Daily Devotional for

Thursday: A Great Prophecy

At the end of Genesis, in chapter 49, Jacob gives a great prophecy that concerns the future of each of his sons and the people who should come from them. And when he gets to Simeon and Levi, it is this incident from Genesis 34 that he remembers. Here are his words: “Simeon and Levi are brothers—their swords are weapons of violence. Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel” (vv. 5-7a). You see, even all those many years after that event, the horror of it still stuck in Jacob’s mind. And then he pronounced this prophecy: “I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel” (v. 7b).

Keep Reading

Subscribe to the Think & Act Biblically Devotional

Recent Devotionals for Study
Grace Abounding

Thursday: A Great Prophecy

At the end of Genesis, in chapter 49, Jacob gives a great prophecy that concerns the future of each of his sons and the people who should come from them. And when he gets to Simeon and Levi, it is this incident from Genesis 34 that he remembers. Here are his words: “Simeon and Levi are brothers—their swords are weapons of violence. Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly, for they have killed men in their anger and hamstrung oxen as they pleased. Cursed be their anger, so fierce, and their fury, so cruel” (vv. 5-7a). You see, even all those many years after that event, the horror of it still stuck in Jacob’s mind. And then he pronounced this prophecy: “I will scatter them in Jacob and disperse them in Israel” (v. 7b).

Keep Reading
Grace Abounding

Wednesday: The History behind the Cities

Now in chapter 21, we find out more about these Levitical cities. Six of the 48 cities were for refuge; but there were still the other 42 cities that were scattered all throughout the land. Joshua 21 spells it out in great detail city by city, telling us exactly where these cities of the Levites were. This involves a very interesting story. To understand why the cities of the Levites were so important and why they were such a blessing, not only to the people but to the Levites themselves, you have to go back to Genesis 34.

Keep Reading
Grace Abounding

Tuesday: Christ Our Refuge

Now, we stand at the very end of the third portion, after all the land has been divided up among the tribes. In addition, in chapters 20 and 21 we find a portion that deals with the establishing of certain special cities. There were 48 cities throughout Israel that were given to the priests, who came from the tribe of Levi. One category of these cities, the cities of refuge, we looked at last week. There were six of these cities, strategically spread out around the country, to which a person who had unintentionally killed another person could flee for refuge lest the avenger of blood should overtake him in accordance with the customs of that period.

Keep Reading
Grace Abounding

Monday: The Book of Joshua in Review

We’re drawing quite near the end of our study of this great Old Testament book. It’s an appropriate time to look back over it a bit in terms of the outline and see how far we have come and how we have yet to go. Joshua falls into four main parts.

Keep Reading
Cities of Refuge

Friday: Salvation for All Who Will Come

A third parallel about these cities is that they were open to aliens as well as to Jews. It’s easy to apply that. The way to salvation—the way to life through Christ—is open to anyone. It’s open to you, no matter who you may be. You may say, “Well, I’m too old. I’ve lived a whole life and I’m now firmly fixed in my own pattern of behavior.” But why should you die and suffer in hell because of an earlier pattern of behavior? That pattern can be undone. The Apostle Paul was in a rigorous pattern of behavior, but the Lord Jesus Christ reached him on the road to Damascus and turned him around radically. Why shouldn’t He do the same for you?

Keep Reading
Cities of Refuge

Thursday: Christ Alone and Always

Now, let me say that there is an obligation upon us as Christian people who know the way to the refuge that is found in Jesus Christ to make that way plain. If I can use the imagery of these cities, we are to build roads so that people may get to Jesus Christ easily. We are to construct bridges over any chasms in their thinking or that our society might put in the way. We are to erect signs that point to Him. And what is more, we are to stand at the crossroads. We are to point people to Jesus, and we are to say, “Look, this is the way. There is safety. Flee to Him.”

Keep Reading
Cities of Refuge

Wednesday: The Divine Source of True Justice

Yesterday we talked about the first important thing from the creation of these cities of refuge, which was the great value on human life, rooted in God’s revealed law. The second thing about them is also quite interesting, and it’s based on what’s mentioned here in Joshua 20:9 about who was welcome to flee to those cities: “Any of the Israelites or any alien living among them who killed someone accidentally could flee to these designated cities.”

Keep Reading
More Resources from James Montgomery Boice
James Montgomery Boice

About Think & Act Biblically

James Montgomery Boice (1938-2000) was a successful inner city pastor and articulate spokesman for the Reformed faith in America and around the world. He was the pastor of Philadelphia’s historic Tenth Presbyterian Church (1968-2000) and his teaching continues to be aired on The Bible Study Hour radio and Internet broadcast. In 1996 he brought The Bible Study Hour, God’s Word Today magazine, Philadelphia Conference of Reformation Theology, and other Bible teaching ministries under the umbrella of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.
Alliance of Confessional Evangelicals

About the Alliance

The Alliance is a coalition of believers who hold to the historic creeds and confessions of the Reformed faith and proclaim biblical doctrine in order to foster a Reformed awakening in today’s Church.

Canadian Donors

Canadian Committee of The Bible Study Hour
PO Box 24087, RPO Josephine
North Bay, ON, P1B 0C7