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(The following are reflections from the writer’s personal journey through The Bible Recap by Tara-Leigh Cobble – a Bible reading plan to read the Bible chronologically in one year. To learn more about The Bible Recap, visit thebiblerecap.com. Find more posts from this series at lifeword.org/thebiblerecap.)
Day 92: Read Judges Chapters 8-9
My Takeaways:
I just love Judges 6-7 with God speaking to Gideon and raising a warrior out of him! But, these chapters make me sad. The last part of Gideon’s story is all about him and less about God.
And then he has 70 kids and one of them, Abimelech, kills all the others, save the youngest. After much scheming and fighting, he is killed.
My God Shot was the same as Tara-Leigh’s God Shot: “God became weary of Israel’s misery.”
He is patient and long suffering through these hard days of evil rulers and idolatry. Gideon would have found that God is where is joy is…and yet, he chose another path. And the pattern will continue during this time.
Day 93: Read Judges Chapters 10-12
My Takeaways:
Oh my, friends, this felt like a really bad soap opera!
6 bad judges.
Fighting between tribes.
What stood out to you today?
Day 94: Read Judges Chapters 13-15
My Takeaways:
The story of Samson.
In Sunday School, I remember hearing about the ending of this story—the humbling part of him being blinded and taken captive, and I felt so bad for him!
But, early on in his story, he is not so humble. In fact, he seems a bit, um, spoiled? On top of that, he is a fighter, who seems to go rogue and opposite of his calling. He’s a guy who made a riddle to have the upper hand on 30 guys so that he get some extra clothes. A guy who got his parents to eat honey from something dead and “unclean”? (They would have been shocked had they known!) A guy who ditched his bride out of anger and who went back to fetch her, finding out she had been given to one of his groomsmen. And, he’s a guy who lashed out at the Philistines as a result and used foxes to burn down their fields! (I would have liked to have seen this part! How in the world does one capture a fox and tie its tail to another with a torch in the middle?)
Wowza. Samson is one dramatic guy!
Did anyone see nuances between Manoah and his wife and Abraham and Sara? God uses barrenness to prepare both couples for a promised child! An angel appeared to both (maybe a Jesus sighting!) to prepare them for this child. Like the story of Gideon, a sacrifice was made by the couple and accepted by God. And like Gideon, the Spirit of God came upon Samson to rally him to fight the Philistines.
But, my God Shot was this: God knew his personality and his propensities and used them in His plan to help Israel fight the Philistines (who the Israelites had driven out of the promised land but are now back and are holding them captive). God brought His plan into fruition from Samson’s fiery temper and spoiled tendencies. While God does not endorse Samson’s actions, He does use them to advance His plan. And He provides for Samson when he needed it (water after he killed a thousand men with a jawbone!).
But, you know what? Israel needed a strong warrior to lead them against the Philistines and that is definitely what Samson was! Just not sure he led anyone…he was a one-man show.
Day 95: Read Judges Chapters 16-8
My Takeaways:
An unsurrendered life.
Today, Samson continued living life his way, not God’s way, and it eventually leads him to being captured by the Philistines.
He was sold out by Deliah for 1,100 coins. It reminds me of another time a man sold out his friend for 30 silver coins.
The thing that really gets me is this: Samson had a calling in his life from in utero. He had God’s Holy Spirit! And yet, he never really knew God. He never sought God. He never looked to Him for relationship.
Only when he was in prison did he call out to God in his humility. Perhaps then, with no eyes, did he appear to really see for the first time in his life.
God didn’t chide him. He didn’t scold him. He met him there in that humility and empowered him one last time.
There are so many Samsons out there walking around in the world—people with a calling on their lives. But, instead of turning to God, they turn to the world to satisfy them and lose out on experiencing God and purpose in life. The thing is this: the things of the world never really fill that longing in our hearts. They keep us hungry for more, looking for more.
We can be like that, too.
Or, we can be like Delilah, putting money, or worldly things, above relationship.
Or, we can be like Micah, wanting to create his own god and find a “church” that makes us feel good about the way we live life, though far removed from God and His Word.
Or, we can be like the Danite tribe, never obeying the call of God, wandering for a place they fit in.
It can be hard to live life adrift from God. And yet, I have gone through seasons doing it. And sometimes, God has allowed me to “get my eyes gouged out” to really see what I was doing. Thank God for humbling moments in life that can change our hearts to surrender to Him.
We may fail many times in our surrender, and that’s okay. I think God loves a willing heart that keeps surrendering to Him and His will.
Day 96: Read Judges Chapters 19-21
My Takeaways:
“In those days, there was no king in Israel and everyone did what seemed right to him.”
Oh friends, the reading is a picture of what life looked like sans God and His rules. Without a leader like Joshua or Moses. Without a teacher on the law to do public readings (reminders) of the law.
It shows us what we know already and have seen in Scripture: We are prone to sin. We are prone to the flesh. We are prone to looking at the world for direction and leadership, rather than God and His Word.
Thank God for boundaries. Thank God for the Holy Spirit to lead God’s people. Thank God for His justice and not the world’s.
And what I love in the whole story was this: just because people lived adrift of God and lived by their own rules, God wasn’t absent! He showed up. He let Israel fail, not once but twice, in fighting the Benjaminites…and when their hearts were grieved and they humbled themselves through fasting and sacrifices, did God promise them a victory. It’s always about the heart with God. I love how Tara-Leigh said, “Obedience doesn’t always guarantee our desired outcome. Sometimes its purpose is to teach us faithfulness to God instead of our desires.”
It’s easy to look at this story and think, “Why is this in the Bible?!” But, if we look at it from today’s times, we can see how many people live how they want. It gives us a picture of what life looks like when we make their own rules on what “good” and “right” look like.
And the thing is this: we are a fallible people with a propensity to sin. What if we didn’t have any rules to govern us?! How scary would that be? This is a reminder of our wandering hearts and our tendency to look around at others to lead us rather than God.
Day 97: Read Ruth Chapters 1-4
My Takeaways:
Today we entered another book of the Bible— a book of God’s faithfulness and redemption amid the messiest of circumstances.
There were so many moments God revealed Himself! Let me use the life circumstances in Ruth to show these God Shots.
For anyone who has had loss on life, take hope in Naomi’s story! She was a broken woman, losing her husband and sons…the bitterness and sorrow were real and deep.
And yet, God spoke through the words of a foreigner and revealed His faithfulness in the actions of Ruth. Though hard to see and feel, God was with Naomi through Ruth.
For anyone who asked God for provision, God reveals Himself as the Provider in this story! Boaz provided food, rest, and safety for Ruth to glean the leftover grains from the harvesters. Boaz, a man of great faith, had heard of Ruth and her loyalty to her mother-in-law and spoke a blessing over her—a blessing that God fulfills through Him! Boaz demonstrates a Christ-like love to Ruth, a protective love.
Why is he so drawn to Ruth? She is a woman of noble character. Her actions revealed her heart—a heart that was willing to leave all she had known (her family, her home, her gods) to be with her mother-in-law. And that got Boaz’s attention and his heart.
And you know what? God provided Boaz for Ruth and Naomi! He worked through Boaz to take care of both these women!
And, for anyone who has struggled to see good from loss in life, take hope in Naomi’s story: After Boaz married Ruth, they had a baby BOY. A boy to fill her heart with love after she had lost the men in her life. A boy who she would raise as her own. A boy who would have have another boy who would grow up to be “a man after God’s own heart.” This boy would be part of a lineage through which Jesus Christ would be born.
You guys, isn’t God so good?! Certainly, Naomi didn’t think that in the moment, or for awhile, but when that baby boy was cradled in her arms, I am willing to bet she realized that God was with her the whole time, that He kept her in His arms, that He provided for her, and that He loved her.
It’s a beautiful story to read…but an even more beautiful story to experience. And if He did that for Naomi and Ruth, He will do it for us too, friends!
God is faithful, especially amid great loss and messy circumstances.
God provides in the most unexpected ways!
And God shows us His love through the actions of others.
Take hope from this story, friends! You are heard. You are seen. And you are under the wings of your Protector.
Day 98: Read 1 Samuel Chapters 1-3
My Takeaways:
“Evil will be punished and the faithful will be blessed.”
That’s what I feel like would be the title for today’s reading!
We have another woman in Scripture who is barren and, for the first time and only time in Scripture, a woman goes to the tabernacle and pours out her heart to the Lord.
She pours it out in a way that appears to Eli, the priest who hears her, like she is drunk.
Hannah grieved with a broken heart to the Lord. She brought it to Him.
She cried.
She was resentful.
She was angry.
She addressed God as the “Lord of armies.” She asked Him to remember her.
She made a vow to God.
And, she surrendered to Him.
I wonder….did God answer her prayer because she brought all these harsh emotions to Him honestly and surrendered to Him? Did He allow her barrenness to get her heart ready to make a vow to give her child back to serve God? Or, did He allow the prolonged barrenness to give Eli time to disciple his sons?
Or, was it all of the above?
Maybe in our prolonged “nos” in life, God is not only preparing our hearts to submit to His will, but He is also working our circumstances in others’ lives too so that the timing is right on both sides, though our human eyes can’t see.
Hannah makes me think that she had some exposure to God’s Word because she said the phrase “remember me”—many times in Scripture that we have seen, the Bible will say “God remembered ____.”
I am not saying it’s a perfect science for formula, but I feel Hannah shows us something powerful:
- Prayer is powerful.
- Addressing God by His names and character is powerful.
- And taking broken hearts and raw emotions to Him is powerful. Hannah’s brokenness became a form of worship to God. And, God met Hannah there in her honesty of being bitter and angry.
It shows us that God esteems a heart that submits to Him and His will. And He blessed her for it.
What if we did the same? What if we grieved before the Lord with an honest heart? What if we took that brokenness and surrendered it to Him? What if we share our biggest longing and disappointment with Him? What if we were honest with God but turned to Him in our honesty and questions?
Because, friends, God met Hannah there in her brokenness and answered her prayer.
And perhaps this touched Hannah is such a way, she prepared her heart to give her baby boy back to the Lord in service. She was able to let go and surrender the biggest blessing of her life because God heard her and blessed her.
She had a surrendered heart.
And I feel that is what God loves and blesses most: surrendered hearts.
May we have the heart of Hannah in the toughest of circumstances and turn to God in submission.
Copyright © 2022 by Amber Spencer @ Lioness Legacy Facebook Page No part of this article may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from Lifeword.org