Today's Reading:

Judges 10
Judges 11
Judges 12
Judges 13

In Judges 13:8, Manoah does not assume he has life figured out. When the angel announced they would have a son, he prayed in anticipation of raising the boy. “I beg you to let the man of God you sent to us come again to teach us how to bring up the boy who is to be born.” It was a beautiful picture of humility, admitting that they needed divine guidance for their huge responsibility.

Today, the same hearts of parents and mentors of the next generation should look humbly towards God and plead for knowledge and wisdom in handling everything from screen time, tough conversations, and discipline with grace. We need to point them towards God in a world that constantly bombards them to steer away from Him. Beg God to show up and help to guide your steps. He is filled with joy when we trust and ask for guidance “Come Lord, teach us!”

 

After the stories of Gideon and Abimelek from the last couple of days, we are given a couple of judges with little context. Due to Israel’s predictability in sin, oppression, cry, deliver, repeat, there is grace in that God has patience throughout time.

• Tola- led for 23 years during a stable time.
• Jair- led 22 years in a calm era and was famous for his 30 sons, riding 30 donkeys, and naming 30 towns Havvoth Jair, after himself.
• Jephthah- Israel then dove straight back to major idol worship again. They worshipped Baal,

Ashtaroth, Moabite gods, Ammonite gods, and Philistine gods. God was angry with the idolatry and allowed the Philistines to oppress them for 18 years. Upon their cries out, He rebuked them, saying that He had already given them judges, military leaders, and prophets as judges. Yet, they were still worshipping the other gods. He told them to go cry to the other gods and ask them for help. In a moment of grace, God could not bear their misery any longer and still responded when they repented.

Enter the judge Jephthah, the rejected son of a prostitute who was kicked out by his half-brothers. When Ammon attacked, and no one stepped up, the elders begged him to be the leader, knowing he was a mighty warrior. Jephthah was a descendant of the Gileadite clan from Manasseh, the region of Gilead. Jephthah repeated the agreement to the Lord, so He would enforce their pledge of making him their leader. He went to the enemy and gave a history lesson on why the land was not theirs to begin with, it was taken from the Amorites after Israel was denied passage by Edom and later defeated the king of Sihon during the Wilderness period.

The Spirit of the Lord came on Jephthah. Then, before the battle, Jephthah made a vow to God (not wise, as He warned against vows in Ecclesiastes 5:4-5 and Deuteronomy 23:21-23). He vowed that whatever came out of the door of his house first when he returned from battle would be sacrificed to the Lord. God granted the victory, and as custom after an army’s victory, the women would come out with timbrels (tambourines) to dance and praise. Unfortunately, Jephthah’s own daughter was the first to come out of the house. The vow must be fulfilled, and before doing so, she asked for two months to roam and weep, saying goodbyes.

This was the second time that Ephraim was left out of a war. The first was with Gideon and the Midianites from chapter 8. This brought on a civil war between the tribes. The Gileadites took over the ford at the river and created a password for those to cross. Due to the different accents, like in the word tomato (toh-MAY-toh/ toh-MAH-to), it was easy to distinguish between tribes. Jephthah led for six years.

• Ibzan- of Bethlehem led for 7 years, he had 30 sons and 30 daughters of whom he allowed to intermarry with those outside of his clan which was taboo.
• Elon- led for 10 quiet years
• Abdon- led for 8 years. He was known for having 40 sons, 30 grandsons, and 70 donkeys.  These judges show the continued cycles and how Israel was drifting from God even in times of rest without war.
• Samson- The Israelites were being oppressed again, this time for 40 years under Philistine control.

Manoah, from the tribe of Dan had a wife whom the angel of the Lord appeared to (Christophany). The angel said that the barren wife would have a son who was to be a Nazirite from the time of being in her womb (No grapes/wine, no haircuts, no unclean food, avoid dead bodies). Manoah prayed that the Lord would teach them how to raise the boy. For the second time the angel appeared, and Manoah asked the angel when your words come true, showing his faith, what are we to do? (13:12) They prepared a goat in hospitality, but the angel would not eat and told them to offer it as a burnt offering sacrifice to the Lord. Manoah asked the angel what his name was. It was not until after the angel ascended in the offering flame that he realized that the angel was the Lord. Manoah was afraid for his life, but his wife calmed him as the Lord would not have accepted their offering if he planned to kill them. Samson was born and the Spirit of the Lord began to stir in him.

God never fully abandoned His people. He rightfully gets annoyed, but His compassion breaks through and He always sent a deliverer, even if flawed. Samson’s miraculous birth was another fresh start to the cycle. And while Israel always seemed to fail, His faithfulness can be seen interwoven throughout time. We must thank the Lord for not giving up on them or us when we keep repeating dumb cycles of disobedience and repentance. God finds us at our worst with our flawed leaders and raises us up again. Where in your life do you see the “judges’ cycle” play out on repeat? Or do you know someone who has wandered off, hit rock bottom, cried out and experienced God coming to their rescue?

Here is a quick overview of the foreign gods mentioned in the Old Testament:

• The Baals (or Baalim) — Canaanite storm/fertility gods (often "lord" or "master"); represented rain, agriculture, weather, and prosperity. Multiple local versions existed, like Baal-peor.
• The Ashtoreths — Canaanite/Phoenician goddesses of fertility, love, sex, and war; consorts of Baal, linked to sensuality and reproduction (plural form often used for various local fertility goddesses).
• Gods of Aram (Syria) — Regional deities from Aram/Syria; not named specifically, but tied to Syrian/Canaanite pantheons involving storm and war gods.
• Gods of Sidon — Phoenician/Canaanite deities from the city of Sidon; prominently included Ashtoreth (Astarte) as a major goddess of fertility and love.
• Gods of Moab — Moabite deities; the chief one was Chemosh, a war and national god associated with destruction and possibly child sacrifice in some contexts.
• Gods of the Ammonites (sons of Ammon) — Ammonite deities; the primary one was Milcom (or Molech/Molek), often linked to child sacrifice and seen as an "abomination" in later texts.
• Gods of the Philistines — Philistine deities; included Dagon (a grain/fertility/agriculture god, often depicted as part man, part fish) and possibly Baal-zebub ("lord of the flies," a Philistine god of Ekron later referenced).

Today's Discussion question: 

God finds us at our worst with our flawed leaders and raises us up again. Where in your life do you see the “judges’ cycle” play out on repeat? Or do you know someone who has wandered off, hit rock bottom, cried out, and experienced God coming to their rescue?

 
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