As chapter two of Judges begins, we are introduced to the "Angel of the LORD." The Hebrew word translated as "angel" means "messenger," and, therefore, could refer to a prophet or a heavenly angel. However, "Angel of the LORD" is used to indicate that God, Himself, is appearing as His own messenger. This is the first of three times this

Today, we see several examples of tribes who were unable to drive out the enemies in their lands. As we saw before, there were several reasons God allowed the Israelites to fail in conquering the land of Canaan. Here, we see that some Israelites were content with this, putting the Canaanites to forced labor rather than driving them from the

Today's reading is concerned with the house of Joseph. Because of God's special blessing on Joseph (see Genesis 48; 49:22-26) and because the tribe of Levi would not inherit a land of its own (Numbers 18:20; Joshua 13:33), Joseph had been divided into two tribes - Ephraim and Manasseh.We are told the LORD was with the house of Joseph as

In Numbers 10:29-32, Moses invites the descendants of his father-in-law to accompany Israel on their journey to the Promised Land. In today's reading, we find that the descendants of Moses' father-in-law, known as Kenites, come from the city of palms (the area around Jericho) and settle with the people of Judah at Arad, some twenty miles south of Hebron. This

After Adoni-bezek is defeated, his men take him to Jerusalem, where he dies. The army of Judah follows soon after, captures the city and destroys it. However, probably because Jerusalem is on the edge of their territory and, properly speaking, is within the inheritance of Benjamin, Judah does not occupy the city. Instead, they head south into the hill country

When Joshua was still leading Israel, the nation defeated many powerful kings and cities in the land of Canaan. Then they gathered at Gilgal near Jericho, where God told each tribe where it was to settle. Therefore, after Joshua's death, the tribes of Israel went their separate ways, each into its own allotted land, to complete the conquest.In today's reading,

We are going to be looking at the book of Judges using notes written for us by Rev. Daniel Hemken, minister of Hebron RP Church in Kansas.The Book of Judges is the sequel to the Book of Joshua. As Joshua tells us of the many successes in the conquest of Canaan by Israel under the leadership of Joshua son of

A psalm that begins with the dreadful cry of dereliction, ends with a triumphant shout of victory, "the pain of the cross is drowned out by the hope of the resurrection". Christ knows that he will be victorious and states boldly 'I will declare your name…' v.22. Believers are called upon to praise the Lord, to glorify him, and to

In verses 19 - 21 we turn away from the terrible brutality of crucifixion to see that in spite of all that had been suffered, not just the physical pain, but especially the withdrawal of God's felt presence, the Lord Jesus prays. His prayer in such circumstances is a pattern for us in our times of trial and difficulty, and

In these verses there is a graphic description of the physical suffering of the cross. In the first verse we have that which added immeasurably to the sufferings of Christ - the sense of divine forsakenness as he bore the wrath of God on sin - but death by crucifixion was an unspeakable torment and the psalm gives an insight