Day 88 –  Judges 10, 11; Psalms 75; Proverbs 15:27–32; Luke 4:31–44

Judges 10, 11

​¹ After Abimelech, Tola the son of Puah arose to save Israel, the son of his father’s brother, a man of Issachar; and he dwelt in Shamir on Mount Ephraim. ² He judged Israel twenty-three years; and he died and was buried in Shamir.
³ After him arose Jair of Gilead; and he judged Israel twenty-two years. ⁴ He had thirty-two sons who rode on thirty-two colts, and they had thirty-two cities, which are called the villages of Jair to this day in the land of Gilead. ⁵ And Jair died and was buried in Ramnon.
Israel Again Afflicted
⁶ Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the Lord, serving Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Arad, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook the Lord and did not serve Him. ⁷ And the Lord was enraged with anger against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of the Philistines and into the hands of the sons of Ammon. ⁸ And they afflicted and oppressed the sons of Israel for a time of eighteen years, all the children of Israel beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, in Gilead. ⁹ Moreover, the sons of Ammon crossed the Jordan to war against Judah and Benjamin, with Ephraim. The children of Israel suffered severely. ¹⁰ And the sons of Israel cried out to the Lord, saying, “We have sinned against You, because we have forsaken God and have served the Baals!”
¹¹ So the Lord said to the sons of Israel, “Did I not deliver you from the Egyptians and from the Amorites and from the sons of Ammon and from the Philistines, ¹² from the Sidonians and Amalekites and Maonites who oppressed you when you cried out to Me, and I delivered you from their hand? ¹³ Yet you have forsaken Me and served other gods. Therefore I will deliver you no more. ¹⁴ Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen for yourselves; let them deliver you in the time of your distress.” ¹⁵ And the sons of Israel said to the Lord, “We have sinned! Do to us whatever is good in Your eyes; only deliver us this day.” ¹⁶ So they put away the foreign gods from among them and served the Lord alone. And His soul was grieved by the misery of Israel.
  ¹⁷ Then the sons of Ammon went up and encamped in Gilead. And the sons of Israel assembled together and encamped at the lookout. ¹⁸ And each of the leaders of Gilead said to his neighbor, “Who is the man who will begin the fight against the sons of Ammon? He shall indeed be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
Jephthah Takes Command
​¹ Now Jephthah the Gileadite was being exalted in power, but he was the son of a harlot who bore Jephthah to Gilead. ² Gilead’s wife bore sons, and when his wife’s sons grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You shall have no inheritance in our father’s house, for you are the son of another woman.” ³ Then Jephthah fled before his brothers and dwelt in the land of Tob; and vain men banded together with Jephthah, and they went out with him.
⁴ And it came to be that the sons of Ammon made war against Israel, and the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. ⁵ Then they said to Jephthah, “Come and be our commander so that we may fight against the sons of Ammon.” ⁶ So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me, and expel me from my father’s house, and exile me from you? Why have you come to me now when you are in need?” ⁷ And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “That is why we have turned again to you now, that you may go with us and fight against the sons of Ammon, and be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead.” ⁸ So Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, “If you take me back home to fight against the sons of Ammon, and the Lord delivers them to me, I shall indeed be your head.” ⁹ And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The Lord will be a witness between us, if we do not act according to your word.” ¹⁰ Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and commander over them; and Jephthah spoke all his words before the Lord in Mizpah.
¹¹ Now Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon, saying, “What is there between me and you, that you have come to fight against me in my land?” ¹² And the king of the sons of Ammon said to the messengers of Jephthah, “It is because Israel took away my land when it came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon as far as the Jabbok, and to the Jordan. Now therefore, restore those lands in peace, and I will go.”
¹³ So Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of the sons of Ammon ¹⁴ and said to him, “Thus says Jephthah, ‘Israel did not take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the sons of Ammon; ¹⁵ for when they came up from Egypt, Israel walked through the desert as far as the sea of Siph and came to Kadesh. ¹⁶ Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, “Please let me pass through your land.” But the king of Edom would not listen. And they sent to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel remained in Kadesh. ¹⁷ And they went along through the desert and circled the land of Edom and the land of Moab, having come from the rising of the sun to the land of Moab, and encamped beyond the Arnon. But they did not cross the borders of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab. ¹⁸ Then Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, “Please let us pass through your land into our place.” ¹⁹ But Sihon did not trust Israel to pass through his territory. So Sihon gathered all his people together, encamped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel. ²⁰ And the Lord God of Israel delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they smote him. Thus Israel inherited all the land of the Amorites, who inhabited that country, ²¹ from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the desert to the Jordan. ²² And now that the Lord God of Israel has removed the Amorites from before His people Israel, should you then inherit it? ²³ Will you not possess whatever Chemosh your god gives you to inherit? And we will inherit everything the Lord our God removes before us. ²⁴ And now, are you any better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel? Did he ever fight against them? ²⁵ While they dwelt in Heshbon and in her borders, in the land of Aroer and in her borders, and in all the cities along the banks of the River Jordan, for three hundred years, why did you not deliver them within that time? ²⁶ And I have not sinned against you, but you wronged me by fighting against me. May the Lord render judgment today between the sons of Israel and the sons of Ammon.’ ” ²⁷ However, the king of the sons of Ammon did not heed the words Jephthah sent him.
Jephthah’s Vow
²⁸ Then the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and passed by the lookout of Gilead; and from Mizpah of Gilead he advanced beyond the sons of Ammon. ²⁹ And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, “If You deliver the sons of Ammon into my hand, ³⁰ then it shall be that whoever first comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, he shall be the Lord’s. I will offer him up for a whole burnt offering.” ³¹ So Jephthah advanced toward the sons of Ammon to fight against them, and the Lord delivered them into his hand. ³² And he struck them from Aroer until he came to Arnon, twenty cities in number, and as far as Abel Keramim, with widespread destruction everywhere. Thus the sons of Ammon were subdued before the sons of Israel.
  The Daughter of Jephthah
³³ When Jephthah came to his house at Mizpah, behold his daughter came out to meet him with drums and dances, and she was his only child. He had no other son or daughter. ³⁴ And when he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “Ah, ah, my daughter! You have troubled me greatly! It is you who are my trouble! For I have opened my mouth against you to the Lord, and I cannot go back on it.” ³⁵ So she said to him, “My father, if you have opened your mouth to the Lord, do to me as it came from your mouth, because the Lord has avenged you on your enemies, the sons of Ammon.”
³⁶ Then she said to her father, “Let my father do this one thing for me. Leave me alone for two months to wander on the mountains and bewail my virginity along with my companions.” ³⁷ So he said, “Go.” And he sent her away for two months; and she went with her companions, and bewailed her virginity on the mountains. ³⁸ And at the end of two months she returned to her father, and he carried out the vow he vowed, and she knew no man. And it became a custom in Israel ³⁹ that the daughters of Israel went four days each year to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

Psalms 75

​¹ For the End; in hymns; a psalm for Asaph, an ode to the Assyrian.
² In Judah God is known;
His name is great in Israel.
³ His place was made in peace
And His dwelling in Zion.
⁴ There He broke the power of the bows,
Weapon and sword and battle.
(Pause)
⁵ You give light wondrously
From the everlasting mountains.
⁶ All the foolish in heart were troubled;
All the men of wealth slept their sleep
And found nothing in their hands.
⁷ At Your rebuke, O God of Jacob,
Those who mounted horses fell asleep.
⁸ You are fearsome, and who shall stand against You?
From that time on is Your wrath.
⁹ You caused judgment to be heard from heaven;
The earth was afraid, and kept quiet
¹⁰ When God arose for judgment,
To save all the gentle on the earth.
(Pause)
¹¹ For a man shall give thanks to You from his heart,
And he shall celebrate a feast to You with his whole heart.
¹² Pray and return to the Lord Your God;
All around Him shall bring gifts
¹³ To the fearsome One, and to Him who takes away the spirits of rulers,
To the fearsome One among the kings of the earth.

Proverbs 15:27–32         

²⁷ The Lord will destroy the houses of the arrogant,
But He will strengthen the boundary of a widow.
²⁸ The thinking of the unrighteous man is an abomination to the Lord,
But the words of the holy are sacred.
²⁹ He who receives bribes utterly destroys himself,
But he who hates the receiving of bribes saves himself.
³⁰ Sins are cleansed by almsgiving and faithfulness,
And by the fear of the Lord everyone turns aside from evil.
³¹ The hearts of the righteous care about faithfulness,
But the mouth of the ungodly answers evil things.
³² The ways of righteous men are acceptable before the Lord,
And through them even enemies become friends.

Luke 4:31–44

³¹ Then He went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee, and was teaching them on the Sabbaths.
³² And they were astonished at His teaching, for His word was with authority.
³³ Now in the synagogue there was a man who had a spirit of an unclean demon. And he cried out with a loud voice,
³⁴ saying, “Let us alone! What have we to do with You, Jesus of Nazareth? Did You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!”
³⁵ But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be quiet, and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him in their midst, it came out of him and did not hurt him.
³⁶ Then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying, “What a word this is! For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.”
³⁷ And the report about Him went out into every place in the surrounding region.
Peter’s Mother-in-Law Healed
(Matt. 8:14, 15; Mark 1:29–31)
³⁸ Now He arose from the synagogue and entered Simon’s house. But Simon’s wife’s mother was sick with a high fever, and they made request of Him concerning her.
³⁹ So He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. And immediately she arose and served them.
Many Healed After Sabbath Sunset
(Matt. 8:16, 17; Mark 1:32–34)
⁴⁰ When the sun was setting, all those who had any that were sick with various diseases brought them to Him; and He laid His hands on every one of them and healed them.
⁴¹ And demons also came out of many, crying out and saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of God!” And He, rebuking them, did not allow them to speak, for they knew that He was the Christ.
Jesus Preaches in Galilee
(Matt. 4:23–25; Mark 1:35–39)
⁴² Now when it was day, He departed and went into a deserted place. And the crowd sought Him and came to Him, and tried to keep Him from leaving them;
⁴³ but He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.”
⁴⁴ And He was preaching in the synagogues of Galilee.