Author Archive for: meiling

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Judges 5:1-13.  Let’s go!

Judges 5:1-3 (NIV)
1  On that day Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam sang this song:
2  “When the princes in Israel take the lead, when the people willingly offer themselves– praise the LORD!
3  “Hear this, you kings! Listen, you rulers! I will sing to the LORD, I will sing; I will make music to the LORD, the God of Israel.
 
On verses 1-3:  In celebration of their victory over the Canaanites, Deborah and Barak are described as singing a song.  Welcome to Judges the Musical.  In their song, which seems to be composed by Deborah, they praise the willingness of those who gave themselves to the cause, and follow up by expressing their own choice to sing to God.

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Judges 4:1-10.  Let’s go!

Judges 4:1-10 (NIV)
1  After Ehud died, the Israelites once again did evil in the eyes of the LORD.
2  So the LORD sold them into the hands of Jabin, a king of Canaan, who reigned in Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Harosheth Haggoyim.
3  Because he had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years, they cried to the LORD for help.
4  Deborah, a prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was leading Israel at that time.

On verses 1-10:  Deborah was the courageous woman who not only led Israel politically, but also served Israel as a prophetess .  Yet when Deborah told Barak that the LORD was commanding him to take ten thousand men to fight the Canaanite army, Barak said he would only go if Deborah went with him.  In other words, for Barak it wasn’t enough to hear his leader and a prophet personally telling him God’s Word to go.

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Judges 3:12-31.  Let’s go!

Judges 3:12-15 (NIV)
12  Once again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and because they did this evil the LORD gave Eglon king of Moab power over Israel.
13  Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked Israel, and they took possession of the City of Palms.
14  The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab for eighteen years.
15  Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD, and he gave them a deliverer–Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. The Israelites sent him with tribute to Eglon king of Moab.
 
On verses 12-15:  Consistent with the pattern that we’ll see repeatedly in Judges, the Israelites forsake the LORD (v12) and are subjected to another nation for many years (in this case, Moab with the help of the Ammonites and Amelekites) (v12-14).  The Israelites cry out to the LORD for help (v15), and God sends them a deliverer who, in this case, is Ehud (v15).  Ehud is from the tribe of Benjamin (which literally means “son at my right hand”) and yet, ironically, Ehud is left-handed (v15). 

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Judges 3:1-11.  Let’s go!

Judges 3:1-4 (NIV)
1  These are the nations the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan
2  (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience):
3  the five rulers of the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the Lebanon mountains from Mount Baal Hermon to Lebo Hamath.
4  They were left to test the Israelites to see whether they would obey the LORD’s commands, which he had given their forefathers through Moses.
 
On verses 1-4:  Though the Israelites broke God’s original command to drive out the idol worshiping nations from Canaan, God in His sovereignty still found a way to accomplish a good purpose through the Israelites’ failure to obey.  These verses tell us that God used this situation to (1) teach the younger Israelites who did not have previous battle experience how to fight (v2); and (2) see if this younger generation would obey the LORD’s commands (v4).