Passover is one of the most important celebrations in the Jewish faith. It highlights the provision of God in desperate times of trouble. Passover celebrations began on the first month, Abib, also known as Nisan. For seven days they would eat unleavened bread. This means that they would not leave...

In Deuteronomy 23, God puts restrictions on who could participate in Israel’s formal worship. He bans castrated males from the assembly, which meant a banning of the practice of castration in Israel. God also restricted access from any children of a forbidden union; this meant a marriage between ...

In today’s reading, the law set out ways for Israel to remember God once they had entered the Promised Land. People quickly get used to their surroundings, and we are always in danger of forgetting where we came from. Israel was commanded to give the first of the produce of their land as an offer...

In Deuteronomy 29, we see God renewing His covenant with the Israelites who were alive at the end of the wilderness wandering period. The forty years in the wilderness had come to an end and the people were about to take over the Promised Land. God had chosen that generation, He had rescued them ...

When Moses had completed his mission here on earth, the LORD brought him home. God was with Moses the whole time and never let him be lonely. God and Moses had a personal relationship. Sometimes it is easy to forget that this relationship is not unique to Moses alone. Jesus Christ has made a way ...

The defeat of Jericho makes absolutely no human sense! It should not have happened! By all human standards, Jericho should have defeated Israel. They were a large, fortified city being attacked by a semi-nomadic people group with limited resources. Remember that though the Hebrews had some recent...

It was Jesus who said, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (MATTHEW 19:26). God is not only the ultimate problem solver, He also works out the troubles of our lives and makes good come out of it. He delights in making the impossible possible. And that is exactly wh...

The Promised Land was divided up between the Israelite tribes in the 14th century BC, about 3,400 years ago. History tells us that this is true, and the Bible tells us that it was the result of their covenant with God. God willed it. This is interesting considering the political turmoil over Isra...

Back in Genesis 49, Jacob, renamed Israel, blessed his sons who would become the twelve tribal heads of the nation of Israel. To Judah he said, “The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh comes;” (GENESIS 49:10). This promise was ultimately accompl...

Our reading today in Joshua 19 covers the land of the tribes of Simeon and Zebulun. Simeon is interesting to me because of the prophecies of Genesis 49. Remember that is when Jacob, or Israel, gave prophesies to his sons about the future of their descendants. And here in our reading, that future ...

At the beginning of the book of Judges, Israel was in a transition. The transition was supposed
to be Israel going from a nomadic people to a people with a homeland, with all the previous
occupants pushed out. Instead, when we catch up with Israel, their leader, Joshua, was dead,
the Promised Lan...

Deborah was an amazing leader in ancient Israel. She was a woman of integrity and devotion
to the LORD. She was a prophetess who received divine revelation and she was also one of
the early judges. Three other leaders that judged Israel before Deborah are described by the
Bible: Othniel, Ehud, an...

Gideon rose to be an amazing leader in Israel, but he didn’t finish his race without a terrible
compromise. Many of us remember Gideon best for the story of his fleeces. In order to be
completely sure that God was really sending him, Gideon set up a test for God involving fleece; mercifully, God ...

Sometime around 1100 BC, a woman was told by an angel that she would bear a son. We don’t know her name, but we do know the name of her husband, Manoah from the tribe of Dan. The child they would have would be raised as a Nazirite, specially dedicated to God, and he would grow to become a trouble...

Samson was born already living as a Nazirite, and he was called before his birth to become a leader in Israel. This commitment to be separated to God for a special task was meant to keep him close God, to always have on his mind who God was and what he was called to. But often, Samson forgot his ...

A truly amazing story surfaces in the time of the Judges. It is the story of Ruth, the Moabitess. Ruth was not from Israel so she would not have fully known or understood the way Israelite culture operated, but she learned. Through her story, we will see how Ruth learned and chose the Israelite w...

Eli the priest was a sincere and devout man who had been blessed by God with sons.
Unfortunately, Eli's sons were wicked men who, as priests, would steal and take advantage of the people bringing their offerings to God. God had spoken to Eli about his sons, but it seems that Eli did not act nor c...

The presence of God brings change. When we read 1 Samuel 5, we can see that the people of Israel were spiritually weak. They assumed that the reason they did not have success in battle was because they did not have the Ark of the Covenant with them. But God’s presence isn’t and wasn’t a spiritual...

There had been twelve judges of Israel before Samuel came on the scene. As Samuel aged though, Israel wanted a change. They wanted a king. In 1 Samuel 8:5, it says that Israel said to Samuel, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now make us a king to judge us like all the n...

Sometimes we are guilty of wanting to get things done more than we want to do things the right way. God always does things the right way. He is aware of every person and has patience with them. We need our goal to be working with God. Over the next few days of our assigned reading, we will see ho...

There are a great number of significant events that happen when David begins to run from the murderous jealousy of King Saul. One of them is with Ahimelech the priest. Due to David’s quick escape from Saul, he had no time to bring supplies like food or armor—no sword, no shield. Why would David g...

God created the woman as a companion and a helper to Adam. In many ways, women are smarter, more sophisticated, and often more perceptive than men. The Bible says that Abigail was a sensible and wise woman, and we learn about her in 1 Samuel 25. After Samuel had died and was buried at his home in...