The Purge is a series of horror movies based on the premise that, for one 12-hour period each year, there are no laws, people are free to commit any crime, and there are no emergency services (e.g., police, fire fighters, and medical care). During this time, people go into hiding to survive, and the evilest … Read more
Paying attention to the following themes in Judges can be helpful in using it as a story to better understand your own heart, life, and culture. Covenant. God is faithful to His covenant people even when they are unfaithful to Him. God’s promise to Abraham, that He would raise up and provide for His people, … Read more
Judges is closely related to the book of Deuteronomy which prophesies the future events reported in Judges. A Bible commentary says: “…Deuteronomy most clearly expresses [God’s] covenant. Judges is then a sermon on Deuteronomy [with] lessons drawn from history illustrating Deuteronomic principles. This characteristic unites the parts of Judges into a whole. Deuteronomy 7:2 commands … Read more
Genesis 34:5 – Now Jacob heard that he had defiled his daughter Dinah. But his sons were with his livestock in the field, so Jacob held his peace until they came. In Genesis 34, we read about Dinah and that she was defiled while her father stood idly by and her brothers had the complete … Read more
Genesis 34:25 – On the third day, when they were sore, two of the sons of Jacob, Simeon and Levi, Dinah’s brothers, took their swords and came against the city while it felt secure and killed all the males. After Jacob’s only daughter, Dinah, is defiled, and Jacob sits idly by, we see another mini-Fall … Read more
Genesis 34:30-31 – Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble on me by making me stink to the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites and the Perizzites. My numbers are few, and if they gather themselves against me and attack me, I shall be destroyed, both I and my household.” But they said, “Should he treat … Read more
Genesis 34:13 – The sons of Jacob answered Shechem and his father Hamor deceitfully, because he had defiled their sister Dinah. After Dinah was defiled, her brothers told the unsuspecting men of Shechem a strategic lie, that they would happily intermarry with them and share all of their great wealth. However, the Shechemites would first … Read more
Genesis 34:2 – And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land, saw her, he seized her and lay with her and humiliated her. When he was nearly finally home after a 20-year absence, Israel (formerly Jacob) settled in Shechem. This father’s decision proved to be as devastating as Lot’s … Read more
Genesis 30:27 – But Laban said to him, “If I have found favor in your sight, I have learned by divination that the Lord has blessed me because of you.” In John 8:44, Jesus speaks of those who lie as being “of [their] father the devil” and as a “murderer”. In Genesis over the past … Read more
Genesis 20:10-11 – And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?” Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’” Genesis is an incredible case study of family systems – marriage, parenting, how … Read more
Genesis 20:17 – Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, and also healed his wife and female slaves so that they bore children. In the last devo, we saw in Genesis 20 how Abraham made the same foolish mistake as earlier in the book by, once again, trying to give his wife Sarah away. … Read more
Genesis 20:10-11 – And Abimelech said to Abraham, “What did you see, that you did this thing?” Abraham said, “I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’” Anyone who is married will tell you how easy it is to fall … Read more