365 Reflections

The end of Samson's life looks like a terrible subscript written at the end of a movie which already seemed to end with tragedy. He is blinded bound and forced to work, grinding grain for the very people God called him to defeat. He has become physically what Israel is nationally - blind, bound and ground by their enemies. Now if you remember, the sequence of the famous Judges' cycle it is that Israel would sin, get enslaved and then cry out to God. God would respond with a judge and deliver them for a time until the cycle repeated once more. In the Samson cycle, there all the elements minus the people crying out to God for deliverance. Yet God raises up Samson and it seems clear Samson is not just a historical story but a picture of Israel's descent into the morbid slave-state vassal of Philistines. So I consider God is using this story not only to instigate the nation's deliverance but to awaken them to pray for His help EVEN when they seem to least deserve it! ...

Judges 7:1 (ESV) Then Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) and all the people who were with him rose early and encamped beside the spring of Harod. And the camp of Midian was north of them, by the hill of Moreh, in the valley. Gideon and his army are READY for battle. 32,000 men get up early to go fight for the Lord. And you would think this is how God will save Israel. It makes sense. But it is not how God works. God will not have Israel boast that they have saved themselves. Judges 7:2–3 (ESV) The LORD said to Gideon, “The people with you are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hand, lest Israel boast over me, saying, ‘My own hand has saved me.’ 3 Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return home and hurry away from Mount Gilead.’ ” Then 22,000 of the people returned, and 10,000 remained. Note the phrase, "lest Israel boast over me." God is not about to let Israel believe they are their own savio...

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...

The heading in our Bibles is incorrect. It often reads above the 22nd verse in Genesis 32, "Jacob Wrestles with God." But the text doesn't say that. It says: Genesis 32:24 (ESV)   And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. Who was looking for this fight? It certainly couldn't have been Jacob. He was a nervous wreck! He was praying and planning on how to appease his brother. He was devising his schemes to come home peacefully because Laban's home had nothing for him and God spoke to him about returning. The problem was Esau. Four hundred soldiers were coming with him. That's not a pretty piece of news.  So after praying and planning and sending everyone ahead of him, Jacob is alone and God comes and picks a fight. He wrestles with Jacob all night. Have you ever wrestled? It's exhausting. Jacob keeps the fight going for hours! I don't know how he did it. But the funny thing is, God has to do something t...

Paul was keenly aware of his shortcomings. He talks about being the chief of sinners, the worst of sinners and the least of the Apostles. But what is interesting is how Paul constantly views his shortcomings as God-given for purposes that God uses! In 1 Corinthians, he writes about how the church needs to stop segregating around which preacher they particularly like. That they should be of one mind united in Christ.  He talks about how he didn't baptize many but gave himself fully to preaching the Gospel of Christ. Then he says this: 1 Corinthians 1:17 (ESV) For Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power. He knows Christ sent him to preach. He also knows the manner in which Christ sent him to preach! "not with words of eloquent wisdom" ... I like that admission of Paul's. In other words, "I'm not a great orator. I'm not an impressive preacher....