365 Reflections

Judges 6:7–8 (ESV) When the people of Israel cried out to the LORD on account of the Midianites, 8 the LORD sent a prophet to the people of Israel. And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: I led you up from Egypt and brought you out of the house of slavery. For the first time in the Judges cycle, when Israel is oppressed they don't get a deliverer, they get a prophet. The point is clear. God knows their previous and current repentance has been superficial. They have only lamented the loss of their freedoms or abundance. God will now speak to them about what sin has really cost them: Himself.  You and I were made for God. The scripture says of Him: Romans 11:36 (ESV) For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. You are from God. You are living THROUGH God, and you are going back to God. Your entire being for eternity is established and sustained in God. Any departure from His is only death all the time. Th...

There's a battle going on. I don't know if everyone is aware of this. Watch out for that wicked tool of the enemy called apathy along with his distraction of prosperity which might lead you right into inactivity. This is the theme of Deborah's song in Judges 5. After the strange and yet decisive battle which saw three awkward people used in diverse ways to deliver Israel from the King of Hazor, we turn to a beautiful song from the Prophetess Deborah to hear her point of view. The passage that sticks out is this mild rebuke to the tribes who failed to come help: Judges 5:15–16 (ESV) the princes of Issachar came with Deborah, and Issachar faithful to Barak; into the valley they rushed at his heels. Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. 16 Why did you sit still among the sheepfolds, to hear the whistling for the flocks? Among the clans of Reuben there were great searchings of heart. Reuben was not the only tribe to stay immobile during this ...

Judges 4 is the story of God using different people with all kinds of different issues. You have Deborah the prophetess who is unwilling to wage war. You have Barak the man told he would be successful unwilling to go without Deborah's company. And then you have a foreigner named Jael who commits sin in order to see God's enemies conquered. On top of this, the manner of victory is astounding. Jael tricks Sisera, the commander of Israel's enemies into her tent, lures him into a false sense of security and drives a tent peg through his temple.  Hardly a legendary feat. The whole story is something out of Hollywood. But I would say today's movies are more often something out of the Bible! Especially the book of Judges (as we will see going forward). Judges 4:18–21 (ESV) And Jael came out to meet Sisera and said to him, “Turn aside, my lord; turn aside to me; do not be afraid.” So he turned aside to her into the tent, and she covered him with a rug. 19 And he said to h...

Judges 3:15–16 (ESV)  Then the people of Israel cried out to the LORD, and the LORD raised up for them a deliverer, Ehud, the son of Gera, the Benjaminite, a left-handed man. The people of Israel sent tribute by him to Eglon the king of Moab. 16 And Ehud made for himself a sword with two edges, a cubit in length, and he bound it on his right thigh under his clothes. The story in Judges 3 of Ehud killing Eglon is very funny. We hear that Eglon first subjects Israel for 18 years. This is 10 years longer than what they first experienced at the hands of Cushan-rishathaim earlier in the chapter. The Judges cycle of disobedience and being sold into the hands of their enemies already looks ominous. Israel is struggling to stay faithful and things are getting worse. Now because of this disobedience, God sends an overweight man who HE made strong to take them captive: Judges 3:12 (ESV) And the people of Israel again did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and the LORD s...

Judges 2:18–19 (ESV) Whenever the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge, and he saved them from the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge. For the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who afflicted and oppressed them. 19 But whenever the judge died, they turned back and were more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods, serving them and bowing down to them. They did not drop any of their practices or their stubborn ways. This is a sad prequel of what will be the testimony of the Judges period in the life of Israel.  Israel will have an on-again-off-again relationship with the Lord whereby they will forsake Him, suffer terribly, cry out, and God will rescue. But notice the final result of each cycle: The judge will die and the people will do worse than their fathers before them. If you read through Judges you will see that each Judge is more questionable in character and each time Israel cries out they do so le...

Judges 2:14–15 (ESV) So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them. And he sold them into the hand of their surrounding enemies, so that they could no longer withstand their enemies. 15 Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them for harm, as the Lord had warned, and as the Lord had sworn to them. And they were in terrible distress. This is not a comforting passage. But it just as important as those which comfort us. We must remember that the Lord's anger is not out of place. It is Israel that has prostituted themselves to non-gods and worshipped the very gods they were called to eliminate. But we need to go a few steps back in the text to see where it began. Let's take them each in order from latest to earliest. Judges 2:12 (ESV)   And they abandoned the Lord , the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went after other gods, from among the gods...

Judges 2:3–5 (ESV) 3 So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.” 4 As soon as the angel of the Lord spoke these words to all the people of Israel, the people lifted up their voices and wept. 5 And they called the name of that place Bochim. And they sacrificed there to the Lord . After Israel's slow fade into half-hearted faith in the land of promise and after they began little by little to not only decelerate their occupation of the land but also to embrace cohabitations with the people in it, the Lord has a word of judgment for them.  He will not drive out the nations before them. Though He was the one who began to drive them out, He would do so no longer. Instead, those nations they failed to drive out will become "thorns" and "snares."  I know this looks bad, but consider: 1. God does not drive Israel out of the land. His patience is on display with di...

Judges 1 begins with the death of Joshua, contains some exciting moments of victory for Israel but eventually ends up describing a nation lulled into a far less promising existence than what was first imagined. Consider the slow fade from conquest to quieted apathy as the Israelites no longer push forward in faith but rather allow their godless enemies to start dictating the terms of their inhabitance. It begins well enough: Judges 1:17 (ESV) And Judah went with Simeon his brother, and they defeated the Canaanites who inhabited Zephath and devoted it to destruction . So the name of the city was called Hormah. Once again Judah is leading the way in conquest. This moment will sadly be the final description of complete victory for any of the tribes. Judges 1:21 (ESV) But the people of Benjamin did not drive out the Jebusites... so the Jebusites have lived with the people of Benjamin in Jerusalem to this day. Judges 1:27 (ESV) Manasseh did not drive out the inh...

Judges 1:12–15 (ESV) 12 And Caleb said, “He who attacks Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give him Achsah my daughter for a wife.” 13 And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, captured it. And he gave him Achsah his daughter for a wife. 14 When she came to him, she urged him to ask her father for a field. And she dismounted from her donkey, and Caleb said to her, “What do you want?” 15 She said to him, “Give me a blessing. Since you have set me in the land of the Negeb, give me also springs of water.” And Caleb gave her the upper springs and the lower springs. Here in the first chapter of what will be a tragic history in the book of Judges stands a solitary example of the faith God wants from all of us. If this story sounds familiar it should. It is a repeat from Joshua 15 and placed here at the beginning of Judges on purpose. The Holy Spirit inspired this story for Israel's dark hour as a small rebuke to a nation who will not drive out completely the in...

Judges 1:1–3 (ESV) After the death of Joshua, the people of Israel inquired of the Lord , “Who shall go up first for us against the Canaanites, to fight against them?” 2 The Lord said, “Judah shall go up; behold, I have given the land into his hand.” 3 And Judah said to Simeon his brother, “Come up with me into the territory allotted to me, that we may fight against the Canaanites. And I likewise will go with you into the territory allotted to you.” So Simeon went with him. Consider the magnitude of Joshua's death. Joshua has been with the narrative of Biblical history since Exodus 17. He followed God's greatest leader to this point. He was there when God spoke to Moses in the Tent of meeting. Joshua believed God when all others (save Caleb) did not. Joshua warred and fought and led and preached God's purposes to God's people for 110 years. And yet the eulogy on his life is short and the redemption narrative moves right on with those left after Joshua.  The l...