Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 14-16.

I was going to write about Samson’s poor choices in women and then something else struck me.  Although before I get into that, I want to say that I feel sorry for the Philistine woman whom Samson married.  Yes, she betrayed Samson, but only because the men with whom Samson had bet threatened to burn her and her father’s household to death.  Then later, they did that very thing.  Any way, back to my main point today.  God’s Spirit was upon Samson up until Delilah cut his hair.  God’s Spirit did not depart from him when he slept with the Philistine prostitute, nor when he slept with Delilah on several occasions, not even when he revealed the true secret to his strength to Delilah.  No, it was only after she actually cut his hair that God departed from Samson.  And, even with that, God answered Samson when he called out to God as a prisoner of the Philistines.  So, despite his flaws, despite his sins, God stayed with Samson and even answered his prayers.  We can take comfort from that when we sin.  God will not abandon us.  Does that mean that it was not bad that Samson committed sexual sins?  Of course not, if Samson had not allowed himself to fall into sexual sins, he would never have revealed the secret of his strength to Delilah.  And who knows what other great things he might have done?  In the same way, while God will remain with us even when we sin, think how much greater works He would do through us if we resist the temptations which come our way?

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Judges 11-13.

By the way we write and talk today, reading this passage leads us to believe that Jephthah was the illegitimate son of a man named Gilead, who was in turn descended from the Gilead after whom the territory of Gilead was named.  By that reading, Gilead, the father of Jephthah, also had several legitimate sons, and those legitimate sons drove Jephthah away to avoid sharing their father’s inheritance with him.  However, it would be consistent with the way people sometimes wrote in the past for this to have a different meaning.  Perhaps, since Jephthah’s mother was a prostitute, when the writer says that his father was “Gilead” he meant that his father was an unknown man of the territory named Gilead.  Further, when the writer referred to “Gilead’s wife” having sons, he was referring to the legitimate sons of the citizens of Gilead.  By that reading, the elders of Gilead who asked Jephthah to command the defense of Gilead were the same people who had exiled him in the first place.  This second reading makes a lot more sense of Jephthah’s response to their request.  In either reading, we see that the people of Gilead were lucky that Jephthah did not hold a grudge against them for their earlier mistreatment.  Of course, on the other hand, Jephthah may not have developed the leadership skills which they needed if they had not done so.

The conflict between the Ephraimites and Jephthah after Jephthah’s victory can be hard to understand.  In order to understand what happened we need to go back to Chapter 10, where it tells us that the Ammonites oppressed the Israelites living in Gilead, east of the Jordan River, for 18 years, and then began raiding into Judah, Benjamin, and Ephraim.  The Ammonites mustered their army in Gilead (it is not clear to me if this was in response to a religious revival among the Israelites which led to their unrest against the Ammonites, or if it was just an annual muster by the Ammonites to go raiding).  In response, the Israelites gathered at Mizpah, where the leaders of Gilead determined to call Jephthah to lead them.  This sets the stage for the battle.  Apparently, the Ephraimites gathered their forces somewhere else (or decided to wait to join the muster).  In any case, after Jephthah had won, the Ephraimites were angry because they did not get a share of the loot which the victorious Gileadites had acquired by defeating the Ammonites and threatened to kill Jephthah and his family.  This dispute illustrates that the warriors of Reuben, Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasseh were prescient when they built the altar as a monument as they returned home after Joshua’s wars.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 7-8.

I want to write about Gideon’s faith.  A week or two back it was pointed out to me that our failure today to see signs and wonders similar to those written about in the New Testament is not because our faith is too small.  My initial response to that was to think, “Well yes, but…”  Then I read today’s passage.  To fully understand what the meaning it conveyed to me we need to take a look at something from yesterday’s passage which I did not write about yesterday.  In yesterday’s passage, God had called Gideon to lead the Israelites against the overwhelming force of the Midianites.  Gideon asked for God to give him a sign that he had been interpreted God’s leading correctly, and from that sign we get the expression of “asking for a fleece.”  Gideon got the answer for which he had asked.  In fact God gave him an answer twice.  Then, when the time came to attack, God told him to do so, but God also said, “If you are afraid to attack, go down to the camp and listen.” That is a paraphrase and there was a bit more to it than that, but the account tells us that Gideon did go down and listen.  Now, why did Gideon go down and listen?  Because he was afraid.  Think about that.  Gideon had laid down a fleece at night, asking God for it to be wet from dew in the morning while the ground around it was dry.  In the morning, the ground was dry and Gideon squeezed a bowlful of water out of the fleece.  Then Gideon asked God to do the opposite the following night, and the morning after the fleece was dry while the ground around it was wet from dew.  Yet, when it came time to do as God commanded, Gideon was still afraid.  Here’s the important part, God didn’t leave Gideon hanging, He knew Gideon was afraid and provided him with a sign to strengthen his courage.

We see from this that God did not use Gideon to save the Israelites from the Midianites because of his great faith, because Gideon did not have great faith.  In the same way, we do not need great faith to accomplish God’s purpose, we just need to be willing to do what God tells us to do.  When we start doing what God tells us to do, He will provide us with evidence that we are doing the right thing.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 4-6.

After the death of Ehud, while Deborah was the judge of final appeal over all of Israel, the Israelites once again turned away from God.  Which tells us that even with a leader over the people, they sometimes refused to hold one another accountable.  One might conjecture that this happened because Deborah was a woman, and thus not a strong enough leader.  However, the context of the passage does not support that conclusion.  When Deborah told Barak to gather men and attack Sisera, he agreed to do so only on the condition that she accompany him.  If she was a strong enough leader that Barak wanted her presence when he went to war, her “weakness” as a woman was not the reason for Israel falling away from God.  In fact, despite the writers of the books of the Old Testament which record the history of Israel focusing on the importance of the righteousness, or lack thereof, among Israel’s leaders, reading those books leads one to conclude that the presence of good leaders reflected the desire of the people to serve God rather than the other way around.  I would also like to note that Deborah’s response to Barak’s condition suggests that if Barak had been willing to do what Deborah told him without her going with him we would not know who Deborah was and Barak would be one of the judges recorded in this book.

The Song of Deborah which is recorded here as being the victory song which Deborah and Barak sang after the death of Sisera puts a somewhat different light on events than the account given before that.  The first thing I want to note is that the song mentions Shamgar, who was mentioned in passing at the end of Chapter 3 as someone who had saved Israel.  The song suggests that Deborah and Barak lived at about the same time as Shamgar.  Perhaps, the king of Hazor, to whom Sisera owed fealty, was oppressing the Israelites from the Northeast while the Philistines were doing so from the Southwest.  But I wanted to focus on from the song is the repeated references to the Israelites not being willing to defend themselves until Deborah arose.  Then comes the line which I want to highlight, “until I arose, a mother in Israel.”  Deborah was a mother who had had enough.  As I read this song, she shamed the men of Israel into standing up for their countryfolk.  Perhaps “shamed” is the wrong word, she motivated them to do so.  The point I want to make here is that although God usually calls a man to fill the leadership role when He calls His people back to Him, He will use a woman in that role when it suits His purposes.  Or to put it another way, just because God usually calls a certain type of person for a particular role does not mean that He has not called you for that role.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 1-3.

I am unsure how the timing of what is described in today’s passage matches up with that described in the Book of Joshua.  The Book of Judges starts by saying “After the death of Joshua,…”, then goes on to talk about the tribe of Judah taking their territory.  In particular, this passage describes how Othniel earned Caleb’s daughter as his wife, an account which was also in the Book of Joshua.  I believe that this story is here to explain how Othniel, the first of the judges, rose to a position of prominence in Israel.  Actually, I want to backtrack a little bit.  I believe that Chapters 1 and 2 are intended to set the stage and explain how Israel went from Joshua’s conquest of the land to the situation which existed shortly before the Book of Judges was compiled (I believe that the Book of Judges was compiled either during the reign of King Saul or early in the reign of King David).  We can conclude from what we find written here, and in the Book of Joshua, that, as he approached his death, Joshua saw no reason to appoint a successor as individual leader over the Israelites.  The Israelites had no enemies in the land who could threaten them and were settling into the land.  However, without a leader to keep them focused on being faithful to God, they began to adopt the worship practices of the people remaining in the land.  Also, without a leader to make them into a unified political force, a neighboring power (the king of Aram) saw an opportunity to take control (a theme which gets repeated throughout this book).  When the Israelites started to turn back to God, Othniel used his connection to Caleb to unite them under him and drove the invaders out of the land.  Through the rest of his life Othniel led the people to remain faithful to the Lord.

After the death of Othniel, once again the people of Israel drifted away from following God.  The way I see it, they began to take the attitude of, “Who are you to tell me what I should, or should not, do?”  Without a defined leader, the Israelites stopped holding each other accountable to serving God, and to not worshiping idols.  The result was that they lost their unity and became susceptible to outside powers.  In this case, the king of Moab formed an alliance to impose his will on the land (basically demanding tribute and perhaps raiding).  Eventually, the Israelites once again turned back to God and Ehud rose up to lead them.  Ehud overthrew the Moabite king and united the people of Israel in obedience to God.  Throughout the Book of Judges we see this pattern repeated: the faithful leader dies, the people stop allowing themselves to be held accountable for their actions and drift away from God, the people no longer unite for their own defense, an oppressor takes advantage of their division, the people cry out to God, God raises up a faithful servant to unite them and free them from their oppressor.  If we refuse to be held accountable for our actions as individuals we will fall into sin.  If we refuse to be held accountable for our actions as a people, unity will disappear.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 20-21.

So, the account of the Levite, his concubine, and war of Israel against Benjamin is the last account in the Book of Judges.  It immediately follows the account of Micah, his idol, and the Danites.  Both of these accounts contain some variation on the phrase, “In those days Israel had no king, everyone did as they saw fit.”  This clearly suggests that they were included where they were as justification for Israel selecting a king.  If you do not read the passage carefully, the placing of the account of the Israel-Benjamin war at the end of the Book of Judges might lead you to conclude that it happened after the other accounts in the book.  However, we are told in the account that it took place while Phinehas, Aaron’s grandson, was ministering before the ark of the covenant.  Along with that I want to mention that the story of Micah and his idol occurred before the Danites conquered their own territory.  Which leads me to conclude that that story also occurred early in the Israelite occupation of Canaan.  Yet both stories are presented as arguments for Israel to crown a king.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 17-19.

Several times in today’s passage the writer tells us that “Israel had no king”.  A couple of times he adds “everyone did as they saw fit.”  He blames the transgressions which he describes in today’s passage on the lack of a king, the lack of a central government in Israel.  I have gone back and forth three or four times about how I want to approach this.  The account starts with Micah returning money he had stolen from his mother because she had cursed the thief.  His mother was so grateful to God for the return of her money that she had an idol created for Micah to worship.  Micah then installed one of his sons as priest to this idol, but when the opportunity arose he hired a Levite to take over that role.  Later, when some members of the tribe of Dan were coming through the area to conquer territory for themselves, they stole Micah’s idol and hired the Levite away from him in an underhanded manner.  When Micah pursued them to recover his lost goods, they threatened him.  The Danites then set up the idol with the Levite as its priest in the town which they conquered.  Throughout all of this, everyone involved thought that what they were doing was pleasing to God.  Then we come to the story about the Levite and his concubine.  The writer clearly connects the story of Micah, his idol, and the Danites with what happened to the Levite and his concubine.

I want to look a little closer at what happened here.  In the first story, we have a Levite travelling to “make his fortune”.  When Micah offers him the position of priest to his household gods, the Levite does not point out that Micah’s idols are a violation of God’s commands about images.  He accepts the opportunity to make a place for himself and allows Micah to feel righteous while worshiping an idol.  Then, when the Danites arrive, the Levite takes the opportunity to improve his position and indirectly blesses the Danites theft of Micah’s goods, theft from a fellow Israelites.  Then we come to the other Levite.  He was travelling and chose to stay in an Israelite town because he thought such would be safer than staying among foreigners.  Further, what happened in Gibeah bears a remarkable resemblance to what happened when God’s messengers visited Lot in Sodom.  Certainly, the resemblance to what happened in Sodom partly explains the reaction of the rest of Israel to this incident which we see in tomorrow’s passage.  However, I want to point out the way in which what the Danites did to Micah is a sort of precursor to what happened in Gibeah.  The Danites betrayed the hospitality which Micah, their fellow Israelite, had given them by using the knowledge they had gained as his guest to rob him later.  The men of Gibeah failed to honor the hospitality they owed their fellow Israelite.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 14-16.

We have four stories about Samson and tend to think of them as happening one shortly after the other.   However, the passage tells us that Samson led Israel for 20 years.  Which puts the incident with Delilah quite a few years after the incidents surrounding his wedding.  That leads me to a different understanding of Samson’s life.  Essentially, there were twenty years between Samson’s victory over the Philistines with the donkey’s jawbone and his betrayal by Delilah.  This led me to look again at the story of the woman Samson married.  It looks to me like Samson truly loved her and perhaps she loved him, but she was afraid of those to whom Samson had told the riddle.  They threatened to kill her family if she could not give them the answer to his riddle and she believed them, for good reason.  Let’s think about what this reveals about the Philistines.  They credibly threatened an entire family in order to win a bet, an expensive bet, but a bet nonetheless.  Then, after Samson vandalized their fields they burned them to death.  The family they killed were their fellow Philistines.  Actually, now that I write that it suggests to me that Samson had already demonstrated his prowess before his marriage, and the Philistines chose to avenge his vandalism against his wife’s family because they were afraid to go after him directly.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 11-13.

Whenever I read today’s passage I cannot help but compare and contrast Jepthah with Amelek, Gideon’s son.  Both of them left their father’s house and gathered followers whom the writer records as “scoundrels”.  What is interesting is that despite both being followed by scoundrels their following indicates opposite things about what kind of leader they would make.  Amelek sought out scoundrels and hired them.  Jepthah was outcast and the scoundrels sought him out.  Amelek’s followers followed him because he paid them while Jepthah’s followers followed him because he was a good leader.  Further, the different ways in which each became leader of more than their small band called for different types of leaders.  Amelek sought out the role by approaching the people of Shechem.  On the other hand, the people of Gilead sought out Jepthah to lead them at a time when they were under threat.  I want to note that this difference does not mean that Amelek would have been a good leader in different circumstances.  Rather, it means that Jepthah, who was a good leader, would never have become a leader in different circumstances.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.