{"id":4436,"date":"2022-12-16T13:50:28","date_gmt":"2022-12-16T19:50:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=4436"},"modified":"2022-12-16T13:50:28","modified_gmt":"2022-12-16T19:50:28","slug":"devotional-on-judges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-judges\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Judges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-tLUUR4SaHZs\/XZuVkKzdE6I\/AAAAAAABB3I\/kmSOEJLHob4R36c9XjoVC5zRRer-sbU1wCKgBGAsYHg\/s1600\/100_3407.JPG\" width=\"1600\" height=\"901\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2014 &#8211; Jerome, AZ<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nAlmost, but not quite<br \/>\nJudges 1:  When Israel became stronger they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they never got rid of them.<br \/>\nThe failure of the army of Israel to purge the land of the Canaanites is mentioned in the Book of Joshua but becomes a major factor as I turn the page and begin reading the Book of Judges.  Clearly, the army of Joshua has experienced unprecedented success.  They arrive as underdogs in a new land occupied by fierce and evil people who have superior weapons and fortified cities.  This is the home of the warrior-giants of the Bible.  In spite of all that these children of ex-slaves cross the Jordan and win victory after victory to become the dominant force in the land.  All in all, what they accomplish is quite impressive.  It\u2019s just too bad that they don\u2019t do what the Lord told them to do and press on to complete victory.  The book of Judges tells the story of the result of that failure.  This is far from being anyone\u2019s favorite book of the Bible.  It is, though, a book in which the grace of God shines forth against the black background of so much spiritual failure.<br \/>\nTake Away: \u201cTrust and obey, for there\u2019s no other way.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Almost, but not quite Judges 1: When Israel became stronger they put the Canaanites to forced labor, but they never got rid of them. The failure of the army of Israel to purge the land of the Canaanites is mentioned in the Book of Joshua but becomes a major factor as I turn the page [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1511,7],"tags":[137,213,336,772],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4436"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4436"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14126,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4436\/revisions\/14126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}