Tag: Morning Musings

Morning Musings: Judges 13:13

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“And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, ‘Of all that I said to the woman let her be careful.'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Manoah didn’t believe his wife.  The text doesn’t come right out and say this, but I suspect that’s what was really going on here.  And think about why: In that culture a childless couple was considered cursed by God.  It was a step worse than a couple who couldn’t have a son.  This was the life of Manoah and his wife.  Then she comes to him out of the blue and announces that God told her she’s going to get pregnant and have a son and that the son is going to save Israel from the Philistines who had been oppressing them for a generation.  This would be a little like someone coming and telling you he had a dream that you were going to get that big promotion at work and a big raise and you won the lottery as well.  Naturally, he was suspicious. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Judges 12:7

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“Jephthah judged Israel six years.  Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in his city in Gilead.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Most of the Judges receive some kind of a summary statement that the people sought the Lord for the extent of their leadership and then turned away from Him afterwards.  Jephthah just gets this note that he died and was buried in Gilead.  This is a reflection of the continued decline in the spiritual state of the people.  They cry out to God for help, but don’t even both to turn to Him when He answers.  They are reaching a dangerously low point.  I think there are a couple of reasons for this. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Judges 8:33-35

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“As soon as Gideon died, the people of Israel turned again and whored after the Baals and made Baal-berith their god.  And the people of Israel did not remember the Lord their God, who had delivered them from the hand of all their enemies on every side, and they did not show steadfast love to the family of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) in return for all the good that he had done to Israel.”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

The epitaph for Gideon is presented as an indictment of the people of Israel.  They were so incorrigibly wicked that they turned away from God at the first chance they had and didn’t honor the memory of this great leader.  But, I tend to see this as more of an indictment of Gideon himself.  He may have fulfilled the calling God placed on him to free the people from the oppression of the Midianites, but he was a terrible leader and not a very good person to boot. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Judges 6:36-37

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“Then Gideon said to God, ‘If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said, behold, I am laying a fleece of wool on the threshing floor.  If there is dew on the fleece alone, and it is dry on all the ground, then I shall know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have said.'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

Gideon’s fleece has become synonymous with testing God.  And that’s exactly what Gideon was doing.  But, far from anything praiseworthy or worth imitating, this was an act of faithlessness by a man who was a coward. Read the rest…

Morning Musings: Judges 6:12-13

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“And the angel of the Lord appeared to him and said to him, ‘The Lord is with you, O mighty man of valor.’  And Gideon said to him, ‘Please, my lord, if the Lord is with us, why then has all this happened to us?  And where are his wonderful deeds that our fathers recounted to us, saying, “Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt?”  But now the Lord has forsaken us and given us into the hand of Midian.'”  (ESV – Read the chapter)

The story of Gideon is one of my favorites.  This isn’t because of why you might think.  It is often presented to highlight the faith and courage of Gideon as he takes his army of 300 and defeats the thousands of Midianite soldiers in a decidedly non-traditional fashion (God seems to excel at devising…creative…battle plans to make sure He gets the glory for the victory).  While perhaps Gideon was courageous and faithful in that moment, I tend to see his story as evidence of God’s willingness and ability to work through anybody to accomplish His plans, even a whiney coward. Read the rest…