Isaiah 11:1-2

Ah, you who make iniquitous decrees,

who write oppressive statutes,

2 to turn aside the needy from justice

and to rob the poor of my people of their right,

that widows may be your spoil,

and that you may make the orphans your prey!

1 Samuel 4-6 is a poignant example of a third commandment violation. God is treated as a tool for the Israelite’s ends. Gid will have none of it. He’d rather allow his people to be defeated and the most sacred artefact in Israel, the very symbol of God’s presence on earth with his people to be carried off and placed as tribute before the lifeless

January 10, 2026 Epiphany • Day 5

Opportunities and tests from God refine faith.

Temptations from the serpent distort desire.

God’s way is presence.

The serpent’s way is control.

God washes/wrings the Pharaoh out of Moses..

Moses is eighty.

Forty years in Pharaoh’s house.

Forty years in Midian.

Evil is not punished arbitrarily. It collapses under its