One Year Bible Readings and Commentary for Thursday, April 28th
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Click Here to Read Judges 8:18-9:21
Gideon’s Sacred Ephod
1. It would have been easy for Gideon to get prideful given the victories over the Midianites he had just led. The Israelites wanted him to be their leader and eventually to make him their god. Gideon quickly deflected the praise and gave it back to God. Gideon knew more than anyone that it was God's victory, he was merely God's instrument.
2. While he did not agree to rule over them, he did instruct them to give him gold from the plunder to make an ephod. This was wrong on a couple of fronts. One, he didn't necessarily need to make what amounted to a fortune off of the plunder. Generally speaking spiritual leaders should not make huge amounts of money, which far exceed those they lead. It doesn't send the right message. Secondly, he made it into a sacred ephod, which was reserved only for the priests when they ministered in the temple. It was an odd request from him. Since the temple was in Ephraim, perhaps he wanted to have his own temple.
There are many positive lessons we learn from Gideon. He trusted in God when all odds were against him. He correctly turned down the request to be Israel's ruler. The incident at the end with the golden ephod was a little strange, but all in all he was one of the best judges in Israel's history.
How do you handle the success the Lord gives you? Are you prone to take credit for what God has done through you?
Abimelech
1. Unfortunately as soon as Gideon died, the Israelites turned back to the gods of Baal. How quickly they forgot how God delivered them from the hand of the Midianites. Abilimelech was Gideon's son on his mom's side. Gideon had 70 sons. The people of Shechem followed him because they considered him one of them and figured this could only help them. They gave him money from a pagan temple and Abimelech used it to hire thugs. Abimelech used these men to kill of Gideon's sons on his father's side, but the youngest son Jotham escaped. The citizens of Shechem then crowned Abimilek king. This was the first king crowned in Israel's history.
2. Jotham went to Mount Gerizim, where God pronounced blessings on the obedient 130 years earlier. He told a parable basically indicting the people of Shechem for making Abimelech their king. With the same violence by which they made him king would one day come back around to hurt them. After the bold warning, Jotham took off realizing that after this fiery speech, his life was probably in danger.
Abimelech took power violently. Those who come into power with violence usually are taken from it by similar violence. The principle usually holds true in all areas of life. When something is taken from someone against their will, when they get the opportunity they will probably strike back at the one who took it from them.
We see the principle of violence in our own world all the time, where the sins of the father keep on visiting each generation. At some point someone has to stand up and say, "Enough,we can't act like this anymore!" These are the leaders we need in our generation.
Click on this Link to Read Luke 23:44-24:12
The Death of Jesus
1. For three hours during the day darkness fell over the land. The moon covered the sun. The Passover took place when there was a full moon, so it is possible this eclipse was caused by this fact. The curtain in the temple was torn right down the middle. The temple curtain separated God from the people. Only the high priest could go into the most holy place beyond the curtain, once a year. The tear in the veil represented the fact that Jesus' death provided us a way to come into God's presence.
2. The way Jesus died was so dramatic that one of the Roman soldiers came to believe that Jesus was truly the Son of God.
3. When Jesus cried out one last time he said, "Into your hands I entrust my spirit." Having finished his work on the cross, Jesus now yielded himself one last time on earth to the Father. It would be his last act of obedience, as the only Son of God. From now on he would sit at the right hnad of the Father to judge the living and the dead.
4. Most of the people went away mourning, but the text says those who followed him stood in the distance.
I think the women and his disciples were in shock. They were numb. Though we know now Jesus' death finished his work of saving the world, they did not know this yet. All they could probably think about was how they did nothing to save him and now he was gone.
The Burial of Jesus
1. We meet Joseph of Arimathea who was a part of the Jewish Sanhedrin, and apparently did not agree with the decision of the council. He asked for the body of Jesus from Pilate and wrapped it in a linen shroud.
2. Because of the coming Sabbath arrangements had to be made quickly. It was quite a sacrifice for Joseph to buy this tomb but fortunately Jesus would only be in it a few days.
The Resurrection
1. The women followers of Jesus were the first to the tomb on Sunday morning. This makes Luke's historical account of the resurrection even more believable. Why? Because a woman's testimony was not allowed in court in the ancient world. If the story had been made up, someone would have had the men arrive to the tomb first to find out it was empty.
2. Two men (angels) appeared and asked the women why there were looking for the living among the dead. The women bowed down in awe. The angels reminded the women that Jesus said this would heppen.
3. While the women were quick to remember what Jesus had told them and presumably believed, when they told the other disciples about their experience with the empty tomb and the angels, the disciples thought it was nonsense. After all the miracles Jesus had done in his three years with the disciples, and the fact that Jesus had also told them he would be raised from the dead, it is hard to believe they thought the women's story was utter nonsense.
4. There was one disciple whom it struck a chord of curiousity. Peter ran to the tomb, saw it was empty and saw the empty linen wrappings, but still didn't know what to make of it.
It is amazing to me that the women were the first to the tomb, while the men were paralyzed with fear and apparently thought the women were crazy. Peter did go to check it out, but it seems as though he was still in doubt.
We see throughout the New Testament women playing a major role in the expansion of the gospel and it started right here on Easter Sunday. Paul says in Galatians 3:28, "In Christ there is no Jew nor Gentile, male or femaile, slave nor free, but all are one in Christ Jesus."
Jesus has broken down all of the walls that man uses to separate one another. We are all servants of Jesus and there is no hierarchy in the body of Christ. The greatest among us is the one who serves.
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