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Riberty - Judges 12

After Jeph’s victory over the Ammonites, Ephraim is up to their old tricks and approaches Jeph demanding to know why he didn’t call them to go fight. This of course is a ruse because they don’t want to fight but they do want to be the first in line for honors and the spoils of war. They did this same thing to Gideon in chapter 8 and Gideon handled it masterfully with lots of diplomacy. This time however, they added a threat “we will burn thine house upon thee with fire.” They threatened the wrong man because he Jeph was not a diplomat and answered that he did in fact call for Ephraim to come fight and they didn’t send anyone so not only were they NOT going to be rewarded or praised, Jeph was going to fight them. He also interestingly cites God and being the reason why they won that victory. Another difference this time versus what they did to Gideon was that they apparently sent a huge army to come intimidate Jeph and his men, at least 42,000 men which will be important later. Addition...
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Jephthah - Judges 11

Last we heard, Israel was ready to fight the Midianites and Ammonites because they were encroaching on their land and had formed an army against them, and Israel was looking for a general to lead the into battle. Apparently, some time earlier, there was a man named Gilead who had many sons with his wife but also had an illegitimate son with a prostitute as well. TB makes a couple of notes here, first that some scholars argue that this woman wasn’t a prostitute but it is mistranslated to mean concubine. TB disagrees with that and says that this is just them reaching and that the Hebrew word used to describe this woman is ever only used to mean “prostitute” in any other place in the Bible. Second, this just demonstrates how far Israel has fallen because not only was prostitution popular among Israelite men, but that Gilead recognized this prostitute’s son as his own showed that even high ranking men committed constant adultery. But it was unusual that Gilead recognized this kid as his ow...
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Flipped the Script - Judges 10

Chapter 10 covers 3 judges really quickly and is a pretty short chapter. The first comes after Abimelech who’s name is Tola. He’s from Isaachar, judges Israel for 23 years and he dies. The second is Jair from Gilead, not sure which tribe that is, I think Gad, and he judges Israel for 22 years. He has at least 30 sons all who rule the 30 cities that he judged and he died. The Israelites were quick to turn around to evil as soon as Jair died and they started worshipping these other gods. It’s important to note that these other gods did not replace worshipping the God of Israel, but instead they just incorporated them into his worship too, which is a problem. It’s also interesting to note that the people turn to wickedness after these righteous judges die which is a demonstration to just how important righteous leadership is. It’s also an interesting commentary on how easily persuaded human beings are, which begs the question, if all it takes for a whole group of people to be relatively r...
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Abimelech - Judges 9

There is a lot going on in chapter 9 and it is the story of Abimelech, who is NOT a judge and was mentioned at the end of chapter 8 as being a son of Gideon but the only one born to a non-Israelite concubine from Shechem. He’s part Canaanite and part Hebrew but is seems implied that he knows that he’s the son of the Israelite ruler, but he’s at odds with his full Hebrew brothers and apparently not being given the respect and status that he felt that he deserved. Abimelech goes to his mother’s family in Shechem and convinces them to make him king over the land. I don’t know why these people would agree to this, but Abimelech must have been super charismatic or something. For some reason, Abimelech’s brother’s being alive is part of the problem so his family takes 10 pieces of silver out of the temple of Ba’al and hires some assassins and they all go over and kill 69 of Abimelech’s 70 brothers, with only the youngest son escaping, named Jotham. He goes and hides himself in the mountain...
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Gideon 4 - Judges 8

There had been a great victory over the oppressive Midianites where only 300 Israelite soldiers killed 120,000 Midianite men “who drew a sword,” this left 15,000 on the run trying to get back across the Jordan river. I was thinking this morning about my thoughts that these numbers couldn’t be right and the thought came to me, “what number would it take to make you believe in the power of God?” meaning what kind of translation error or what kind of actual force gap would it take for me to believe that God is powerful enough to do this work? Either I believed it as is or I didn’t. Even if the numbers weren’t completely accurate for whatever reason, what would I need to see to believe if what we have now isn’t enough? It was a powerful conviction for me. Anyway, what’s fascinating to me is that there has been this huge, miraculous victory by Gideon and only 300 soldiers, and then the problems with his own people start rolling in. It’s like when Jesus healed the blind man and the Pharisees...
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The 300 - Judges 7

After the second night that Gideon received a sign from the Lord with the dry fleece, he’s finally convinced that he is the one chosen by God to deliver Israel from the oppression of the Midianites. Before asking for the sign, Gideon had called for troops from the other northern tribes and about 32,000 men had responded to his call, which is a fair amount, but that’s nothing compared to the 135,000 Midianites that they were facing. That 135,000 number comes from the next chapter, Judges 8 which we will get to next time. Even with those odds of like 4:1, even that God told Gideon that 32,000 were too many people “lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.” This must have been very daunting to Gideon because even with the 32,000, going against 135,000 would have required a great amount of faith for any military leader. God tells Gideon that the 32,000 were too many men and to excuse any man who “is fearful and afraid, let him return and depart early,” ...
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Gideon 3 - Judges 6:36-40

Gideon has already asked for a sign from the angel of God that he was real and chosen, and even though he didn’t ask for anything specifically, just that the messenger wait until he got back with some food, but still a sign that everything was legit. When Gideon came back with the food, the angel touched it with his staff and it burned up, that Gideon took for a sign. Now an army has gathered and Gideon is supposed to lead them and he comes to God again asking for a sign, but this time he’s specific. Gideon asks “If thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said, Behold, I will put a fleece of wool in the floor; and if the dew be on the fleece only, and it be dry upon all the earth beside, then shall I know that thou wilt save Israel by mine hand, as thou hast said.” It seems that at night before going to sleep, Gideon put a fleece of wool on the ground and asked God for the sign to be that the morning dew would only accumulate on the wool fleece and all the rest of the ground w...
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