Truth For Life Program
Alistair Begg Devotional
C. H. Spurgeon Devotional
One-Year Bible Reading Plan
In Genesis 2, God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone.” Then He created Eve. So why does the apostle Paul suggest that it’s good to stay single? Is he contradicting Scripture? Hear the answer on Truth For Life with Alistair Begg.
From the Sermon
Gideon’s Question
The moment in Judges 6 when Gideon meets an angel is both dramatic and incongruous. The angel calls him a “mighty man of valor” while he is hiding out in a winepress in an attempt to thresh wheat without being seen by the occupying Midianites (Judges 6:11). There is not much might or valor about him!
It’s as if God focused the camera on Gideon as a microcosm of His people. Perhaps in that moment, Gideon looked over his shoulder, wondering if the greeting was really meant for him. After all, the Lord had allowed His people to be reduced to hiding out in caves. So he asked, “If the LORD is with us, why then has all of this happened to us?”
It’s a sensible question: if God is who He claims to be, then why does He allow troubling circumstances in our lives? We can surely relate. All of our lives are full of ifs, buts, and whys. We should be encouraged, though, to know that if God could answer Gideon’s question or the cries of Israel, He can surely handle our difficult questions—even if His answer is not always what we expect.
When the Israelites cried out for God’s help in Judges 6:7, He responded not by sending a warrior to deliver them but a prophet to teach them (v 8). God knew that they needed to hear His word in the midst of their trials. Ultimately, they needed to turn back to Him and trust in His promises. The prophet told them in outline what the angel would tell Gideon: “The LORD is with you.” The presence of God and the existence of trials can co-exist.
The questions we raise are finally answered not in some list of “five easy steps” but in God’s disclosure of Himself through His word. In Gideon’s case, God’s response seemed to be no answer at all. There was no dialogue concerning Israel’s circumstances or any explanation about their enemies. Instead, the Lord turned to Gideon and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; do not I send you?” (Judges 6:14).
Gideon felt inadequate: “How can I save Israel? Behold, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father’s house” (Judges 6:15). Often, though, it’s exactly when we admit our inadequacy that God begins to work in us. Until we reach the point where we can see our weakness, we will not be inclined to pray, to walk steadfast through trials, or to stop trusting in ourselves. Only when we know our own shortcomings and listen to God’s promise to be with us and to work in and through us will we commit to serving Him with all that we have, weak though we feel and are. For in His word God promises that our weakness plus God’s strength is sufficient for any task He calls us to (Philippians 4:13).
How is God calling me to think differently?
How is God reordering my heart’s affections — what I love?
What is God calling me to do as I go about my day today?
The Call of Gideon
11Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth at Ophrah, which belonged to Joash vthe Abiezrite, while his son wGideon was beating out wheat in the winepress to hide it from the Midianites. 12And xthe angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, y“The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.” 13And Gideon said to him, “Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are zall his wonderful deeds athat our fathers recounted to us, saying, ‘Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.” 14And the Lord1 turned to him and said, “Go in this might of yours and save Israel from the hand of Midian; bdo not I send you?” 15And he said to him, c“Please, Lord, how can I save Israel? Behold, dmy clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house.” 16And the Lord said to him, e“But I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man.” 17And he said to him, f“If now I have found favor in your eyes, then gshow me a sign that it is you who speak with me. 18Please hdo not depart from here until I come to you and bring out my present and set it before you.” And he said, “I will stay till you return.”
19So Gideon went into his house iand prepared a young goat and unleavened cakes from an ephah2 of flour. The meat he put in a basket, and the broth he put in a pot, and brought them to him under the terebinth and presented them. 20And the angel of God said to him, “Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and put them jon this rock, and kpour the broth over them.” And he did so. 21Then the angel of the Lord reached out the tip of the staff that was in his hand and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes. lAnd fire sprang up from the rock and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes. And the angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. 22Then Gideon perceived that he was the angel of the Lord. And Gideon said, m“Alas, O Lord God! For now I have seen the angel of the Lord face to face.” 23But the Lord said to him, n“Peace be to you. Do not fear; you shall not die.” 24Then Gideon built an altar there to the Lord and called it, oThe Lord Is Peace. To this day it still stands at pOphrah, which belongs to the Abiezrites.
Devotional material is taken from the Truth For Life daily devotionals by Alistair Begg, published by The Good Book Company, thegoodbook.com. Used by Truth For Life with permission. Copyright © 2021, 2022, The Good Book Company.
Look to the Creator
Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not.
God had made a positive promise to Moses that for the space of a whole month He would feed the vast company in the wilderness with meat. Moses is then overtaken by a fit of unbelief, looks to the outward means, and is at a loss to know how the promise can be fulfilled. He looked to the creature instead of the Creator. But does the Creator expect the creature to fulfill His promise for Him? No; He who makes the promise always fulfills it by His own unaided omnipotence. If He speaks, it is done—done by Himself. His promises do not depend for their fulfillment upon the cooperation of the puny strength of man. We can immediately see the mistake that Moses made. And yet how routinely we do the same!
God has promised to supply our needs, and we look to the creature to do what God has promised to do; and then, because we perceive the creature to be weak and feeble, we indulge in unbelief. Why do we look in that direction at all? Will you look to the North Pole to gather fruits ripened in the sun? You would be acting no more foolishly in doing this than when you look to the weak for strength, and to the creature to do the Creator's work. Let us, then, put the question on the right footing. The ground of faith is not the sufficiency of the visible means for the performance of the promise, but the all-sufficiency of the invisible God, who will definitely do what He has said.
If after clearly seeing that the onus lies with the Lord and not with the creature we dare to indulge in mistrust, the question of God comes home forcefully to us: "Is the LORD's hand shortened?" May it also be that in His mercy the question will be accompanied by this blessed declaration: "Now you shall see whether my word will come true for you or not."
Devotional material is taken from Morning and Evening, written by C. H. Spurgeon, revised and updated by Alistair Begg. Copyright © 2003, Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.org. Used by Truth For Life with written permission.
Daily Bible Reading for June 8
The Lord's Chosen Place of Worship
1b“These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, call the days that you live on the earth. 2dYou shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, eon the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces ftheir pillars and burn their gAsherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and hdestroy their name out of that place. 4iYou shall not worship the Lord your God in that way. 5But you shall seek jthe place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation1 there. There you shall go, 6and there you shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, kyour tithes and the contribution that you present, your vow offerings, your freewill offerings, and the lfirstborn of your herd and of your flock. 7And mthere you shall eat before the Lord your God, and nyou shall rejoice, you and your households, in all that you undertake, in which the Lord your God has blessed you.
8“You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, oeveryone doing whatever is right in his own eyes, 9for you have not as yet come to pthe rest and to the inheritance that the Lord your God is giving you. 10But when qyou go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, rand when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, 11then to jthe place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, kyour tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord. 12And nyou shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you and your sons and your daughters, your male servants and your female servants, and the Levite that is within your towns, since she has no portion or inheritance with you. 13tTake care that you do not offer your burnt offerings at any place that you see, 14but at jthe place that the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, there you shall offer your burnt offerings, and there you shall do all that I am commanding you.
15“However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, uaccording to the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you. vThe unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer. 16wOnly you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. 17You may not eat within your towns kthe tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present, 18but myou shall eat them before the Lord your God in jthe place that the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And nyou shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake. 19xTake care that you do not neglect the Levite as long as you live in your land.
20“When the Lord your God yenlarges your territory, zas he has promised you, and you say, ‘I will eat meat,’ because you crave meat, you may eat meat whenever you desire. 21If athe place that the Lord your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, bthen you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire. 22Just cas the gazelle or the deer is eaten, so you may eat of it. cThe unclean and the clean alike may eat of it. 23dOnly be sure that you do not eat the blood, efor the blood is the life, and you shall not eat the life with the flesh. 24You shall not eat it; you shall pour it out on the earth like water. 25You shall not eat it, fthat all may go well with you and with your children after you, gwhen you do what is right in the sight of the Lord. 26But the hholy things that are due from you, and iyour vow offerings, you shall take, and you shall go to athe place that the Lord will choose, 27and joffer your burnt offerings, the flesh and the blood, on the altar of the Lord your God. The blood of your sacrifices shall be poured out on the altar of the Lord your God, but the flesh you may eat. 28Be careful to obey all these words that I command you, fthat it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.
Warning Against Idolatry
29“When kthe Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30take care lthat you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ 31mYou shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every nabominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for othey even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.
322 “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. pYou shall not add to it or take from it.
Psalm 97
The Lord Reigns
1xThe Lord reigns, ylet the earth rejoice;
let the many zcoastlands be glad!
2aClouds and thick darkness are all around him;
brighteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.
3cFire goes before him
and burns up his adversaries all around.
4His dlightnings light up the world;
the earth sees and etrembles.
5The mountains fmelt like gwax before the Lord,
before hthe Lord of all the earth.
6iThe heavens proclaim his righteousness,
and all jthe peoples see his glory.
7All worshipers of images are kput to shame,
who make their boast in lworthless idols;
mworship him, all you gods!
8Zion hears and nis glad,
and the daughters of Judah rejoice,
because of your judgments, O Lord.
9For you, O Lord, are omost high over all the earth;
you are exalted far above pall gods.
10O you who love the Lord, qhate evil!
He rpreserves the lives of his ssaints;
he tdelivers them from the hand of the wicked.
11uLight vis sown1 for the righteous,
and joy for the upright in heart.
12wRejoice in the Lord, O you righteous,
and xgive thanks to his holy name!
Psalm 98
Make a Joyful Noise to the Lord
A Psalm.
1Oh sing to the Lord ya new song,
for he has done zmarvelous things!
His aright hand and his holy arm
have worked salvation for him.
2The Lord has bmade known his salvation;
he has crevealed his righteousness in dthe sight of the nations.
3He has eremembered his fsteadfast love and faithfulness
to the house of Israel.
All gthe ends of the earth have seen
hthe salvation of our God.
4iMake a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
jbreak forth into joyous song and sing praises!
5Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
with the lyre and the ksound of melody!
6With ltrumpets and the sound of mthe horn
imake a joyful noise before the King, the Lord!
7nLet the sea roar, and oall that fills it;
othe world and those who dwell in it!
8Let the rivers pclap their hands;
let qthe hills sing for joy together
9before the Lord, for he comes
to rjudge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness,
and the peoples with equity.
Comfort for God's People
1zComfort, comfort my people, says your God.
2aSpeak tenderly to Jerusalem,
and cry to her
that her iniquity is pardoned,
that she has received from the Lord's hand
double for all her sins.
d“In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord;
emake straight in the desert a highway for our God.
4fEvery valley shall be lifted up,
and every mountain and hill be made low;
the uneven ground shall become level,
and the rough places a plain.
5gAnd the glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all flesh shall see it together,
hfor the mouth of the Lord has spoken.”
The Word of God Stands Forever
6A voice says, “Cry!”
And I said,3 “What shall I cry?”
iAll flesh is grass,
and all its beauty4 is like the flower of the field.
7The grass withers, the flower fades
when the breath of the Lord blows on it;
surely the people are grass.
8jThe grass withers, the flower fades,
but the word of our God will stand forever.
The Greatness of God
9Go on up to a high mountain,
O Zion, kherald of good news;5
lift up your voice with strength,
O Jerusalem, herald of good news;6
lift it up, fear not;
say to the cities of Judah,
“Behold your God!”
10lBehold, the Lord God comes with might,
and his arm rules for him;
mbehold, his reward is with him,
and his recompense before him.
11nHe will tend his flock like a shepherd;
ohe will gather the lambs in his arms;
phe will carry them in his bosom,
and gently lead those that are with young.
12qWho has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand
and marked off the heavens with a span,
enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure
and weighed the mountains in scales
and the hills in a balance?
13rWho has measured7 the Spirit of the Lord,
or what man shows him his counsel?
14Whom did he consult,
and who made him understand?
sWho taught him the path of justice,
and taught him knowledge,
and showed him the way of understanding?
15Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket,
and are accounted tas the dust on the scales;
behold, he takes up uthe coastlands like fine dust.
16Lebanon would not suffice for fuel,
nor are vits beasts enough for a burnt offering.
17wAll the nations are as nothing before him,
they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.
18xTo whom then will you liken God,
yor what likeness compare with him?
19yAn idol! A craftsman casts it,
and a goldsmith overlays it with gold
and casts for it silver chains.
20zHe who is too impoverished for an offering
chooses wood8 that will not rot;
he seeks out a skillful craftsman
to set up an idol that will not move.
21aDo you not know? Do you not hear?
Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
22It is he who sits above the circle of the earth,
and its inhabitants are blike grasshoppers;
cwho stretches out the heavens like a curtain,
and spreads them like a tent to dwell in;
23dwho brings princes to nothing,
and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness.
24Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown,
scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth,
when he blows on them, and they wither,
eand the tempest carries them off like stubble.
25fTo whom then will you compare me,
that I should be like him? says the Holy One.
26Lift up your eyes on high and see:
who created these?
gHe who brings out their host by number,
calling them all by name;
by the greatness of his might
and because he is strong in power,
not one is missing.
27Why do you say, O Jacob,
and speak, O Israel,
h“My way is hidden from the Lord,
iand my right is disregarded by my God”?
28Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is jthe everlasting God,
the Creator of the ends of the earth.
He does not faint or grow weary;
khis understanding is unsearchable.
29He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.
30Even youths shall faint and be weary,
and young men shall fall exhausted;
31but lthey who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength;
they shall mount up with wings mlike eagles;
they shall run and not be weary;
they shall walk and not faint.
The Angel and the Little Scroll
1Then I saw another mighty angel coming down from heaven, wrapped in a cloud, with ya rainbow over his head, and zhis face was like the sun, and ahis legs like pillars of fire. 2bHe had a little scroll open in his hand. And he set his right foot on the sea, and his left foot on the land, 3and called out with a loud voice, clike a lion roaring. When he called out, the seven thunders sounded. 4And when the seven thunders had sounded, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, d“Seal up what the seven thunders have said, and do not write it down.” 5And the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land eraised his right hand to heaven 6and swore by fhim who lives forever and ever, gwho created heaven and what is in it, the earth and what is in it, and the sea and what is in it, that there would be no more delay, 7but that hin the days of the trumpet call to be sounded by the seventh angel, the mystery of God would be fulfilled, ijust as he announced to his servants the prophets.
8Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” 9So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll. And he said to me, j“Take and keat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” 10And I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it. It was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter. 11And I was told, l“You must again prophesy about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”
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