CbC Aug 17-23

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August 17, Sunday

Reading A229 — Judges 13 — Announcing Samson               Audio: Judges 13 (ESV)

An audio recording of the following comments is available below:

Awesome and Wonderful — Samson, the last of the twelve judges, is introduced in this chapter, the first of five chapters devoted to this flawed hero and what he did.  From the beginning, he was clearly God’s choice, although we often wonder why.  He would not be a military leader but a single-handed warrior.  God sent him to begin rescuing Israel from a 40-year penalty because of another cycle of apostasy (v. 1).  We see many surprising things in this chapter.  First, he was assigned to be a Nazirite, originally for individuals to volunteer to do for a limited time.  Samson was not a volunteer, but God imposed it on him, and not for a limited time but for a lifetime (v. 7).  Second, God appeared in an awesome human form to Samson’s mother to announce his birth, care, and purpose.  Third, when Manoah prayed for another appearance to gain more information, God came again, not to him but to his wife (v. 9), and He provided no additional information, just repeating what He had told her.  We are going to be asking ourselves many questions in these five chapters as to why God used Samson in the ways that He did.  God is not easy to predict; His ways are not our ways.  One thing we can count on, however, is that He is always good and right. He also tells us all that we need to know, but not necessarily all that we want to know.  When Manoah asked this mysterious, divine messenger for His name, He refused, but only said, “…my name … it is wonderful” (v. 18), which drives me to think of Audrey Mieir’s song about Jesus: “His Name is Wonderful.” 

August 18, Monday

Reading A230 — Judges 14 — Samson’s Marriage                   Audio: Judges 14 (ESV)

An audio recording of the following comments is available below:

Pleasing Whom? — Israel was living in a 40-year period of punishment under the Philistines because they had turned away from serving Yahweh.  Some evidence of that decline is seen in our reading today.  Samson had gone into Philistine territory, perhaps looking for a potential bride.  Moses had warned Israel just before entering the land that “You shall not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons” (Deut. 7:3).  Twice, Samson selfishly demanded for his parents to “get her for me” (Judges 14:2-3), even after they tried to caution him about it.  His reason for wanting to marry her was that “she is right in my eyes” (v. 3).  It was not just about beauty because her father would say in the next chapter that her younger sister was even more beautiful.  It was fundamentally about selfishness.  The problem was not only that of Samson, either.  After these stories about Samson are finished, the text will tell us, “In those days there was no king in Israel.  Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (17:6; cf. 21:25).  That is the characteristic atmosphere of people who are living in rebellion against God.  It is the primary feeling of people in the culture we live in today, thinking, “Whatever pleases me is right.”  That is so different from those whose desire is to follow Jesus.  We are those who “try to discern what is pleasing to the Lord” (Eph. 5:10).

August 19, Tuesday

Reading A231 — Judges 15 — The Jawbone Weapon              Audio: Judges 15 (ESV)

An audio recording of the following comments is available below:

Revenge War — This is a chapter about revenge.  Samson lost his wife to one of the Philistines and then got even with them by sending panicked foxes throughout their ripe fields, dragging torches behind them.  The Philistines then retaliated by burning Samson’s former wife and her father.  Samson’s payback response was that he “struck … a great blow” (v. 8) against the Philistines.  Revenge always tends to escalate.  A whole army of Philistines then encamped against Lehi in Judah, where they thought Samson resided, wanting to capture him and “do to him as he did to us” (v. 10).  More revenge.  Somehow, the people of Lehi knew where Samson was hiding and sent 3,000 men, hoping to capture him for the Philistines.  Apparently anticipating more opportunity for revenge against his enemies, Samson consented to be bound with two new ropes and led away.  Here is where it says that God stepped in.  The writer of Hebrews reminds us of this statement from God: “Vengeance is mine; I will repay” (Heb. 10:30).  When the happy Philistines saw Samson coming, “the Spirit of the LORD rushed upon him,” and the ropes weakened and “melted off his hands” (Judges 15:14).  Then, with God’s miraculous power, Samson picked up a donkey’s jawbone and killed 1,000 Philistine soldiers who held swords.  Would you like to get revenge for something someone did to you?  Have you prayed about it?  Would God be willing to pick up the battle for you?  Only He can objectively determine which side is “right.”  Unless we let God have control, the revenge battle will likely escalate.

August 20, Wednesday

Reading A232 — Judges 16 — Samson and Delilah                 Audio: Judges 16 (ESV)

An audio recording of the following comments is available below:

Glory Through Death — Strong Samson had a weakness for women.  After his encounter with the prostitute, his great strength was again demonstrated by pulling up Gaza’s security gate with its supporting posts and carrying them about 40 miles (64 km) uphill to Hebron in Judah.  The third woman in his life, Delilah, led to his fall.  He loved her (vv. 4, 15), but she apparently loved money more than him (vv. 5, 18).  She was very scheming and persistent.  When Samson finally told her the truth about his strength, while he was sleeping with his head on her lap, she “called a man” (v. 19) to cut his hair.  If that man could do that, why couldn’t he just cut Samson’s throat and end it there?  No, this is God’s story, too!  The deeper reason for Samson’s strength had to be demonstrated—his connection to Yahweh.  When the Nazirite vow was broken by cutting his hair, his strength disappeared because “the LORD had left him” (v. 20).  Samson had been humiliated as the Philistines had desired (v. 5).  The gradual regrowth of Samson’s hair in prison and his humble prayer to God led to the dramatic, tragic end to his life.  Who was receiving praise at this final gathering?  It was the Philistine god Dagon (vv. 23-24).  The final glory, however, came to Yahweh in answer to prayer, as the collapsing structure killed over 3,000 Philistines along with this last “judge” in Judges.

August 21, Thursday

Reading A233 — Judges 17 — Micah the Manipulator             Audio: Judges 17 (ESV)

An audio recording of the following comments is available below:

The Sure Standard — The whole book of Judges shows the spiritual, religious, and moral decline of Israel within the land God had given to them.  After reading the stories of 12 judges, some with a questionable personal character quality, the last part of the book gives us glimpses into the degraded condition of the people.  The first one was Micah.  He and his mother showed a respect for Yahweh (vv. 2, 3, 13), but they did many things, even for God, that He had expressly condemned, like making a carved image, which was forbidden in the Ten Commandments.  Micah, a Judean, made one of his sons a priest (v. 5), although God had directed that only descendants of the Levite, Aaron, could be a priest that would represent all the people.  Micah later appointed a Levite man to be his private priest, but that was still against God’s will.  Why was this going on?  One answer was that they were without leadership: “…there was no king in Israel” (v. 6).  That would come later.  Another reason was ignorance.  The Levites were scattered in 48 cities throughout Israel to teach the Law to the people.  That was not happening, and some of the Levites didn’t even seem to know what the Law said.  The last reason was because “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (v. 6).  They had lost their standard.  They didn’t know the Word of God and they were trying to work it out on their own.  That is the same way our secular cultures are operating today.  They are going by what feels right rather than what is right.  We Christians need to guard against developing that same attitude.  Stick with the Standard!

August 22, Friday

Reading A234 — Judges 18 — Dan Steals and Conquers          Audio: Judges 18 (ESV)

An audio recording of the following comments is available below:

Widening Drift — Our understanding of the spiritual deterioration of Israel expands in this chapter from individuals Micah and the Levite to the whole tribe of Dan.  The Danites failed to conquer the Philistines in the territory allotted to them, so they were looking for an easier people to conquer, which they found at Laish, a Sidonian city north of the Sea of Galilee, about 100 miles (160 km) away.  On the way, the five spies stayed at the inn of Micah in Ephraim, where they learned from the young Levite “priest,” named Jonathan (v. 30), about Micah’s valuable silver images.  Accepting him as a real priest, they asked him to inquire of God about their journey (v. 5).  Later, when the spies returned, they told the 600 fighting men with them about the silver and suggested stealing it, saying, “consider what you will do” (v. 14).  Stealing the silver and the willing Jonathan, they went on to conquer Laish, where “they set up Micah’s carved image that he made” (v. 30).  It is interesting that it was also at Laish 150 years later that King Jeroboam set up one of the two idolatrous golden calves that he had made.  Jonathan’s idolatry was followed by that of Jeroboam.  Israel was going downhill spiritually because they were drifting away from knowing and following God’s Word.

August 23, Saturday

Reading A235 — Judges 19 — The Parted Concubine             Audio: Judges 19 (ESV)

An audio recording of the following comments is available below:

Selfish Disregard — Here is another chapter that begins with a statement about the lack of leadership: “there was no king in Israel” (v. 1).  No one was keeping the people’s minds focused on God.  Not once in this chapter is God mentioned.  Even the Levites seem to be apart from God.  The Levite in this story obviously had a calloused attitude toward his concubine.  Although she was far from innocent, she was upset enough with him that she ran away and went home to her father’s house (v. 2).  When the Benjamite town of Gibeah turned out to be much like Sodom, this Levite “seized his concubine and made her go out to them,” to save himself from their homosexual intentions (v. 25).  After she was sexually abused all night, when he found her on the doorstep in the morning, his hardened comment to her was, “Get up, let us be going” (v. 28).  No compassion!  She was dead.  He then carved her into 12 pieces and sent them to all the tribes of Israel to rally the people against the men of Gibeah (v. 29).  As if this tragedy was not enough, tomorrow we will read about how it resulted in a civil war that nearly wiped out one of Israel’s tribes.  There was no civic, religious, or moral leadership.  When God is put to the side in a person’s life, in a family’s life, or in a nation’s life, chaos is invited.