Bible Readings for July 27th Judges 10 | Acts 14 | Jeremiah 23 | Mark 9 After the leadership of two more judges, Tola and Jair, Israel descends deeper into their rebellion and idolatry, forsaking Yahweh once again. So Yahweh again hands his people over to their enemies to oppress them because of their idolatries (Judg. 10:7–9). And—exactly according to the pattern—Israel cries out for Yahweh to save them from their enemies, confessing that they had sinned. But this time, as if recognizing that I...
Jul 27, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 26th Judges 9 | Acts 13 | Jeremiah 22 | Mark 8 With each chapter, the story of Israel during the period of the judges descends lower and lower—from the godly elders who served with Joshua in Judges 1, we now come to the story of the wicked Abimelech. Oddly, Abimelech’s name means “my father is king,” even though Abimelech’s father, Gideon (also called Jerubbaal; cf. Judg. 6:32), had refused Israel’s offer to make him king in Judges 8:22–23. It is possible that Abimelech c...
Jul 26, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 25th Judges 8 | Acts 12 | Jeremiah 21 | Mark 7 In Judges 6–7, we might have developed high hopes for Gideon’s potential. Here was a man who began his service to Yahweh in extreme humility, insisting that he was the least man in the weakest clan in all Israel (Judg. 6:15). Still, Yahweh gave him signs to confirm his call at every step of the way. If there was anyone who should have understood his own frailty and Yahweh’s power, it was Gideon. But here in Judges 8, we read ...
Jul 25, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 24th Judges 7 | Acts 11 | Jeremiah 20 | Mark 6 In our meditation for Deuteronomy 20, we looked at three of the possible exceptions that would allow an Israelite to opt out of going to war. If a man had just gained a new house or a new vineyard or a new wife, that man was exempt from the requirement of going to battle (Deut. 20:5–7). There was a fourth reason that a man could cite for not going to war, however: if a man was fearful, he could opt out, “lest he make the hear...
Jul 24, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 23rd Judges 6 | Acts 10 | Jeremiah 19 | Mark 5 After Israel had been oppressed by the Midianites for seven years (Judg. 6:1), God raises up a leader to save his people—not a valiant warrior-judge, but a weak, fearful man named Gideon. And because Gideon is weak and fearful, he has much to teach us about following Jesus in spite of our fears and unbelief. To begin, Gideon does not take his call to judge Israel with vain overconfidence but with humility—and even with great ...
Jul 23, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 22nd Judges 5 | Acts 9 | Jeremiah 18 | Mark 4 Judges 4 narrates the story of how Yahweh saved his people from the oppression of Jabin, king of Canaan. The prophetess-judge Deborah sent Barak, the commander of the army of Naphtali and Zebulun into battle against the army of Jabin’s general, Sisera (Judg. 4:4–10). During the battle, the Canaanite army and chariots were defeated, so that Sisera fled from the battlefield and sought refuge and rest in the tent of a non-Israeli...
Jul 22, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 21st Judges 4 | Acts 8 | Jeremiah 17 | Mark 3 In Judges 3–4, we read short descriptions of the ministries of four of Israel’s judges: Othniel, Ehud, Shamgar, and Deborah. As a preface to the stories of three of these judges (Shamgar’s one-verse story being the only exception), we read that the people of Israel sin by serving the false gods of the surrounding nations, provoking Yahweh to anger, and Yahweh then hands Israel over to oppression from their enemies (Judg. 3:7–9...
Jul 21, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 20th Judges 3 | Acts 7 | Jeremiah 16 | Mark 2 In Judges 3:4, we read that Yahweh allowed Canaanites and Philistines to remain in the land “for the testing of Israel, to know whether Israel would obey the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.” This does not mean that Yahweh didn’t know which direction Israel would go (we will look at two factors that tell us this). In fact, this passage has much to say to help us understand better...
Jul 20, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 19th Judges 2 | Acts 6 | Jeremiah 15 | Mark 1 Judges 2:16–23 explicitly describes the pattern that we will encounter again and again through this book: Israel will sin, and, as a result, Yahweh will hand his people over to judgment. But, when the people cry out to Yahweh to rescue them, Yahweh will raise up a judge for them, since he is “moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them” (Judg. 2:18). Yahweh will give victory to the judge, ...
Jul 19, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 18th Judges 1 | Acts 5 | Jeremiah 14 | Matthew 28 The positive beginning to the book of Judges is entirely misleading. Joshua’s death leaves Israel without a clear leader for the first time since Yahweh called Moses to shepherd Israel. The question, then, is this: Will Israel continue to follow Yahweh or not? And at first, things seem to go well. In Judges 1:1, we find the people of Israel inquiring of Yahweh to ask about how they should proceed with their battle plans. T...
Jul 18, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 17th Joshua 24 | Acts 4 | Jeremiah 13 | Matthew 27 In Joshua 24, we find God burying another one of his mighty workmen, Joshua. But before Joshua goes to his grave, he renews Israel’s covenant with Yahweh. We should not miss that the covenant renewal process begins, once again, with the story of Yahweh’s grace toward Israel in Joshua 24:1–13. Just as in Deuteronomy 1–3, and then again in Deuteronomy 29 when Moses renewed the covenant in the land of Moab, the story of Yahw...
Jul 17, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 16th Joshua 23 | Acts 3 | Jeremiah 12 | Matthew 26 Joshua’s leadership of Israel seems to have passed surprisingly quickly. Where we followed Moses through four long books of the Pentateuch, from Exodus through Deuteronomy, we find the ministry of Joshua winding down here in Joshua 23. In this final charge to Israel, Joshua reminds us about the true nature of spiritual leadership. Now, even though the book of Joshua takes up much less text than what we saw of Moses’s mini...
Jul 16, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 15th Joshua 22 | Acts 2 | Jeremiah 11 | Matthew 25 At the end of Joshua 21, we read an assurance that all of Yahweh’s promises had finally been fulfilled: “Not one word of all the good promises that the LORD had made to the house of Israel had failed; all came to pass” (Josh. 21:45). This remarkable summary of Israel’s conquest carries two important implications. First, this passage teaches that, technically speaking, the covenant promises Yahweh had made to Abraham, Isaa...
Jul 15, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 14th Joshua 20 – 21 | Acts 1 | Jeremiah 10 | Matthew 24 In Joshua 20–21, we read about the dwelling places assigned to the tribe of Levi. Importantly, six of the forty-eight cities that the Levites would inhabit served as cities of refuge for the manslayer who had killed a person unintentionally: Kedesh, Shechem, Hebron, Bezer, Ramoth, and Golan (Num. 35:6–34; Deut. 19:1–13; Josh. 20:7–8, 21:41). But beyond the cities of refuge, these chapters illustrate two important the...
Jul 14, 2025•5 min
Bible Readings for July 13th Joshua 18 – 19 | Psalm 149 – 150 | Jeremiah 9 | Matthew 23 For the seven remaining tribes who had yet to receive their inheritance (Josh. 18:1–7), Joshua does not divide up the land unilaterally. Instead, Joshua puts the responsibility of claiming the rest of the land on the remaining seven tribes themselves. Oddly, it sounds as though those seven tribes were not eagerly waiting to receive their inheritance but perhaps had been apathetic about it. Joshua presses them...
Jul 13, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 12th Joshua 16 – 17 | Psalm 148 | Jeremiah 8 | Matthew 22 In Joshua 16–17, the apportionment of the Promised Land to the tribes of Israel continues. In Joshua 15, Judah had received their inheritance, and now in Joshua 16–17, we read about the inheritance of the two half-tribes descended from Joseph, Manasseh and Ephraim. While all of the other tribes are named after the direct descendants of Jacob, the tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim are named after Jacob’s grandchildren....
Jul 12, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 11th Joshua 14 – 15 | Psalm 146 – 147 | Jeremiah 7 | Matthew 21 The allotment of the inheritance in the land west of the Jordan begins, rightfully, with Caleb. Caleb and Joshua had been the only two spies to enter the Promised Land and return with a good report. At that point, forty-five years ago when Caleb had been only forty years old (Josh. 14:7, 10), Caleb pleaded with the people to enter into the land. Because of Caleb’s whole-hearted obedience to Yahweh, he receive...
Jul 11, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 10th Joshua 12 – 13 | Psalm 145 | Jeremiah 6 | Matthew 20 The end of Joshua 11 marked the final warfare under the leadership of Joshua. In Joshua 11:23, we read this summary of the Israelite conquest of the Promised Land: “So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD had spoken to Moses.” Now, it’s important to understand that this does not mean Israel had actually taken every last bit of the Promised Land. Yahweh makes this clear in Joshua 13:1, saying t...
Jul 10, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 9th Joshua 11 | Psalm 144 | Jeremiah 5 | Matthew 19 In Joshua 11, we learn two important principles about Israel’s conquest of the land of Canaan as we read about the final warfare that Israel undertakes under the leadership of Joshua. First, Joshua gives us this insight into the interplay between Yahweh’s sovereignty and the Canaanites’ sin in Joshua 11:20: “For it was the LORD’s doing to harden their hearts that they should come against Israel in battle, in order that t...
Jul 09, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 8th Joshua 10 | Psalms 142 – 143 | Jeremiah 4 | Matthew 18 In Joshua 9, Israel fails to ask God before entering into a covenant with the Gibeonites. This is a serious breach in their obedience to Yahweh’s commandments, and in today’s reading, we find that Israel’s actions bring severe consequences—but that Yahweh nevertheless redeems Israel’s sin for his own glory. In the geopolitical landscape of Joshua’s day, Israel does not yet possess the city of Jerusalem. In fact, A...
Jul 08, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 7th Joshua 9 | Psalms 140 – 141 | Jeremiah 3 | Matthew 17 Joshua is one of the high points in all the Bible. While Moses’s ministry was plagued by unbelief and rebellion among the Israelites, and while Israel will sink into idolatry again during the days after Joshua dies in the period of the judges, Israel’s time under the leadership of Joshua is largely characterized by covenantal faithfulness to Yahweh. But only largely . The main exception is in Joshua 9, when Israel ...
Jul 07, 2025•5 min
Bible Readings for July 6th Joshua 8 | Psalm 139 | Jeremiah 2 | Matthew 16 In Joshua 8, two critical events take place. First, Israel goes into battle once more against Ai. Second, Israel renews their covenant with Yahweh on Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. Both of these stories are important, since in yesterday’s reading Yahweh had threatened to abandon Israel if they did not purge the evil from their midst (Josh. 7:12). Israel, for their part, did everything in accordance with the word of Yahweh....
Jul 06, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 5th Joshua 7 | Psalms 137 – 138 | Jeremiah 1 | Matthew 15 I’ve never forgotten a short rhyme one of my Sunday School teachers taught us during my elementary years: “Achan stole the bacon.” It’s a silly phrase, but that light-hearted line is perfect to help children remember basic biblical content. I would not be the man I am today without those foundational building blocks that my Sunday School teachers worked hard to put in place. So if any of my many former Sunday Schoo...
Jul 05, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 4th Joshua 6 | Psalms 135 – 136 | Isaiah 66 | Matthew 14 At the end of Joshua 5, Joshua meets a mysterious man with a drawn sword. The fact that Joshua meets him near Jericho (Josh. 5:13) both suggests that Joshua had been spying on the city and also explains why Joshua would tensely ask the man to identify whether he was for Israel or for Israel’s adversaries. The mysterious man flatly denies the idea that he is a mere soldier fighting for one side or the other. Instead,...
Jul 04, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 3rd Joshua 5 | Psalms 132 , 133 & 134 | Isaiah 65 | Matthew 13 Before Yahweh takes Israel into the land of Canaan to receive the inheritance he had promised to them for generations through their forefather Abraham, he requires that all the men be circumcised. This is the first time we learn that the generation born in the wilderness had not been circumcised, and the story raises several red flags. At a strategic level, circumcising all the men at the same time was a t...
Jul 03, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 2nd Joshua 4 | Psalms 129 , 130 & 131 | Isaiah 64 | Matthew 12 The story of how Israel crossed the Jordan in Joshua is more important than simply a record of the route they took to enter the Promised Land. Rather, this event marks a decisive turning point in God’s history of saving his people and bringing them into their inheritance. The first main part of this story surrounds the twelve stones, representing the twelve tribes of Israel, that Israel collected out of th...
Jul 02, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for July 1st Joshua 3 | Psalms 126 , 127 & 128 | Isaiah 63 | Matthew 11 Perhaps the chief difficulty of the Christian life is that we are not always given clear directions about where to go, and even when we know what we are supposed to do, it is not always clear what the consequences will be if we obey. The situation was the same for the Israelites in Joshua 3, where the reward of the Promised Land stood before them, but the risks also loomed large. First, Israel needs to kno...
Jul 01, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for June 30th Joshua 2 | Psalms 123 , 124 & 125 | Isaiah 62 | Matthew 10 When Joshua sends two spies into the city of Jericho, the men lodge in the house of Rahab, who was a prostitute (Josh. 2:1), likely in an attempt to stay under the radar of Jericho’s officials. The people of Jericho discover that Israelites have come into their city, but when the king sends a messenger to Rahab, asking her about the location of the spies, she lies to them, telling the king’s officials tha...
Jun 30, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for June 29th Joshua 1 | Psalms 120 , 121 & 122 | Isaiah 61 | Matthew 9 In Joshua 1, we see one of the most extreme transitions in the whole Bible—for the first time since Exodus 1, Israel is without Moses. But at the same time, this first chapter carefully connects the leadership of Joshua back to the leadership of Moses, providing a glimpse into the path Joshua will eventually take to complete the work that God began under Moses. First, Yahweh transfers the mantle of leaders...
Jun 29, 2025•4 min
Bible Readings for June 28th Deuteronomy 33 – 34 | Psalm 119:145–176 | Isaiah 60 | Matthew 8 The shadow of Moses’s impending death hangs over the entire book of Deuteronomy. But, as the people move on into the Promised Land after the death of Moses (which we finally read about here in Deuteronomy 34), it will not only be Joshua who will lead the people. Additionally, the priests and the Levites will also begin to take a more prominent role in the spiritual leadership of Israel. Therefore, in Deu...
Jun 28, 2025•4 min
