Scripture Nugget 2.14.2017
Scripture Read Judges 7-11
Nugget Judges 8:27-28, 33-35
“Gideon made an ephod of it and put it in his town, in Ophrah and all Israel prostituted themselves to it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and to his family. So Midian was subdued before the Israelites, and they lifted up their heads no more. So the land had rest forty years in the days of Gideon. …. As soon as Gideon died, the Israelites relapsed and prostituted themselves with the Baals, making Baalberith their god. The Israelites did not remember the LORD their God, who had rescued them from the hand of all their enemies on every side; and they did not exhibit loyalty to the house of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel.”
Devotional thought: Choices have consequences; sometimes the consequences of choices made today don’t show up immediately. Read Deuteronomy 30:15-20. In those 6 verses we read of choice – life and prosperity versus death and adversity and consequences – if we choose to walk with God and obey his commands then we are promised life, to become numerous and be blessed; but if we turn our heats from God then death. Gideon makes an idol, it becomes a stumbling block for he and his family; forty years later, upon his death, his family worships Baals. What choices have I made in the past, am I making today and will make in the future and what kind of example are they to my family, the congregations I am asked to serve? Life with God or life separated from God? “Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live…..” (Deut 30:20a-b)