Goliath stood before the Philistines, taunting the Israelites to challenge him. King Saul offered a bargain of riches and his daughter’s hand in marriage to anyone who would defeat the giant. David, just a shepherd boy at that time, took up the challenge.
As Saul’s story progresses, we can observe that he is never able to own the wrong he has done when it is pointed out to him. In 1 Samuel 13, Saul was told to wait for Samuel before offering sacrifices to God and initiating a battle with the Philistines. He didn’t listen, however, and bulldozed...
Samuel, who is sometimes known as the last of the Judges and the first Prophet of God, was also the leader of the nation whom the Israelites sought, for direction and revelation from God. He is known throughout ancient Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, as a messenger of God, as the Lord continued...
The story of Ruth was known to Boaz, one of commitment and self-sacrifice in the face of loss and tragedy. Her mother-in-law, Naomi, lost her husband and two sons, and decided to return to Israel when word arrived that the Lord had provided food for Israel, for they had been living in Moab...
Samson is part of the fabric of God’s tapestry. He was an important example of unfulfilled potential. Although Samson did great things for God, we can only wonder what he might have done or been for God. But despite his sin God still moved behind the scenes and used Samson for good. Though God...
Earlier in Ezekiel 36:17-19, we learn that God had scattered and dispersed the Israelites among the nations because of their evil conduct and actions. He poured out His wrath on them because they had ‘shed blood in the land… and defiled it with their idols’. God appointed Ezekiel to tell these...
Israel had been oppressed by the Midianites for seven years because they did evil in the eyes of God. Despite their disobedience to God, He loved them, saw their suffering and set about His plan to rescue them. Along came Gideon, a man who was the least in his family, from a clan which was...
We read in Exodus that the Israelites had been rescued from slavery and oppression in Egypt by the mighty works of God through Moses. They went through the 10 plagues and then later the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea. But the generation after Joshua has forgotten all these miraculous...
Moses had sent the twelve spies, one from each tribe of Israel, into the land God had promised. He asked them to recce the place and to bring some of the fruit of the land. This would help them assess the situation of the people of the land they were to conquer, and to know how fertile was the...
In the 40-year journey towards the Promised Land, God made Israel into a nation by the giving of the Law of Moses, urging them to be careful and to heed His commandments. However, the Israelites were a grumbling lot who would craft their own idols and indulge in the pleasure of lives that were...
