Judges 15 - At Odds with All

There is no doubt that Samson lived a hard life and much of the strife resulted from the bad relationships he pursued in life, but Samson was ordained by God for conflict with the Philistines and to lead his people out of oppression. God takes the failed relationships and poor choices and still uses them for His purposes. 

We see Samson returning to his Philistine wife with the intent to visit her in her chambers. He is rebuffed by her father who believed that Samson hated his wife when she betrayed him at his wedding. It seems like a logical conclusion especially since it appears he didn't seem to return to her after settling his debt in the wedding bet. I am sure that knowing that Samson's best man now had taken up with his wife. You can sense the bitterness welling up in his heart. In his anger he ties foxes tails together with a torch between them and sets the fields of the Philistiens on fire destroying their source of food. 

Next he encounters strife among his fellow Israelite when he hides from the Philistines in the rocks.  The Philistines threaten them unless they turn Samson over to them.   The men of Israel had become so battered by the occupation of the Philistines that they don't give any opposition to the request. They dutifully seek out Samson and bind him to turn him over. Samson finds himself at odds with his own countrymen. The binds cannot hold Samson when the Spirit of God gives him supernatural strength.  Hey then slays the Philistines and demonstrates his valor among his countrymen. 

Finally, Samson finds himself at odds with Gid himself, complaining that God would give him victory only to let him die of thirst. There is no doubt that he had a need for drink, but his bitterness is evident even as he brings his need to God. God however is gracious and provides for his need even though Samson treats God less than friendly. 

In our own lives we will likely encounter conflict. The conflict might come as a result of our wrong choices, it might come from our own family, perhaps even from our own church members. When we encounter conflict, it is important that we seek God's direction and strength to endure the conflict and maintain a good witness. 

I am grateful for our pastor who challenges us to memorize scripture. This year we are memorizing Psalm 27. We get a good sense of a godly response to conflict. "Though armies encamp against me my heart will not fear....in the time of trouble the Lord will hide me in his pavilion". We can lean on the Lord to help us maintain our peace in the midst of conflict. 

May God richly bless you as you seek Him and as you serve Him. 

Judges 14 - Unholy Relationships

From my early years as a Christian, I had a desire to reach out to the lost. I really believed I could help them and influence them for good. It wasn't long before I saw that their lifestyle had impacted my life perhaps even more than I had impacted theirs. Samson was a man destined to begin a deliverance for his people, but in this chapter he demonstrates that even someone engaged in God's plan can be manipulated by unbelievers. 

We never learn the name of the young woman who caught the eye of Samson, but his desire for her was strong and he insisted that his parents arrange a marriage for him with a Philistine woman. She was a daughter of the enemy and soon would prove that her alliances were not with Samson, but with her own people. 

In this chapter, Samson after killing a lion with his own hand returns to find the dead carcass loaded with honey. He uses this as a riddle to challenge the young men at his wedding feast. Since no person can ever know the experiences of another fully, the riddle was sure to stump them. But the men turn to Samson's new wife and threaten her if she does not help them learn the secret of the riddle. She pleads and sobs before Samson throughout the week and finally he gives in to tell her the truth. 

Samson was set apart for God's service from birth and had been a Nazarite his whole life taking care to avoid strong drink and his hair was not to be cut. This was the outward mark of a man dedicating himself to God. While Samson had outward consecration to the Lord, his heart desired the forbidden. He was weak when it came to the love of a woman. His desires for love were used by God to overcome the Philistines, but they would ultimately be Samson's undoing. He would never truly know the unconditional love and support of a wife in this life. The women he pursued may have been beautiful, but they had allegiances to their own people. 

We too should be cautious when seeking our companions in this world. Whether it is a life mate, or a business partner, the relationships we forge can backfire if they are not ordained by God. Samson lived a sad life, never knowing true love but making the pursuit of it his top priority. We can find ourselves without the object of our desires when we take our eyes off the Lord and focus on the temporal. 

Dear Christian, guard your heart, guard your eyes and your ears so that your focus on the Lord can be pure and you can serve the Lord with gladness. Our father in Heaven loved us so very much that He offered us the gift of salvation from sin and a hope of eternity in Heaven. Let's be sure to keep our focus on Him. 

May God richly bless you as you seek Him and as you serve Him. 

Judges 13 - God's Response to Prayer

Prayer is vital to the Christian life. It is a privilege to speak to the Creator and offer our thanksgiving, our praise and our petitions. Prayer however is often neglected in the Christian life, perhaps because we lack discipline; perhaps because we are more focused on the temporal: perhaps because we don't see God's immediate response. In any case, we are the ones who forfeit the blessing of fellowship with our Lord. 

In the case of Manoah and his wife (unnamed woman of great faith) they had prayed. Doubly burdened:  they had lived under Philistine oppression and occupation for forty years and did not have the child they longed for. Unlike today where children are sometimes viewed as a burden to their parents forcing them into commitments they were not ready to make, in that day, children were considered a blessing from God. To be childless was a shame and a curse to a couple. God came in human form to deliver great news. 

Sometimes God does not answer our prayers immediately. Manoah and his wife had long been childless without answer to their prayers, but now they would have the child they prayed for and even more, this child of promise would begin to deliver the nation from the Philistines. A double shot answer to prayer; a child and the hope of deliverance!  God does not always immediately answer our prayers. When He does it gives him even greater glory to see that longing finally fulfilled. 

Manoah so startled by the news brought from his wife's encounter with the Angel of the Lord that he prays for a confirmation. God heard this prayer and promptly returns to Manoah's wife in the field. She comes to get him to see with his own eyes this messenger from God. Sometimes God hears our prayers and responds quickly. Our faith is confirmed and our resolve is strengthened.

God sometimes refuses to answer our prayers. In Judges 13:12, Manoah asks a question that is outside the boundary for him. He asks to know the future for this boy. God has already said that he will have a son and this son will begin to deliver Israel from the Philistines, but God offers no more information, He merely restates what has already been given. Sometimes God does not answer our prayers, because there is no good purpose served in their answer. Can we trust God even then?  

When the Lord ascends to heaven in a flame, Manoah realizes he has been in the presence of God Himself. Perhaps he remembered what God told Moses, that no one could see God's face and live. His wife demonstrating her great faith assures her husband that if God was going to kill them He would not have offered this message of promise. (Note to wives: we can be a tremendous blessing to our husbands by encouraging them when they are afraid. We can assure them of God's greatness in the midst of any situation). 

There is a fellowship we achieve in prayer that cannot be replicated in any other way. It is God's prerogative to choose when and how to answer, but we as His people have a wonderful promise: His Spirit is with us and we are not alone. We can wait in faith knowing that He loves us and has sacrificed so much already. This problem we face is small in comparison. Let's us regularly bring our praise, our worship, our confession of sin and our petitions for His mercy before the throne of grace. We can trust that whether the answer is delayed, refused or immediate, that God's answer is best. 

May God richly bless you as you seek Him and as you serve Him. 

Judges 12 - Confronting Entitlement

In every age there are the men and women who step up to the plate when there is work to be done and those who stand back to watch for results before choosing sides. In the case of Ephriam they consistently show up after the battle wanting a piece of the glory. Furthermore they are quick to point out how they have been offended by not being included in the battle. 

This chapter has a lot of good lessons for us today. The character that God requires is vastly different from our friends in Ephriam. You may see some of the same types of people in the places where you live, but hopefully you are not one of them. 

Victimization:  the people of Ephriam claim to be victims when they did not get a piece of the victory that belonged to the men who went to battle and served their country. They didn't get included. They were unfairly treated because they didn't have the same opportunity as those who fought. 

Twisting the truth: They claim they were victimized because they were not invited when in fact they were invited and chose not to take a risk. In fact they were the offenders because they jeopardized the lives of their fellow countrymen when they didn't defend them. 

Unrealistic Expectations: they expected to have equitable sharing of wealth without having to risk anything on their part. All the gain, none of the sacrifice. 

While there are class, race and other political parallels in the news almost everyday, I think we can look around within our own churches and see those like the Gileadites who actively sacrifice for the benefit of the church. There are those who work behind the scenes to cut the grass, clean the building, prepare the lessons, open the buildings and there are those who merely show up.  In Heaven one day there will be those who approach the Savior saying they should receive the reward He has promised to those who love Him. One day Jesus will look them in the face and say, I didn't know you. 

Now is the time for us to stand strong in the face of conflict. We should demonstrate our love for our fellow believers and for the Lord by actively taking part in the work to be done. There are people daily passing from this world and going into eternity because we did not share the truth with them. We didn't want to take the risk. All of us who have known the joy of salvation should be ready to give a testimony for the hope we have. 

May God richly bless you as you seek Him and as you serve Him. 

Judges 11 - Foolish Vows

Jephthah lived a God honoring life, but had a pitiful upbringing. As the son of a harlot he was effectively excluded from the ranks of his half brothers who assured him he would have no part in the family inheritance. He was an outcast from the society and became a leader of outcasts. Chapter 11 introduces him as a mighty warrior, and so when the Gileadites needed rescuing from the Ammonites the half brothers sought him out to help. 

Even though Jephthah was a mighty warrior, he also understood that all battles are not settled in bloody conflict. He first reaches out to the King of the Ammonites and asks why he is attacking the people. 

When the king breaks off negotiations, Jephthah turns to the Lord making a vow to sacrifice whatever come out of his house first on his return.  Now Jephthah was not generally a foolish man, he looked to God for his deliverance, but even believers can place themselves in careless dealings with God. Where Jephthah went wrong was in asking God to give him victory. He didn't ask God what to do but went to God with his plan in hand asking for God to give him success. The promise he made was foolish, as he had no way of knowing what might come from his house first.  When we come to God, we are merely participants in His grace. The story of our lives is His to direct and our mission should be to seek out His plan rather than presenting Him with our plans. Yet we do establish plans and we look to God for their fulfillment. 

Jephthah's story took a tragic turn after the victory over Ammon. The glory he sought was his, but on return to his home the first out of his house was his only child, his daughter. The one light of his life now would be sacrificed to God. Jephthah paid a terrible price to gain a place of stature among his people. 

Jephthah's daughter modeled a submission to God that is very rare. She tells her father to honor his vow, but to allow her an opportunity to mourn the fact that she would never know the joy of a family or the love of a husband.  She willingly accepted her lot though it was not what she would have wished and did not come without pain.  Some commentators speculate that rather than burning her as an offering that she would have been brought to the temple and placed in service there.  In either case the line of Jephthah ended because of careless words spoken before God. I believe that God would have settled the skirmish between the two nations without such a vow. 

If we consider our own prayers before God we may see that we too can fall prey to the temptation to ask God for something that benefits us rather than laying ourselves before God and asking His direction. Our goal should be to live out our lives walking in the Spirit, so closely connected to God thinking that we do not veer off course. We should willingly yield ourselves to God's plan even though it might result in sacrifice on our part. While salvation is a free gift of God, we are redeemed to be His people. Our lives are His to direct. 

Anything that has us in such desperate circumstances that we would make deals with God should cause us to consider whether we are on God's side or if we are asking Him to be on ours. Please be careful with your promises no matter who you give them to. 

May God richly bless you as you seek Him and as you serve Him. 

Judges 10 - Blessing of Affliction

XGod uses both the good and the bad events of our lives for His purpose. However, rarely do men attribute to God the times of ease and leisure. God blesses with abundance and men say, "look at what I did". But, when affliction comes, God is frequently brought into the mix; sometimes for blame but always for deliverance. 

In this chapter we have the story of two judges, who after leading 45 years left the nation of Israel in apostasy. God in his anger, allowed Israel to be oppressed for 18 years before their thoughts began to turn to God again. The Israelites finally agree with God about their sin of dabbling with various gods. In the Lord's reply you can hear the pain in His voice as He responds. He has saved them time and time again, yet they seem driven to offend the God who helps them so (Jud 10:11-13).  Our sin hurts our Creator. He is not dispassionately afflicting pain; He responds with affliction to correct our wrong thinking. God longs to have fellowship with His people and He doesn't want to judge their betrayal. 

There is something significant in verse 16 that I hope you will see. My text says, "And he could bear Israel's misery no longer."  God not only is the dispenser of affliction, He goes through it with His people. He could bear it no more. What a wonderful God we have that would endure so much for our love. 

God uses affliction to turn us away from our folly and to completely abandon it. Some might say that the affliction was the natural result of the sinful ways they chose; but it is also the mark of God removing His hand of provision. He longs for our allegiance but we must chose who we serve. 

The gods of our modern world don't always have altars, but our heart is diverted from our worship of God when we pursue the follies of this age as well.  Many Christians my say, "I don't engage in hateful acts, I attend church, I pray and I am not addicted to drugs or alcohol." We measure our hearts by comparing them to others. God sees the things that have control. Maybe it is Internet, TV, pursuit of sports or career advancement, but any activity that takes a place in our lives God should have is an idol and we should turn away. I am not suggesting that hard work, play, or leisure are necessarily evil, but we should be careful to evaluate the control they exert over us. 

God still longs for fellowship with His people and in His long suffering to bring us back to Him, He may use affliction. If you are enduring hardship, consider how God may be using this time to grow you into the likeness of His Son, Jesus so that we may be a bride well suited for our Lord. The wedding day is coming dear friend, now is the time of preparation. When the end arrives and we are joined forever with our Lord, it will be easy to thank Him for the times of affliction that allowed our faith and our character to grow. 

May God richly bless you as you seek Him and as you serve Him. 

Judges 9 - God Overthrows Evil

As we open this chapter, we see that Gideon's son Abimelech wanted to assume Gideon's position of leader but definitely didn't honor God or his family. In fact we open the chapter with him stirring up the people of his hometown to make him ruler and involving his followers in the murder of his 70 brothers. (Judges 9:1-5). Abimelech was nothing like his father who defended the honor of God and family. He was a respecter of none. 

God, however, is not a victim of the disgrace shown by men. He is Almighty and able to overcome any foe. In the case of Abimelech, God changed the hearts of the men of Shechem who originally placed him in power. (Judges 9:23). Note that it is God who sends the evil spirit between Abimelech and the citizens. God can change the hearts of even men who are not his children and use them as His tools to accomplish His purposes. 

The men of Shechem chose another leader and though Abimelech learns of the treachery and combats his own people slaying many in battle and burning alive about 1000 who fled to the tower of Shechem for safety. Abimelech would do anything for power. 

As he moved to Thebez to capture it as well, a woman drops a piece of a millstone from the top of the tower and cracks his skull. Knowing he is going to die any way he has one of his men kill him with a sword for fear that a woman would get credit for taking his life. 

Please note that while it would appear to human eyes that this was a natural conflict and the result of men's efforts verse 56 and 57 clearly state that it was God's plan to repay the wickedness of Abimelech and the men do Shechem. God actively works his story into the natural events of life. An unbeliever would see nothing but men's effort, but God is behind it all seeing the evil and never allowing His name to be the object of ridicule. 

Dear Christian, if you have conflict in your life, commit it to God and look for His hand at work in the everyday affairs of men. While evil may show itself, it will not gain victory over God or his people. 

Children do not necessarily follow in the footsteps of their parents. Gideon was a noble man, but his son Abimelech was rotten to the core. God allows us each to choose who we will serve, and we cannot make the choices for another. , we can only set the example by honoring God in our own lives and encouraging our family to make their own choice  knowing the God has been a help to you through the years.  Let's make sure we set a God honoring example for those who are watching. 

May God richly bless you as you seek Him  and as you serve Him.