What Distracts Us?

  • July 24, 2023
  • /
  • Park Forum

Scripture Focus: Judges 7.2-4
2 The Lord said to Gideon, “The people who are with you are too many for Me to give Midian into their hands, for Israel would become boastful, saying, ‘My own power has delivered me.’ 3 Now therefore come, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is afraid and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead.’” So 22,000 people returned, but 10,000 remained. 4 Then the Lord said to Gideon, “The people are still too many; bring them down to the water and I will test them for you there. Therefore it shall be that he of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall go with you,’ he shall go with you; but everyone of whom I say to you, ‘This one shall not go with you,’ he shall not go.” 

Reflection: What Distracts Us?
By Annette Kendall

It was a daunting task. Defeat the Midianites? A mighty coalition. Well equipped. Numerous. Naturally, Gideon did what any shrewd warrior would. He mustered all the best fighters to face the challenge squarely. But God was unimpressed with Gideon’s massive army; “too much,” he said.

There was something important God needed to teach Gideon—that with God alone Gideon had the mightiest coalition, was best equipped, and outnumbered the enemy by far. The very troops Gideon thought he needed in order to succeed were actually a distraction. Their presence would eclipse God and the miracle he proposed to do.

What distracts you from seeing God working in your life? What prevents you from looking to Jesus to meet your every need?

We must adequately equip ourselves for whatever task we are called to tackle. We need the right education to excel in our careers. We need adequate funding to acquire our basic needs. And we should have the right relationships to navigate the paths we wish to travel. But are we depending on these tools instead of looking to God? Are we forgetting that he alone is our provider and sustainer, without whom none of these tools would make a bit of difference? (Psalm 127; John 15.5) Have we come to value the gift to the neglect of the giver?

Sometimes God will take away our props so that we will have no recourse other than to depend on him. But not only that, so that when we have overcome, others will see the power of God working in and for us. (2 Corinthians 4.7)

God recognizes our frailty. Because of God’s compassion toward us, as he revealed to Gideon the enemy’s fear and subsequent defeat, (Judges 7.9-14) he sometimes encourages us in our trials with glimpses of what he is about to do. God is the one who goes before us and, when we are weak, he shows us how he has prepared the way for us or reminds us how he did it sometime before. When he does, our rightful response is to give him what he is due—our worship. (Judges 7.15)

Each day as you tackle the burdens of life, may you see past the clouds that threaten, and hear through the noise of discouragement, that which truly matters—Jesus.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
Whom have I in heaven but you? And having you I desire nothing upon earth. — Psalm 73.25

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Judges 7  (Listen 4:39)
Titus 2 (Listen 2:01)

Share a Readers’ Choice post!
#ReadersChoice is a time for you to share your favorite Park Forum posts from the year.What post gladdened your heart?

https://forms.gle/dfa88nayaEEqiy9X7

Read more about This Present Age
We often wish we were some “when” and perhaps some “where” else, but God calls us instead, to live for him today, “In this present age.”

This Present Age—Guided Prayer

No Asterisks

  • July 21, 2023
  • /
  • John Tillman

Scripture Focus: Judges 4.4-6
4 Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. 5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. 6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor.

*I love the NIV in general, however, one of its disagreements with other translations is to render the same Hebrew word translated as “judge” everywhere else, as “lead” in Deborah’s case from Judges 4.4.

Readers’ Choice Month is Coming:
This August, The Park Forum will look back on our readers’ selections of devotionals from the past 12 months that were the most meaningful and helpful to you. This month is all about hearing from you and thanking you for your readership.

Today’s devotional was a Readers’ Choice selection from last year. Last year, reader, Deborah said “This commentary is both beautifully written and filled with TRUTH! You blessed me this morning! Deborah, who appreciates her name even more now.” And, reader, Jason said, “We all need to hear this again. Good word.”

Please fill out this form or email us about devotionals from this past year that were special to you. You don’t need to have a long comment (although you can) but we’d love to hear from you.

Reflection: No Asterisks
By John Tillman

Deborah’s judgeship doesn’t deserve an asterisk. 

Some claim Deborah’s judgeship is a punishment for Israel, not a blessing. They claim God only used Deborah because Barak (and every other male Israelite) was too “weak” to stand up. This interpretation insults Deborah, Barak, and all Israel, based on assumptions that are extrabiblical and unsupported by the text.

Deborah summons Barak and he comes. She commands him into battle and he goes. She goes with him to battle and they conquer. Then, they jointly lead the nation in a prophetic song of worship. “Princes” of Israel volunteer to serve under her leadership and are praised. She initiates a generation of peace and prosperity.

The biblical writers make no apologies or explanations for Deborah. There is no scriptural asterisk indicating Deborah’s judgeship is the last resort of a desperate God who couldn’t find a man to do the job.

God did not “settle” for Deborah. He chose her. 

Deborah’s story is also not one of feminist triumphalism or superiority. We might like to imagine Deborah riding into battle as Éowyn did in the conclusion of The Lord of the Rings, slaying the Witch King, shouting “I am no man!” However, God did not defeat Sisera on a technicality and Deborah’s prophecy is not fulfilled by her killing the villain. That honor goes to another woman, of lower status, Jael. Jael’s hand drove the spike but it was Deborah’s raised fist that began the battle. 

God planned to use women to crush evil from the beginning. God promised Eve her seed would crush the head of the serpent. So it is not a fluke that women would be involved in crushing the heads of evil men. These women are simply reflecting the birth pangs of the reality of God’s promise.

Deborah’s leadership is not a fluke or a technicality. God no more “settled” for her than he “settled” for the sinfulness of Samson, or the rashness of Jepthah, or the doubts and low standing of Gideon. 

So what does this mean?

We may doubt our place in God’s work. We also may have our place in God’s work doubted by others. However, our gender, our race, our background, or our nationality do not disqualify us from fulfilling God’s purposes. God didn’t settle for you. He called and chose you.

For the humble whom God raises up to lead, all asterisks are removed.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
You are my hope, O Lord God, my confidence since I was young. — Psalm 71.5

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Judges 4  (Listen 3:57)
1 Timothy 5 (Listen 3:22)


This Weekend’s Readings
Judges 5  (Listen 4:36) 1 Timothy 6 (Listen 3:16)
Judges 6  (Listen 6:15) Titus 1 (Listen 2:24)

Generational Blame Game

  • July 19, 2023
  • /
  • Erin Newton

Scripture Focus: Judges 2.10-11, 18
10 After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. 11 Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. 

18 Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. 

Reflection: Generational Blame Game
By Erin Newton

In Judges, timelines are divided by generations and individual judges. Each generation is characterized by their failures and fleeting restoration under a judge’s leadership.

Judges describes this generation as forgetting God and serving the Baals. The description is vague. Forgetfulness has a generic sense that includes a myriad of sinful practices. They could have been entrenched in greed, injustice, sexual abuse, pride, oppression, idolatry, deceitfulness, or malice. The plural use of “Baals” is the author’s catchall phrase to demean any foreign deity. This generation is simply unfaithful.

The repetitive assertion that the next generation begins with failure reads like popular headlines today: “Atheism Doubles Among Generation Z” or “Almost Half of Practicing Christian Millennials Say Evangelism Is Wrong.” Faith is measured by church attendance, participation in religious practices, or involvement in parachurch organizations. When one generation breaks from the norm, it is labeled as a failure.

Today, some pastors dreamily speak of the “greatest generation” and pine for things to be like “they were in the 1950s.” Is this retrospective vision true to reality? Is each generation truly worse than the generation before? Such statements disregard the prevalence of injustices.

Although the failing generations and redemptive judges represent a cyclical storyline in Judges, God remains unchanging. It is not the sins of the people that should attract the spotlight here. The immutability of God shines through the shadows of evil.

God is forever faithful while people are reliably faithless. We will never arrive at a place of pure obedience to God without the snares and traps of our sinful conduct. The tendency to either look back with fondness at prior generations fails to realize the injustices that existed openly among Christians. The tendency to look forward in disgust at the new generation as “more wayward” disregards the unchanging nature of God to save, sanctify, and revitalize the people.

Despite all the failures of the ancient generations, God saved them.

The cycles of Judges, however, reveal that revivals are not permanent. Children cannot rely on the faith of their parents to establish their own faith for tomorrow. We must realize the power of this world will continue to negatively affect each generation.

But God remains as unchanged and faithful as he was five thousand years ago. Despite all our failures, God will save.

Cling to the hope of revival. Trust in God-appointed leaders. Pray and persevere for the restoration of the people.

Divine Hours Prayer: A Reading
Finally, brothers, let your minds be filled with everything that is true, everything that is honorable, everything that is upright and pure, everything that we love and admire—with whatever is good and praiseworthy. Keep doing everything you learned from me and were told by me and have heard or seen me doing. Then the God of peace will be with you. — Philippians 4.8-9

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Judges 2  (Listen 3:19)
1 Timothy 3 (Listen 2:10)

Share a Readers’ Choice post!
#ReadersChoice is a time for you to share your favorite Park Forum posts from the year.
What post helped you understand prayer?

Readers’ Choice 2023

Read more about A Generational Lament
“Every generation blames the one before…” Old and young scoff at each other’s sufferings, separating into camps of division and bias.

A Generational Lament

Learning to Live in the Land

  • July 18, 2023
  • /
  • Park Forum

Scripture Focus: Judges 1.1-2
1 After the death of Joshua, the Israelites asked the LORD, “Which tribe should go first to attack the Canaanites?” 2 The LORD answered, “Judah, for I have given them victory over the land.” 

From John: We have five bonus Student Writers this year who are writing for us this July. These students attended meetings and trainings with our other students and received similar coaching on their writing submissions. We are so thankful to everyone who helped make this year’s Student Writers Month the biggest we’ve ever done, including the students themselves, our special guests and speakers, and of course our donors who make everything we do possible.

Reflection: Learning to Live in the Land
By Alyssa Stockdill

The book of Judges begins on the heels of Joshua’s “happily ever after.” What has, until this point, been a story of getting to and conquering the land, now becomes a story of trying to live in the land. 

God continues to remind Israel that as he has already he will continue to bring victory, but for them to truly settle down, the current inhabitants must be driven out. 

Judah and Simeon are successful. They live and fight based on the reality of God’s promise. Others are not. God’s intent was to keep Israel set apart from the people and influence of Canaan, but when faced with opposition, they settle for a tenuous arrangement. They allow the Canaanites to remain, either as forced laborers or uneasy neighbors. God’s vision for the flourishing of his people required faithful execution of his commands and faith in his promises. This compromise sets the stage for colossal failure ahead. Israel’s turn from, and return to, Yahweh is a cycle that will repeat throughout the rest of Judges and far beyond.

As followers of Jesus, we have already found our victory in him. However, we are also on a lifelong journey of transformation into his image (2 Corinthians 3.18). We may have arrived in the land, but now we must learn to live in it.  

Do you feel that you are in a battle for the life God promised to you? Sometimes we battle against our own flesh (Galatians 5.17), struggling to live in freedom from our sin and brokenness. Sometimes we battle against the powers and the principalities of this world (Ephesians 6.12). This is the heartache of living in the “already-but-not-yet.”

Will we compromise and allow the challenges we face to sow seeds for future failure? Or will we fight these battles with confidence that God has already done so on our behalf? Will we take heart because we know the one who has already overcome the world? 

The good news is that we serve a God who is faithful even when we are faithless. Failures big and small may play heavily into our story, but they are never the final word. The course charted in these early pages heads straight for destruction and exile, but this is the story of a God who is willing to go to the greatest lengths to bring his people home.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Small Verse
The earth is the Lord’s and all the fullness thereof, the world and we who dwell within. Thanks be to God.

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Judges 1 (Listen 5:08)
1 Timothy 2 (Listen  1:38)

Read more about Transformed by Koinonia
Within us are exalted idols and habits that must be torn down…fruits of the spirit that we have trampled under selfish feet.

Transformed by Koinonia

Share a Readers’ Choice post!
What post helped you forgive?

https://forms.gle/dfa88nayaEEqiy9X7

No Asterisks — Readers’ Choice

  • August 27, 2021
  • /
  • John Tillman

Readers’ Choice Month:
In August, The Park Forum looks back on our readers’ selections of our most meaningful and helpful devotionals from the past 12 months. Thank you for your readership. This month is all about hearing from you. Submit a Readers’ Choice post today.

Today’s post was originally published, July 21, 2021, based on readings from Judges 4.
It was selected by readers, Deborah from TX and Jason from TX.
Deborah: “This commentary is both beautifully written and filled with TRUTH! You blessed me this morning! Deborah, who appreciates her name even more now”

Jason: “We all need to hear this again. Good word.”

Scripture Focus: Judges 4.4-6
4 Now Deborah, a prophet, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time. 5 She held court under the Palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the Israelites went up to her to have their disputes decided. 6 She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali and said to him, “The Lord, the God of Israel, commands you: ‘Go, take with you ten thousand men of Naphtali and Zebulun and lead them up to Mount Tabor.

*I love the NIV in general, however, one of its disagreements with other translations is to render the same Hebrew word translated as “judge” everywhere else, as “lead” in Deborah’s case from Judges 4.4.

Reflection: No Asterisks — Readers’ Choice
By John Tillman

Deborah’s judgeship doesn’t deserve an asterisk. 

Some claim Deborah’s judgeship is a punishment for Israel, not a blessing. They claim God only used Deborah because Barak (and every other male Israelite) was too “weak” to stand up. This interpretation insults Deborah, Barak, and all Israel, based on assumptions that are extrabiblical and unsupported by the text.

Deborah summons Barak and he comes. She commands him into battle and he goes. She goes with him to battle and they conquer. Then, they jointly lead the nation in a prophetic song of worship. “Princes” of Israel volunteer to serve under her leadership and are praised. She initiates a generation of peace and prosperity.

The biblical writers make no apologies or explanations for Deborah. There is no scriptural asterisk indicating Deborah’s judgeship is the last resort of a desperate God who couldn’t find a man to do the job.

God did not “settle” for Deborah. He chose her. 

Deborah’s story is also not one of feminist triumphalism or superiority. We might like to imagine Deborah riding into battle as Éowyn did in the conclusion of The Lord of the Rings, slaying the Witch King, shouting “I am no man!” However, God did not defeat Sisera on a technicality and Deborah’s prophecy is not fulfilled by her killing the villain. That honor goes to another woman, of lower status, Jael. Jael’s hand drove the spike but it was Deborah’s raised fist that began the battle. 

God planned to use women to crush evil from the beginning. God promised Eve her seed would crush the head of the serpent. So it is not a fluke that women would be involved in crushing the heads of evil men. These women are simply reflecting the birth pangs of the reality of God’s promise.

Deborah’s leadership is not a fluke or a technicality. God no more “settled” for her than he “settled” for the sinfulness of Samson, or the rashness of Jepthah, or the doubts and low standing of Gideon. 

So what does this mean?

We may doubt our place in God’s work. We also may have our place in God’s work doubted by others. However, our gender, our race, our background, or our nationality do not disqualify us from fulfilling God’s purposes. God didn’t settle for you. He called and chose you.

For the humble whom God raises up to lead, all asterisks are removed. 

Divine Hours Prayer: The Refrain for the Morning Lessons
Let not those who hope in you be put to shame through me, Lord God of hosts; let not those who seek you be disgraced because of me, O God of Israel. — Psalm 69.7

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
1 Samuel 19 (Listen – 3:43)
1 Corinthians 1 (Listen – 4:03)

This Weekend’s Readings
1 Samuel 20 (Listen – 6:42) 1 Corinthians 2 (Listen – 2:26)
1 Samuel 21-22 (Listen – 6:35) 1 Corinthians 3 (Listen – 3:05)

Read More about Readers’ Choice 2021
Have we heard from you yet? Tell us about posts from the past year (September 2020 – July 2021) that have helped you in your faith.
https://forms.gle/ozM13qvW9ouSWhJS7

Read more about Ladies First—Resurrection Appearances
“Firsts” are important in the scriptures. So we cannot imagine that it is a coincidence or a mistake that Jesus appears first to the women.

Ladies First—Resurrection Appearances—Readers’ Choice