Fellow Church People

[MartyMuppets]

And so on that day God subdued King Jabin of Canaan before the Israelites and they grew stronger and stronger against him until he was finally exterminated.
The next chapter, number 5, contains the song of praise Deborah and Barak sang to God that day. Jael gets special mention of merit in verses 24-27. Even though from a perspective of neutrality within a war her actions are of course deceitful and treacherous, she is called most blessed of women for the strong loyal faith she must have had in Israel's God. She knew that Sisera was a wicked man and an enemy of the God in whom she trusted and served as well as an enemy of Israel. And she did not hesitate to carry out God's justice.
Verse 31 of my Bible translation says at the end of the song "So perish all your enemies, O Lord! But may your friends be like the sun as it rises in its might." And we are told that the land enjoyed peaceful prosperity for 40 years.
Until once again Israel forsook their God. It seems incredible that they kept returning to the same old folly. But some people are sadly no different today with whatever they keep returning to that's bad after God has been good to them.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Incidentally for those of you who aren't aware I was a practicing Catholic as I stated at the very beginning of this thread of mine, but now I am currently going along to the Salvation Army.
I hold nothing against the Catholic Church. They were all so very nice to me. But I feel God has His plans to use me in serving Him elsewhere and so I am trying out the Salvation Army.

You can read more about it here.
http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?t=35194

 

[MartyMuppets]

Getting back to the Book of Judges the second half of Chapter 12 from verse 29 on contain a freaky account that shows how even the best of people can sometimes fall into misguided zeal for God.

God had raised up a Judge named Jephthah to save Israel from the Ammonite armies. Just before Jephthah went into battle he made a vow to the Lord that if God would give the Ammonites into the hands of his army, then the first living thing that came out of the doors of his house to meet him would be sacrificed to God as a burnt offering.
So Jephthah inflicted a heavy defeat upon the Ammonites, but when he arrived home, who should greet him but his only daughter dancing and playing the tambourine to celebrate his glorious victory.
When he told her about his tragic vow she begged for two months time to wander along the mountain tracks with her friends to bewail the fact that she was to die without ever marrying and having children. Jephthah granted this and so she spent two months in the mountains mourning with her friends. Then after the time was up she lay down her life as her father apparently slew her as a burnt offering in fulfillment of his vow to the Lord.

 

[MartyMuppets]

I know this is a rather difficult part of Biblical scripture to understand. I couldn't figure it out either until I had a Presbyterian pastor explain it to me some 15 years ago.
For starters Jephthah's vow was:
1. rash- God had already given Jephthah His promise of victory in the battle. Jephthah should have known from historical records that when God promises something, it is fully guaranteed.
2. careless- Jephthah naively supposed that the first living thing would be one of the farm animals that he shared his house with. It never crossed his mind that a human being could meet him at his front door before any animal. Let alone his own daughter in celebratory praise for his victory.
3. egocentric- There is a little bit of human pride involved. Promising to offer up the first living thing he meets at home in exchange for victory is rather close to drawing attention to himself. Look how zealous I am to glorify you in fulfillment of my vows Lord.

So Jephthah did wrong to make such a hasty vow.

 

[MartyMuppets]

And as for actually carrying out the vow, well obviously that was surely an even far worse thing to do.
Even though both he and his daughter had accepted as fact that his vow was irrevocable, and she was willing by faith to allow him to sacrifice her in honour to God, tragically they were both blinded to the truth.
Jephthah could not possibly have been legally bound by such an oath that was blatantly contradictory to the Law God had given Israel in the past through Moses. One of God's 10 Commandments says "You shall not commit murder" and God had repeatedly spoken about the detestable practices of the wicked nations Israel was to wipe out in battle. One of them was the sadistic practice of sacrificing their own sons and daughters as burnt offerings to the false gods they believed in. God abhorred such cruelty and would never have approved of what Jephthah did to his daughter.
I believe that both Jephthah and his daughter had their hearts right with God, despite their dreadful mistake. And so I have confidence that they were forgiven by the Lord and are now together again in Heaven. Their history is a solemn warning to us today to not be too hasty in our promises to God. Our consequences may not be quite as drastic, but we must recognize God's perfect will so we don't have to bear whatever troubles we cause ourselves in the name of our own hasty vows to God.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Chapters 13 to 16 of Judges tell the history of Samson. He was gifted by God with extraordinary strength which enabled him to function as a one man army. Once he slew one thousand Philistine soldiers with the jawbone of a donkey as a weapon.
Samson had a weakness unfortunately for beautiful women, which eventually led to his downfall at the hands of a woman named Delilah. She was bribed by Samson's enemies to question him about the secret of his strength. It seems unbelievable that he could be so foolish as he taunted her while she kept pressing upon him, until he finally grew weary of her asking and told her the truth. He explained that he was under a strict vow to never cut his hair otherwise God would take away his strength.
Then while he was asleep she had a man carefully shave it away.

 

[MartyMuppets]

Poor Samson realized what a fool he had been when Delilah had him captured by the Philistines. With his vow to the Lord regarding his hair broken, he was as weak as a baby. The Philistines gouged out his eyes and chained him to a millstone where he was made to grind grain for them. But this isn't the end of his historical account. I have to go offline soon, but I'll post the exciting finale tomorrow.

 

[MartyMuppets]

I know it's been a couple of days but here is the conclusion.
While Samson was chained to the mill wheel his hair had slowly grown back again. Then one day the Philistines decided to bring him into the temple of their god Dagon to make sport of him.
As he was led by a boy into the temple he requested to be directed so that he could lean against the pillars. Then with one hand on each pillar Samson prayed: "Dear God. Give me back my strength just once more so I can have vengeance upon the Philistines for all they have done including taking away my sight."
God heard his prayer and to the Philistines horror he began to push the pillars apart. He prayed further: "Now God. Let me die with my enemies."
And he brought the entire temple of Dagon down crushing himself and more of the wicked Philistines than he had ever killed while he was alive. Samson gained a great victory for God demonstrating that the idol of stone Dagon had no power at all to protect its people and I know that God welcomed Samson into His heavenly presence while all those evil men and women were banished to the other place.
Enough about Judges. Next time I'll speak about some of the other books I've read.

 

[MartyMuppets]

First Chronicles is largely a re-telling of some of the most significant events of David's reign as King in Second Samuel. In the first 9 chapters the author begins his book in a similar way to many ancient Greek histories by trying to show the internal connectedness of the nation. He traces the nation's descent from a common stock of ancestors in genealogies. Then he focuses upon the tribe of Judah and the family line of David, which is of central importance to the destiny of Jerusalem.

 

[MartyMuppets]

One thing of significance to mention is that Chapter 10 recounts King Saul's death on the battlefield as told at the end of First Samuel and makes the added point that Saul died for his unfaithfulness to God. He disobeyed God's commands and even consulted a medium to seek her guidance as told in First Samuel, instead of seeking God's guidance. Therefore God put Saul to death and turned the kingdom over to his faithful servant David.