DONNIE DAILY GEMS FOR FRIDAY MARCH 11:
WORD OF WISDOM
It was 37 years ago today that I started claiming the healing for my eyes.
Although it hasn't happened yet, I still believe that somewhere, some how,
and some time before I leave planet earth it's going to happen!!!
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DAILY DEVOTION
Preparing for Afflictions
Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which
is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the
spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou
therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but
be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of
God;
2 Timothy 1:6-8
Paul invested a great deal of time and training into the life of Timothy. He
knew that a new generation of leaders would be needed to carry on the work
after his life ended. In his final letter to Timothy, Paul is attempting to
prepare Timothy to carry on the work without his guidance. Realizing that
Timothy would face intense persecution and opposition, Paul reminds him of
the source of power that could overcome whatever obstacles Timothy faced and
allow him to be faithful in continuing his ministry.
Most of us do not have to endure the intense persecution faced by the early
church, but the world is no friend to our faith, and there may come a day
when we must choose whether to stand for the truth or give in to avoid
suffering. The challenge in that day will be to trust in God's strength and
power rather than trusting our own ideas and ingenuity. The point that Paul
drives home to Timothy is that ultimately it is the gifts and power of God
that allow us to stand even in hard times. Of course we do not have to wait
for afflictions to come to trust in God and rely fully on Him. We can begin
living with that approach in the current day, and indeed that is the kind of
living that will bring honor and glory to God even as it prepares us to take
a stand.
The time to decide to stand in God's power is before the battle begins to
rage.
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DAILY BIBLE READING
Judges 1-3Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
Judah Fights the Canaanites
1 After Joshua died, the Israelites prayed to the Lord, "Which of our tribes
should be the first to go and fight for us against the Canaanites?"
2 The Lord said to the Israelites, "The tribe of Judah will go. I will let
them take this land."
3 The men of Judah went to their relatives from the tribe of Simeon and
asked for help. They said, "Brothers, if you will come and help us fight for
the land God gave us, we will go and help you fight for your land." The men
of Simeon agreed and went with them.
4 The Lord helped the men of Judah defeat the Canaanites and the Perizzites.
They killed 10,000 men at the city of Bezek. 5 In the city of Bezek, they
found the ruler of Bezek[a] and fought him, and they defeated the Canaanites
and the Perizzites.
6 The ruler of Bezek tried to escape, but the men of Judah chased him and
caught him. When they caught him, they cut off his thumbs and big toes. 7
Then the ruler of Bezek said, "I cut off the thumbs and big toes of 70
kings. And they had to eat pieces of food that fell from my table. Now God
has paid me back for what I did to them." The men of Judah took the ruler of
Bezek to Jerusalem, and he died there.
8 The men of Judah fought against Jerusalem and captured it. They used their
swords to kill the people of Jerusalem. Then they burned the city. 9 Later,
they went down to fight against some more Canaanites who lived in the hill
country, in the Negev, and in the western foothills.
10 Then the men of Judah went to fight against the Canaanites who lived in
the city of Hebron. (Hebron used to be called Kiriath Arba.) They defeated
the men named Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai.[b]
Caleb and His Daughter
11 The men of Judah left that place. They went to the city of Debir to fight
against the people there. (In the past, Debir was called Kiriath Sepher.) 12
Before they started to fight, Caleb made a promise to the men. He said, "I
will give my daughter Acsah in marriage to whoever attacks and conquers
Kiriath Sepher."
13 Caleb had a younger brother named Kenaz. Kenaz had a son named Othniel.
Othniel captured the city of Kiriath Sepher. So Caleb gave his daughter
Acsah to Othniel to be his wife.
14 Acsah went to live with Othniel. Othniel told Acsah[c] to ask her father
for some land. She went to her father. When she got off her donkey, Caleb
asked her, "What is wrong?"
15 Acsah answered him, "Give me a blessing.[d] You gave me dry desert land
in the Negev. Please give me some land with water on it." So Caleb gave her
what she wanted. He gave her the upper and lower pools of water in that
land.
16 The Kenites left the City of Palm Trees[e] and went with the men of
Judah. They went to the desert of Judah to live with the people there. This
was in the Negev near the city Arad. (The Kenites were from the family of
Moses' father-in-law.)
17 Some Canaanites lived in the city of Zephath. The men of Judah and men
from the tribe of Simeon attacked them and completely destroyed the city. So
they named the city Hormah.[f]
18 The men of Judah also captured the cities of Gaza, Ashkelon, and Ekron
and all the small towns around them.
19 The Lord was on the side of the men of Judah when they fought. They took
the land in the hill country, but they failed to take the land in the
valleys, because the people living there had iron chariots.
20 Moses had promised to give the land near Hebron to Caleb, so that land
was given to Caleb's family. The men of Caleb forced the three sons of
Anak[g] to leave that place.
21 The tribe of Benjamin could not force the Jebusites to leave Jerusalem.
So even today,[h] the Jebusites live with the people of Benjamin in
Jerusalem.
Joseph's Descendants Capture Bethel
22 The descendants of Joseph went to fight against the city of Bethel, and
the Lord was with them. 23 They sent some spies to the city of Bethel (which
was then called Luz). 24 While the spies were watching, they saw a man come
out of the city. They said to the man, "Show us a secret way into the city.
If you help us, we will not hurt you."
25 The man showed the spies the secret way into the city. The men of Joseph
used their swords to kill the people of Bethel. But they did not hurt the
man who helped them or anyone in his family. The man and his family were
allowed to go free. 26 He went to the land where the Hittites lived and
built a city. He named it Luz, and that city is still called Luz today.
Other Tribes Fight the Canaanites
27 There were Canaanites living in the cities of Beth Shean, Taanach, Dor,
Ibleam, Megiddo, and the small towns around the cities. The people from the
tribe of Manasseh could not force those people to leave their towns. So the
Canaanites stayed. They refused to leave their homes. 28 Later, the
Israelites grew stronger and forced the Canaanites to work as slaves for
them. But the Israelites could not force all the Canaanites to leave their
land.
29 There were Canaanites living in Gezer. And the Ephraimites did not make
all the Canaanites leave their land. So they continued to live in Gezer with
the Ephraimites.
30 Some Canaanites lived in the cities of Kitron and Nahalol. The people of
Zebulun did not force those people to leave their land. They stayed and
lived with the people of Zebulun. But the people of Zebulun made them work
as slaves.
31 The people of Asher did not force the other people to leave the cities of
Acco, Sidon, Ahlab, Aczib, Helbah, Aphek, and Rehob. 32 The people of Asher
did not force those Canaanites to leave their land, so the Canaanites
continued to live with them.
33 The people of Naphtali did not force the people to leave the cities of
Beth Shemesh and Beth Anath, so the people of Naphtali continued to live
with the people in those cities. Those Canaanites worked as slaves for the
people of Naphtali.
34 The Amorites forced the tribe of Dan to live in the hill country. They
had to stay in the hills because the Amorites would not let them come down
to live in the valleys. 35 The Amorites decided to stay in Mount Heres,
Aijalon, and Shaalbim. Later, when the descendants of Joseph grew stronger,
they made the Amorites work as slaves for them. 36 The land of the Amorites
was from Scorpion Pass to Sela and up into the hill country past Sela.
The Angel of the Lord at Bokim
2 The angel of the Lord went up to the city of Bokim from the city of
Gilgal. The angel spoke this message from the Lord to the Israelites: "I
brought you out of Egypt and led you to the land that I promised to give to
your ancestors. I told you I would never break my agreement with you. 2 But
in return, you must never make any agreement with the people living in that
land. You must destroy their altars. I told you that, but you didn't obey
me.
3 "Now I will tell you this, 'I will not force the other people to leave
this land any longer. These people will become a problem for you. They will
be like a trap to you. Their false gods will become like a net to trap
you.'"
4 After the angel gave the Israelites this message from the Lord, the people
cried loudly. 5 So they named the place Bokim.[i] There they offered
sacrifices to the Lord.
Disobedience and Defeat
6 Then Joshua told the people to go home, so each tribe went to take their
area of land. 7 The Israelites served the Lord as long as Joshua was alive,
and they continued serving the Lord during the lifetimes of the elders who
lived after Joshua had died. These old men had seen all the great things the
Lord had done for the Israelites. 8 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the
Lord, died at the age of 110 years. 9 The Israelites buried Joshua on the
land that he had been given. That was at Timnath Heres, in the hill country
of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.
10 After that whole generation died, the next generation grew up. This new
generation did not know about the Lord or what he had done for the
Israelites. 11 So the Israelites did something very evil before the Lord.
They began serving the false god Baal. 12 It was the Lord, the God their
ancestors worshiped, who had brought the Israelites out of Egypt. But they
stopped following him and began to worship the false gods of the people
living around them. This made the Lord angry. 13 The Israelites stopped
following the Lord and began worshiping Baal and Ashtoreth.
14 The Lord was angry with the Israelites, so he let enemies attack them and
take their possessions. He let their enemies who lived around them defeat
them. The Israelites could not protect themselves from their enemies. 15
When the Israelites went out to fight, they always lost. They lost because
the Lord was not on their side. He had already warned them that they would
lose if they served the gods of the people living around them. The
Israelites suffered very much.
16 Then the Lord chose leaders called judges. These leaders saved the
Israelites from the enemies who took their possessions. 17 But the
Israelites did not listen to their judges. The Israelites were not faithful
to God-they followed other gods.[j] In the past, the ancestors of the
Israelites obeyed the Lord's commands. But now the Israelites changed and
stopped obeying the Lord.
18 Many times the enemies of Israel did bad things to the people, so the
Israelites would cry for help. And each time the Lord felt sorry for the
people and sent a judge to save them from their enemies. The Lord was always
with those judges. Each time the Israelites were saved from their enemies.
19 But when each judge died, the Israelites again sinned and started
worshiping the false gods. They acted worse than their ancestors did. The
Israelites were very stubborn and refused to change their evil ways.
20 So the Lord became angry with the Israelites, and he said, "This nation
has broken the agreement that I made with their ancestors. They have not
listened to me. 21 So I will no longer defeat the nations and clear the way
for the Israelites. Those nations were still in this land when Joshua died,
and I will let them stay in this land. 22 I will use them to test the
Israelites. I will see if the Israelites can keep the Lord's commands as
their ancestors did." 23 The Lord allowed those nations to stay in the land.
He did not quickly force them to leave the country. He did not help Joshua's
army defeat them.
3 The Lord did not force all the other nations to leave Israel's land. He
wanted to test the Israelites. None of the Israelites living at this time
had fought in the wars to take the land of Canaan. So he let those other
nations stay in their country. (He did this to teach the Israelites who had
not fought in those wars.) These are the nations the Lord left in the land:
3 the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the people of
Sidon, and the Hivites who lived in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal
Hermon to Lebo Hamath. 4 He left those nations in the land to test the
Israelites. He wanted to see if the Israelites would obey the Lord's
commands that he had given to their ancestors through Moses.
5 The Israelites lived with the Canaanites, Hittites, the Amorites,
Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites. 6 The Israelites began to marry the
daughters of those people. They allowed their own daughters to marry the
sons of those people. The Israelites also began to worship their gods.
Othniel, the First Judge
7 The Lord saw that the Israelites did evil things. They forgot about the
Lord their God and served the false gods Baal and Asherah. 8 The Lord was
angry with the Israelites, so he allowed King Cushan Rishathaim of Aram
Naharaim[k] to defeat the Israelites and to rule over them. The Israelites
were under that king's rule for eight years. 9 But the Israelites cried to
the Lord for help, and the Lord sent a man named Othniel to save them. He
was the son of Kenaz, who was Caleb's younger brother. Othniel saved the
Israelites. 10 The Spirit of the Lord filled Othniel, and he became a judge
for the Israelites. He led the Israelites to war. The Lord helped Othniel
defeat King Cushan Rishathaim of Aram. 11 So the land was at peace for 40
years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died.
Ehud, the Judge
12 Again the Israelites did things the Lord considered evil, and the Lord
saw them doing these things. So the Lord gave King Eglon of Moab power to
defeat the Israelites. 13 Eglon got help from the Ammonites and the
Amalekites. They joined him and attacked the Israelites. Eglon and his army
defeated the Israelites and forced them to leave the City of Palm Trees.[l]
14 King Eglon of Moab ruled over the Israelites for 18 years.
15 The Israelites cried to the Lord for help, so he sent a man named Ehud
son of Gera to save them. Ehud was from the tribe of Benjamin and was
trained to fight with his left hand. The Israelites sent Ehud with a gift to
King Eglon of Moab. 16 Ehud made himself a sword with two sharp edges that
was about 12 inches[m] long. He tied the sword to his right thigh and hid it
under his uniform.
17 So Ehud brought the gift to King Eglon of Moab. Eglon was a very fat man.
18 After offering the gift, Ehud left the palace with the men who had
carried the gift. 19 When Ehud reached the statues[n] near Gilgal, he turned
and went back to King Eglon and said, "King, I have a secret message for
you."
The king told him to be quiet and then sent all the servants out of the
room. 20 Ehud went to King Eglon. The king was sitting all alone in the
upper room of his palace.
Then Ehud said, "I have a message from God for you." The king stood up from
his throne. He was very close to Ehud. 21 As the king was getting up from
his throne,[o] Ehud reached with his left hand and took out the sword that
was tied to his right thigh. Then he pushed the sword into the king's belly.
22 The sword went into Eglon's belly so far that even the handle sank in and
the fat closed around it. The point of the blade came out his back. Ehud
left the sword inside Eglon.
23 Then Ehud went out of the private room, closed the doors to the upper
room, and locked the king inside. 24 Ehud then left the main room, and the
servants went back in. The servants found the doors to the upper room
locked, so they said, "The king must be relieving himself in his private
toilet." 25 The servants waited for a long time, but the king never opened
the doors to the upper room. Finally, the servants got worried. They got the
key and unlocked the doors. When the servants entered, they saw their king
lying dead on the floor.
26 While the servants were waiting for the king, Ehud had time to escape. He
passed by the statues and went toward the place named Seirah. 27 When Ehud
came to Seirah, he blew a trumpet there in the hill country of Ephraim. The
Israelites heard the trumpet and went down from the hills with Ehud leading
them. 28 He said to the Israelites, "Follow me! The Lord has helped us
defeat our enemies, the Moabites."
So the Israelites followed Ehud. They went down with him to take control of
the places where people could easily cross the Jordan River into the land of
Moab. The Israelites did not allow any one to go across the Jordan River. 29
They killed about 10,000 strong and brave men from Moab. Not one Moabite man
escaped. 30 So on that day the Israelites began to rule over the Moabites,
and there was peace in the land for 80 years.
Shamgar, the Judge
31 After Ehud saved the Israelites, another man saved Israel. That man's
name was Shamgar son of Anath.[p] Shamgar used an ox goad to kill 600
Philistine men.
Footnotes:
a.Judges 1:5 ruler of Bezek Or "Adoni Bezek."
b.Judges 1:10 Sheshai, Ahiman, Talmai Three sons of a man named Anak. They
were giants. See Num. 13:22.
c.Judges 1:14 Othniel told Acsah Or "Acsah told Othniel."
d.Judges 1:15 Give me a blessing Or "Please welcome me" or "Give me a stream
of water."
e.Judges 1:16 City of Palm Trees Another name for Jericho.
f.Judges 1:17 Hormah This name means "completely destroyed" or "a gift given
totally to God." See Lev. 27:28-29.
g.Judges 1:20 three sons of Anak Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, mentioned
above in verse 10.
h.Judges 1:21 even today That is, at the time the book was written.
i.Judges 2:5 Bokim This name means "people crying."
j.Judges 2:17 were not faithful . gods Literally, "acted like a prostitute
with other gods."
k.Judges 3:8 Aram Naharaim The area in northern Syria between the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers.
l.Judges 3:13 City of Palm Trees Another name for Jericho.
m.Judges 3:16 12 inches Or 30 cm. Literally, "1 gomed," probably equivalent
to 2/3 of a cubit.
n.Judges 3:19 statues These were probably statues of gods or animals that
"protected" the entrance to the city. Also in verse 26.
o.Judges 3:21 He was very close . throne This section of the text is found
in the ancient Greek version but not in the standard Hebrew text.
p.Judges 3:31 Anath The Canaanite goddess of war. Here, this might be
Shamgar's father or mother, or it might mean "Shamgar the great soldier" or
"Shamgar from the town of Anath."
Easy-to-Read Version (ERV)
Copyright C 2006 by Bible League International
