Jesus: the First and Last

Today we are going to spend time remembering Jesus’ willing sacrifice of Himself on the cross for us. We will remember Him in the way Jesus Himself taught His disciples 2000 years ago, with the bread and the cup, symbols of His body broken for us and His blood shed for us. In preparation for the time, I want us to meditate on one of the titles for Jesus, the First and the Last. This phrase is used repeatedly of Jesus in the Book of Revelation:

When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as though dead. Then He placed His right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. – Rev. 1:17

These are the words of Him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. – Rev. 2:8

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. – Rev. 22:13

Broken Vessels: Gideon

We have a lot of ground to cover, so we will get right into the story of Gideon, in Judges chapter 6.

Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, caves and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and their camels; they invaded the land to ravage it. Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help. – Judges 6:1-6

Broken Vessels: Ehud and Deborah

Today we will look at two characters from the book of Judges. In Judges we see a repeated pattern described in Chapter 2:

Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their fathers, they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers had walked, the way of obedience to the Lord's commands. – Judges 2:16-17

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 had compassion on them as they groaned under those who oppressed and afflicted them. But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways. – Judges 2:18-19