One Year Bible Readings and Commentary for Sunday, April 24th

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Click Here to Read Judges 2:10-3:31

Israel Disobeys the Lord

We often talk in the church about passing on the faith to the next generation. Or we say, "Christianity is one generation away from extinction." And while that may or may not be true, the point is that unless we intentionally teach our children what it means to know the Lord, there is no guarantee that what happened to the Israelites in today's passage won't happen to us and our children. 

It says that after Joshua's generation, the next generation forgot what the Lord had did for them, when he rescued them from the Egyptians and fought for them in the land of Canaan where they now resided. Not only did they abandon the Lord their God, but they worshipped and served the gods around them, like Baal and Ashtoreth. 

When they abandoned God, he gave them what they wanted, life without him. And they quickly saw what life without him was like, as they were easily defeated by their enemies. 

The Lord Rescues His People

God even raised up judges to help them to turn from their evil ways, but they resisted them and continued in their rebellious ways. We often lament where is God's mercy and grace in the Old Testament. He seems so judgmental. In this case despite their obstinancy the Lord withheld his judgment from them, while the appointed judge was living among them. But as soon as the judge died, the people would go right back to their idolatry and even worse than before. 

So God burned with anger toward these people. This was a test to see if they would trust Him like Joshua and their ancestors had done. And they failed.  The violated the covenant God had made with Moses that there would be blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. In fact, God had not driven out all the nations before Joshua died to test them to see if they would trust in the Lord like their forefathers did. 

Why would such a thing happen? It seems to make no sense. Here is David Guzik's take on this,

It is strange that anyone would want to trade a personal, real, living God for a false god that is the figment of man’s imagination. Yet there is something within man that is afraid of the exact God we need; we would rather serve a god of our own creation than the real, living God whom we can’t control. The gods we create are the gods wanted by our sinful desires.

The Nations Left in Canaan - Chapter 3

The nations who were not driven out in order to test the Israelites are listed, and then we see the sad results. 

So the people of Israel lived among the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, 6 and they intermarried with them. Israelite sons married their daughters, and Israelite daughters were given in marriage to their sons. And the Israelites served their gods.3:5-6

Intermarrying with the Canaanites corrupted the seed of the Israelites, which was expressly why God wanted them to drive out all of the Canaanite peoples. This fact would come to become an achilles' heal for the Israelites from that point forward. 

Since the people wanted to serve the gods of the Canaanites, God allowed the king of Mesopotamia to enslave them. Israel reaped exactly what they sowed for eight years. 

Then we will see a pattern that is repeated many times over in the history of Israel. When things got so bad, the Israelites cried out to God for help. The Lord had mercy on them and sent Othniel, the son of Kenaz, and nephew of Caleb, to give him victory over the king. Then there was peace in the land for 40 years. Importantly we see the "Spirit of the Lord came upon him!" This will be another pattern from here on out in the book of Judges. The Holy Spirit will come on specific people, at specific times, for specific tasks. 

Ehud Becomes Israel’s Judge 

Surprise, surprise, the cycle continues. When the Israelites did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, he raised up King Eglon of Moab, who also allied with the Ammonites and the Amelelikites to defeat Israelites. They even took back Jericho, which the Lord had given Joshua in such dramatic fashion. They had all but forgotten their leader Joshua and the secret of his success, which was trust in and obeying the Lord! 

Again the Israelites cried out to the Lord for mercy. Again, the Lord gave them mercy. Do you see a pattern here? Reminds us of the words from the psalmist, 

"The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning, new every morning. Great is the thy faithfulness O Lord. Great is they faithfulness." - Lamentations 3:22-23

So God raised up Ehud, from the tribe of Benjamin, who was left handed. Why does this matter?

“He is described as a left-handed man, literally ‘restricted as to his right hand’. In the eyes of an Israelite, this was regarded as a physical defect and it appears often in connection with the Benjaminites, without affecting their prowess in battle (cf. 20:16).” (Cundall)

Ehud was quite the warrior. He brought their tribute to the king and managed to get the king alone, when he killed him in a grisly manner, with a long sword which was tucked into his pants. By the time the servants found the king dead, Ehud had sounded the call to arms, and the Israelites came and attacked and killed 10,000 of the strongest Moabite men. The Israelites had peace in the land for 80 years. 

Ehud asked the Israelites to follow him, because he was their leader. Yet he also encouraged them to look with faith to the LORD (for the LORD has delivered your enemies into your hand). Like any true leader, Ehud said “follow me.” A leader can’t expect his followers to go where he or she will not or has not gone.  (Trapp)

And the land had rest for eighty years: Ehud’s cunning and courage, coupled with Israel’s faithful following of a leader, brought Israel’s longest period of freedom under the 400-year period of the Judges. Ehud is a dramatic example of how in the LORD, one man can make a difference, and how God will call others to work with that one man. (Guzik)

Click Here to Read Luke 22:14-34

Jesus Eats the Passover Meal with the Disciples

Jesus had desired to eat this meal with the disciples because in it he was going to reveal how the Passover meal ultimately was fulfilled in him. The Israelites celebrated the Passover meal annually as a remembrance of God's deliverance from the Egyptians. Jesus' was instituting the Lord's Supper as a remembrance of God's deliverance from sin. In the Passover meal, an innocent and unblemished lamb was offered as an atoning sacrifice for their sins. In the Lord's Supper (What we call Holy Communion or the Eucharist) the wine symbolizes the innocent Lamb of God (Jesus) who took away the sin of the world. 

This was the last time Jesus would eat a meal with his disciples in the earthly kingdom. The next time he ate this meal with them it would a heavenly Passover meal that would never end. We sometimes get caught up in the wrong things with the sacrament of Holy Communion. Churches and denominations argue how Jesus is really present in the bread and the wine. Does the bread and wine literally become Jesus' body and blood? Or, are they just a spiritual metaphor for what Jesus did on a cross for us? We Lutherans confess that "Jesus is truly present!" Though we can't explain exactly how it happens, we believe it in faith because Jesus said, "This is my body. This is my blood. Remember me and what I did for you!"

The bottom line is when we receive communion, we are remembering the new covenant God has made with us through Christ. In the new covenant, or the new promise, we are justified not by the righteous things we do, or by keeping the law. We are justified freely by God's grace, which he gave us through His Son's death on the cross. The new covenant, or promise, is that if we believe in Jesus and what he did for us on the cross, we will be saved. 

When we receive Holy Communion during worship it is a time to think about what Jesus did for us on the cross, and to think about our lives. Are our lives in alignment with God's will? Is there anything we need to repent from, or turn from to come back to God? 

As we turn from our sin and turn to Jesus on the cross and come forward to receive his body and blood, we are reminded of what he did for us, and that we are saved by grace through faith. When we leave church, we go out as the redeemed people of God set free from our sin to serve Christ in newness of life. 

Communion is a very important sacrament, which Jesus commanded us to participate in when we gather as the body of Christ. We shouldn't take it lightly. Though the only way we are made worthy to receive communion is through Christ. It is good for us to confess our sin and turn from what we know is wrong in our lives. After all, we don't want to receive God's grace in vain! 

Click Here to Read Psalm 92-93

Click Here to Read Proverbs 14:1-2