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

I was going to focus on comparing Jephthah to Abimelek, but I realized that I do that most years, if not every year. So, today I am going to spend a little time on the birth and conception of Samson.  The first thing we see is a precursor of the angel’s announcement to Mary that she would give birth to Jesus.  In a way, the story of Samson gives us evidence of how unique Jesus is.  Samson was dedicated to God from the moment of his conception, as was Jesus.  Samson’s parents raised him according to the vows of the Nazirite laid out in the Law of Moses.  I like to compare and contrast Samson to Samuel.  Both were dedicated to God by their mothers from the moment of conception. Both led Israel to victory over their enemies.  Both illustrate the powerful influence a mother can have over her sons.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Judges 9-10.

I really want to comment on the parable about the king of trees which Jotham told when the people of Schechem crowned Abimelek king, but I don’t see quite see how it connects to Abimelek.  I guess the connection comes from the fact that Gideon, the father of both Jotham and Abimelek, had refused to be king when the Israelites asked him to take that role.  Which brings me to what I see as the point of Jotham’s parable.  I see two possible points to this parable, and possibly both were intended.  First, those who have demonstrated their ability are more valuable to society doing what they are already doing than in ruling over others.  Second, generally, those who are willing to take the job of ruler, let alone those who seek it, should not be allowed to have it.  The reason for this is that, if they have the talent to be a good ruler they will recognize that using that talent for something else will be more valuable to society than using it to rule over others.  Once more this passage reinforces my thought that Israel in the years before King Saul was a nation which functioned according to libertarian ideals.

Ultimately, here, and throughout the Book of Judges, we are shown that a libertarian government only works when the people it governs are godly.

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.

We normally read this passage as representing Gideon’s first, and essentially only, battle against the Midianites.  However, when I read this passage where it talks about Gideon spying on the Midianite camp I realized that he had clearly already developed a reputation among the Midianites.  This lends even more significance to God’s instruction to Gideon that his army was too large.  Gideon clearly had won numerous smaller battles against the Midianites, such that he had a reputation among the Midianites.  We need to recognize that Gideon did not just defeat the Midianites in a few days, or even just a few months.  His campaign against them likely went on for several years before God gave him his great victory.  We need to remember that bringing about positive change does not happen overnight.

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.

As I mentioned yesterday, early Israel was governed much the way in which libertarians imagine that government should work.  Today’s passage illustrates this.  For all intents and purposes, Deborah was the ruler over Israel at this time, but she did not command any troops.  She ruled by virtue of the fact that the people of Israel trusted her decisions and came to her to settle disputes among them.  She was someone blessed by God with the ability to make good decisions.  The passage does not tell us how she knew to do so, but in God’s name she ordered Barak to take men from Zebulun and Napthali and confront Sisera, who was commanding the army oppressing the Israelites at the time.  Barak was unwilling to do so unless she went with him.  Deborah’s response suggests that if Barak had not insisted on her going with him, he would have been on this list as one of the judges, instead of merely as a war commander.  This tells us two things.  First, that Deborah was probably not unique in being a woman who led the Israelites.  In the cases of the other women, there was either no major battle fought while they led the nation, or the war commander they called upon to act did so without asking them to go to war with them.  Second, if Barak had been willing to take Deborah’s instruction and go to war without her, he would likely have become the leader of Israel after the defeat of Sisera.

We often miss an important aspect of the story of Gideon.  The passage almost glosses over it, but before it introduces us to Gideon it tells us that a prophet arose among the Israelites.  The prophet called upon the people to repent of their sin and return to worshiping God.  Gideon did not act in a vacuum.  There was already a revival occurring in Israel when God spoke to Gideon.  If you look at the history of great changes in history, almost always there had been a revival before the point typically identified as the beginning of the change.  Perhaps the prophet mentioned here was to Gideon as Deborah was to Barak, except that Gideon was willing to lead without leaning on him as a crutch (it is worth noting that this prophet, who was almost certainly a man, appears to have had the role which Deborah would have had if Barak had been willing to go to war without her).

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.

The passage tells us that the tribes of Manasseh, Ephraim, Zebulun, Asher, Napthali, and Dan failed to drive the Canaanites out of their territory.  It then tells us why they had been unable to do so, because they had not destroyed the altars of the Canaanites in the land which they did conquer.  These two things provide the setup for the rest of this Book.  Despite being unfaithful in destroying the altars of the people they conquered, the generation which Joshua had led into the land served God.  However, when they passed away their children began worshiping these other gods.  As a result God allowed them to fall into the hands of various oppressors.  When things got bad, the Israelites remembered God and cried out to Him.  He sent them a judge who led them back to following God’s law and freed them from their oppressors.

We often think of this early Israel as being a theocracy, but the description makes it sound more like the libertarian ideal.  Even when judges rose up and ruled over Israel, their only authority came from the willingness of the people to follow them.  Each person was free to do as he chose.  When the majority served God, things went well for Israel.  When the majority fell into the worship of other gods Israel fell under the sway of an oppressor.  Which should warn us that libertarianism only works when people seek to serve the Lord.  I will note that this is true of any form of government: if the people serve the Lord, things will go well for them, if they rebel against God, things will go badly.

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

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

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

After the incident with the Levite and his concubine recounted in yesterday’s passage the people of Israel, except for those of the tribe of Benjamin, gathered in anger.  Yesterday’s passage implies that the tribe of Benjamin received the same summons as the other tribes.  Today’s passage suggests that they did not realize the other tribes were gathering until they received word of the gathering.  In either case, rather than acting to bring the guilty men of Gibeah to justice, the tribe of Benjamin chose to defend them.  Reading the account today about the forces of Benjamin I realized why the men of Gibeah felt empowered to act as they did (and why they were allowed to get away with it for so long).  The account tells us that 700 of Benjamin’s elite warriors lived in Gibeah.  So, at least some of the troublemakers in Gibeah were probably drawn from among those 700 elite warriors.  There were probably enough elite warriors among the troublemakers that any one or two of the other elite warriors who attempted to hold them to account would have been overwhelmed.  There was no established government with the ability to organize enough of the rest of the elite warriors to hold these troublemakers to account until they went so far that the rest of the people of the nation rose up to put a stop to it.  In such a situation, every person does what seems right in their own eyes…and what seems right is what is in their own interest.

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

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

OK, I don’t know where I am going with this today.  I noticed for the first time that the men from the tribe of Dan in this passage are from the same town/area as Samson was.  I am not sure that that is significant, but Samson was the last judge of Israel before this.  The people of Israel turned to Samson for judgement because of his fighting prowess, not because of his wisdom.  In this story, we see warriors from the tribe of Dan steal the idols from a fellow Israelite feeling justified because he was not a member of their tribe.  Today’s passage ends with troublemakers from Gibeah feeling safe to terrorize a Levite travelling through because he was not part of their tribe.  The behavior of the man who sheltered the Levite indicates that this was not the first time they behaved this way.

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

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

If you were raised on Bible stories as I was you know that Samson was incredibly strong.  However, the account of the riddle he told at his wedding suggests that he was also smart.  What Samson lacked was wisdom, at least when it came to women.  We know from yesterday’s passage that Samson’s parents were older when he was born.  They had begun to think they would never have children.  As a result, they appear to have never learned how to tell him “No”.  He chose poorly when he chose to take a Philistine woman as his wife.  He reacted badly when she told his secret to her countrymen.  Then later in life he chose poorly when he chose to take up with Delilah, even after she attempted to worm out of him the secret of his strength and use it against him.  Like many people, Samson allowed his sexual desires to rule his life to his sorrow.

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

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

Yesterday we looked at the story of Abimelech becoming ruler over part of Israel  Today we have the story of Jephthah becoming ruler over another part of Israel.  Both men were estranged from their brothers.  In Abimelech’s case, he appears to have chosen to go out from among his brothers and seek the support of his mother’s people against them.  In Jephthah’s case, his brothers drove him out and he had no one to turn to for help.  Both men acquired followers who were little more than thugs.  However, I think the difference in the way they acquired those followers is telling.  Abimelech took the money which the people of Shechem gave him and hired some thugs to do his bidding.  Jephthah. on the other hand, attracted followers as he made his way in the world.  We have no reason to believe that Jephthah’s followers were any less thugs than Abimelech’s, but Jephthah’s followers followed him because of his leadership qualities while Abimelech’s followed him because he gave them money.

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

Today, I am reading and commenting on Judges 9-10.

There is a saying, “Blood is thinker than water” which people often use to explain, or justify, giving preferential treatment to relatives.  At some point after the death of Gideon the leaders of Shechem decided that backing the son of Gideon whose mother was from Shechem would lead to advantages for themselves.  Unfortunately, they did not think things through.  They supported Gideon’s son Abimelech to become king over them and others because he was related to them, even after he killed all but one of his brothers.  So, they thought he would favor them because they were related, yet he had just killed his brothers who were more closely related to him than they were.  I could go about this in many different ways, but the people of Shechem chose Abimelech as their leader on the basis of two things: he was Gideon’s son, and he was their relative.  Up until this point, Abimelech had shown no leadership traits.  He had not solved any problems for the people of Shechem.  He had no followers until the people of Shechem gave him money to hire some.  The end result was that Abimelech was a bad ruler and the people of Shechem soon rebelled against him, leading to the death of many of them.