March 18, 2010 Judges 10-13

There is A LOT going on in today's passage, so let's dive right on in!

There were more leaders of Israel after Abimelech. There was Tola who led for 23 years then he died. Then Jair who led for 22 years. He was known for having 30 sons, each with their own donkey to ride. Today that would be like each son having a mustang to drive. Each son controlled a town in Gilead. After Jair died the Israelites did evil things and for 18 years they were oppressed by the Philistines. When they cried to God he was angry and told them to cry to Baal for help, that every time he had saved them they returned the favor by betraying Him. They put away their idols and kept praying and finally God relented. They needed a leader but they didn't know who it should be.

Then they remembered Jephthah. It's a sad tale really. His mother was a prostitute and the rest of the family never let him forget it. They refused him an inheritance. He became a mighty warrior, so they went to him to ask him to fight for them. He reminded them that they had rejected him, but that didn't seem to matter to them because they needed his help! He asked them if they would put him in charge if he won and they said they would. Apparently there was some dispute over real estate which the Ammonite king accused Jephthah's people of stealing. Long story short, Jephthah promised God that if He helped him conquer the Ammonites, he would sacrifice the first thing to come out the door of his house when he returned home. Ammon was conquered, Jephthah went home and the first thing to come out the door of his house upon his return was his only child, a daughter. So he told her the promise he had made to God. She asked him if she could go roam the hills with her friends to mourn never being married. He let her go for two months. When she came back he fulfilled his promise to God. I have to interject here... there is much disagreement among scholars about the assumptions one must make about what actually happened, about the intelligence of Jephthah, and why they mourn her virtue and never marrying, but not her death. I wonder why he didn't pray and ask what God wanted since sacrificing children is an abomination? Whatever really happened, it was sad.

Ephraim was angry, again, because they weren't asked to help, again. So Jephthah fought against Ephraim. The Ephraimites could not pronounce SHibboleth, they said it Sibboleth, the Gileadites killed all of them who couldn't pronounce the word, 42,000 in all. After 6 years, Jephthah died.

Chapter 13 gives the details of the birth of Samson. He was from the tribe of Dan. The angel of the Lord appeared to his mother and told her that Samson was God's from before he was born, a Nazirite. (Nazirite-Numbers 6-Feb 12) She was to drink nothing fermented, or eat anything unclean, nor was she to cut his hair, ever. Manoah, Samson's father wanted to see the angel too, so he prayed and asked God and God answered his prayer. The angel told them to make a burnt offering to the Lord. They did and the angel ascended to heaven in the fire. Then they both knew something special was about to happen. Then Samson was born.

Tomorrow read Judges 14-16