beyond our pay grade

Posted on March 3, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

Judges - 1

beyond our pay grade

Judges 14:10-20 (JDV)

Judges 14:10 His father went to visit the woman, and Samson prepared a feast there, as young men were accustomed to do.
Judges 14:11 When the Philistines saw him, they brought thirty groomsmen to accompany him.
Judges 14:12 “Let me tell you a riddle,” Samson said to them. “If you can explain it to me during the seven days of the feast and figure it out, I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.
Judges 14:13 But if you can’t explain it to me, you must give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothes.” “Tell us your riddle,” they replied. “Let’s hear it.”
Judges 14:14 So he said to them: Out of the eater came something to eat, and out of the strong came something sweet. After three days, they were unable to explain the riddle.
Judges 14:15 On the fourth day they said to Samson’s wife, “Persuade your husband to explain the riddle to us, or we will burn you and your father’s family to death. Did you invite us here to rob us?”
Judges 14:16 So Samson’s wife came to him, weeping, and said, “You hate me and don’t love me! You told my people the riddle, but haven’t explained it to me.” “Notice,” he said, “I haven’t even explained it to my father or mother, so why should I explain it to you?”
Judges 14:17 She wept the whole seven days of the feast, and at last, on the seventh day, he explained it to her, because she had nagged him so much. Then she explained it to her people.
Judges 14:18 On the seventh day, before sunset, the men of the city said to him: What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion? So he said to them: If you hadn’t plowed with my young cow, you wouldn’t have discovered my riddle!
Judges 14:19 The Breath of Yahveh came powerfully on him, and he went down to Ashkelon and struck down thirty of their men. He stripped them and gave their clothes to those who had explained the riddle. In a rage, Samson returned to his father’s house,
Judges 14:20 and his wife was given to one of the groomsmen who had accompanied him.

beyond our pay grade

When I was a soldier, lots of things happened in my unit that I could not understand. They were planned and had a purpose, but their purpose was beyond my pay grade.

Life could have gone wonderfully for Samson, except that was not what God wanted. God wanted the anxiety, the discontent, the animosity — even the violence. God’s plan included a failed marriage, ethnic rivalry — the whole nine yards. Samson’s story reminds us that we can have all kinds of chaos going on in our lives not because we are outside his will, but because he is doing something beyond our pay grade.

LORD, thank you for your involvement in our lives. Show us how to trust you in the midst of circumstances we cannot understand.

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our choices and God’s involvement

Posted on March 2, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

Judges - 1

our choices and God’s involvement

Judges 14:1-9 (JDV)

Judges 14:1 Samson went down to Timnah and saw a young woman there among the daughters of the Philistines.
Judges 14:2 He went back and told his father and his mother: “I have seen a young woman in Timnah among the daughters of the Philistines. Get her for me as a wife.”
Judges 14:3 But his father and mother said to him, “Can’t you find a young woman among your relatives or among any of our people? Do you have to go to the uncircumcised Philistines for a wife?” But Samson told his father, “Get her for me. She looks right for me.”
Judges 14:4 Now his father and mother did not know this was from Yahveh, who wanted the Philistines to provide an opportunity for a confrontation. At that time, the Philistines were governing Israel.
Judges 14:5 Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother and came to the vineyards of Timnah. Notice a young lion came roaring at him,
Judges 14:6 the Breath of Yahveh came powerfully on him, and he tore the lion apart with his bare hands like he might have torn a young goat. But he did not tell his father or mother what he had done.
Judges 14:7 Then he went and spoke to the woman, because she looked right to Samson.
Judges 14:8 After some time, when he returned to marry her, he left the road to see the lion’s carcass, and notice a swarm of bees with honey in the carcass.
Judges 14:9 He scooped some honey into his grasp and ate it as he went along. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it. But he did not tell them that he had scooped the honey from the lion’s carcass.

our choices and God’s involvement

Samson’s desire for this Philistine woman would not lead to “happy ever after” for him or her, but God was in his request. It would spark a confrontation — one of many.

Perhaps one lesson we can learn from this episode is that God is going to be involved in our lives, whether we (or those around us) are aware of how he is at work. We should not be too quick to discount our choices.

LORD, thank you for being intimately involved in our lives.

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they did not know

Posted on March 1, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

Judges - 1

they did not know

Judges 13:8-25 (JDV)

Judges 13:8 Manoah prayed to Yahveh and said, “Excuse me, Lord, let the man of God you sent come again to us and teach us what we should do for the boy who will be born.”
Judges 13:9 God listened to Manoah, and the agent of God came again to the woman. She was sitting in the field, and her husband Manoah was not with her.
Judges 13:10 The woman ran quickly to her husband and told him, “The man who came to me the other day has just come back!”
Judges 13:11 So Manoah got up and followed his wife. When he came to the man, he asked, “Are you the man who spoke to my wife?” “I am,” he said.
Judges 13:12 Then Manoah asked, “When your words come true, what will be the boy’s judgment and work?”
Judges 13:13 The agent of Yahveh answered Manoah, “Your wife needs to do everything I told her.
Judges 13:14 She must not eat anything that comes from the grapevine or drink wine or beer. And she must not eat anything unclean. Your wife must do everything I have commanded her.”
Judges 13:15 “Please stay here,” Manoah told the agent, “and we will prepare a young goat for you.”
Judges 13:16 The agent of Yahveh said to him, “If I stay, I won’t eat your food. But if you want to prepare a burnt offering, offer it to Yahveh.” (Manoah did not know he was the agent of Yahveh.)
Judges 13:17 Then Manoah said to him, “What is your name, so that we may honor you when your words come true?”
Judges 13:18 “Why do you ask my name,” the agent of Yahveh asked him, “since he is miraculous.”
Judges 13:19 Manoah took a young goat and a grain offering and offered them on a rock to Yahveh, who did some miracle while Manoah and his wife were watching.
Judges 13:20 When the flame went up from the altar to the sky, the agent of Yahveh went up in its flame. When Manoah and his wife saw this, they fell face-down on the ground.
Judges 13:21 The agent of Yahveh did not appear again to Manoah and his wife. Then Manoah realized that it was the agent of Yahveh.
Judges 13:22 “We’re absolutely going to die,” he said to his wife, “because we have seen God!”
Judges 13:23 But his wife said to him, “If Yahveh had intended to kill us, he wouldn’t have accepted the burnt offering and the grain offering from us, and he would not have shown us all these things or spoken to us like this.”
Judges 13:24 So the woman gave birth to a son and named him Samson. The boy grew, and Yahveh empowered him.
Judges 13:25 Then the Breath of Yahveh began to stir him in the Camp of Dan, between Zorah and Eshtaol.

they did not know

There were a lot of things that this couple did not know in this story. Manoah and his wife were trying to put all the pieces together and they needed each other to stay focused. God was doing something amazing, but he did not fill in all the blanks for them.

Most of our lives — particularly during those periods when God chooses to work his miracles among us — we will be gloriously ignorant. We just need to help each other through those times. Someday we will see the big picture.

LORD, thank you that you do not require our understanding to do what you are doing.

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hints of Him

Posted on February 28, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

Judges - 1

hints of Him

Judges 13:1-7 (JDV)

Judges 13:1 But the sons of Israel again did what was evil in Yahveh’s eyes, so Yahveh gave them over to the Philistines’ hands forty years.
Judges 13:2 There was one man from Zorah, from the family of Dan, whose name was Manoah; his wife was unable to conceive and had no children.
Judges 13:3 The agent of Yahveh appeared to the woman and said to her, “I noticed that you are unable to conceive and have no children, but you will conceive and give birth to a son.
Judges 13:4 Now be really careful not to drink wine or beer, or to eat anything unclean;
Judges 13:5 because notice, you will conceive and give birth to a son. You must never cut his hair, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from birth, and he will begin to deliver Israel from the power of the Philistines.”
Judges 13:6 Then the woman went and told her husband, “A man of God came to me. He looked like the awe-inspiring agent of God. I didn’t ask him where he came from, and he didn’t tell me his name.
Judges 13:7 He said to me, ‘You will conceive and give birth to a son. Therefore, do not drink wine or beer, and do not eat anything unclean, because the boy will be a Nazirite to God from birth until the day of his death.'”

hints of Him

The people of God are under an oppressive rule, and a divine agent appears to a woman, telling her that she is going to give birth to a deliverer. Sound familiar? We get hints throughout the Bible that the main story is about Jesus. Although the story of Samson was anything but typical of the story of Jesus, we still see a shadow of the cross when we read this introduction to his story.

LORD, thank you for your story throughout the Bible, the story of our Savior.

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ordinary judges

Posted on February 27, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

Judges - 1

ordinary judges

Judges 12:8-15 (JDV)

Judges 12:8 Ibzan, who was from Bethlehem, judged Israel after Jephthah
Judges 12:9 and had thirty sons. He gave his thirty daughters in marriage to men outside the tribe and brought back thirty wives for his sons from outside the tribe. Ibzan judged Israel seven years,
Judges 12:10 and when he died, he was buried in Bethlehem.
Judges 12:11 Elon, who was from Zebulun, judged Israel after Ibzan. He judged Israel ten years,
Judges 12:12 and when he died, he was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun.
Judges 12:13 After Elon, Abdon son of Hillel, who was from Pirathon, judged Israel.
Judges 12:14 He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys. Abdon judged Israel eight years,
Judges 12:15 and when he died, he was buried in Pirathon in the land of Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.

ordinary judges

Here we have some more who “also judged.” There seems to be little that can be said about Ibzan and Elon. It almost seems a waste of paper to write their stories in the Bible. But perhaps not. Maybe the point is that there were more “ordinary” judges who did what God wanted them to do but did not inspire the masses.

If you cannot be a hero among heroes, take a cue from Ibzan and Elon and be an ordinary leader. We need people in this world and in the church who will do the right thing even if they don’t become famous for it.

LORD, thank you for giving us ordinary judges.

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Please say Shibboleth

Posted on February 26, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

Judges - 1

Please say Shibboleth

Judges 12:1-7 (JDV)

Judges 12:1 The men of Ephraim were called together and crossed the Jordan to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, “Why have you crossed over to fight against the Ammonites but haven’t called us to go with you? We should burn your house with you in it!”
Judges 12:2 Then Jephthah said to them, “My people and I had a bitter dispute with the Ammonites. So I called for you, but you didn’t rescue me from their power.
Judges 12:3 When I saw that you weren’t going to rescue me, I grasped my throat and crossed over to the Ammonites, and Yahveh handed them over to me. Why then have you come today to fight against me?”
Judges 12:4 Then Jephthah gathered all of the men of Gilead. They fought and struck down Ephraim, because Ephraim had said, “You Gileadites are Ephraimite fugitives in the territories of Ephraim and Manasseh.”
Judges 12:5 The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim. Whenever a fugitive from Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the Gileadites asked him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he answered, “No,”
Judges 12:6 they told him, “Please say Shibboleth.” If he said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce it correctly, they seized him and executed him at the fords of the Jordan. At that time forty-two thousand from Ephraim fell.
Judges 12:7 Jephthah judged Israel six years, and when he died, he was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.

Please say Shibboleth

Today a Shibboleth can be a community-wide password, or a common expression with little behind it. But for the Gileadites, the Shibboleth was the determiner between friend or foe. It marked a civil war between two factions in Israel — a sad day for God’s people.

I wish I could say there are no such factions and divisions in Christendom today, but that is manifestly untrue. We often pit ourselves against others who claim the same Savior. Sometimes our disagreements are warranted. But I hope that we can learn to be more gentle with each other.

LORD, may our love for you lead us to love others who call on your name.

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Jephthah’s legacy

Posted on February 25, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

Judges - 1

Jephthah’s legacy

Judges 11:29-40 (JDV)

Judges 11:29 The Breath of Yahveh came on Jephthah, who traveled through Gilead and Manasseh, and then through Mizpah of Gilead. He crossed over to the Ammonites from Mizpah of Gilead.
Judges 11:30 Jephthah made this vow to Yahveh: “If you in fact hand over the Ammonites to me,
Judges 11:31 whoever comes out the doors of my house to greet me when I return safely from the Ammonites will belong to Yahveh, and I will offer that person as a burnt offering.”
Judges 11:32 Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and Yahveh handed them over to him.
Judges 11:33 He struck down twenty of their cities with a great slaughter from Aroer all the way to the entrance of Minnith and to Abel-keramim. So the Ammonites were subdued before the Israelites.
Judges 11:34 When Jephthah went to his home in Mizpah, he noticed his daughter, coming out to meet him with tambourines and dancing! She was his only child; he had no other son or daughter besides her.
Judges 11:35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “No! Not my daughter! You have devastated me! You have brought great misery on me. I have given my word to Yahveh and cannot take it back.”
Judges 11:36 Then she said to him, “My father, you have given your word to Yahveh. Do to me as you have said, because Yahveh has brought vengeance on your enemies, the Ammonites.”
Judges 11:37 She also said to her father, “Let me do this one thing: Let me wander two months through the mountains with my friends and mourn my virginity.”
Judges 11:38 “Go,” he said. And he sent her away two months. So she left with her friends and mourned her virginity as she wandered through the mountains.
Judges 11:39 At the end of two months, she returned to her father, and he kept the vow he had made about her. And she had never been intimate with a man. Now it became a custom in Israel
Judges 11:40 that four days each year the young women of Israel would commemorate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

Jephthah’s legacy

Jephthah vowed to offer up the person who came to greet him as a “burnt offering” — but the entire text makes it clear that his vow was not to destroy that person, but to devote that person to God. The person turned out to be Jephthah’s only child. She was the only chance Jephthah had of a legacy. She was to remain a virgin through her life. Jephthah’s legacy had to be something else besides his lineage.

Perhaps Jephthah’s vow was rash, but his determination to stay true to that vow manifested a trust in God himself. Our hope of a legacy beyond this life is not best placed in our lineage. It is best placed in our faith in an ever-living God.

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trying to prevent conflict

Posted on February 24, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

Judges - 1

trying to prevent conflict

Judges 11:1-28 (JDV)

Judges 11:1 Jephthah the Gileadite was a capable warrior, but he was the son of a prostitute, and Gilead was his father.
Judges 11:2 Gilead’s wife bore sons for him, and when they grew up, they drove Jephthah out and said to him, “You will have no inheritance in our father’s family, because you are the son of another woman.”
Judges 11:3 So Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Then some hollow men joined Jephthah and went on raids with him.
Judges 11:4 Some time later, the Ammonites fought against Israel.
Judges 11:5 When the Ammonites waged war with Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob.
Judges 11:6 They said to him, “Come, be our commander, and let’s fight the Ammonites.”
Judges 11:7 Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, “Didn’t you hate me and drive me out of my father’s family? So why have you come to me now when you’re in trouble?”
Judges 11:8 They answered Jephthah, “That’s true. But now we are turning to you. Come with us, fight the Ammonites, and you will become leader of all the inhabitants of Gilead.”
Judges 11:9 So Jephthah said to them, “If you are bringing me back to fight the Ammonites and Yahveh gives them to me, I will be your leader.”
Judges 11:10 The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “Yahveh is our witness if we don’t do as you say.”
Judges 11:11 So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead. The people made him their leader and commander, and Jephthah repeated all his terms in the presence of Yahveh at Mizpah.
Judges 11:12 Jephthah sent agents to the king of the Ammonites, asking, “What do you have against me that you have come to fight me in my land?”
Judges 11:13 The king of the Ammonites said to Jephthah’s agents, “When Israel came from Egypt, they seized my land from the Arnon to the Jabbok and the Jordan. Now restore it peaceably.”
Judges 11:14 Jephthah again sent agents to the king of the Ammonites
Judges 11:15 to tell him, “This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or the land of the Ammonites.
Judges 11:16 But when they came from Egypt, Israel traveled through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh.
Judges 11:17 Israel sent agents to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Please let us travel through your land,’ but the king of Edom would not listen. They also sent agents to the king of Moab, but he refused. So Israel stayed in Kadesh.
Judges 11:18 “Then they traveled through the wilderness and around the lands of Edom and Moab. They came to the east side of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon but did not enter into the territory of Moab, because the Arnon was the boundary of Moab.
Judges 11:19 “Then Israel sent agents to Sihon king of the Amorites, king of Heshbon. Israel said to him, ‘Please let us travel through your land to our country,’
Judges 11:20 but Sihon would not trust Israel to pass through his territory. Instead, Sihon gathered all his troops, camped at Jahaz, and fought with Israel.
Judges 11:21 Then Yahveh God of Israel handed over Sihon and all his troops to Israel, and they struck them down. So Israel took possession of the entire land of the Amorites who lived in that country.
Judges 11:22 They took possession of all the territory of the Amorites from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan.
Judges 11:23 “Yahveh God of Israel has now driven out the Amorites before his people Israel, and will you now force us out?
Judges 11:24 Isn’t it true that you can have whatever your god Chemosh conquers for you, and we can have whatever Yahveh our God conquers for us?
Judges 11:25 Now are you any better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever contend with Israel or fight against them?
Judges 11:26 While Israel lived three hundred years in Heshbon and Aroer and their surrounding villages, and in all the cities that are on the banks of the Arnon, why didn’t you take them back at that time?
Judges 11:27 I have not failed you, but you are doing me wrong by fighting against me. Let Yahveh who is the judge decide today between the Israelites and the Ammonites.”
Judges 11:28 But the king of the Ammonites would not listen to Jephthah’s message that he sent him.

trying to prevent conflict

The temptation is great to ignore this part of this chapter, and only address the tragic vow made by Jepthah and its consequences. However, Jepthah’s appeal to the king of the Ammonites deserves some consideration as well. He did what he could to prevent the conflict by appealing to history, and seeking a peaceful solution to the problem. Only when the Ammonite king refused to listen to reason and insisted on war did Jepthah resort to warfare.

LORD, forgive us for so quickly resorting to violence and conflict to solve our problems.

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impatient with Israel’s trouble

Posted on February 23, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

Judges - 1

impatient with Israel’s trouble

Judges 10:6-18 (JDV)

Judges 10:6 Then the Israelites did what was evil again in the eyes of Yahveh. They worshiped the Baals and the Ashtoreths, the gods of Aram, Sidon, and Moab, and the gods of the Ammonites and the Philistines. They abandoned Yahveh and did not worship him.
Judges 10:7 So Yahveh’s anger burned against Israel, and he sold them to the Philistines and the Ammonites.
Judges 10:8 They shattered and crushed the Israelites that year, and for eighteen years they kept doing it to all the Israelites who were on the other side of the Jordan in the land of the Amorites in Gilead.
Judges 10:9 The Ammonites also crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin, and the house of Ephraim. Israel was greatly oppressed,
Judges 10:10 so they cried out to Yahveh, saying, “We have failed you. We have abandoned our God and worshiped the Baals.”
Judges 10:11 Yahveh said to the Israelites, “When the Egyptians, Amorites, Ammonites, Philistines,
Judges 10:12 Sidonians, Amalekites, and Maonites oppressed you, and you cried out to me, did I not rescue you from them?
Judges 10:13 But you have abandoned me and worshiped other gods. So I will not deliver you again.
Judges 10:14 Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them deliver you whenever you are oppressed.”
Judges 10:15 But the Israelites said, “We have failed. Deal with us as you see fit; only rescue us today!”
Judges 10:16 So they got rid of the foreign gods among them and worshiped Yahveh, and his throat became impatient with Israel’s trouble.
Judges 10:17 The Ammonites were called together, and they camped in Gilead. So the Israelites assembled and camped at Mizpah.
Judges 10:18 The rulers of Gilead said to one another, “Which man will begin the fight against the Ammonites? He will be the leader of all the inhabitants of Gilead.”

impatient with Israel’s trouble

The trouble Israel was facing had lasted for eighteen years, to the extent that even God had become impatient with Israel’s trouble.

Brothers and sisters, we all know what it is like to suffer through long periods of distress. Do you know that our God gets frustrated as well when we go through such times? Yes, he is eagerly awaiting a people who will cry out to him in their distress. Will we be such a people?

LORD, we deserve what is happening to us. “We have failed. Deal with us as you see fit; only rescue us today!”

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Tola and Jair’s legacy

Posted on February 22, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

Judges - 1

Tola and Jair’s legacy

Judges 10:1-5 (JDV)

Judges 10:1 And, Tola son of Puah son of Dodo stood up after Abimelech and began to deliver Israel. He was from Issachar and stayed in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim.
Judges 10:2 He judged Israel twenty-three years and when he died, was buried in Shamir.
Judges 10:3 After him came Jair the Gileadite, who judged Israel twenty-two years.
Judges 10:4 He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkeys. They had thirty towns in the land of Gilead, which are still called Jair’s Tent Villages today.
Judges 10:5 When Jair died, he was buried in Kamon.

Tola and Jair’s legacy

These two leaders do not get much publicity. Not enough is known about how they served. But it was important to know that they served. They did leave a legacy that was remembered after their deaths. This is seen in the mention of the towns where they were buried. It is also seen in Jair’s thirty tent villages — overseen by his thirty sons.

Tola and Jair are reminders that not all the story has been told. Someday we will learn about their lives by talking to them ourselves.

LORD, thank you for the promise of a future life.

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