites, so the relationships were very close with the people the Lord had commanded they destroy. The Israelites failed to walk in God's ways, but adopted the…

Passage Read: Judges 6-9 Meditation Verse: 6:13 Gideon doesn't seem aware of the reasons for God abandoning the people to the power of Midian. He speaks as if God just decided one day to give them up and ignore them. But a prophet was just…

Passage Read: Judges 10-13 Meditation Verses: 11:1-2 Jephthah was the son of Gilead by a prostitute, so Gilead was not a faithful believer in God, at least in his youth. He apparently married after that and had other sons by his wife. Those sons drove…

Passage Read: Judges 14-17 Meditation Verse: 14:4 Samson is no paragon of virtue, yet he is chosen by God to plague the Philistines, who rule over His people. He is no model of godliness. Instead, he is ruled by his passions. What were his parents…

Passage Read: Judges 18-21 Meditation Verses: 19:29-30 There are so many problems with this story that no one in it seems aware of; it perfectly illustrates the moral lostness of the nation at this time. The Levite apparently had no normal wife, so he buys…

Passage Read: Joshua 22 - Judges 1 Meditation Verse: Judges 1:33 Each tribe had their challenges. Some pockets of Canaanites and Amorites were too strong and too determined to remain alive and in the land! So the tribes compromised and lived among them, until they…

Passage Read: Judges 2-5 Meditation Verses: 2:12-15 How could a generation arise that didn't know the Lord? Because they dwelt among people who worshiped other gods, and those gods didn't demand obedience, but only gifts, and allowed and encouraged fleshly desires be satisfied in worship…

Passage Read: Judges 6-9 Meditation Verse: 9:57 The Lord hears the curses we proclaim against others, especially if they have done evil in God's sight. Abimelech killed his brothers and so Gideon's line was almost completely wiped out. But one son survived and cursed Abimelech…

Passage Read: Judges 10-13 Meditation Verse: 10:16 The Israelites had sinned against the Lord again, abandoning Him to worship the idols of the nations around them. So the Lord allowed the Ammonites and Philistines to oppress them eighteen years! The Israelites suffered bitterly because of…

Passage Read: Judges 14-17 Meditation Verses: 16:30-31 What was God thinking when He chose Samson as judge? Was Israel so clueless at this point that Samson was the best He could find? God uses him and blesses him with great strength, but he is no…

Passage Read: Judges 18-21 Meditation Verse: 19:25 There is so much carnage in these last chapters of Judges, not just war, but rape and idolatry. It's like Israel has learned nothing. How far they have fallen! These are not the times or the practices to…