Devotion for July 12 (LCMS Daily Lectionary)

Above:  Gideon’s Fountain

Image in the Public Domain

Image Source = Library of Congress

Judges and Galatians, Part I:  Divine Glory and Human Scandal

JULY 12, 2023

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Blessed Lord, who caused all holy scriptures to be written for our learning:

Grant us so to hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them,

that we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life,

which you have given us in our Savior Jesus Christ;

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, for ever and ever.  Amen.

–The Book of Common Prayer (1979), page 236

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The Assigned Readings:

Judges 7:1-23

Psalm 86 (Morning)

Psalms 6 and 19 (Evening)

Galatians 1:1-24

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The story in Judges 7 is a narrative about a coward (Gideon) leading an army of cowards (water lappers).  So the victory belonged unmistakably to God.

The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod daily lectionary of 2006 skips away from Acts for a few days.  The logic is impeccable, for Acts 15 and Galatians 2 contain slightly different accounts of the Council of Jerusalem.  But I get ahead of myself.  All glory goes to God in Galatians 1, for Paul inspires people to glorify God.  Paul had, after all, been a zealous persecutor of Christians.

God works in mysterious ways, including a seemingly unlikely convert and an army or cowards.  The first will be last and the last will be first.  The servant of all is the greatest in the Kingdom of God.  Some prostitutes will enter Heaven ahead of some respected religious figures.  Second sons inherit the privileges of the firstborn.  God works in mysterious ways; dare we embrace the scandal?  Or are we wedded to our hierarchies and ordered senses of how the world should work that we reject such divine and mysterious ways?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JULY 27, 2012 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF WILLIAM REED HUNTINGTON, EPISCOPAL PRIEST

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http://blogatheologica.wordpress.com/2013/05/03/judges-and-galatians-part-i-divine-glory-and-human-scandal/

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