Congratulations! When you complete today’s readings, you will be a quarter of the way through the Old Testament and will have completed the first of four New Testament readings! Well done!
Old Testament reading: Judges 8
“When pride comes, then comes shame, but with the humble is wisdom” (Prov 11:2). In a single turn, Gideon went from humility to harlotry. The men of Israel wrongly credited Gideon with the great victory over Midian. No doubt Gideon was a fine leader, and through his leadership Israel was delivered. But make no mistake, it was God who delivered Israel from the Midianites. Of the 135,000 Midianties who drew the sword, more than 120,000 fell fighting amongst themselves in Judges 7. Gideon and his 300 pursued the remaining 15,000 and conquered them, but still not without God’s help. Gideon flatly rejected Israel’s attempts to make him a king, saying, “the Lord shall rule over you” (v 23). However, he still did not keep himself humble and pure before God. Taking the golden earrings from the plunder of Midian, Gideon made an ephod and set it up in his home city of Ophrah. This golden ephod became a snare to Gideon, his house, and the children of Israel, who “played the harlot” before it, meaning they worshiped before it as an idol.
New Testament reading: Revelation 19-22
“We read of a place that’s called Heaven; it’s made for the pure and the free. These truths in God’s Word He has given; how beautiful heaven must be” (“How Beautiful Heaven Must Be,” Mrs A.S. Bridgewater, c. 1920). Revelation closes with great descriptions of heaven’s beauty. However, outside of God’s presence, which is my primary reason to go there, I find heaven more desirable by what is not there than the streets of gold and pearly gates. If Revelation 21:4 were the only verse in the Bible describing heaven, I’d still do whatever it took to go there: “And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.”
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