JUDGES 12-13:
Yesterday, after hearing of three minor judges, we heard of Jephthah. Jephthah was a man of very poor credentials, but he turned out to be a surprisingly good leader. His story shows clearly why it is better not to make rash vows to the Lord. Indeed, the New Testament tells us to not make vows at all.

PSALM 84:
This favorite psalm has inspired many worship songs. Note the theme of joy!

GALATIANS 5:22-6:
Building on the concept of freedom from requirements of the Law in chapter 4, Paul continued on that theme in chapter 5. (Of course there were no chapter boundaries when he wrote his letter!) The freedom Paul described is founded on the idea that we are now controlled by the Holy Spirit. A second very important concept is considering ourselves dead to sinful desires and deeds which were enumerated at the end of chapter 5.

GNT Translation notes:
13:18 The angel [said//asked], "Why do you want to know my name? It is a name of wonder."

19 So Manoah took a young goat and some grain, and offered them on [a rock//the rock altar] to the Lord [, and the Lord did an amazing thing://who works wonders.]
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Ps. 84:2 How I want to be there! I long to be in [your Temple, O Lord//the Lord's Temple]. With my whole being I sing for joy to the living God.

3 Even the sparrows have built a nest,
and the swallows have their own home [in your Temple];
they keep their young near your altars,
Lord Almighty, my king and my God.
7 They grow stronger as they go;
they will see [You,] the God of gods on Zion.

10 One day spent in your Temple is better than a thousand anywhere else; I would rather stand at the gate of [your house, O my God,//the house of my God] than live in the homes of the wicked.

11 [You, Lord are//The Lord is] our protector and glorious king, blessing us with kindness and honor. [You do//He does] not refuse any good thing to [us//those] who do what is right.

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Gal. 6:10 So then, as often as we have the chance, we should do good to everyone, and especially to [our brothers and sisters who believe the same things we have taught you.\\those who belong to our family in the [same way of faith.

13 Even those who practice circumcision do not obey the Law; they want you to be circumcised [only] so that they can boast that you submitted to this physical ceremony.

JUDGES 10-11:
Yesterday we heard the conclusion of the story of Gideon. It is a pity that Gideon was so successful, but that a half-son and unfaithful people ruined his legacy. I am always very disappointed that Gideon so quickly turns to idolatry after God has worked so fantastically through him. The whole story, including the part about Abimelech, supports the verse which says, "Whatever you sow, that is also what you will reap."

PSALM 83:
This is a psalm asking God to stop being silent when Israel was praying for relief from their enemies. And we now have the background to understand the names mentioned by Asaph.

GALATIANS 5:
In chapter 4, Paul continued to use Old Testament pictures to show the teaching that is central to this book: Gentiles do not need to be circumcised because we have been freed from the Law of Moses. We do not need to earn favor with God. We have already been adopted as sons and are considered heirs of God's promises. Proof of this is that the Spirit of Jesus is in our hearts.

Remember that in Greek, 'faith' and 'believe' have the same root word. Most other English words— like 'operate' and 'operation', show their root word similarity. It is an unfortunate quirk of English that it doesn't work that way for 'believe' and 'faith'. To help you see the cohesion and how Paul is harping on this one concept, I suggest reading this book substituting 'fully believe' for 'faith'.

GNT Translation notes:

Gal. 5:4 Those of you who try to be put right with God by obeying the Law have cut yourselves off from Christ. You [have fallen away from//have become outsiders to//are outside] God's grace.

5 As for us, our hope is that God will put us right with him[self]; and this is what we wait for by the power of God's Spirit working through our [believing//faith].

6For when we are in union with Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor the lack of it makes any difference at all; what matters is [full belief//belief in Christ//faith] that works through love.

15 But if you act like wild animals, [biting//hurting] and harming each other, then watch out, or you will completely [devour//destroy] one another.

JUDGES 8-9:
Yesterday we heard of Gideon who led Israel in a miraculous victory over the hoards of Midian using only three hundred men. Gideon struggled with believing that God would actually use him, and God was amazingly patient with Gideon— giving him sign after sign. Because of this, Gideon really is not the best example for us to follow of how to trust God and live a life of faith.

PSALM 82:
Do you ever get upset about injustice on earth? Here is a psalm for you.

GALATIANS 4:
The Jews called non-Jews 'sinners' because they did not follow the Law of Moses. But the Jewish Christians themselves also become 'sinners' if they leave the old system of relying on the Law, but then require non-Jews to be circumcised. The important thing is to be joined as one with Christ, not simply being followers of a religion. Being joined to Christ means dying (considering ourselves to be dead) to old things (including religious practices).

Yesterday in the 3rd chapter of Galatians we heard an important teaching about the purpose of the Law. The Law did not replace the promise that was given to Abraham. And the way for us to follow Abraham and become heirs to the promise given to Abraham (even if we are not his physical descendants) is through _fully believing_ as Abraham did.

GNT Translation notes:

Jdg. 9:49 So everyone cut off a tree limb; then they followed Abimelech and piled the wood up against the stronghold. They set it on fire, with the people inside, and all the people [in//of] the fort died—about a thousand men and women.
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Ps. 82:5 "How ignorant you [you oppressors] are! How stupid! You are completely corrupt, and justice has disappeared from the world.
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Gal. 4:5 to redeem those who were under the Law, so that we might become God's [sons//children].
[Paul uses the legal Roman law term for the adoption of sons. By their law, such adoption was irrevocable! Men feel squeamish at being included in the Bride of Christ. So in this case, ladies, I suggest that it is good for you to rejoice that you are included as having the rights of sons. This same term occurs in Rom. 8:15, 8:23, 9:4, and Eph. 1:5.]
6 To show that you are his [sons//children], God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who cries out, "Father, my Father."
7 So then, you are no longer a slave but a [son//child]. And since you are his [son//child], God will give you all that he has for his [sons//children].
Gal. 4:9 But now that you know God—or, I should say, now that God [acknowledges you (as his children)//knows you]— [it makes no sense that you would//how is it that you] want to turn back to those weak and pitiful ruling spirits[ that I just mentioned.//?] Why do you want to become their slaves all over again?

JUDGES 6-7:
Yesterday we heard the story of Deborah and Barak. (Say, that name sounds familiar!) Barak doesn't get the glory for his notable defeat of Israel's enemy, Sisera. Instead the crowning glory goes to a woman named Jael, who happened to see a new use for a tent peg. The poem in chapter 5 includes taunts to Israel's tribes who 'sat on their hands' and didn't get involved in the war.

PSALM 81:
This poem has a mysterious part in verse 5, where an unknown voice (or perhaps 'language') speaks to us. But immediately afterward the unknown voice clearly belongs God, who speaks in the first person to us.

GALATIANS 3:
Review 2:17-21 in the PET:

17 But there are Jews who believe in Christ who still don't understand the way we are made right in God's sight— which is only through union with Christ. For them, if we no longer depend on the Law to become right in God's sight, we've become 'sinners'. That's definitely wrong! Becoming a follower of Christ definitely doesn't mean that we've become 'sinners'! 18 For we in the past taught, "Let's become right in God's sight by depending on Christ." If we now teach, "Turn away from Christ and depend on the Law again," it becomes very evident that we really are 'sinners'! 19 And this is what I've experienced: When I tried in my own strength to obey the whole Law, I finally realized that I'm not able to do it, and would die in my sin. But it was in that despair that I realized the gift of God through Christ— which is eternal life. Now I consider that I've been crucified with Christ. 20 That means that I no longer control my life, but Christ is the One who is living in and through me. Now I live my whole life in this worldly body only through believing in the Son of God, who loved me so much that He gave Himself to redeem me. 21 So I reject turning away from the kindness of God which we receive through our union with Christ in order to go back to work to be made right in God's sight based on the Law. For if we suppose that mankind can be made right by obeying the Law, then it was useless for Christ to die for us!

GNT Translation notes:

[I have explained before that faith and believe are the same thing in Greek, just the noun and verb form of the same root (pistis). Faith has taken on all kinds of fuzzy and wrong meaning in modern English usage. To maintain Paul's persistent use of the same term, in the reading today, I will read all instances of 'faith' as 'believing' or 'belief'. The verses where I have read with this substitution in chapter 3 are 6-8, 11-12, 14, and 22-26.]

Gal. 3:7 GNT You should realize, then, that the real [sons//descendants] of Abraham are the people who [believe like he did//have faith].

[We will see in chapter 4 that Paul uses the legal Roman law term for the adoption of sons. Even women get adopted and have rights equal to sons.]

Gal. 3:20 [PET However, in the case of God acting alone in giving his promise to Abraham, God Himself gave it directly without an intermediary.//GNT But a go-between is not needed when only one person is involved; and God is one.]

22 [PET Moreover the Scripture says that sin has control over the lives of all men.* So the only way to be saved is by fully believing in Christ Jesus, and through believing, we receive the blessing that God promised to Abraham.//GNT But the scripture says that the whole world is under the power of sin; and so the gift which is promised on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ is given to those who believe.

*Ps. 14:3, 53:4; Rom. 3:9-19]

26 It is through [believing in Christ Jesus//faith] that all of you are God's [sons//children] [and united to Him// in union with Christ Jesus].

JUDGES 4-5:
We heard yesterday that around the time of Joshua's death, an angel appeared to the people of Israel and rebuked them for disobedience. In chapter 2, the author of Judges summarized the fickleness of the people. And in chapter 3 we quickly heard about Othniel, Ehud, and Shamgar— the first three judges.

PSALM 80:
In this poem, Asaph pictures the Lord as a shepherd and Israel like a vine. It is no accident that both of these are also pictures of Jesus in the New Testament. This psalm is marked by the repetition of these words, "Turn us again to yourself, O God of Heaven's Armies."

GALATIANS 2:
This chapter contains difficult concepts for many modern readers! It complicates things when Paul repeats the word 'sinners' with slightly different shades of meaning while mixing in irony. I suggest that you take a look at our Plain English Translation text below.

JUDGES 2-3:
Yesterday we heard how the tribe of Judah was more successful in driving out the Canaanites than the other tribes. Several of the tribes just moved in with their enemies.

PSALM 79:
This lament by Asaph is like Ps 74, talking about Jerusalem and the Temple conquered by enemies. There is a strong comparison with what we see starting to happen in Judges.

GALATIANS 1:
We heard the controversy over circumcision in Acts 15. This letter to the Galatian believers is on a similar theme, and it shows how Paul would have argued with the Jews of the circumcision party. Paul stays very much on this theme in this book— which in some ways foreshadows some arguments in the book of Romans. Important sections for memorizing include the 'crucified with Christ' passages in chapter 2 and 6, and the works of the flesh and fruits of the Holy Spirit in chapter 5. This book makes it perfectly clear that we are not saved by religion.

We are saved by 'faith'— which means 'fully believing in Christ'. Do not fall into the trap of choosing between what James says about being saved by works and what Paul says. The two teachings are compatible. The saying taught to me by one of my spiritual fathers (Glen Zumwalt) is this: We are saved by 'faith alone'; but saving faith will never be 'alone'.

Paul's introduction in the first chapter is unique among his letters. He normally starts with praise for the congregation he is writing to. Not in this case! After he expresses his shock at the Galatian church, he goes on to remind them that the Good News they had so quickly abandoned was revealed directly to him by the Lord.

JUDGES 1:
It happens that Psalm 78 is a perfect introduction to the book of Judges! This book covers the dark ages for the nation of Israel, from the time following Joshua's death to the birth of the last judge, Samuel. HC Mears gives a good easy-to-remember summary: Seven apostasies (times of turning away from God), seven servitudes to seven idolatrous and cruel nations, and seven deliverances. The last verse is the author's own summary, which is often repeated near the end of the book: "In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes."

PSALM 78b:
Asaph continues his poetic reminder to the people of Israel. In yesterday's reading, I hope you wondered, "When did the tribe of Ephraim run from battle?" I encourage you to ask questions like that and do a little research. (See the Shovels page at dailybiblereading.info for sites that will give you good answers.) Because this comes up several more times in the OT, I want to tell you this: The Ephraimites were the largest of the northern tribes, and their name came to stand for all of the northern tribes in the time when people distinguished between the kingdom of Judah (in the south)and the kingdom of Israel (in the north). It is likely that there was no specific battle in Asaph's mind, but that he was using the northern tribes as examples of what happens when the people are unfaithful to God. They refused to be numbered with God's people in time of national wars.

ACTS 28:
As Paul prophesied, all two hundred and seventy six people on board arrived safely on land, but the ship was lost.

JOSHUA 24:
In yesterday's reading, Joshua dismissed the three tribes of warriors to return to their homes to the east of the Jordan. But when they went home, they decided to build an altar as a memorial. But their idea was misunderstood, nearly resulting in war.

PSALM 78a:
This poetic recitation of Israel's history comes at a fitting place in relation to our other Old Testament reading.

ACTS 27b:
In yesterday's reading, Paul, Luke, and Aristarchus started the voyage to Rome, under the command of a Roman officer named Julius. The captain, ship owner, and sailors didn't listen to Paul's prophetic warning, and disaster was the result.