Judges 10
Tola from Issachar judged Israel 23 yearsverses 1-2
And after Abimelech there arose to defend Israel
Tola the son of Puah the son of Dodo
a man of Issachar
and he dwelt in Shamir in mount Ephraim
And he judged Israel twenty and three years – and died
and was buried in Shamir
Jair from Gilead judged Israel for 22 yearsverses 3-5
And after him arose Jair – a Gileadite
and judged Israel twenty and two years
And he had thirty sons that rode on thirty ass colts
and they had thirty cities
which are called Havoth-jair unto this day
which are in the land of Gilead
And Jair died and was buried in Camon
Ammonites oppress Israel for 18 yearsverses 6-9
And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD
and served Baalim – Ashtaroth – gods of Syria – gods of Sidon
gods of Moab – gods of the children of Ammon
gods of the Philistines
and forsook the LORD – and served not HIM
And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel
and HE sold them into the hands of the Philistines
and into the hands of the children of Ammon
And that year they vexed and oppressed the children of Israel
eighteen years
All the children of Israel that were on the other side Jordan in the
land of the Amorites – which is Gilead
Moreover the children of Ammon passed over Jordan to fight also against
Judah – Benjamin – the house of Ephraim
so that Israel was sore distressed
Israel cries out to the LORDverse 10
And the children of Israel CRIED to the LORD
saying
We have sinned against you
both because we have forsaken our God
and also served Baalim
LORD tells Israel to let their false godsverses 11-14
And the LORD
said to the children of Israel
Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians – Amorites
children of Ammon – Philistines?
Sidonians also – Amalekites – Maonites – did oppress you
and you CRIED to ME – and I delivered you out of their hand
Yet you have forsaken ME – and served other gods
wherefore I will deliver you no more
Go and CRY to the gods which you have chosen
let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation
Israel puts away its false godsverses 15-16
And the children of Israel
said to the LORD
We have sinned – do YOU to us whatsoever seems good to YOU
deliver us only – we pray YOU – this day
And they put away the strange gods from among them
and SERVED the LORD
and HIS soul was grieved for the misery of Israel
Ammonites gather for war with Israelverses 17-18
Then the children of Ammon were gathered together
and encamped in Gilead
and the children of Israel assembled themselves together
and encamped in Mizpeh
And the people and princes of Gilead
said one to another
What man is he that will begin to fight against the children of Ammon?
he shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead
COMMENTARY:
DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers
: 6 And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the LORD and serve not HIM. (5800 “forsook” [‘azab] means to leave, to leave behind, leave over, give up, abandon, to loosen bands, to desert, neglect, apostatize, or ignore)
DEVOTION: Look at the list of false gods they worshiped. It seems that every nation around them had their own god and Israel was willing to accept them. They didn’t just add their names to Jehovah but no longer served HIM.
They took HIM and HIS laws off their plate and just added what they had to do for these false gods. There are people even today who started out in church and knew about Jesus Christ but when they became teens or young adults they decided they didn’t need the God of the Bible. They didn’t need Jesus Christ. In fact the only time they brought up HIS name was to use it to swear with against something they didn’t like.
Well, there came a time in the life of Israel and there will come a time in the life of those individuals who thought they didn’t need Jesus Christ. Hopefully, the time will come before they die and face the LORD in judgment.
God is longsuffering toward every human being giving them every chance to repent and become followers of HIM. Some do but most do not. Some think it is too late but the LORD never considers it too late to become a follower of HIM. Some think they will do it on their death bed but that isn’t going to happen very often.
When the LORD confronts you with the evil or sin in your life what do you say to HIM? Are you willing to change? The decision is yours!!!
CHALLENGE: If you continue to worship the false gods our world you will spend eternity in the lake of fire with the devil and his angels.
DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers
: 9 Moreover, the children of Ammon passed over Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim, so that Israel was sore distressed. (3334 “distressed” [yatsar] means be straitened, be in straits, vexed, to be cramped, restricted, shut away, to be or become afflicted with or maked by anxious uneasiness or trouble or grief)
DEVOTION: Sounds like someone who is at the end of their rope. They have no where to go and they are afraid to face what is going to happen next. This is the condition of the children of Israel because they stopped worshiping the one TRUE GOD who brought them into the Promised Land and settled for the false gods of the world that had been in the Promised Land before the LORD gave them the land.
Instead of destroying all the false gods of the land they thought they could have it both ways. They could worship the LORD and they could worship the false gods at the same time. That didn’t work.
The LORD doesn’t share. HE wants HIS people to worship HIM only. HE judges those who try to do both, mainly because it is impossible. The LORD’S commands forbid any worship of false gods. HE told HIS people that if they worship false gods they were going to lose their blessings. They thought HE wouldn’t take their blessings away and so tried worshiping both.
Now we find that Judah and Benjamin realize their sin and knew that the LORD meant business when HE said HE would judge them for not being faithful to HIM.
This was true then and is true today. God doesn’t share well with false gods. Either we follow HIM or we follow the gods of this world. Many people who claim to be followers of Christ are not worshiping HIM wholly in spirit and in truth.
CHALLENGE: Are you trying to worship the gods of this world and Christ? It can’t be done. Judgment is coming.
: 10 And the children of Israel cried to the LORD, saying, We have sinned against YOU, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim. (2199 “cried” [za’aq] means called, gathered together, call for help, to summon, to utter aloud a request for help with intensity, to call to one’s aid, or send out a call to arms)
DEVOTION: We have to come to the point in our life when we cry out to God for forgiveness. Any individual who never does this will spend eternity in the lake of fire. The Bible makes it plain that there are only two directions individuals can go after they die: heaven or hell.
Now while we are here on this earth we have to keep a working relationship with Jesus Christ. If we are a genuine believer our life will show the fruit of the spirit. If we are someone who is faking it our lives will not show this fruit but something else. Many people are fooling themselves it they think that the LORD is pleased with their continual sin and lack of repentance.
Here we have the children of Israel reaching the point where they know they have to repent before the LORD will answer their prayer. So they admit their sins of worshiping false gods and other things. They admit that they were walking away from the LORD instead of toward HIM.
When we come to the LORD in prayer HE wants us to admit our sin on a regular basis. We all sin daily. We all need HIM to help us live a life that is pleasing in HIS sight. If we are genuine with HIM, HE will be genuine with us.
We don’t have the false god, Baal, in our life but we can worship sex both on television and other places. This is part of the worship of Baal in the Old Testament. It is still practiced today by many. Some of those worshiping Baal are even those who claim Christ.
CHALLENGE: Get this false god or any false god out of your life. Protect your eyes from this type of material.
DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers
: 14 Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation. (6869 “tribulation” [tsarah] means trouble, distress, affliction, adversity, anguish, straits, or calamity)
DEVOTION: What would we think if God gave us the same advice HE gave to the children of Israel? They were afflicted by a foreign government because they had chosen to worship false gods instead of Jehovah. They had a long list of gods they liked to worship because they allowed them to do what they thought they should be able to do. They could break all the Laws of Moses and still seem to see good times.
Well, the good times ended and now they wanted to change gods. The LORD told them to go to the false gods and ask them to help them. It was at this time that they realized that their false gods were not able to help.
So they made a good decision. They put away their false gods and started worshiping Jehovah again. They did turn around. They knew that they had to do something that would change what was happening in their lives and in the nation.
Trouble comes to everyone for a reason. It is to get our attention regarding what is going on in our relationship with God. Sometimes it comes for our personal growth and not because of sin but at other times it is because of our sin.
Confession of sin is necessary to be in a right time of fellowship with the LORD. HE wants HIS people to know that HE loves them but also that HE is a HOLY God. HE will not share us with other gods. They are all false.
HE is the only one who can deliver us out of any trouble HE allows in our life. Remember we are not to judge others if they are going through a hard time because it is because of their sin. It might be for us to have an opportunity to help them through a rough time in their life.
If it is sin we can be available to restore them to a proper relationship with the LORD without a judgmental attitude or thinking we are better than them because we are presently not going through a time of trouble.
CHALLENGE: God uses trouble in our life to help us grow or to lead us back to HIM. HE wants us close.
: 16 And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. (7114 “grieved” [qatsar] means to dock off, curtail, cut down, much discouraged, mourn, troubled, or vexed)
DEVOTION: We know that the Bible informs us that God is longsuffering toward HIS people. Throughout the book of judges there is a cycle of sin, captivity, prayer for deliverance, deliver or judge and then sin again.
The children of Israel sinned by worshiping false gods. The list is long in verse 6. Also in the verse we see that they “forsook the LORD and served not HIM.” They not only worshiped false gods but they didn’t even give the LORD any worship at all. In past times, they at least would worship the LORD and their false gods. This generation didn’t even think about the LORD. They had forgotten all that HE did for their fathers and grandfathers. They were a new independent generation.
However, when the Amorites caused the Israelites sore distress, they cried out to LORD. They didn’t like what was happening to them.
What was the LORD’s response to them? HE told them to cry out to the false gods they were worshiping for help. HE told them that maybe their false gods could deliver them. HE knew that they could not. HE wanted them to realize what was happening was of their own doing.
What was the response of the children of Israel? They confessed their sins. They told God to do what HE wanted with them. They put away their false gods. They started to worship the LORD.
What was God’s response to these actions? HE was grieved. The LORD was vexed in HIS inner being because of the suffering of the children of Israel. God, in HIS inner being, loves HIS children and it troubles HIM to see HIS children suffer. One of HIS characteristics is that HE is full of MERCY. HE will show mercy to HIS people. Many times, this will happen after HE chastens them.
Compassion is another characteristic of our God. When Jesus saw the people crying at the tomb of Lazarus, HE cried. HE knew HE was going to raise him from the dead but still had compassion on the people. HE had compassion on Jerusalem. HE knew what was going to happen to it because of their sin but HE still had compassion.
HE allows chastening to teach us to follow HIM. We sometimes let our children suffer, in order for them to learn lessons they need to learn. We do not like it and try other ways to teach them to act right. We know that it is important for them to obey the LORD.
The LORD chastens us to help us be better followers of HIM. Can we even imagine what HE was feeling when HIS Son, Jesus Christ, died for us? Are we grieving God through our actions today? HE loves us and cares about our daily walk with HIM. Are we worshiping other gods today?
As we examine our lives, what do we find in relationship to those people or things that stand between us and the LORD? Is HE the one and ONLY God that we serve? When we confess our sins, do we mean it the first time? Or are we sorry that we got caught? Do our actions prove that we mean business with HIM?
When we see someone getting further and further away from the LORD, what is our response? Compassion? Mercy? We should have them deal with their sin but in the end we should want to see the individual restored to fellowship with the LORD.
CHALLENGE: What would we want the LORD to do with us if we start to drift?
DISCIPLINES OF THE FAITH:
BODY
Chastity (Purity in living)
Fasting (Time alone with LORD without eating or drinking)
Sacrifice (Giving up something we want to serve the LORD)
Submission (Willing to listen to others and LORD)
Solitude (Going to a quiet place without anyone)
SOUL
Fellowship (Gathering together around the Word of God)
Frugality (wise use of resources)
Journalizing (Writing down what you have learned from the LORD)
Study and Meditation (Thinking through your study in the Word)
Secrecy (Doing your good deeds without others knowing but God)
SPIRIT
Celebration (Gathering around a special occasion to worship LORD)
Confession (Tell the LORD we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis)
Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)
Cried out to LORDverses 10, 12
Prayed to the LORDverse 15
Prayed for deliveranceverse 15
Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)
Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group)
DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:
Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)
God the Father (First person of the Godhead)
LORD – Jehovah (Covenant-keeping, Personal)verses 6, 7, 10, 11, 15, 16
Sight of the LORDverse 6
Anger of the LORDverse 7
Sold Israel into hands of Philistines & Ammonverse 7
I will deliver you no moreverse 13
HIS soul was grievedverse 16
God the Son (Second person of the Godhead – God/man, Messiah)
God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead – our comforter)
Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)
Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)
Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation)
Philistinesverses 7, 11
Children of Ammonverses 7, 9, 11, 17
Encamped at Gilead
Egyptiansverse 11
Zidoniansverse 12
Amalekitesverse 12
Maonitesverse 12
Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)
Evilverse 6
Served false godsverses 6, 10, 13
Baalim
Ashtaroth
gods of Syria
gods of Zidon
gods of Moab
gods of children of Ammon
gods of the Philistines
Forsook the LORDverses 6, 10, 13
Served not the LORDverse 6
Sinnedverses 10, 15
Served other godsverse 13
Chosen false godsverse 14
Strange godsverse 16
Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)
Acknowledge sinverses 10, 15
Deliveranceverses 11-13, 15
Serve the LORDverse 16
Israel (Old Testament people of God)
Abimelechverse 1
Israelverses 1, 2, 7-10, 17
Tola – son of Puahverses 1, 2
Man of Issachar – dwelt in mount Ephraim
Judged Israel20 years
Died – buried in Shamir
Jair – Gileadite verse 3-5
Judged Israel – 22 years
Thirty sons
Thirty cities – called Havoth-Jair in land of Gilead
Died – buried in Camon
Children of Israel did evilverse 6
Vexed by other nations 18 yearsverse 8
Judahverse 9
Benjaminverse 9
Ephraimverse 9
Told to cry to false gods by LORDverse 14
time of tribulation
Put away strange godsverse 16
Children of Israel encamped in Mizpehverse 17
People and princes of Gileadverse 18
Who will fight with children of Ammon?
Church (New Testament people of God)
Last Things (Future Events)
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QUOTES regarding passage
15–16 Israel demonstrated the genuineness of her repentance by throwing out the idols she was worshiping and by being willing to return to God on his terms. Persistent prayer finally brought an answer from Israel’s compassionate Lord (cf. 2:18). Expressed anthropomorphically God became “impatient” or “could bear [them] no longer” (wattiqṣar nap̱šô lit., “and his soul became short”) as he watched them suffer. (Wolf, H. (1992). Judges. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 & 2 Samuel (Vol. 3, p. 449). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.)
10:10–16. In previous times of distress Israel’s calling on the Lord was not an evidence of repentance for her sin (cf. 3:9, 15; 4:3). At the time of the Midianite invasions, the Lord sent a prophet to point out her need for repentance (6:7–10). However, on this occasion the Israelites demonstrated genuine repentance, first confessing their sins (We have sinned against You) and then, after the Lord rebuked them (let the gods you have chosen.… save you), they remained steadfast in their confession of sin and took action to get rid of the foreign gods and serve the Lord. His mercy toward Israel’s misery led Him to raise up Jephthah as a deliverer. The Maonites (10:11) may refer to the Midianites (cf. v. 12, LXX) or to a clan descended from someone with the Canaanite name of Maon. (Lindsey, F. D. (1985). Judges. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 400). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
For the people to abandon God was one thing, but for God to abandon His people was quite something else. The greatest judgment God can send to His people is to let them have their own way and not interfere. “Wherefore God also gave them up.… God gave them up.… God gave them over” (Rom. 1:24, 26, 28). This was too much for the Jews, so they repented, put away their false gods, and told God He could do to Israel whatever He wanted to do (Jdg. 10:15–16).
Their hope wasn’t in their repenting or their praying but in the character of God. “His soul was grieved for the misery of Israel” (v. 16). “In all their affliction He was afflicted” (Isa. 63:9). “Nevertheless, in Your great mercy You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them; for You are God, gracious and merciful” (Neh. 9:31, NKJV). “Yet He was merciful; He atoned for their iniquities and did not destroy them. Time after time He restrained His anger and did not stir up His full wrath” (Ps. 78:38, NIV). (Wiersbe, W. W. (1994). Be available (p. 92). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
10:10–18 “This time, you’re on your own.” For the first time during the period of the judges, Israel admitted they had sinned. But God apparently knew that their repentance was not genuine, for he declared that he would no longer deliver them (10:13). He would grieve in compassion at their misery (10:16), but he would not raise up a new judge. This time Israel would have to find its own deliverer. (Willmington, H. L. (1997). Willmington’s Bible handbook (p. 127). Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers.)
10:15 do to us whatever seems good. Genuine repentance acknowledges God’s right to chasten, so His punishment is seen as just and He is thereby glorified. It also seeks the remediation that chastening brings, because genuine contrition pursues holiness. (MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Jdg 10:15). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.)
Ver. 15. And the children of Israel said unto the Lord, we have sinned, &c.] By serving other gods particularly; and they seemed to have a true sense of their sin, and their confessions of it to be ingenuous, by what follows: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; inflict what punishment he would upon them, as famine or pestilence, they could not but own it would be just and righteous, and what their sins deserved: deliver us only, we pray thee, this day; out of the hands of men; they chose rather to fall into the hands of God; and however he thought fit to deal with them, they entreated that this once he would save them out of the hands of their enemies. (Gill, J. (1810). An Exposition of the Old Testament (Vol. 2, p. 336). London: Mathews and Leigh.)
FROM MY READING:
In July 1864, some 14,000 Confederate troops stood just six miles from—and within sight of—the Capitol Dome. For President Lincoln, it was a rude shock. After all, this was a year afterthe Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg. The Confederacy seemed near defeat.
In the nick of time, 17,000 Union troops dispatched by Ulysses S. Grant arrived and pushed the Confederates back. Washington was saved. Today, as Joe Biden is sworn in as 46thPresident of the United States, 20,000 National Guardsmen are in place to defend that same Capitol.
It’s impossible to understand how we’ve reached this point, unless we look beyond the last few weeks, even beyond the election, to pre-existing conditions, such as the decades-long thinning of civil society.
The most recent lawlessness at the Capitol reflects an escalating lawlessness that spans political parties, religious affiliations, age brackets, and social classes. Will a militarized America be the new normal? Will the armed troops protecting the Citadel of Democracy today be patrolling the streets of rioting cities tomorrow? Will the blatant failures of our institutions and our leaders continue to fester to an explosive level of distrust?
Chuck Colson often said that unless a people are governed by the conscience, they will be governed by the constable. When people are unable to govern themselves, they face a choice between order and chaos. Most often, the people ultimately choose order, which inevitably means the loss of freedoms.
The freedom to assemble peacefully is impossible to maintain when assemblies frequently turn into riots, looting, or sedition. The freedom of speech seems particularly vulnerable today, when Big Tech wields all the power and decides, like Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram already have, to crack down on political speech they deem offensive or dangerous. Last week, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke openly about forming a committee to “rein in our media environment,” something that should alarm anyone who has ever read any dystopian novel, ever. Our Second Amendment freedoms are most vulnerable when used as cover by mass shooters or insurrectionists.
Perhaps the most consistent refrain from America’s Founders is that our national experiment would prove unsustainable without a virtuous citizenry. Our Constitution simply cannot govern those who refuse to govern themselves. John Adams, our second President, said it most clearly: “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.”
Yet, Americans are becoming increasingly immoral and irreligious, our shocking lack of conscience is on display in rising numbers of both “deaths from despair” (addictions, self-harm and suicide) and “acts of desperation” (violent acts, riots, self-mutilation in pursuit of identity or sexual pleasure). We pump poisonous ideas into our hearts and minds and call it entertainment. We pump lies into our children and call it education.
In other words, America is in a dark, deeply divided place, a place Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn accurately described in his 1978 speech at Harvard. We have, he said, very “little defense against the abyss of human decadence…such as the misuse of liberty for moral violence against young people, such as motion pictures full of pornography, crime, and horror.” Even strict laws, said Solzhenitsyn (and, I might add, 20,000 National Guard troops), are powerless to defend a people against such moral corrosion.
The situation is dire, but not without hope. As Chuck Colson often said, despair is a sin. Christ is risen from the dead. God, in His gracious goodness, has revealed to us what is true and what is good. He has given us His Word and, through prayer, He has made Himself available to us.
Today, the Colson Center is launching a time of prayer, which will continue every week until Easter. Each week, often led by our ministry colleagues, we’ll pray according to the profound instruction God has given us in the book of Proverbs. We launch this today, and you can learn all about it at breakpoint.org/proverbs.
The devolution of our collective conscience may continue. The replacement of constitutional rights with constables might be inevitable. May it never be! But even if so, may God’s people not be reduced to outrage or cowardice. May we be the reservoir of strength and renewal our nation so desperately needs. (BreakPoint)
God’s Footprints
How many are your works, Lord!
Psalm 104:24
I know where God lives,” our four-year-old grandson told my wife, Cari. “Where is that?” she asked, her curiosity piqued. “He lives in the woods beside your house,” he answered.
When Cari told me about their conversation, she wondered what prompted his thinking. “I know,” I responded. “When we went for a walk in the woods during his last visit, I told him that even though we can’t see God, we can see the things He’s done.” “Do you see the footprints I’m making?” I had asked my grandson as we stepped through a sandy place by a river. “The animals and the trees and the river are like God’s footprints. We know that He’s been here because we can see the things He’s made.”
The writer of Psalm 104 also pointed to the evidence for God in creation, exclaiming “How many are your works, Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures” (v. 24). The Hebrew word for wisdom found here is often used in the Bible to describe skillful craftsmanship. God’s handiwork in nature proclaims His presence and makes us want to praise Him.
Psalm 104 begins and ends with the words: “Praise the Lord” (vv. 1, 35). From a baby’s hand to an eagle’s eye, our Creator’s artistry all around us speaks of His consummate skill. May we take it all in with wonder today—and praise Him for it!
By James Banks (Our Daily Bread)
OUR FELLOWSHIP IN HIS SUFFERINGS
That I may know…the fellowship of his sufferings. Philippians 3:10
I would now like to emphasize our fellowship in Christ’s sufferings, and our fellowship even in His death. Paul says in Philippians 3:10, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” What great thoughts! We must work them out, think them out, and pray them out.
Paul put it another way in Colossians 1:24: “Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church.” I do not pretend to understand that fully, but I do know that there is no higher statement of the doctrine of the union of the believer with His Lord. The apostle interprets his own sufferings in the flesh and in the body as, in a sense, filling up what remains of the sufferings and the afflictions of Christ Himself. Paul is bearing that in his own flesh. The result of the mystical union is that he enters into this mystical fellowship of the sufferings of Christ. There were people living in the Middle Ages of whom it is said that they so meditated upon and contemplated their Lord and all that He had done for them that some of them even developed in their physical hands the imprint of nails, the stigmata. It is not impossible. Such things do happen.
But all I am concerned to emphasize is that the more deeply we realize the truth about this union between us and our Lord, the more we shall know something of the fellowship of His sufferings. In this world He was “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Isaiah 53:3). That was because of the sin of the world. And because He saw the enmity of the human heart against His Father, it hurt Him, it grieved Him, and He suffered. There is no more delicate test of our relationship to Him and our union with Him than the extent to which you and I know something of His suffering.
A Thought to Ponder: The result of the mystical union is mystical fellowship with the sufferings of Christ.
(From God the Holy Spirit, pp. 115-116, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
Prayer for the Word
“I cried with my whole heart; hear me, O LORD: I will keep thy statutes. I cried unto thee; save me, and I shall keep thy testimonies.” (Psalm 119:145-146)
One of the great privileges we have is the ability to speak directly to our heavenly Father, the Creator of the universe! However, our prayers are often “amiss” (James 4:3) and lack faith (James 1:6).
Not so with this psalmist! He prayed with his whole heart, begging that he “might be filled with the knowledge of [God’s] will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Colossians 1:9). His petition shows a deep spiritual connection to God “with a true heart in full assurance of faith” (Hebrews 10:22).
Note that although the prayer of need recorded in this stanza (Psalm 119:145-152) mentions those who “follow after mischief” (v. 150), most of his conversation with the Father verifies his love for and his hope in God’s Word (v. 147).
This prayer was not routine. “I prevented the dawning of the morning,” the psalmist wrote, and his “eyes prevent the night watches” (vv. 147-148). The matters that drove him to his knees to seek God’s face had kept him awake all night!
Songwriter Mosie Lister wrote “How Long Has It Been?” based on this stanza of Psalm 119:
How long has it been since you talked with the Lord
And told him your heart’s hidden secrets?
How long since you prayed, how long since you stayed
On your knees till the light shone through?
Fortunately, Jeremiah recorded this promise from our Lord: “Ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).
(HMM III, The Institute for Creation Research)
(Remember the only author that I totally agree with is the HOLY SPIRIT in the inerrant WORD OF GOD called THE BIBLE! All other I try to gleam what I can to help me grow in the LORD!!)
FIRST U.S. COMPANY TO PLACE CHIP IMPLANTS IN EMPLOYEES (Friday Church News Notes, August 11, 2017, www.wayoflife.orgfbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143) – The following is excerpted from “Chipping Employees,” CBN News, Jul. 24, 2017: “A Wisconsin company is set to become the first in America to give its employees the opportunity to have microchip implants in their hand. Three Square Market is a developer of software used in vending machines and will pay for their employees to get chipped. About 50 employees at the company have volunteered to get the chip injection starting in August. The chips will be implanted in employees’ hands to buy things in the break room, log into computers, open doors, and so on. ‘It’s the next thing that’s inevitably gonna happen and we want to be a part of it,’ said Three Square Market CEO Todd Westby. The chip is about the size of a grain of rice and will be implanted between the thumb and forefinger. The company will pick up the $300 fee. ‘Eventually, this technology will become standardized allowing you to use this as your passport, public transit, all purchasing opportunities, etc.,’ Westby predicts in a blog post.”
QUOTE OF THE DAY FROM BEN CARSON : ” If someone asks about your educational background, proclaim boldly that: Church is my college. Heaven is my university. Father God is my counselor. Jesus is my principal. Holy Spirit is my teacher. Angels are my classmates. Bible is my textbook. Temptations are my exams. Overcoming Satan is my hobby. Winning souls for God is my assignment. Receiving eternity is my degree. Praise and Worship are my slogan. If you are a child of God bless you!”
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