no king in Israel

Posted on March 8, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

Judges - 1

no king in Israel

Judges 17:1-6 (JDV)

Judges 17:1 There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim named Micah.
Judges 17:2 He said to his mother, “The 1,100 pieces of silver taken from you, and that I heard you place a curse on – notice the silver. I took it.” Then his mother said, “My son, may you be empowered by Yahveh!”
Judges 17:3 He returned the 1,100 pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, “I personally consecrate the silver to Yahveh for my son’s benefit to make a carved image and a silver idol. I will give it back to you.”
Judges 17:4 So he returned the silver to his mother, and she took five pounds of silver and gave it to a silversmith. He made it into a carved image and a silver idol, and it was in Micah’s house.
Judges 17:5 This man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and household idols, and installed one of his sons to be his priest.
Judges 17:6 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever looked right to him.

no king in Israel

I just want to focus on this statement today “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever looked right to him” (6).

The book of Judges is a prelude to the books of the Kings and Chronicles. We discover in those books that the kings were not the solution to lawlessness that people hoped they would be. Even when we pledge our loyalty to an executive, we still seek to mold our world around ourselves, and we reap the results of that choice.

Even calling Jesus our king is not an immediate cure for that selfishness. If we call him Lord, yet refuse to obey his commands, we are living a lie. These stories highlight the mixed commitments and precarious lives of those who refuse to convert. Even their religion is a failure.

We need a king, but not just any king. We need King Jesus.

LORD, give us the courage to live for you, and to obey your commands.

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mysterious ways

Posted on March 7, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

Judges - 1

mysterious ways

Judges 16:20-31 (JDV)

Judges 16:20 Then she cried, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” When he woke up from his sleep, he said, “I will escape like I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that Yahveh had left him.
Judges 16:21 The Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles, and he was forced to grind grain in the prison.
Judges 16:22 But his hair began to grow back after it had been shaved.
Judges 16:23 Now the Philistine leaders gathered together to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They rejoiced and said: Our god has handed over our enemy Samson to us.
Judges 16:24 When the people saw him, they praised their god and said: Our god has handed over to us our enemy who destroyed our land and who multiplied our dead.
Judges 16:25 When they were in a happy mood, they said, “Bring Samson here to entertain us.” So they brought Samson from prison, and he entertained them. They had him stand between the pillars.
Judges 16:26 Samson said to the young man who was leading him by the hand, “Lead me where I can feel the pillars supporting the temple, so I can lean against them.”
Judges 16:27 The temple was full of men and women; all the leaders of the Philistines were there, and about three thousand men and women were on the roof watching Samson entertain them.
Judges 16:28 He called out to Yahveh: “Lord Yahveh, please remember me. Strengthen me, God, just once more. With one act of vengeance, let me pay back the Philistines for my two eyes.”
Judges 16:29 Samson took hold of the two middle pillars supporting the temple and leaned against them, one on his right hand and the other on his left.
Judges 16:30 Samson said, “Let my throat die with the Philistines.” He pushed with all his might, and the temple fell on the leaders and all the people in it. And those he killed at his death were more than those he had killed in his life.
Judges 16:31 Then his brothers and all his father’s family came down, carried him back, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. So he had judged Israel twenty years.

mysterious ways

The sad story of Samson is one of loss after loss, revenge and more revenge. But behind it all, our God was doing what he had promised to do. He was delivering his people who had prayed for rescue. The Lord indeed does work in mysterious ways, and Samson’s life story is an example of that work.

The next time you encounter an event or learn about a happening that defies logic, remember that our omnipotent God is present even there — even in the unexplainable.

LORD, thank you for the mysterious ways you perform your wonders among us.

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she made him helpless

Posted on March 6, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

Judges - 1

she made him helpless

Judges 16:1-19 (JDV)

Judges 16:1 Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went to have sex with her.
Judges 16:2 When the Gazites heard that Samson was there, they surrounded the place and waited to ambush him all that night at the city gate. They kept quiet all night, saying, “Let’s wait until dawn; then we will murder him.”
Judges 16:3 But Samson stayed in bed only until midnight. Then he got up, took hold of the doors of the city gate along with the two gateposts, and pulled them out, bar and all. He put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the mountain overlooking Hebron.
Judges 16:4 Some time later, he became in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in the Sorek Valley.
Judges 16:5 The Philistine princes went to her and said, “Convince him to tell you where his great strength comes from, so we can overpower him, tie him up, and make him helpless. Then each of us will give you 1,100 pieces of silver.”
Judges 16:6 So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me, where does your great strength come from? How could someone tie you up and make you helpless?”
Judges 16:7 Samson told her, “If they tie me up with seven fresh tent ropes that have not been dried, I will become weak and be like any other man.”
Judges 16:8 The Philistine leaders brought her seven fresh tent ropes that had not been dried, and she tied him up with them.
Judges 16:9 While the men in ambush were waiting in her room, she called out to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But he snapped the tent ropes like a strand of yarn snaps when it touches fire. The secret of his strength stayed unknown.
Judges 16:10 Then Delilah said to Samson, “Notice, you have mocked me and told me lies! Won’t you please tell me how you can be tied up?”
Judges 16:11 He told her, “If they tie me up with new cords that have never been used, I will become weak and be like any other man.”
Judges 16:12 Delilah took new cords, tied him up with them, and shouted, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But while the men in ambush were waiting in her room, he snapped the cords off his arms like a thread.
Judges 16:13 Then Delilah said to Samson, “You have mocked me all along and told me lies! Tell me how you can be tied up.” He told her, “If you weave the seven braids on my head into the fabric on a loom– ”
Judges 16:14 She fastened the braids with a pin and called to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” He woke up from his sleep and pulled out the pin, with the loom and the web.
Judges 16:15 “How can you say, ‘I love you,'” she told him, “when your heart is not with me? This is the third time you have mocked me and not told me what makes your strength so great!”
Judges 16:16 Because she nagged him daily and pleaded with him until his throat was impatient enough to die,
Judges 16:17 he told her the whole truth and said to her, “My hair has never been cut, because I am a Nazirite to God from birth. If I am shaved, my strength will leave me, and I will become weak and be like any other man.”
Judges 16:18 When Delilah realized that he had told her the whole truth, she sent this message to the Philistine leaders: “Come one more time, because he has told me the whole truth.” The Philistine leaders came to her and brought the silver with them.
Judges 16:19 Then she let him fall asleep on her lap and called a man to shave off the seven braids on his head. This is how she made him helpless, and his strength left him.

she made him helpless

Delilah and the Philistines shared in the blame for Samson’s shameful fall into sin, weakness and helplessness. The Philistines were wise touse her to get to him. Is the devil using someone to make you weak? Don’t let that happen. Change the circumstances that put you in the way of temptation and compromise.

LORD, give us friends who build us up spiritually, and give us wisdom to avoidthose who tempt us to be weak.

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stable servants

Posted on March 5, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

Judges - 1

stable servants

Judges 15:9-20 (JDV)

Judges 15:9 The Philistines went up, camped in Judah, and raided Lehi.
Judges 15:10 The men of Judah said, “Why have you attacked us?” They replied, “We have come to take Samson prisoner and pay him back for what he did to us.”
Judges 15:11 Then three thousand men of Judah went to the cave at the rock of Etam, and they asked Samson, “Don’t you realize that the Philistines govern us? What have you done to us?” “I have done to them what they did to me,” he answered.
Judges 15:12 They said to him, “We’ve come to take you prisoner and hand you over to the Philistines.” Then Samson told them, “Swear to me that you yourselves won’t kill me.”
Judges 15:13 “No,” they said, “we won’t kill you, but we will tie you securely and hand you over to them.” So they tied him up with two new ropes and led him away from the rock.
Judges 15:14 When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came to meet him shouting. The Breath of Yahveh came powerfully on him, and the ropes that were on his arms and wrists became like burnt flax and fell off.
Judges 15:15 He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand, took it, and struck down a thousand men with it.
Judges 15:16 Then Samson said: With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps on heaps. With the jawbone of a donkey I have struck down a thousand men.
Judges 15:17 When he finished saying that, he threw away the jawbone and named that place Ramath-lehi.
Judges 15:18 He became very thirsty and called out to Yahveh: “You have accomplished this great victory through your servant. Do I now have to die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?”
Judges 15:19 So God split a hollow place in the ground at Lehi, and water came out of it. After Samson drank, his breath returned, and he revived. That is why he named it En-hakkore, which is still in Lehi today.
Judges 15:20 And he judged Israel twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

stable servants

Samson had avenged himself on the Philistines, and his countrymen just could not get it. They came to take him prisoner and hand him over to them, to protect themselves. So, after losing his wife, he now loses the respect of his fellow Israelites.

Samson does not let these losses discourage him. Instead, he trusts God to use this event to his advantage. Sure enough, when the Philistines come shouting, Samson is once again empowered by God’s Breath, and is victorious over them. But killing a thousand men with an animal bone made him thirsty. He was exhausted.

God provides water to revive him.

God wants stable servants. We will probably endure many losses in our service of the LORD, just like Samson did. They will test our commitment. The victories and revival will come as God supplies them. We just need to make sure that the losses do not stop us from declaring that commitment.

LORD, make us stable servants.

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losing twice

Posted on March 4, 2022 by Jefferson Vann

losing twice

Judges 15:1-8 (JDV)

Judges 15:1 Days later, during the wheat harvest, Samson took a young goat as a gift and visited his wife. “I want to go to my wife in her room,” he said. But her father would not let him enter.
Judges 15:2 “I was sure you hated her,” her father said, “so I gave her to one of the groomsmen who accompanied you. Isn’t her younger sister more beautiful than she is? Why not take her instead?”
Judges 15:3 Samson said to them, “This time I will be blameless when I harm the Philistines.”
Judges 15:4 So he went out and caught three hundred foxes. He took torches, turned the foxes tail-to-tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails.
Judges 15:5 Then he ignited the torches and released the foxes into the standing grain fields of the Philistines. He burned the piles of grain and also the standing grain as well as the vineyards and olive groves.
Judges 15:6 Then the Philistines asked, “Who did this?” They were told, “It was Samson, the Timnite’s son-in-law, because he took Samson’s wife and gave her to his companion.” So the Philistines went to her and her father and burned them to death.
Judges 15:7 Then Samson told them, “Because you did this, I swear that I won’t rest until I have taken vengeance on you.”
Judges 15:8 He struck them down leg on thigh and then went down and stayed in the cave at the rock of Etam.

losing twice

The more I look at the story of Samson, the more I see loss, and more loss. In this section, we see that Samson loses his wife twice. First she is given to another, then she and her family are killed. Samson uses fire to seek revenge, and the result is that the Philistines do the same thing, resulting in the burning of his wife and her father.

Destruction by fire is the ultimate loss. Such is the fate of everyone who will not follow God’s path.

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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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