For a full description of the (Y3) reading plan, see the “About” page.
- What attributes of God’s character does this passage reveal?
- How does the passage point to Jesus?
- How should the truth of this passage change me?
- How do the events of today’s reading help you better understand the grand narrative of Scripture?
Judg. 10-11
The Israelites did a poor job of remembering their God. Time after time He delivered them, and each time they forgot and went back to their own ways. He finally told them to let the gods they chose deliver them. That makes sense. Why should anyone step in to save somebody else’s servant? Servants don’t always get to choose their masters. But God has graciously given us that freedom. So it pays to choose wisely.
Some may think they are their own master, but they live a lie. Whether we realize it or not, we are all servants of something and the truth is that there are really only two choices. There is God, who is life and all that is good. And there is everything else, which is the absence of God. In other words, death and all that is not good. Thus, when God confronted the Israelites about their chosen gods here, they repented. “So they got rid of the foreign gods among them and worshiped the LORD” (Jer. 10:16a).
Jephthah called out the Amorites on this same issue from a slightly different angle. He asked them, “Isn’t it true that you can have whatever your god Chemosh conquers for you, and we can have whatever the LORD our God conquers for us?” (Jud. 11:24). We receive whatever our chosen masters offer. We don’t choose God strictly because of what He gives us, though. We choose Him because He is God; because He is the only right choice. We choose Him because He loves us enough to give us the option, even though we don’t deserve it.
Judg. 12
As I was reading about judge after judge after judge, I started to wonder how many judges there were. So I looked it up. Evidently, there were twelve, up through Samson. Hmm…that’s a familiar number. And I would be willing to lay bets it’s an intentional one.