The cycle continues as the Israelites are given over to the Philistines by God because they turn away from him once more. 

Manoah and his wife (unnamed in this chapter) have tried to have a child, but have been unsuccessful because Manoah’s wife is barren, unable to bear children. 

Manoah’s wife is visited by the Angel of the Lord, an emissary from God sent to deliver a special message from God. This Angel of the Lord tells her that she will bear a son, he will be a Nazirite, and that he will deliver Israel from the Philistines. She is also told to abstain from wine and to not eat anything unclean. These are restrictions placed on the diet of a Nazirite, and Samson’s mother should not ingest these while pregnant with Samson, lest they pass to him in her womb.

In Numbers 6:1-21 the Nazarite vow is explained. A Nazirite was one that dedicated himself to God. He was consecrated, set aside for service to God. Among other things, a Nazirite was to abstain from drinking wine and to not cut his hair. There was also a series of sacrifices he was to make. Manoah’s son was designated to become a Nazirite before birth. 

Returning to our text, Manoah’s wife tells Manoah that she was visited by an Angel of the Lord and what he said a about her bearing a son. Manoah wants to meet this man himself and prays to God that he come again. At this point, it appears that Manoah does not recognize that the man actually is an angel from God, and his wife, having seen him, seems to have an inkling that he was not merely a man. 

God hears Manoah’s prayer and sends the man again. When Manoah meets him, he wants to know what his son’s life and work will be like. The Angel simply repeats the Manoah’s wife ought to take care to abstain from those things previously mentioned while pregnant. Manoah wants to offer a sacrifice for this man, who he does not yet know is an angel, but the angel deflects this offering, iterating instead that it ought to be offered to God. The angel also does not give them a name for himself, instead drawing attention to the miraculous gift from God this yet unborn Nazirite son will be. As Manoah offers a young goat to God, the angel ascends in the fire on the altar up to God. It is at this point that Manoah realizes that this man was actually an Angel of the Lord.

Manoah is fearful at this realization and believes that they will die because they have seen God. But his wife, with sound reason indicates to him that if this was going to happen, it would have already. Instead, they simply receive the blessing of the birth of Samson, and the Spirit of the Lord begins to influence the child.

Notice the similarities of Samson’s birth with Jesus’s. Samson’s mother was not a virgin as Mary was when she conceived, but she was barren. Also an angel came from God to announce the birth of both, and to stress the importance of their arrival. Samson’s birth was an event, realized by God, just as Jesus’s birth was, although of course Jesus’s life and death had a much greater impact. 

Nevertheless, the lives of both Samson and Jesus follow the savior pattern. Samson’s saving is on a lesser scale as we will see in the coming chapters. When God decided to illuminate the importance of one whose birth was to fulfill a portion of His will, He made it known. 

Just as Manoah’s wife did in this chapter, we should also receive God’s blessings out of hand, with unquestioning acceptance. If God blesses us with a gift, it is His will that we have it and it is then our responsibility to express gratitude. An increase of faith and a renewed motivation to do His will should logically follow.

— Cory Byrd

This post originally appeared on Monday Night Bible Study.

Jepthah entertains contention with Ephraim. Ephraim is upset because they were not contacted by Jephthah to help fight and defeat the people of Ammon. Ephraim is so offended at this that they claim they will burn Jephthah’s people in their homes. 

So all the people of Gilead fought Ephraim and destroyed them, ridding the land of a self-seeking faction. Note the interesting method of identifying an Ephraimite with the pronunciation of “Shibboleth.” 42,000 of them died due to foolish pride.

Jephthah dies and is buried. After him comes Ibzan, Elon and Abdon. These last three were attended by years of calm, indicating peace and blessings. Given the choice, man would rather live in times of peace than in times of turmoil.

Think about the pride of Ephraim that would have caused the aggression at the start of the chapter. They were offended because they were not invited to help fight. In their minds, Jepthah’s people saw Ephraim as too weak to fight, or their strength was not worth an invitation. Ephraim was very wrong to think this way. Their pride clouded their ability to see what was most important: Ammon was defeated. From verse 2, Jephthah indicates that Ephraim was called, but they did not deliver.

How many relationships have you seen tainted with pride? Has an erroneous assumption led you to disagreements and arguments that really were unnecessary? Sometimes when we are the one holding pride and acting on behalf of it, it is very hard to see and even harder to admit our role as the wrongful instigator. The justification for such things is often far too easy and convenient.

The remedy is to work for peace. Be a peacekeeper. If I sacrifice my desire for praise, my desire for the spotlight and my desire to be right, I can mend infinite fences, I can be the answer instead of the problem. 

Also, sometimes God will bless us with the praise and the spotlight if we act with humility, but never if the praise or the spotlight is our goal.

— Cory Byrd

This post originally appeared on Monday Night Bible Study.

Jephthah was Gideon’s son through a harlot. At an early age, he was driven away from home to a place called Tob by other brothers, who were legitimate. There he engaged in raids with men of poor character.

Despite the nature of his activities, he must have made a name for himself as a leader of some stature. For when the people of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to retrieve Jephthah from Tob and asked him to lead an army against the people of Ammon. Jephthah eventually agrees to do this, but only if he be granted command should he win in victory over the people of Ammon. 

So Jephthah contacts the people of Ammon via messengers and after a lengthy exchange, during which the story of how Israel came to possess the Ammonites’ land is told, he tells them to leave the land and cease with the threat of fighting Israel. But the people of Ammon do not heed Jephthah. 

The Spirit of the Lord came to Jephthah and he was invigorated to fight the people of Ammon. Jephthah advanced upon the Ammonites and made a vow to God: If Jephthah was to be successful in battle, he would sacrifice whatever came out of his doorway first when he returned home successful.

Jephthah is ultimately victorious and it is his only child, a daughter, that comes out of his doorway upon his return home. She is celebrating with musical instruments as she comes out of the doorway. After she learns of her father’s vow, she accepts her fate. Jephthah fulfills his vow and it became a custome in Israel that the daughters of Israel would lament her fate for four days each year.

Throughout this chapter, Jephthah reveals himself as a man of faith. He deals justly with Gideon’s elders and with the Ammonites, citing God as the director of early events and the decision-maker. But does Jephthah go too far, considering the vow he makes?

The answer is yes. God did not need Jephthah’s vow in order for the Israelites to be successful over the Ammonites. I am sure the spirit of the vow from Jephthah’s point of view was noble, but the drama that the vow evoked was not necessary. The entire vow situation has more to do with teaching Jephthah and us a lesson than it does with Jephthah showing God how deep his allegiance ran. 

It is almost as if God was teaching Jephthah a lesson. As if to say – If you are going to be so reckless as to make a vow for which the sacrifice is determined by chance or happenstance, then I will make it the most difficult of sacrifices to be made. 

Indeed, Jesus warned against vows during the sermon on the mount. After all, if we compare the effects of our vows with the powers of God, how can we support our vows as a proof of faith in light of the powers of the Lord?

“Again you have heard that it was said to those of old, ‘You shall not swear falsely, but shall perform your oaths to the Lord.’ But I say to you, do not swear at all: neither by heaven, for it is God’s throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool; nor by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor shall you swear by your head, because you cannot make one hair white or black. But let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ For whatever is more than these is from the evil one.” Matthew 5:33-37

As to whether or not Jephthah killed his own daughter to satisfy the sacrifice, that is a matter of debate even today. The chapter tells us that he did offer up his daughter as a sacrifice, but it does not say that he killed her. Consider that the daughter took care to go to the mountains for two months with her friends to mourn her virginity. In verse 39, after it is said that Jephthah carried out his vow, and the next statement reveals that his daughter knew no man. So it is reasonable assume that she was not killed as a sacrifice to God, but that her life was given in service to God and that she never married. 

Also consider that a human sacrifice to God would have been an abomination and would have certainly precluded mention of Jephthah’s name among the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11. 

Strong faith as Jephthah had can surprise even us, if we have it and if it is strong enough. Faith such as this moved Jephthah to keep an oath involving the life of his only child. 

Is my faith as strong as Jephthah’s? Even though I do not swear to the Lord, do I live my life in a way that shows such faith? Do I make decisions in accordance with God’s designs on my life?

— Cory Byrd

This post originally appeared on Monday Night Bible Study.

Verses 1-5: Tola and Jair ruled Israel as judges for forty-five years. Not much is said about their time, but we can gather that these were good, godly men. Their time as rulers was such that it was peaceful in Israel. 

Verses 6-18: Again Israel turns to false gods. God punishes them by turning them over to the people of Ammon and the Philistines for servitude and oppression. The people recognize their error after this consequence and cry out to God, at last recognizing true divinity. 

God sends a stinging rebuke and invites them to call upon those false gods for their deliverance. Israel throws away their false gods and prays for deliverance once more. We get a glimpse of the love that God has for us in the last part of verse 16: “ . . . And His soul could no longer endure the misery of Israel.” Hope glimmers as preparations are made to challenge the people of Ammon.

Why did Israel keep going back to false gods despite the consequences? In this instance, enough time has passed since their last transgressions that there would be no recent memory of that suffering. The memory of enslavement and servitude that God’s wrath brought as consequence was too distant and not relevant. Compare this faint memory with the strong temptation of Baal, Ashtoreth, and the other regional false deities, and one could see how Israel would leave God again. They were living among people whose gods encouraged sin and alluring pleasure. Without a strong sense of faith and loyalty, Israel would not last long among the heathen.

It is not difficult to make the application here. The further we stray from God, the stronger the temptations become. And leaving God comes in countless forms. One can keep attending church services and be thinking the darkest thoughts all the while. If we stop praying, we very slowly deny God’s part in our life. When we stop studying, we stop listening to God and then we heed other much less perfect instruction. 

Satan will defile your soul in just this way. Little by little. Piece by piece. We have to take tight hold of our salvation and keep it close to our heart, close to our intellect, if we are to have that home with Him in eternity.

— Cory Byrd

This post originally appeared on Monday Night Bible Study.

Verses 22-49: God distributes vengeance among Abimelech and the men of Shechem. Abimelech’s crime was the murder of his 70 brothers, while the men of Shechem were guilty of aiding and supporting him in this heinous act. The men of Shechem terrorized and robbed those traveling along the tops of the mountains there, looking for Abimelech as God sought to drive an antagonistic wedge between the two factions.

Zebul, Gaal and Abimelech form a fighter’s triangle in this passage. Zebul is the ruler of Shechem and is under Abimelech’s authority. Gaal is the son of Ebed and challenges Abimelech’s authority, saying that he ought to be the proper leader. He goads Abimelech to a fight. Gaal had gathered fighting men and fortified the city of Shechem in preparation.

Zebul conspires to Gaal’s defeat and sends the message to Abimelech that Gaal is seeking to fight. Zebul adds a plan in the message for Abimelech’s forces to wait outside the city in the dark of the night, with the plan to attack by surprise at morning. When Abimelech’s forces arrive, Gaal notices them in the dark, but Zebul attempts to deceive Gaal, convincing him that he is really only seeing the shadows of the mountain and not an amassing army. Gaal does not fall for the deception instead Zebul now goads Gaal to attack Abimelech, which Gaal does. 

But Gaal’s forces fall to those of Abimelech and they are scattered in defeat. After this, Abimelech defeats and demolishes the city, sowing it with salt. 

There were still some men left, however, and they holed up in a stronghold in the temple of the god Berinth. These were men of the tower of Shechem. Abimelech hears of this and leads his men in a burning of the tower where the people were, resulting in the deaths of approximately 1,000 men and women.

Verses 50-57: Abimelech was not done. He then takes his army to Thebez, where he took that city also. But Thebez had a tower where many of the men and women went in an attempt to keep themselves safe. Abimelech drew near to this tower to burn it, but a woman dropped a millstone from a great height and it landed on Abimelech’s head and crushed his skull. Abimelech, still alive for the moment, asks his young armorbearer to thrust him through with a sword, lest his legacy be that he was killed by a woman. The source of power removed from Abimelech’s army, they scattered, betraying a motivation borne more out of fear than a sense of purpose. 

The passage also says that the men of Shechem received their just due, thus completely fulfilling the curse of Jotham. 

What can we learn from Abimelech? The most basic lesson is that evil and unkind ways are punished. The means of Abimelech’s death did not match his strength, indeed he was on the cusp of another victory when he was killed in an almost absurd manner. Even when times are darkest, and justice seems most unlikely, God finds a way to complete His will. And, as we see here, He can do so through unexpected means.

— Cory Byrd

This post originally appeared on Monday Night Bible Study.

Verses 1-6: Abimelech conspires to become king by way of reasoning that he is flesh and blood to Jerubbaal’s brothers. And these brothers also work for Abimelech, to help convince the men that Abimelech should be king. Abimelech takes their agreement as some sort of twisted permission to go ahead and kill his seventy brothers, all upon the same stone. Only one brother named Jotham escapes. Abimelech is made king by the terebinth tree. 

Verses 7-21: In these verses, Jotham is calling the men on their bluff, the men that choose Abimelech to be their king. Jotham describes to them through a parable of trees that Abimelech is not suited to be king. Indeed, there were other men that were more suited to be king, but they resisted the offer so that they might be able to continue serving God and their fellow citizens. These other men are represented as beneficial trees, and humble, while Abimelech is represented as a threatening bramble.

Jotham reminds the men how Gideon brought them out from under the Midianites, and that Abimelech was the son of one of Gideon’s female servants. Through Jotham’s speech to them, it would seem that Jotham thinks that the men should know better than to trust an ungodly man like Abimelech as their king. Jotham concludes in this part of the chapter by encouraging conflict between the men of Shechem and Abimelech. Then Jotham flees to Beer to hide from Abimelech.

There is an overall impression that the men in Israel continue to lack complete faith in God even by now. Why else would they go to such an evil man like Abimelech for their leader? 

Jotham’s example is certainly a strong one, and he is the only one mentioned that saw through the facade of Abimelech’s “leadership.” 

Also, did they even need a king? No. They needed God, and they did not seek Him. They needed Him the most and instead sought after a corrupt leader, supporting Abimelech with money from an idol’s treasury. We should be careful how much trust we put in men, their words and their actions. They are a far cry from the perfect leadership of the Lord and the purity of His message. You really can’t beat the real thing.

— Cory Byrd

This post originally appeared on Monday Night Bible Study.

Verses 1-21: Gideon fulfills God’s will for the destruction of the Midianites, but not without conflict and resistance from others. Gideon has to appease the people of Ephraim early in the chapter and he has to contend with Succoth and Penuel when they doubt him. 

Through doing the will of the Lord, defeating the Midianites, and punishment, Gideon gathers respect and obedience. Zebah and Zalmunna, two Midianite leaders, are killed by Gideon’s hand because his son was too fearful.

Verses 22-35: Gideon creates an ephod out of the earrings gathered as plunder from the victory. This ephod ends up becoming something that is worshipped and thus indicates that Israel’s return to God would be short-lived. 

The ephod is indeed a precursor. After Gideon’s death, the people of Israel go back to worshipping false gods. Even though Gideon’s efforts and legacy were great, the effects of His leadership were not lasting because the people did not truly change their ways in any lasting manner.

Are we ever like the Israelites in this chapter? Witness to blessings and the glory of God, yet fickle and disloyal? 

Tonight let us remember to hold fast to God and righteousness even when it’s not what we’re used to.

— Cory Byrd

This post originally appeared on Monday Night Bible Study.

Verses 1-8: God works with Gideon to prepare an army for the defeat of the Midianites. God tells Gideon to go through some exercises to reduce the army lest they think that they, and not God, are responsible for the victory.

Verses 9-16: God tells Gideon to go down to the camp to defeat the Midianites, but in the same sentence God also makes a provision for Gideon’s apprehension and fear. If Gideon is too daunted at their numbers, he can take his servant down to the camp outpost, where he will receive a sign. Surely God knew Gideon through and through, for Gideon takes Purah and goes to the outpost to seek this sign. 

The numbers of the Midianites are so great they are compared to locusts and the sea. Nevertheless, Gideon overhears one recanting a dream that is interpreted as Israel defeating the Midianites. Gideon worships the Lord and returns to his camp to prepare for battle.

Verses 17-25: Gideon readily disperses the Midianites from their camp through creative tactics and of course, the providence of God. The effort is so successful that their water sources are captured, two Midianite princes are killed, and Gideon passes the word to others in the area to look out for and capture the enemy.

Let us think about how God worked with and through Gideon. Many men heeded the call to fight, but God, knowing their hearts, also knew how they would react once they defeated the Midianites. They trusted more in their own strength than in God’s, which would have caused them to think they had done it all on their own – so God had to reduce them. The fearful left first, then a seemingly arbitrary method of how water was drunk from the water further winnowed the fighters. After all was done, there remained just 300 from 32,000. 

Then, through Gideon going to the outpost and overhearing the dream, God didn’t chastise Gideon for his fear of the Midianites. Instead, God made allowance for it and offered Gideon a way out, a way to reduce his fear and strengthen his resolve that God would in fact lead him to victory.

God often does this same thing to us today by removing barriers or, adversely, comforts, from our lives. God reduces us through trials, taking away our sense of ease and comfort, a wake-up call that shows us how much we really do need Him – A death, an injury, a loss of something or someone that can’t be replaced.

Put a bookmark in your brain to remember to praise and lean on God when things are going great in your life. Then, when you need to seek God during a difficult time, the search for peace and confidence will be shorter and sweeter, whatever the problem.

God loved Gideon with patience and faith; God prepared him for service. Gideon was given grace by God with time to grow his faith. When he was shown God’s power, Gideon held fast and acted. So should we.

James 1:2-8: “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.”

— Cory Byrd

This post originally appeared on Monday Night Bible Study.

Verses 1-10: The children of Israel are given up to the Midianites and the Amelakites. God does this because of their continued disobedience. These aggressors cause the children of Israel to make hideaways for themselves in the mountains. Their livestock and harvest were taken from them. A prophet informed them the reason of these hardships: God, who had led them out of Egypt and given them so much, told them not to pay heed to the false gods of the Amorites, but they had not listened. 

Verses 11-35: Gideon, the son of Joash is here chosen by God to save Israel from the Midianites. The Angel of the Lord came to deliver this message to Gideon. Gideon does not take this proclamation as truth at first. Instead, he tests the Angel of the Lord by bringing him an offering. When the Angel of the Lord consumes the offering with fire, Gideon believes.

Later that night, God instructs Gideon to tear down his father’s altar to Baal and build a proper one to God. Gideon does so, but by the cover of night because he is scared of the repercussions. 

When it is discovered that Gideon tore down the altar, other men want to punish him. However, Joash, his father, defends his actions and claims that if Baal was powerful as such, he could defend himself. Since Baal does not exist, and the logic is sound, no challenge is made to Gideon and his standing seems to improve among the people. 

In a menacing development, the Midianites gather closer, threatening. Gideon has enough charisma to draw the Abezrites, and members of the tribes of Asher, Zebulun and Naphtali to himself, in preparation to defend or war. 

Verses 35-41: Gideon, although strong and dedicated to God, still needs assurance that God will truly help him in the upcoming conflict with the Midianites. He asks God twice for a miracle to confirm: fleece on the threshing floor and the dispersion of the dew on either the floor only or the fleece only. God complies with both requests and gives Gideon the assurance he was seeking. Gideon’s requests aren’t depicted as being needy or flippant; they are presented as respectful and in some way necessary for Gideon.

Looking at Gideon, it is easy to judge him. He doesn’t believe the Angel of the Lord until he can confirm the truth in his own way. Then he seeks to further strengthen his own resolve by asking God himself to prove that He will help Gideon defeat the Midianites. In light of all the strong history of the work of God, and how He blessed Israel, Gideon had to have God prove his identity multiple times.

Gideon must have grown up with the knowledge of God, but the “presence” of Baal and the like would have been an influence all his life also. Was Gideon just being cautious? Maybe He had been witness to sorcery or tricks that were presented as works of Baal or other false gods and part of him believed they had power. Perhaps asking God to prove it was Gideon’s only way to assure himself that it was the one true God he was now serving. In any case, God chose Gideon and was patient with his requests, granting each of them in turn. 

Remember from verse 15, Gideon says that his clan is the weakest in Manasseh and that he is the least in his father’s house. So we know that God chose Gideon not because of his standing in the community or because of his strength as a warrior. No, God saw something in Gideon that neither Gideon not those around him could see. That quality of leadership, of strength, of confidence was kindled by God within Gideon. 

God, working in a person, making them something they could not be on their own, blessing them with grace, being patient and loving, providing a way out of quandary.

Has God done this for you? I can say with absolute confidence that God has done that for me!

— Cory Byrd

This post originally appeared on Monday Night Bible Study.

This chapter is a dedicated song of praise to God after Barak and Deborah defeated the idolatrous Canaanites. It is important to note that Deborah and Barak sang this song of praise together, and that no matter how their individual efforts (and those of the army’s) contributed to the success, God gets all of the credit.

We notice in Deborah’s song how Israel’s sin led to their depraved state of sin and idolatry. Deborah’s account of the activities of the various tribes is detailed and telling in that it reveals a lack of unity.

God worked through the people to complete this victory, and verse 21 shows how He also used the Kishon as an aide in the victory.
The chapter closes in a declaration of the silly and futile side of sin. As Sisera died at Jael’s hand, Sisera’s mother supposed his delay in returning was due to his reveling in the spoils of war. 

Deborah’s song is beautiful in its absolute recognition of God’s power and providence. No wonder she was known as a mother of Israel when she had such solid surety of faith in the Lord.

Tonight, I ask myself, when God works in my life, am I a doubter like Barak? Or am I convinced as Deborah? And do I give God His due?

— Cory Byrd

This post originally appeared on Monday Night Bible Study.