Today’s passage: Judges 13:1-25

Helpful thoughts:

• Israel is again under the oppression of a neighboring nation.  This time for forty years before the Lord intervenes.  There is no mention of the people of Israel crying out to God for help.
• Much like the nation of Israel, Samson is miraculously brought forth by God and called to a life of separation and purity.  As the narrative continues, we will see just how far the comparisons go.  Samson will serve as a type (Or picture) of Israel.
• The identity of this Visitor slowly dawns on Samson’s mom and dad throughout the chapter.  Manoah was sure they were going to die even though God had just told them they were going to have and raise a son.  The feeling of their experience was more significant in his mind than the words of God.

Questions to consider:

1. Why did Manoah and his wife fall prostrate on the ground after the Lord left their presence?  What kind of realities would have been rushing through your mind in that moment?  What would allow you to be in the presence of the Holy God without fear of condemnation?
2. Thinking about this chapter and the rest of the Samson narrative to come, what comparisons can you already think of between he and Israel?
3. Why do we sometimes clamor for or get distracted by experiences instead of being assured by the truth of God’s Word?  Is God’s Word insufficient or unreliable?

Today’s passage: Judges 12:1-15

Helpful thoughts:

• Instead of congratulating their brothers from Gilead, the Ephraimites were angered that they were not included in the previous battle.  Jephthah tried to tell them they were invited (Which there is no record of) and also uses the name of God again to excuse his actions (“It’s not my fault you didn’t get to fight, the LORD gave them into my hand.”).
  • The point?  Ephraim is for Ephraim and Gilead is for Gilead.  Israel is not a unit, and civil war breaks out.
• There was no record of rest in the land while Jephthah judged Israel.
• The three judges listed in verses 8-15 may give an illusion of all being well in Israel for some time.  However, no repentance is indicated and the men appear to be styled more after Gideon, Abimelech and Jephthah than after Moses or Joshua.

Questions to consider:

1. What happens in a nation, a church, or in any group of people when those people are interested first in their own selves and what they are getting?
2. Of the four judges mentioned in this chapter, how many of them were able to successfully solidify power for their own heir?  Who is in control even when we might think we have everything figured out and perfectly planned?
3. How can peace and prosperity lie to people?  Should we automatically assume that everything is good and right because we had a “good day” or a “good year”?  Does a growing economy and an easy life automatically equal God’s blessing?  What else could it be?  What could be increasingly true of our hearts in the context of wealth and ease?

Today’s passage: Judges 11:29-40

Helpful thoughts:

• Remember, the fact that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jephthah did not mean that he was a godly man making godly decisions.  It means God was going to use to him to accomplish His will concerning Israel and the Ammonites.
• Jephthah did not know that the Spirit of the Lord was already using him.  God’s involvement had already begun.  God was not wowed or lured by this foolish vow.
• Ammonite kings sacrificed their children to their pagan gods.
• God gave Israel a way to make right any foolish oath that they could/should not keep (Leviticus 5:4-6), but Jephthah and his daughter were more familiar with the ways of pagans then they were with God’s revealed will.  They were simply inserting the Lord into a version of pagan worship.
  • God did not accept this “sacrifice”.  It did not please Him in any way. (Deuteronomy 12:29-32)

Questions to consider:

1. Was the Spirit of the Lord upon Jephthah before or after he made his deal/vow?  Was Jephthah right to try to offer God a burnt offering in exchange for a military victory?  Is that how God works? (Hosea 6:6)
2.  In what ways is this narrative the opposite of Genesis 22 (God’s testing of Abraham with Isaac)?
3. How do we become more like the world?  In what ways are you seeing, hearing, learning and even participating in it’s customs?  What will your love for Jesus Christ motivate you to do that will allow you to be in the world but not of it?

Today’s passage: Judges 11:1-28

Helpful thoughts:

• Israel wanted a man who would be a brave warrior and lead them to safety, and they couldn’t find one among them.  So they chose Jephthah.
  • God’s name was used in the negotiations, but His commands and direction for Israel were not necessarily followed.
• Jephthah sounded quite diplomatic and accurate historically.  He gave what seemed a very reasonable argument to the king of the Ammonites, confirming the Ammonites’ role as the aggressors.
  • However:
    • God’s name was used in these negotiations as a national deity on level with Chemosh.
    • Jephthah may have sparked more controversy by excluding the Ammonite people altogether from his accounting of the land’s history.
    • Chemosh was not the god of the Ammonites, but instead of the Moabites.  This was either a mistake, a reference to land the Ammonites had taken from Moab, or purposeful mockery.

Questions to consider:

1. Is Jephthah’s questioning of Israel much different than God’s in chapter 10?  How was Israel treating Jephthah the same way they treated God?
2. If you were the king of the Ammonites, would Jephthah’s political rhetoric make you less or more likely to want to attack?
3. What is rhetoric? Is it something that Christians should use with great skill and to great affect?  How careful and knowledgeable should we strive to be in order to not be negatively persuaded?

Today’s passage: Judges 10:1-18

Helpful thoughts:

• In the aftermath of Abimelech, Tola (Which means “Worm”) and Jair lead Israel.  In their short stories, God is nowhere to be found nor any enemies.  Perhaps the troubles were still internal.
• Israel has become polytheistic.  They were now worshiping every god BUT the true God!
• God has now told Israel to cry out to their new gods for help.  Of course the sad irony of this is that the gods Israel has been worshiping are the gods of the people under whom they are being oppressed!
  • Israel pursued repentance, but were left to look for a man to save them.

Questions to consider:

1. Why couldn’t Israel ask the gods of the Philistines and the Ammonites for help?  If those gods were real, who would they be “busy” helping?
2. Knowing what we do from the rest of Scripture, what was God communicating to Israel about His responsibility to save them?  Were His efforts for their rescue part of a covenant responsibility or purely mercy and grace?
3. In what ways do we mimic the people of Israel?  In what ways can we be guilty of living like the world around us and then crying out to God whenever we don’t like our circumstances or consequences?

Today’s passage: Judges 9:42-57

Helpful thoughts:

• The fire that was sparked the previous day is now a full blown blaze.  Abimelech captured his own city, killed all his subjects and destroyed the land.
• The tower the people of Shechem ran to for safety was at the temple for the false god “of the covenant” to whom they had committed themselves.
• After Abimelech destroyed his own city, he had to get another one.  With these military victories complete, Abimelech was now ready to further his budding empire.  But, the capture of Thebez would bring about his death.
• Jotham’s fable has come true, in some ways literally.

Questions to consider:

1. In what way does this narrative actually complete Gideon’s narrative?  What part did Gideon have in creating the environment within which something like the reign of Abimelech could happen (As short-lived as it was)?
2. Did Abimelech save Israel from an evil king?  Or was Abimelech the evil king that God saved Israel from after having brought about trouble with their own sinfulness?
3. Should we expect things (Life in general) to get more or less complicated as a consequence of sin?  How does walking in righteousness and repenting when we sin give clarity, light and direction?  How has God made our paths straight?

Today’s passage: Judges 9:22-41

Helpful thoughts:

• Abimilech’s plan seems to have worked…in a way.  He governed Israel for a time.
• In this passage, we see the spark that lights the flame of Jotham’s fable come true.  But, instead of Abimelech, God sets the spark.
• Gaal used the same ethnic argument to rally support from the Schechemites.  Abimelech was only half-Shechemite (His mother).  Gaal used Abimelech’s own argument against him, and it worked on most of the people.
  • Gaal’s prominence was short-lived however.  In what may have been a sort of micro civil war, Gall’s supporters were defeated and Abimelech left Zebul (Who had remained faithful to him) over Shechem while he governed from Arumah (About 5 miles away from Shechem).

Questions to consider:

1. What appears to be happening to Abimelech’s power in the region?  Is his prominence growing or diminishing?
2. In what way does Abimilech’s rule compare or contrast with other leaders in Israel?  Is he a judge like Othniel, Deborah, or even Gideon were?  Or, is he beginning to look more like the kings of the surrounding peoples who were oppressing the Jewish people?  What would be the message we need to learn from any ambiguity in his role?
3. How has Israel lost her identity?  At this point in her history, who or what is Israel?  How does the covenant keeping unchangeable God preserve and define Israel?  And, how does your relationship with Him and your place in the Body of Christ define who you are?  Where does your identity come from?

Today’s passage: Judges 9:1-21

Helpful thoughts:

• Abimelech delivered a campaign speech of sorts to the people of Shechem (The hometown of his mother) in order to woo them first in his quest to rule Israel.
• The mention of the stone on which the brothers were killed paints the gruesome picture of how their murders occurred.  They would have to be captured, brought together, and then slain one at a time on the same stone  used for the slaughter of farm animals.
• Jotham, the youngest son of Gideon and sole survivor, warns the people of Shechem before running away and hiding.
  • They have made a bramble bush their king:
    • Bramble bushes bear no fruit (Unlike the other plants illustrated)
    • Bramble bushes are shorter than trees (How could it provide them any shade?)
  • He issues a curse on the people if they had acted corruptly in Abimelech’s “victory” and coronation (Which, of course, they did!).

Questions to consider:

1. What motivated the people of Shechem to allow for the slaughter of all these men?  What was promised to them?
2. What is the meaning of Jotham’s fable?  What kind of a leader did Shechem deserve due to their actions?
3. How could this passage help you today to think through the nature of politics, government and leadership?  What methods do people/potential leaders use to “get elected”?  What types of things do you look for in candidates?  How can a nation that elects it’s leaders bring negative consequences (“Fires” – vs. 20) upon themselves through their decisions?

Today’s passage: Judges 8:22-36

Helpful thoughts:

• This passage reminds us that Israel’s years of rest were not necessarily years of God-honoring righteous living.  They were simply years where enemy peoples were not invading or warring with them.
• Jerubbaal is Gideon.  He was given this name in Judges 6:32 because the people thought Baal would contend against Gideon after he tore down that altar.
  • One thing Gideon did prevent Israel from doing was worshiping Baal specifically (That ephod on the other hand…).
  • As soon as Gideon died, Israel went back to Baal worship, to the extent of officially declaring Baal-berith their national god!
    • Berith means covenant.  They were worshiping the Baal of the Covenant! (Joshua 24:24-25)
    • As bad as things got during Gideon’s time, it would have been even worse without him!
• Gideon declared he would not reign in Israel (Which was the right thing to say), yet:
  • He requested part of the spoil from every man.  This was a typical show of submission.
  • He kept the royal collars from the camels of the Midianite royalty.  Only royalty had a right to do that.
  • He made his city a center of pagan worship with the ephod.  Worship of that false god would be an act of subservience to Gideon/Jerubbaal.
    • This act also made Ophrah Israel’s capital city.
  • He took multiple wives and had seventy sons.
  • He named one of his sons Abimelech, which either means “My father is king” or “My father is Melech” (A pagan god).  The latter meaning was the same name used by other kings/princes in the region.  Either way, it was a name for royalty.

Questions to consider:

1. What have you learned over the last few days in the narrative of Gideon that was surprising/new to you?  How is Gideon usually perceived today?  What does the Word of God say?
2. Why is it hard to simply declare that Gideon was a “good guy” or a “bad guy”? (In Sunday school classes for instance, children might hear, “Gideon was a mighty man of valor who had faith in God and defeated the Midianites…be like Gideon!”)  How might this generalization mislead us as to the true nature of man, the right application of these Old Testament “Bible stories”, and our need of the Gospel?
3. What is/are the right application(s) of this “Bible story”?  What are you learning that can help you grow as a follower of Jesus Christ?