March 29 Readings

You can also check out all these Reading Plans Blogs to go through the Bible in a year from Back to the Bible Reading Lists:the Chronological Reading Plan blog; OT and NT Together blog; Historical Readings blog; Blended Readings blog and Beginning to End blog In addition, there is the Theophilus1 blog in the One Year Bible format and The Daily Bible in Chronological Order

The Back to the Bible OT and NT Together Reading Plan

Index of OT + NT Together

Judges 7-8; Luke 5.1-16a
King James Version with Web Encyclopedia links: Judges 7; Judges 8; Luke 5


Gideon and His Son
Judges 7 - God told Gideon that he had too many men for Him to deliver Midian into their hands. Those whou were fearful may leave. Twenty-two thousand men left while ten ten thousand remained. Finally only three hundred men were left to take on the army of Midian! What can we learn here? God uses small things to accomplish His purpose. (1 Corinthians 1.26-29). Here he used three hundred men to take on the whole army of the Midianites. The Lord told Gideon 'In order that Israel may not boast against me that her own strength has saved her.' Judge 7.2

Gideon and His Son
Judges 8.1-3
People were critical and angry with Gideon since they were not included in the defeat of the Midianites. They wanted to share in the glory.

Judges 8.4-9 There were the officials of Succoth who were cynical of Gideon did not want anything to do with Gideon or his men or had faith in God. There attitude was since you do not have Zebah and Zalmunna, kings of Midian why should we help you? They paid for this attitude.
Gideon and his men finally captured Zebah and Zalmunna. there were the cowardly (10-21) killing two famous kings was difficult for Jether, Gideon eldest son to do.
Finally Gideon, had wanted an earring from the share of the plunder from each of thr Israelites. Gideon received a large amount of gold, jewelry and clothing. The people compromised: the gold use use to make an ephod. Gideon placed the gold in Oprah and people ended up worshipping this ephod. Does this sound familiar? It is very similar to the golden calf that Aaron created in Exodus 32. When Gideon died (v. 28-35), the people prostituted themselves to the Baals (v. 33-25).

Link on Gideon
More on Gideon
More on Gideon
Judges 7, with Commentaries, verse by verse
Judges 8, with Commentaries, verse by verse

Division of the Land
Tribal Lands

Other Links
OT Gateway Links on Judges
Introduction to Judges by Malik
Malik Argument of Judges
Israel's Dark Age by Deffinbaugh
Dr. Thomas Constable Study Notes is a PDF file, open with Adobe Acrobatic Reader
Zeisler on Judges, scroll down
Spurgeon on Judges
Biblebb.com Website
Ritchie on Judges - 9 sermons

With the Word Commentary-Warren Wiersbe
Wycliffe Bible Commentary
Keil & Delitzsch Commentaries on the Old Testament
Expositor's Bible Commentary
Pulpit Bible Commentary
J. Vernon McGee Commentaries
Evangelical Commentary on the Old Testament
The Commentary Page


Luke 5.1-16 with Commentaries, verse by verse

In Luke 5.1-11; Matthew 4.18-22; Mark 1.16-20; John 1.40-42, Jesus called his first disciples. We must be convinced that the mission in life is to make disciples NOT converts. Making a disciple takes time, it takes years for one to become a disciple. His first disciples were fishermen. among them was Simon, who would later have the name Peter, a natural leader. notice the sensitivity that Simon had around Jesus, "Go away from me, Lord, I am a sinful man!" along with him was James and John the sons of Zebedee, these were the inner circle of the twelve apostles. Why those three? Why not persons of a better profession, more knowledge of the Scripture? And then the question, why us/ Why did Jesus ever picked any of us to be his disciples. And the answer would be it is GRACE. None of us deserves to follow Jesus, we are all sinners but we have been saved NOT by good works but by GRACE to do good works. Jesus saw something in us and in Peter, James, and John, He sees a rough diamond which through the patience and teaching of the Holy Spirit will one day become a precious stone in His sight (1Peter 2.4-5).

(Luke 5.12-14; Matthew 8.2-6; Mark 1.40-44)
A man with leprosy asked Jesus to heal him. Jesus did something against the Levitical law of that day, he touched the leper. Luke was the only one to talk of the xtent of his disease, perhaps because Luke was a physician. Jesus told the leper not to tell anyone who healed him and to present hemself to the priest and go through the ceremonial cleansing as required by Leviticus 14.2-12. We may not have leprosy but we do need the touch of Jesus in our lives to cleanse us from the sins that we have.

Notice that news were spreading about Jesus healing the people. Many came to seek him yet He often withdrew to pray by Himself. What can we learn from this. It is easy to get involve with ministry and yet really forget to see things in perspective, this is why Jesus went to pray.


IVP Commentary on Luke
Introduction to Luke-Malik
Argument for the Gospel of Luke-Malik
Deffinbaugh on Luke
Lightfoot on Luke
Ritchie on Luke
Dr. Thomas Constable Study Notes is a PDF file, open with Adobe Acrobatic Reader
Sermons on Luke by Ryle, Spurgeon, and Whitefield
John Piper Sermons on Luke

More Commentary Links for the New Testamant
Expositor's Bible Commentary
Pulpit Bible Commentary on the New Testament
With the Word Commentary NT-Warren Wiersbe
The New Commentary
Through the Bible-Matt-Acts-J. Vernon McGee
Benson's Commentary on the NT-Matt-Acts
Evangelical Commentary on the New Testament

Jesus Saves
This Posting is NOT a commentary of the passages read today but it is a devotional. Please send a comment if something spoke to you today from the passages, links or thoughts that I have shared with you.