January 24

Journey-through-the-Bible-with-us

READING FOR JANUARY 24, 2025: JUDGES 2, JOHN 16, PSALM 147:1-12                            JUDGES 2  This “angel of the Lord” may in fact be a pre-incarnational appearance of Jesus. Why? Because He says, “I brought you out of Egypt.”  Also, He says, “I will never break My covenant with you,” He doesn’t indicate He is just passing along the message from God. He points out that despite His past efforts for them and commitment to them, they disobeyed Him by not driving out all the Canaanites. Thus, these Canaanites and their gods will become a snare to Israel. After this, the text reviews the death and burial of Joshua and describes a generational change that brings a generation “who did not know the Lord, nor even the work which He had done for Israel.”  How vital it is that each upcoming generation come to faith in Jesus and be told how God has worked in the lives of their parents and grandparents. 

Given the above situation, it was evitable that Israel was led away from the truth by adopting the standards of the surrounding cultures: “They abandoned the Lord, the God of their fathers.”  Did this loving God continue to bless and accept them in their departure from truth? Not in this chapter. “The anger of the Lord burned against Israel, and He handed them over to plunderers.”  Consider that it was in His love that He not condone this behavior from His people. He wants us to live the best possible life: obedience to Him, not the unbelieving sur-- rounding culture. In His mercy, “the Lord raised up judges for them.” This will become the story of the rest of the Book of Judges. Because of their failure to obey Him fully and their cultural assimilation, God did not drive out the remaining Canaanites, “in order to test Israel by them, whether they will keep the way of the Lord to walk in it as their fathers did, or not.” So, the Lord al- lowed those nations to remain” (vs. 22-23). Are we failing this test by adopting sinful practices?

JOHN 16 If I could choose to have Jesus with me in person, in the flesh, every day I would absolutely do so! To have him by my side to guide me into right thinking and right behavior, to be able to ask him my many questions about life, to have his help with difficult situations – I’d give anything for this! Wouldn’t you? That is certainly what his disciples thought, for they were filled with sorrow at his going. But he clearly told them that his going away is better than his bodily presence with them: “It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.” (16:7).

Jesus’ last conversation with his students is filled with references to the Holy Spirit. Here is what he teaches on his last evening with them:

  • The Holy Spirit is a paraklétos (which means Advocate, Helper, Comforter, or Counselor) that the Father will send who will teach the disciples everything they need to know and who will bring to their minds what Jesus has been teaching them so they can meditate on it and live by it. (John 14:26)
  • The Holy Spirit is a paraklétos that emanates from the Father and whom Jesus will send who will testify or bear witness to Jesus being who he claimed to be (one with the Father, bringing light and life into the world). (John 15:26)

READING FOR JANUARY 24, 2025 CONTINUED: JOHN 16, PSALM 147:1-12 

  • The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth who will guide Jesus’ followers into what is true, who will glorify Jesus, who will make Jesus known to those who seek him, and who will bring further revelation as needed by Jesus’ followers along the way. (John 16:13-15)
  • The Holy Spirit brings conviction. When he comes, says Jesus, he will elegchó the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. This Greek word is most often translated convict and carries the meaning of reproving, correcting, proving, or convincing. Jesus is saying here that the Spirit will bring a right understanding or correction, a right judgment of truth. With Jesus leaving, who will show the world the better way? Who will guide the faithful in applying Jesus’ teachings to their daily lives? Who will have the final say over what is true and right and what is false teaching? The Holy Spirit will.

What does this mean for us? For one, we do not need to be convincers of the ungodly or condemners of the world’s systems; the Holy Spirit is at work doing that job. And we don’t need to be anxious about living a righteous, godly life; the Holy Spirit will lead us into righteous living. Secondly, we don’t need to be afraid in the face of evil and opposition. Through the presence of the Holy Spirit, Jesus remains with us. And his presence is our source of joy – through the Holy Spirit now and in person when he comes again in glory.

In my name: What does Jesus mean by “in my name” which he uses so often in these passages? To do something in Jesus’ name is to do it according to his purposes using his resources. Imagine that you have been brought in as a junior partner in a long-standing family business. It would be your role to study the family, get to know their goals and the ethos and the ethics, until their ways become your ways. As you grow in knowledge of their ways and commitment to their ethos, the family would increasingly turn over resources to you to use. Eventually, as your ways conform to theirs, they will trust you to make decisions on behalf of the company and will likely even give you signing privileges on their checking account or a credit card of your own, for they are confident that you are acting in their name. This gives us an idea what it means to act and ask in Jesus’ name. It is so much more than tacking a phrase on the end of our prayers! How might we apply this understanding to our prayers?

PSALM 147:1-12 Once again the Psalmist emphasizes the beauty of praise, in this case through music. This is not just an Old Testament thing or nice group activity before the sermon. It is a command of the Holy Spirit to us through Paul: “Be filled with the Spirit,  speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your hearts to the Lord;  always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to our God and Father” (Eph 5:18-20). Just in case we’ve run out of attributes of and actions by God, the Psalmist gives us these: He builds up His people; gathers those who are considered outcast; heals our wounds; created and maintains the cosmos. He is all powerful, wise, loving and just, and He sustains our climate, plants, and animals. God isn’t impressed by what might be considered military assets, but He favors those who fear Him and depend on Him.  Many times, folks immediately replace the word “fear” with the word “awe” whenever they encounter it in the Bible. The Hebrew word here is “yare,” which, according to Stong, includes reverence. When used in the New Testament, such as in “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12), The Greek is phobos, from which we get the English word “phobia.” Clearly the translators could have used the word “awe” had they thought it more accurate. When contemplating our God, we would do well to remember to approach Him with a sense of “fear and trembling” as well as love.