Bible Reading: Judges, Ruth, and Samuel
By Editor
Four chapters of Judges come within our week's reading, 7, 8, 12, 13. We here leave the book. The other chapters may be easily read; they are not long. From Judges we pass to Ruth, a beautiful pastoral book, giving something of the sweet, simple home life among the children of Israel; and incidentally, God's care for the Seed, for the Moabitess maiden Ruth became one of the progenitors of our blessed Lord, according to the flesh. Note the lesson of the near kinsman, a type of our Lord. Some scholars think that Nathan the prophet wrote the book. The first six chapters of 1 Samuel fall within our week's readings also. This book was probably written by the prophet Samuel. It tells us the charming story of his birth, of how he was "asked of God," and so the mother's prayer was met. We have revealed to us the low spiritual condition of Israel. The very priests themselves were wofully corrupt, with the exception of Eli, and he himself was not as sensitive over the conditions as he ought to have been. His love for his sons blinded him to their exceeding sin. The 4th to the 6th chapters show the awful humiliation of Israel. Even the very ark itself is captured by the Philistines, and Israel humbled to the very dust. The wicked sons of Eli are slain, and the priest himself dies of heart-disease, doubtless, on hearing the sad news of the battle. Our lesson in Samuel closes for the week with the Philistines sending back the ark to Israel. However men themselves might treat the sacred furniture, God Himself placed upon it a holy sacredness before which His very enemies quailed when it was in captivity. The week's reading closes with Psalm 106, of God's goodness to Israel.