If Only...

O. T. #541  "If Only..."
June 18, 2015
Judges 14-Part 2
And he said unto them, If ye had not...  Judges 14:18b

LET IT GLOW

Did you notice that Samson made several trips down to the city of Timnath? (That's because his girl lived there among the Philistines.)
They include:

1. When he made his first trip, Samson saw her, then told his parents to get her for his wife.
2. During his second trip, when his parents with to contract the marriage, they got separated. Samson encountered a young lion and the Spirit of the Lord came upon him mightily and was given strength to rip the lion's jaws apart with his bare hands. 
3. There may have been up to a year that passed before the two got married. When he was returning, Samson turned off the path to look at the lion's carcass. He found a swarm of bees had made some honey in the carcass. This guy scooped it up into his hands, eating it along the way, giving some to his parents.

Do we trust in the Lord's strength when confronted with problems? Do we ask for His strength to endure whatever?

LET IT GROW

When it was time to go to the final arrangements for the wedding, the three went to the Philistines' city. As the custom was, Samson threw a party, the bride's parents selected 30 young men to be his companions around town.

Guys will be guys, as they say, and Samson challenged those men to solve his riddle, found in verse 14. If they couldn't solve it, they'd give him 30 fine linen robes and 30 sets of festive clothing. (If they could, Samson would do likewise.) Three days later they were still trying to figure it out. Then they approached Samson's new wife, threatening her to get the answer or they'd burn down her father's house with her in it.

Using her tears, as females often do, Samson's wife tried to get Samson to tell her the answer to his riddle. He refused. He had not even told his parents. The bride cried every time she was with her husband, during the celebration, so he would tell her, but he would not. Finally, after the seventh day, he told her the answer because she was tormenting him with her nagging.

The wife told the threatening men the riddle's answer. (verse 18)  Before the end of the 7th day, the men told Samson the answer.

Samson replied, "If you hadn't plowed with my heifer, you wouldn't have solved my riddle!"

He was aware of the source of their information.

What does Samson do?

• He goes down to the town of Ashkelon,
• kills 30 men,
• takes their belongings,
• gives their clothing to the men who solved his riddle,
• is furious about the whole matter, and
• returns home to live with his parents.  (His wife was given in marriage to the best man at Samson's wedding.) (NLT)

What drama! It was Samson's own fault in the first place. If only he had not challenged those guys to solve his riddle, if he had not gone down into the Philistine city, if he had not seen the beautiful girl, then all of that would not have happened.

Are we the same way? We tell someone, "If only you had not..., then this would not have happened.
Or we find our self in a mess, thinking, "If only I had not do that."
Hind sight is 20/20.

Reality is, we have to live with and in the consequences of our actions and decisions. That is why it is so important that we seek the Lord and His Word before doing or making them. Then we won't get into such messes, live to regret something. Oh, that we could remember that advice. (Me, especially)

LET IT GO

Seek the Lord's will and ways before making a decision or actions.

Accept responsibility for my actions.

Learn from my mistakes.

She Looks Good

O. T. #540  "She Looks Good"
June 17, 2015
Judges 14
When he returned home, he told his father and mother, "A young Philistine woman in Timnah caught my eye. I want to marry her. Get her for me. ... She looks good to me."Judges 14:2,3c New Living Translation

LET IT GLOW

Does it matter how we look today? Are we women dressing to attract men, exposing our body parts that should only be seen by our husband? Do we thrive on getting that second look from him? So many do this in the world. Too much competition out there. Or are we dressing conservatively, neatly, and not exposing them? Are we trying to get looks, cause a brother to stumble by sinning sinful thoughts concerning us? Or are we living and honoring  God with our clothes and body? Ladies, you can look good while using your looks for good. Let's teach the younger women the right values. Put some good and godly values back into our society. (I'll step down from my soap box now.)

Recall that the Philistines oppressed Israel for 40 years before Samson comes on the scene. His birth was planned by God so he could deliver them. All we know about his childhood is that Samson grew,  the Lord blessed him, and the Spirit of the Lord began to move him at times.
Falwell categorizes Samson's life into two categories-events prior to the incident at Gaza and those afterwards.

Samson despised his Hebrew heritage. He was born to godly, praying parents, and undoubtedly was taught the commands of God as a child. However, Samson chose to please himself and not please God to accomplish his God-given task. (Surely his parents told Samson his purpose in life was to deliver Israel from the Philistines.)

He was given 20 years' time to begin to overcome the enemy, yet in the end, he himself was overcome by the enemy. (Wiersbe)

What a tragic and wasted life.
What is the first thing recorder that Samson did?

• He went down to Timnath. Instead of staying in the borders of Israel, Samson went into enemy territory. Spiritually and geographically he went down. (The town was only 4 miles away from Samson's.) (verse 1)
• He knew the laws of separation which God had given to the Jews, but he chose to ignore them.
• Next, he told his parents to get the woman, not asking them. When they reminded their son of God's law, he defied them.
• He wanted to marry this Philistine gal. (verse 2) Marrying the girl was breaking the Mosiac law regarding mixed marriages. (Ex. 34:16; Deut. 7:3)
• She pleases me well refers to she looks good to me.
• Rather than doing what is right and good in the sight of the Lord (Deut. 6:18), Samson did as everyone else that did what was right in his own eyes (17:6).

Well, Samson's parents could not see ahead that their sons' disobedience would be used by God for His glory. God is never responsible for evil acts, but He is so wise that He uses evil acts to accomplish His good purpose. (D. Jeremiah)

Samson sins here, although God is sovereign and was able to turn the situation to please Him (verse 4). He was not at a loss, but used the opportunity to work against the wicked Philistines and provide gracious help to His people. He achieved destruction of these people, not by an army, but by the miraculous power of one man.  (MacArthur)

I wonder what God's plan was. Certainly Samson took life into his own hands and lived for himself. I'm sure he regretted it after meeting God. How faithful the Lord is, even our rebellion He can turn out for good.

Are we following what God's Word says?
Are we faithful to Him or living for ourself?


LET IT GROW

Then the narrative divides itself in relation to the three women in Samson's life:

1. the girl at Tunnath,
2. the prostitute at Gaza, and
3. Delilah of the Valley of Sorek. 

Here the first gal mentioned is the one Samson wants to marry. So Samson and his parents went down the valley with his parents to contract the marriage. (verse 5)

Why did his parents not refuse such a demand when they knew Samson was disobeying God? Hopefully, they were not afraid of the strongest man, yet their son. Who knows? Maybe Samson was extremely spoiled and they gave him anything he wanted. Whatever...

Are we as parents and grandparents directing our children in the ways of the Lord Jesus? Do we take opportunities to teach them?

We will pick up tomorrow with the strong man picking up something.

LET IT GO

Know the Word of God so I can resist temptations to sin.

Turn to Him for strength to do so.

Teach others the right way to live, then live it out.

Blessed With Children

#539 "Blessed With Children"
June 16, 2015
Judges 13-Part 3
And the woman bare a son, and called his name Samson: and the child grew, and the LORD blessed him.  Judges 13:24

LET IT GLOW

There is a 40 year old lady who is carrying her sixth child. She prepared their current home to be sold on the market. Then, she directed the packing to move to another home they purchased while homeschooling 4 of her 5 this year. (The youngest is 2, by the way.) Did I mention that she is a faithful wife? This superwoman is my daughter. I am so proud of her, her commitment to the Lord, and love for her family.

There is a guy who works part time at our tire shop. Not only that, he has a cattle farm in three places. Last week, he cut, baled, and hauled hay for the herd to eat this winter. To top it off, this last weekend the hard working guy took time to attend a family reunion, then went shopping with his wife and daughter. They are involved in church, too. This superman is my son. I am so proud of him and his love for the Lord and others.

Yes, I am so very blessed with wonderful children and know it! Many parents worry about their children and deal with the problems that result. If you are one, read Proverbs 3:5-6 for encouragement.

Shall we look at the last two verses of this chapter?
Jesus appeared twice to a woman, informing her that she would have a son, her dietary restrictions and the boy's Nazarite vow by which to live. He would deliver Israel from the Philistines. Her husband, Manoah, spoke with the Lord, offered a burnt offering. The Lord said His name was Secret, which means wonderful. Jesus did something wonderously-He ascended in the flame of the fire.

The miraculous disappearance of the angel caused Mannoah to realize miraculous disappearance of the angel cause Manoah to realize who He was. (Falwell)

Manoah was afraid they would die because they had seen God. Then his wife reasoned, if that were so, why would He have accepted the offering and revealed such things for their future.

Time passed. This chosen woman, though barren at the time of the encounter, became pregnant and gave birth to a son. The couple named the baby Samson, meaning sun.

God keeps His promises.
Are we trusting Him?

LET IT GROW

Years went by and...

• The child, Samson grew, and the Lord blessed him. (verse 24)
• The Spirit of the began to move upon Samson. (verse 25)

Samson's birth and early childhood are clearly stated to have been blessed of the Lord. Thus, God is involved from the very beginning of his life in the exploits that will follow, and apparently even during his youth the Spirit of the LORD began to move him at times. Like other judges, he received this charismatic anointing for the task to which he was called. In Samson's case this meant spectacular human strength to wage a one-man campaign against the Philistines. (Liberty Bible Commentary)

Isn't it incredible that Israel's strongest man came from her weakest tribe. Doesn't God have a sense of humor?

Are we willing to follow and obey what God has for us to do? To let go of our plans to do His?

LET IT GO

                                 ... of my plans to follow God's plans.
                                 ... of my fears and trust Him.
                                 ... of my weaknesses and turn to His strength.

Isn't He Wonderful?

O. T. #538  "Isn't He Wonderful?"
June 15, 2015
Judges 13-Part 2

And the Angel of the LORD said to him, "Why do you ask My name, seeing it is wonderful?"
Judges 13:18 The Jeremiah Study Bible
...Why asketh thou thus after My name, seeing it is secret? KJV

LET IT GLOW

Often times, my husband tells another man that I have said how wonderful he is. They doubt him most of the time. Then I'll add: I have to say it so he doesn't tell a lie. Of course, we are both kidding.
There is One is today's lesson that is wonderful, beyond a doubt. Curious? Read on, friend.

What's going on? The Lord Jesus Himself appeared to a woman, Manoah's wife, Danites, not just once, but twice. This childless wife told her husband about the first visit and what was told her. This was unheard of, seeing women did not have a place in the priesthood or Temple service, only men. (He had appeared previously to only one other woman-Hagar.)
Keep in mind, the Philistines were oppressing Israel for 40 years now when this happened.

Though nameless in Scripture, she would be significant in Israel's history because of her offspring son to come was to deliver Israel. Her special instructions received included drinking no wine or strong drink and eating no unclean thing. Also, her son was to be a Nazarite all of his life, which meant he would not shave his head, drink wine from grapes, not eat unclean meat, nor touch a dead body, which made them unclean.

So Manoah intreated the LORD to come again to them and teach them what to do unto the child that would be born. This was after the first visit. God hearkened to the voice of Manoah, although the man was not present the second time Jesus appeared unto the woman a second time in the field. So she ran to tell her husband a second time about the visit. The two went to the place this occurred.

They found Jesus. Manoah asked the man (Jesus) if He was the man that spoke to the woman.
How did Jesus answer? in verse 11? I am.

Young's Concordance explains I AM : A name indicating rather the unsearchableness of God than His mere existence, as commonly supposed.

We read of His identifying Himself as such to Moses in Exodus 3:14, twice. (Maybe Jesus was only answering Manoah's question and not identifying Himself as I AM. )

In verse 18, Jesus calls Himself secret, which means remarkable, wonderful in the Hebrew language.
Isaiah 9:6 predicts His birth and calls Jesus Wonderful. 

Webster's Dictionary defines wonderful as astonishing, marvelous, unusually good.

The word is not the proper name of the angel of the Lord, but expresses the character of His name and denotes the peculiarity of His nature as well.  (Falwell)

I think all of those descriptive words describe our Wonderful Savior, Jesus Christ.
Do we tell Jesus how wonderful He is? His name is Wonderful, Jesus my Lord. He is the Mighty King, Master of everything.
Are we sharing how wonderful He is to us?

LET IT GROW

What happens next?

• Manoah asked, "When your words are fulfilled, what is to be the rule for the boy's life and work?" (NIV)
• Jesus repeated the woman's instructions to her husband.
• Then Manoah offered to fix a young goat for a meal, but Jesus told him to offer it as a burnt offering to the LORD.
• Manoah prepared the kid and the grain offerings, sacrificing it on a rock to the LORD.
• Then an amazing thing happened as the two looked on: Jesus ascended in the flame of the fire into heaven.
• Afraid that they would die since they had seen the Lord, Manoah's wife reasoned that He would not have accepted the offering nor revealed such things to them if He was going to kill them.

Wow! What an experience for this couple, from the weakest tribe of Israel, Dan.

Have you noticed that Jesus takes pleasure in using those weak, for He knows they will depend upon Him to complete the task instructed?
He can use us for Kingdom work, too.

LET IT GO

                     ...of doubts and fears and follow Jesus.
                               ... and not question the how or why, just do it.
                               ...and let God.
                               ... of pride and tell others how wonderful Jesus is.

Childless

O. T. #537  "Childless"
June 12, 2015
Judges 13
And there was a certain man of Zorah, of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah; and his wife was barren, and bare not.  Judges 13:2

LET IT GLOW

Being childless can be heartbreaking. We went through it in our family. In His time, the Lord blessed with a child. Working through the disappointments, the pain when seeing friends with babies, and being asked when you will have a child are only a few hard times endured. Today's lesson is about such a woman.

Let's skip down to verse 3. We read of the third preincarnate appearance of the Lord Himself in this book (a theophany). This must have been a very important time for the Lord Jesus to come. This time it was to another woman. What do we know about her?

• She was the woman who would be Samson's mother.
• She was Manoah's wife. He was living in the city of Zorah and of the family of the Danites.
• She was barren, without a child.
• She was told that she would bear a son.

Being the curious that I am, I looked back to find the other appearances of Jesus to men-when and to whom. This is what I found. Jesus appeared to:

1. Hagar (Genesis 16)
2. Abraham (Genesis 18)
3. Jacob (Genesis 32)
4. Moses (Exodus 3)
5. Gideon (Judges 6)
6. Mother of Samson (Judges 13)

How blessed one was during the O.T. time to have Jesus, the coming Savior, speak to you.
Do we listen when He comes to speak to us through His Holy Spirit? Is our hear ready to obey what He has to say to us?

LET IT GROW

What was the message to this sweet lady?This sterile and childless woman was going to conceive and have a son. She was given these specific directions:

• Consume no wine, a fermented drink, (verses 3,4)
• to not eat anything unclean. (verse 4)

Her son was to live by the Nazirite vow, being set apart from birth with the purpose of delivering Israel from the Philistines. In addition to those restrictions, Samson was supposed have no razor cutting his hair and to not touch a dead body, thus being defiles.

This mother-to-be told her husband what had happened. We will discuss that later.
Who were the Philistines?

• They were sea people who invaded the area  for nearly 2 centuries.
• They established the Pentapolis (5 cities).
• They oppressed Israel for 40 years, keeping them in subjection.
• They did not allow Israel to make iron swords or spears. (That's why Samson used a jawbone and David used a sling for weapons.)
• The Philistines soon combined their religious practices with those of the Canaanites, being idolatry.
• They were able to penetrate Israelite territory all the way to Shiloh, where they destroyed the tabernacle. (Falwell)

That helps us better understand the environment in which this couple was living.

Are we faithful to God when others around us are not? (job, community)

LET IT GO

Stay faithful to God.

Obey His leading.
 

Peace

O. T. #536  "Peace"
June 11, 2015
Judges 12-Part 2
And he judged Israel 7 years. And he judged Israel 10 years. and he judged Israel 8 years.
Judges 12:9, 11, 14

LET IT GLOW

As mentioned before, Israel is in a sin cycle, which we read about in this book. They would stray away from worshiping God into idolatry into sin, then He would bring oppression whereby the enemies would conquer them, which resulted in Israel's repentance, followed by years of peace. This cycle would be repeated.

Israel is in the sixth cycle now, with four judges leading them into a total of 31 years of peace. God provided Israel, His beloved children, with peace, using. Little is known about these 3 minor judges.

Liberty Bible Commentary explains:

1. Jephthah, who defeated the Ammonites with the help of his fellow Gileadites. He ruled as judge for 6 years and died. (verse 1-7)
2. Ibzan of Bethlehem, probably located in Judah, but some consider Bethlehem in Zebulun. You talk about a big family. He had 30 sons and 30 daughters. The marriage of his 30 sonswas apparently for the purpose of political alliances to strengthen his influence over a significant part of the country. In all, he judged 7 years. (verses 8-10)
3. Next came Elon, a Zebulunite, who was judge of Israel for 10 years. He was buried in a place called Aijalon, which was pronounced like his name, with the consonants of which match the vocalized reading of his name. The exact location is unknown.(verses 11-13)
4. Last, Abdon was a Pirathonite, resident of Pirathon in Ephraim, near Shechem. He had a large family of  40 sons and 30 nephews (literally, grandsons). They all rode on donkeys, dinstincting them ashigh-ranking authority. His judgeship lasted 8 years. He was buried in the mount of the Amalekites, indicating an Amalekite occupation of the hill country of Ephraim at that time. (verses 13-15)

Although they are considered minor judges, God used them for His purposes.
Sooo, if we consider our self as insignificant, be encouraged friend, our life is important in God's Kingdom work. Now, don't you forget it either. We touch lives which no one else may touch. Let Him use you to love people to Jesus. You go girl (and guy).

LET IT GROW

Thirty one years of peace-I would consider it a blessed time in which the Israelites lived.

Falwell includes:

• These lesser judges are not referred to in light of unusual events caused by the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. This does not mean that the Holy Spirit was not available to them, but that we simply have no record of it.
• We also have no record of whether they engaged in any military battles, or if they were merely local civil magistrates of some sort.
• This section of the book of Judges ends with the brief recounting of the five minor judges, plus the controversial Jephthah. It is followed by the amazing exploits and tragic demise of Samson.

Note that Falwell was including and referring to the previous 45 years of Tola and Jair.

Hebrews 12:14 says, Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. 

Matthew 5:9 tells us, Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

Do we help be a peacemaker when people are at odds with each other? How are our relationships?

LET IT GO

Be at peace with God and others.

Words, Jealousy, Hurts

O. T. #535  "Words, Jealousy, Hurts
June 10, 2015
Judges 12
The  men of Ephraim gathered themselves together, and went northward, and said unto Jephthah: Wherefore passeth thou over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee? We will burn thine house upon thee with fire.  Judges 12:1

LET IT GLOW

So very grateful that God has given me another year to live. (365 more days to retirement. SS, here I come, just hold out for me to collect from you.)
I wonder if the city of Gilead and surrounding 20 others which Jephthah and his tribe of Manasseh protected as they conquered the Ammonites. Wouldn't you think that the tribe of Ephraim would be grateful also? Not so. Look at their reaction.

Keep in mind that Israel experienced peace for 31 as the sixth group of judges would rule, including Jephthah for six years, Ibzan, Elon, and Abdon. Yet, with ungratefulness and jealousy, their neighbors across the River, the tribe of Ephraim, gets upset about the whole thing of battling the Ammonites and their army without their help.

New Living Translation says in verse 1-3: Then the people of Ephraim mobilized an army and crossed over the Jordan River to Zaphon. They sent this message to Jephthah: "Why didn't you call for us to help you fight against the Ammonites? We are going to burn down your house with you in it!" Jephthah replied, "I summoned you at the beginning of the dispute, but you refused to come! You railed to help us in our struggle against Ammon. so when I realized you weren't coming, I risked my life and went to battle without you, and the LORD gave me victory over the Ammorites. So why have you now come to fight me?"

What?!! You've got to be kidding!

Life Application Study Bible has this to say about the situation:

Israel had just won a great battle, but instead of joy, there was pettiness and quarreling. The tribe of Ephraim was angry and jealous that they were not invited to join the fighting (although Jephthah said he had invited them). The insults of the Ephraimites enraged Jephthah, who called out his troops and killed 42,000 men from Ephraim.

Jephthah usually spoke before he acted, but this time his revenge was swift. It cost Israel dearly, and it might have been avoided, insulting others and being jealous are not right responses when we feel left out. But seeking revenge for an insult is just as wrong, and very costly.

Did you know that Jephthah is listed in Hebrews 11, the hall of faith? The writer of Hebrews says that he didn't have time to discuss this man's life and faith, though. God had blessed this man who faithfully followed Him.

Well, well, there is that ugly head of jealousy being raised again. Don't we have to be careful that it does try to raise its head within us? (At least I do.) Also, we have to watch out for it in others. Make them feel appreciated, needed, and a part of things. Love covers a lot and over comes a lot, huh? We have to train our self to recognize that ole scudder of jealousy. It only intends to hurt and cause pain, usually with words. Best to head it off at the pass, pardoner, before it gets too strong of a hold.


LET IT GROW

Is this a pattern for the tribe of Ephraim? Back in Judges 8, during Gideon's day. Ephraim was the most prominent of the 12 tribes of Israel. Why, the tabernacle was located in their territory, and Joshua was one of their descendants. In spite of all of that, they complained about not being included in the call to war by Gideon. He calmed down the Ephraimites with compliments. Wonder why Jephthah did not adhere to the same method.

How did Jephthah know when a fugitive Ephraimite man tried to cross back over the Jordan River at a shallow crossing was such? The Gilead men would challenge him, asking if he was an  Ephraimite. When answering "No," then the Gilead men put them to the test by having them say the word Shibboleth (translated as either stream or ear of grain.) For whatever reason, they could not pronounce the word properly, making them easily identified. (David Jeremiah)

This word was chosen as a password because it contained a consonant which the Ephramites could not pronounce. Instead they pronounce the word Sibboleth. (Falwell)
This linguistic test shows that the Ephramite dialect followed the Arabic influence in which s took the place of sh. (Bruce)

Then they would kill the Ephraimite. To be exact, 42,000 were killed during that time. How needless! A civil war going on within the Israelites. How upset this would have made Moses and Joshua. God allowed it, though.

Here's an interesting note: Falwell tells us that a similar pronunciation test was used by the northerner soldiers during our Civil War in distinguishing if a man was a southerner, to discover another by certain words.

Maybe it is best to keep ones mouth shut at times. Words reveal who we are. Interesting thought.

Proverbs 15:1 says, A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grevious words stir anger.
Proverbs 15:23 says, A man hath joy by the answer of his mouth: and a word spoken in due season , how good is it!
Proverbs 25:11 tells us, A fitly spoken is like apples of gold in pictures of silver.

LET IT GO

Let go of words that are hurtful to me.

Watch the words I say.